Tasty Tuesday: Jalapeno Cheese Turkey Burgers

August 21, 2012 by · 3 Comments

Surely, you all remember how Beth read This Is Why You’re Fat and if you recall Jackie Warner includes a section of recipes in her book.  She really sets you up for success with breakfast, lunch, dinner and side recipes all courtesy of Sunfare.  Well, when Beth got to the recipe section sticky tabs were pulled out and put on recipes that especially caught her eye – one being Jalapeno Cheese Turkey Burgers.  Definitely a sucker for any recipe that includes jalapenos!

This recipe is pretty easy to make and shouldn’t take much time at all to prepare!

Ingredients:

5 ounces ground turkey

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Garlic to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 ounce jack cheese, shredded

You might have noticed from the ingredients that you are only using 5 ounces of ground turkey meat and if you are like me and buy the Jenni-O turkey then that’s 20 ounces of turkey meat.  Well, if you’re also like me you’ll just make the whole package of turkey meat instead of simply making one serving.  So plan accordingly to quadruple the rest of the ingredients.

First you will want to combine the ground turkey, chopped parsley and garlic in a mixing bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Then mix your jalapenos and jack cheese together and set aside.

The first time I made this I didn’t fully read the jalapeno and jack cheese part where you set it aside so I mixed it in with the turkey meat.  If you want to do this it’ll turn out great that way too! I think I actually prefer it that way, but from here I’ll carry on with the regular instructions.

See I’d already put in the jalapenos w hen I wasn’t suppose too. Oops?

Portion out two patties (remember this is originally from only 5 ounces of turkey meat so if you are using 20 ounces then you should be portioning out 8 patties total).  In the middle of each patty make an indentation and stuff the cheese/jalapeno mixture in there.  Then grill your turkey burgers!

This was me actually following the instructions 🙂

Maybe you are reading this recipe and it sounds good you definitely want to make it, BUT you don’t have a grill – yah, neither do I!  So what did I do?  Well, just like my mom use to do when she made us meat patties in the oven.  Turned the oven on to 350 degrees and stuck the patties in there.  Sorry, I am not sure how long I left them in there, but I do know I checked on them at least 5 times. 🙂  But the key to a good oven meat patty is for the last 3-5 minutes turn the broiler on, move your oven rack up to the very top and let those patties cook up there.

A fabulous meal and they reheat well too should you make the whole package of turkey meat for meals later in the week!  Also, I might add if you buy a whole thing of parsley to chop up then maybe also plan on making the Mini Ham & Cheese Quinoa Cups since it calls for parsley as well! 🙂

What’s your favorite way to make turkey burgers?  Do you have a special ingredient that you always use?

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Book Report: This Is Why You’re Fat

August 6, 2012 by · 15 Comments

…many “experts” have made dieting so complicated and unrealistic that people tend to give up.  In fact, diets have a 98 percent failure rate!

When I picked up a copy of Jackie Warner’s This Is Why You’re Fat I couldn’t wait to get started reading it, and once I did start reading it I didn’t want to put it down!

And I completely appreciate the excerpt above from this book.  There are far too many books out there that make trying to eat right such a complicated process.  Right now, there are plenty of books out there and people out there saying most of what Jackie is saying, however, she says it in a no nonsense sort of way.  It’s easy to understand and a light bulb really did go off as I read it!

Essentially eat clean.  Eat natural.  Limit or pretty much rid your diet of processed food.  Do not fear – you can bring some of it back on your designated cheat meals!

Did any of you watch Jackie Warner’s show on  Bravo called Work Out? I did and I totally loved her attitude and what she was about. I remember constantly her saying SUGAR IS BAD. SUGAR IS EVIL! GET RID OF SUGAR IN YOUR DIET!  Well, she’s saying that again in her book.

I can honestly say her saying that on Work Out has been hanging out in my head, but reading her book shed a whole new light on it for me.  I use to looooove to drink Starbucks VIA Caramel coffee then a light bulb turned on and I actually looked at the back of the box.  Oh hey, Beth, this isn’t normal coffee – whatever they did to it adds 13 grams of sugar. THIRTEEN!! Yep, I am done with that stuff.  Still have some in the pantry at home and it is the last thing that I want.  I look at it right now and just shake my head! It’s essentially black coffee with caramel flavoring and 13-freakin-grams of sugar!

Really, I don’t want to give too much away.  Maybe I already did?!  But this book so turned on a light for me I wish I could buy it and give it away to other people!  (maybe that’s a sign we should do a giveaway??)  I’d loan you my copy but I highlighted and wrote all over it plus I feel it’s something where I should look back on frequently. Refresh my mind!  Not only that, but Jackie completely sets you up for success!  She gives you the good & bad of food in our bodies, explains her way of eating, gives you a plan, gives you workouts and gives you recipes!

Like I said before this book just hit home with me even though I think there are some other similar books saying the same things so it just might be my preferred method of hearing what I needed to hear!

Have you read This Is Why You’re Fat?  Has another healthy eat & living book really hit home with you like this one did for me?

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Ahhh, It’s August! July Report Card & Goals for This Month!

August 2, 2012 by · 6 Comments

We’ll skip the whole OMG-let’s freak out-it’s August thing.  Kinda anyway and dive right on in! Here’s how we measured up with our goals for the month of July –

Teal:

1. Read Power of Habit, work on the stupid ”I am just going to stand here and eat random crap while I look for something to eat” problem. 

C- : I am only about half way through this book but I think I get the point, he repeats a lot and gives very long winded examples. I have been so busy that my habit in and of itself has had a hard time existing because I have not been in the kitchen!

2. Get my office ready at my new job. My contract starts July 30th and I would like to be more than set before I start working. I can’t work if stuff is not organized and finished so this is a must. Right now it looks like a war zone and crap is all over the place.

 A: Off ice is ready and as of Monday I am officially back to work. So so so glad I got that done before we started because there would have been no time.
3. Run an avg of 25 miles a week.  This is close to the plan, not every week, but I am trying to still balance what my body decides it will do and my wanting to get faster and have more endurance.
F: I ran 48 miles total last month, so not even 2 weeks worth of what I wanted to do. This would totally make sense if you saw our running funk post.

Beth

1. Read This Is Why You’re Fat by Jackie Warner.

A+: LOVED IT!! Look for a post all about this book soon!

2. Keep up with My Fitness Pal and keep up with Daily Mile. 

C+: I definitely could have done WAY better than I did, BUT it is a far better improvement from where I was all of June!

 3. I have my own monthly challenge I started of doing dips and planks regularly, and have been keeping a record of it on a calendar I printed out.  Here’s to getting in 5 days of those at least each week!  I’ll show you my calendar at the end of the month!
F: Do I have to show you my calendar? 🙁 I started out fine and then it dwindle…..blah!  The calendar might as well be empty, but I am proud of my #powerplankchallenge I completed on Tuesday thanks to Mindy & Holly for hosting it! Planked once every hour for 8 hours!
As far as my trying to run hills weekly – yah, I think I did once last month. Fail!  And in addition to reading This Is Why You’re Fat I also read Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane which was a fun read since I’m wedding planning and the main character as a small back story is planning her’s as well.
***

And here is what we plan to accomplish in the month of August –

Teal:

My goals for August are basic because I know that this may be the busiest month I have had in a long long time, if ever. I just want to make it through work and stay running! So here you go!

1. Get through the first month of my new job without having any major breakdowns. I have found out over the last 3 days that this is going to be crazy- in a good way crazy but there is so much to learn and a lot at stake for mistakes.

2. Keep running at least 3 days outside. I don’t like the treadmill but it is about 100 even at 9 o’clock at night and the mornings range in the upper 80’s with the sun still down.

Beth:

My goals are also pretty basic too as the month of August scares me! No free weekends whatsoever and SO MUCH to accomplish!

1. Yoga once a week.  I’ve been trying to do this and haven’t but I think for my stress levels this month I REALLY need to add this one into my routine!

2. Mail ALL wedding invitations!

3. I’m going to be like Teal and say keep up with my running and get in 4 days of running each week!

Joint Goal:

Our marathon training for the Louisiana Marathon will be here in no time and in preparation for training and making a plan we both are going to take the time this month to read Run Less Run Faster. Just want to explore options and get a plan that fits both of us!

Here’s to getting it all accomplished this month!

What are your goals for the month of August?

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June Report Card & Our Goals for July

July 6, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Have you noticed a trend in us running behind this summer?? 🙁  Thanks for having patience and sticking around with us those that are!  Maybe it’s just a summer thing and come fall we will be back to our normal routines?? One can hope right? We continue to be freaked out by each and every new month that comes because well – time is flying people!

Teal:

1.  Clean out the garage which involves properly deposing of all old paint, chemicals, and random things you can’t through in the regular trash, donating anything that  should have donated a long time ago, if it belongs to my brother it’s going to his house, and then just generally cleaning. Why I pick June to work outside in the heat is beyond me but whatever!?

A+: this was so much easier than I thought. I just called the city, ordered the bag and left it on the front porch! The garage is cleaned out, despite an attack from 2 cockroaches, don’t worry the Orkin man has been out to fix that little problem too!

2.  So I graduated at the beginning of May!! Yay, but I have very annoying things that I have/need to do

  • Consolidate and move all my student loans to one place and get on a better plan to pay off faster. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!
  • Register for the LPC exam and not cry when I pay the $300 to take it
  • Organize all the grad work that I did that I want, toss the old stuff, bind what I am keeping ( anyone have one of those spiral binding things?)
  • Organize, bind, toss, or give away my teaching stuff! I will be moving to counselor next year and have a billion teaching things to go through

B: Turns out I can wait until November to consolidate, so I will, can’t register for the LPC until October, paper are organized ( I used binders instead) and my teaching stuff is ready for my friend to have whenever I see her!!

3.  Follow my under 2 hour half marathon runkeeper running plan as close to possible! I will eventually run an under 2 hour half marathon if it kills me! Well not really, I want to live, but you get the point!

B-: I am not sure how to rank this, I have done most of the runs, I usually end up leaving one of the runs per week out because my body doesn’t do well with 3 relatively tough days in a row, by the third one my knee hates me and I would rather keep my body intact and not made at me than to run! However, I do feel stronger and better already so I’ll just keep working through July!

4.  Eliminate random eating. Raise your hand if you stand around trying to figure out something to eat and you find yourself eating crap in the process! ME!! This has to stop!! It’s not like am eating like crazy stuff, but it is mindless and when I finally figure out what to eat, I’m annoyed that I ate weird random things in the meantime!

F: I think I need to make a sign for the pantry and refrigerator. Not sure how to stop this habit. I bought a book – The Power of Habit… maybe just maybe that will help? Re-do in July!!


Beth:

1.  This time around my weight goal is simply: DON’T GAIN ANY!!! Ha, sounds simple right?  Well, this is my birth month and my parents are divorced so this usually means multiple celebrations with good food, good drinks and dessert.  So it’s a dangerous time of year for me. No weight gain in June!!

A++++++: I am still at the same weight! Wahoo! I survived all of the Birthday eating this month!

2. Yoga 2-3 times a week.  Ever since I finished my goal of completing 200 classes in a year I’ve been kind of a slacker, so let’s get back to yoga goals! It’s soooo good for me!

F: Yah, I didn’ t go at all. Fail, Beth, fail!

3.  Finish projects at Brent’s house.  I volunteered his house to host a friend dinner (like this one) towards the end of the month and I haven’t finished some art I started for the walls, since I’ll eventually move in there (you know when we are married) I had already left all of my racing medals, hook to hold them, awesome race bib board my SIL made me over there they just need to be hung up.

A: I finished my “home” picture I was making though I have a feeling the perfectionist in me will make me redo it at some point!

It says home in a bunch of different languages all of which are written on the canvas so I can always know.

I also got my medal hook and medals hung up – now what to do with the OTHER medals that are not on this hook??

I might kind of have a thing for the color blue….

I didn’t get my bib holder hung up because I decided that I wanted to change out the hooks that are currently on it to clips so that all different size bibs can hang for it, so that’s still a project! But I did get a shelf all spray painted and it sits below the medal hook in the office AND we got the guest bedroom cleaned up for now.  My purdy quilt Rebekah made me occupies the bed and I put up some other things around the room. I consider what I did at my future home a success this month!

4. Finish the two wedding projects I have ALL of the supplies for! :)

Looking back at this goal I am not exactly sure which ones I was talking about. HA!  But y’all I got A LOT of wedding schtuff done this month!  Some projects might not be finished but they are well on their way to being completed!  And there is one project for sure still sitting in the packaging, but it requires me sitting in the garage by myself for awhile to work on it which does not fully excite me hence the delay! 🙂  I am kind of afraid to show pictures of projects I am working on as I don’t want to give everything away on the internet and would like certain stuff to be seen for the first time at the wedding. 🙂

My reoccurring goals – Hills, well, I did 3 out of 4 weeks of hills in June and let me tell you that it is getting HOT in Texas!  As far as books go I am still on Target with my goal of reading 24 this year and read my 12th book this month, the recent release, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Could not put this book down!

(source)

And on to July goals!! Here’s also to hoping that our July Report Card is up on the blog in the first few days of August!! Wheee! HA

Teal:

1. Read Power of Habit, work on the stupid ” I am just going to stand here and eat random crap while I look for something to eat” problem.

(source)

2. Get my office ready at my new job. My contract starts July 30th and I would like to be more than set before I start working. I can’t work if stuff is not organized and finished so this is a must. Right now it looks like a war zone and crap is all over the place.
3. Run an avg of 25 miles a week.  This is close to the plan, not every week, but I am trying to still balance what my body decides it will do and my wanting to get faster and have more endurance.
I think 3 is enough for July as we have a late start and I will be out of my house for a little more than a week for training in Ft. Worth and Beth’s bacheorette party (wahoo!!) which makes just the balance of life harder! Here we go July!
Beth:
1. Read This Is Why You’re Fat by Jackie Warner.  I saw Dorothy talk about this book on her blog and immediately wanted to read it.  I’ve been a fan of Jackie Warner’s since she had that show on Bravo called Workout, so Jackie Warner book here I come!
2. Keep up with My Fitness Pal.  I don’t usually record what I eat on the weekends, and so this month I’m going to try hard to keep up with it during the week!  And this is a twofer – keep up with Daily Mile. I totally let that one go in June so keep up with my fitness apps in July!!
3. I have my own monthly challenge I started of doing dips and planks regularly, and have been keeping a record of it on a calendar I printed out.  Here’s to getting in 5 days of those at least each week!  I’ll show you my calendar at the end of the month!
Also, in other news…we LIED and we will reveal the winner of our Tone It Up Challenge Monday!! 🙂  Have a great rest of the month and hope you have some awesome things in store for it!
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