Tasty Tuesday: AMAZE-balls a.k.a. Clean Eating Meatballs

These things are seriously AMAZING. I don’t know about you but every time I have ever tried to make meatballs on the stove I have ruined them. I typically burn the outside and the inside is raw, or they fall apart or are just gross. PLUS, you really can’t make that many at the same time. It had never occurred to be to bake them. This recipe is a super easy baked meatball recipe that literally might change my eating life! OK, that’s dramatic but…. I figured this would be horrible and it turned out to be the easiest thing ever. Little mess, no half burnt/half raw balls of meat and it makes a ton. I ate these things for a week.

What you need:

2.5 lbs of lean ground turkey, beef or chicken (just use what you like, although the calorie count below would change)

1 (16oz) package frozen spinach (or whatever else you would want you could probably use kale too)

1 cup of onion (I used red)

¾ cup bread crumbs ( I used gluten free)

2 eggs

1 garlic clove

Sea salt and pepper – I used about a tsp. of each

2 tbsp. Worcestershire, or soy sauce, or A1, or BBQ (I used Worcestershire but all will work)

½ tsp. each of thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper

1/3 cup Chicken broth

Olive oil

How to:

1.       Preheat the oven to 400.

2.       Heat olive oil in the pan and add all spices and the onion. Sautee until the onions are tender

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3.       Add Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth, and spinach. Cook down until there is very little liquid left in the pan

4.       Meanwhile, mix meat, bread crumbs and egg in a bowl

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5.       Add the spinach mixture to meat mixture and mix together

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6.       Using a ¼ c measuring cup section out the meat to ball and place on a greased pan. They don’t expand much so they can be pretty close. I had 20 on a pan. Ball out until mixture is gone

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7.       Place in the oven for 20 minutes

8.       Voila! I served mine over quinoa and added marinara

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My fitness pal nutrition facts (calories are per ball, based on 38 total made)

Calories: 48.7

Fat: 1.2g

Carbs: 1.1g

Protein 8.1g

For a printable version of this recipe please click HERE.

**Advocare Note: If you make this recipe during your 10 day cleanse you’ll need to count that as your one carb for the day!!**

Tasty Tuesday: Clean Eating Balsamic Chicken & Green Beans

We have had quite a few people asking us about the clean eating turkey meatloaf recipe we posted back in October and we have totally misplaced it! 🙁  Yes, the title of this post has nothing to do with turkey and/or meatloaf, but we are bringing you another recipe that is Advocare Cleanse approved!

So if you are cleansing right now! Try this for dinner in the next few nights?!  If you are not cleansing and just what a tasty and healthy meal then you try this for dinner!

This recipe we found from Clean Eating Magazine which we both love!

Ingredients:

1 lb of fresh green beans, trimmed and rinsed

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided

16 oz button mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 yellow onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rings

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp sea salt

1. Prep all of your veggies and meat so they are ready to go.

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2. Fill a pot halfway up with water and bring the water to boil.  Add the green beans, reduce heat and steam until they are crisp (approximately 5 minutes).  Set aside.

3. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tsp of olive oil on medium heat.  Add mushrooms to saute for approximately 10 minutes, stir occasionally.  When the mushrooms are almost done stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and garlic and saute for three minutes.

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Remove the mushrooms from the heat and transfer to a large bowl.  Combine the green beans and the mushrooms in the bowl and toss well.  Cover the bowl to keep the veggies warm.

4. In a large non-stick skillet, heat the remaining teaspoon of olive oil on medium heat.  Add the onion rings and saute for approximately 5 minutes. Add chicken, thyme, vinegar and salt, and cook, stirring often, for 8 minutes or until the thickest part of chicken is cooked through.  Remove from heat, serve with green beans and any remaining juice from the skillet can be poured over your chicken and/or veggies.

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And voila! Dinner is served.  Sorry, we were too hungry to remember to capture a photo of the final product, but it was also husband approved!

Expect to spend about 35 minutes preparing the food and 35 minutes cooking.

For a printable version of the recipe please go HERE.

Tasty Tuesday: Seafood Gumbo

Hello, January! And the need to get off some of those holiday pounds!  In an effort to do so the other night for dinner I turned to one of my handy dandy Tosca Reno Clean Eating cookbooks to find something I could make for dinner. Tosca’s gumbo completely jumped out at me especially since it’s been cold. It sounded hearty and just what we needed.

First off you’ll need the following ingredients:

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

4 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

12 oz cut frozen or fresh okra (about 3 cups)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

1 lb 51-60 count shrimp, peeled and deveined

12 oz low fat all natural fully cooked andouille sausage

Steamed long grain brown rice, for serving

Hot sauce, to garnish


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This recipe can be made using either a Dutch oven or a large heavy-bottomed pot.  I do not own a Dutch oven so large heavy-bottomed pot it was for me!

To start add olive oil and flour in the pot, and cook, stirring occasionally.  Cook until the mixture is brown and toasty, so roughly 8 minutes.  Add onion, celery, pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning and cayenne.  Cook the vegetables until they are tender, roughly 10 minutes.

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Add tomato paste, broth, okra, thyme and bay leaves.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stir to combine ingredients and then reduce heat to simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

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Increase heat to high.  Add shrimp and sausage and gently stir to submerge them into the hot liquid.  Cook for 3 -4 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through and the sausage is heated through.

Taste and add any additional seasoning if needed.  Remove the bay leaves and throw them away.  Serve over brown rice.

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For a printable version of the recipe please go HERE.

If you are in Texas today and enjoyed some of the snow maybe this is juust the recipe you need for tonight’s dinner!  It provides lots of good flavors and just as tasty as leftovers!

Advocare Ten Day Cleanse: Our Survival Tips

After completely another cleanse we want to share with you some of our tips to help you get through it. 🙂

– The fiber drink you drink on the mornings of Day 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 you want to CHUG IT.

– But before you even get to that stage mix the fiber drink packet with COLD water and feel free to add some more water in as you get towards the bottom (it has a weird consistency, not a taste thing, but a consistency thing).
-A newer tip we learned and tried this time around – if you buy Spark in the orange flavor mix your fiber drink packet with one spoonful of Spark and it’ll taste more like you are drinking OJ with pulp.
-Some people might actually find the Peaches n Cream flavored fiber drinks to be way better than the Citrus flavored fiber drink. Look into that!
-Do the cleanse with a buddy to keep yourself accountable!

-Plan all of your meals ahead of time so you are set! Preparation is clutch. We set up on Sunday for the 1st seven days and then Sunday to the end! Plan ahead of time to make sure you will have the least distraction within your 10 day time frame and whatever you do AVOID birthdays, big life events, etc!

There you have it!  Remember you can buy the Advocare cleanse or any of their products here through Teal.

Have you done the Advocare 10 day cleanse before, is there any advice you would give that we have left off?

Cheaters, Cheaters, Pumpkin Eaters!

If you saw our Wordless Wednesday post yesterday and you guessed that we cheated on our cleanse then CONGRATS you are correct!

Now pat yo’self on the back! 🙂

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We aren’t really ashamed to admit this because we are after all HUMAN.  We hopefully have mentioned before that it is really hard to find 10 consecutive days that work to cleanse.  We discussed a couple of different start dates before we determined October 8th would be the day for us, and now we can see where these 10 days got us.

Life happens much like with when you are trying to block out 16 weeks to dedicate to a marathon, and you might miss a training run or two.  Beth had 3 last minute Birthday parties to attend one of which also included Teal (hence where the cheating pictures came from). Every Wednesday the culinary art students at Teal’s school cook and last Wednesday all of the counselors were going to eat their food?  Yep, a Wednesday during our 10 day Advocare cleanse.

Despite the hiccups (a.k.a. cheat moments) the cleanse is still a good reset for your body!  We both still reaped benefits from it – Beth is 5 pounds lighter and Teal is 5 pounds lighter.  Not bad, right?

We are officially off of the cleanse though we both are trying to keep our eating habits similar to it as much as possible for the next 9 days! 🙂  We’ll be back tomorrow with our survival tips for the 10 day Advocare Cleanse.

Advocare Ten Day Cleanse: What We’re Eating

The cleanse is actually very easy to follow in terms of what you can and cannot eat, and once you have that down, making meals is pretty easy.

These are the bulk of what Teal will eat for the 10 days.

For Breakfast I am drinking Shakeology. Yes I am cheating on Advocare with this one and not using their meal replacement shakes. *gasp* I like Shakeology way more. Shhhh don’t tell them!

Here are the three main meals I made to mix in as either lunch or dinner throughout the time.

1. Southwest Quinoa Salad  ( 5 servings)

Approximate Cost per serving: $4.15

Ingredients: 1lb of chicken breast, ½ of a large red onion, one can of organic black beans, 1 cup of organic quinoa (technically this is 2 full servings and will be split over 5 meals), cherry tomatoes, spinach, salt and pepper to taste.

2. Vegetable Tuna Salad  (6 servings)

Approximate Cost per serving: $1.68

Ingredients: 3 cans tuna, ¾ cup celery chopped, ¾ cup carrot chopped, ½ of a red onion, 1 English seedless cucumber chopped, 2 tablespoons mayo. ( this is 2 servings spread over 6 meals so this is ok)

Serve over salad or use a cucumber and mini sweet bell peppers instead of crackers to eat! They crunch so you just have to trick yourself!

3. Soup:  have no clue what to call this because it’s like 2 recipes combined (6 servings)

Approximate Cost per serving: $3.45

Ingredients: 4-6 cups low sodium organic chicken stock, 1lb chicken breast, 1 can organic gazpacho beans, 1 can organic corn, 2 tomatoes diced, one small white onion, 2 green bell peppers chopped, cilantro, 1 jalapeño chopped, juice of 1 lime, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes.

Snacks if needed: cucumber, carrots, mini sweet bell peppers, raw almonds or cashews, tangerines, apples, almond butter.

And for Beth the bulk of what she will be eating is as follows:

1. Chicken Taco Meat Salad (5 servings)

actually ate it without quinoa most of the week, but that is something you can put in this salad for sure!

The chicken in this form really goes a long way for me and this is usually me getting 2-3 organic chicken breasts.  You might remember seeing this meat from a previous Tasty Tuesday post from us.

Ingredients: Organic chicken, 4 cups low sodium chicken broth, and 1 packet of low sodium taco seasoning for just the meat.  For the salad I did green bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and spinach leaves.

Approximate Cost per serving: Yah, Brent and I split the groceries so it made our receipts weird. I’m the slacker here. :-/

2. Turkey Meatloaf (4 servings)

Ingredients: 1.5 pounds of 99% lean turkey breast, 1 cup chopped onion, 1 cup frozen spinach, 3/4 cup of salsa, 1 egg (or two egg whites), 1/3 cup of oats, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of ground mustard, 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, pepper to taste and 2 tablespoons of worchestire sauce.

3. Mexican Chicken Lime Soup (6 servings)

Ingredients: 2 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 1 onion (finely chopped), 6 gloves of garlic, 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs cut into 1/2 inch pieces, 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, 6 cups of chicken broth, 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, juice of 2 limes, salt and pepper and 1 hass avocado.

4. Egg Frittata (6 servings)

Ingredients: a dozen eggs, 1/2 of one roma tomato, one squash, 1/4 of green bell pepper, 1/4 of red bell pepper, garlic and salt & pepper to taste.

There was also turkey taco meat but I figure a lot of people know that one already and overall made about 29 meals to split between myself and Brent.

With some preparation on your part you can make doing this advocare 10 day cleanse easy to follow! We’ll be back with a post on our tips to surviving the cleanse! 🙂

Advocare Ten Day Cleanse: Dos & Don’ts

Maybe you’ve heard of the Advocare 24 Day Challenge?  Well, this 10 Day Cleanse is the first part of that 24 Day Challenge and you might have noticed when we have cleansed in the past we have stuck to really just doing the first 10 days of that challenge, so that is an option.  Here is a list of what you will actually need for this cleanse –

  • Box of the Herbal Cleanse

  • One bottle of Omegaplex
  • One bottle of Catalyst
  • Optional: Spark

Now let’s get into more of the nitty gritty of what your food should and should not be for the 10 days that you are on the cleanse –

Don’ts:

Refined sugars, corn or white starches

Wheat products (bread, pasta, muffins, etc.),

Dairy of any kind (milk, cheese, yogurt)

White sauces, dressings such as ranch, blue cheese

Alcohol (you can go without – it’s only 10 days)

Coffee (lattes and coffee full of milk or creamer definitely NO, but if you are a black coffee drinker then in our opinion you don’t have to stop drinking it.)

Soda

Fried foods

Hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup

Fruit juices

Cereal

Bottom feeder seafood (shrimp, lobster)

Extremely small or low doses of butter, margarine, or mayo (ideally these are never used but definitely not on a regular basis)

Do’s:

Vegetables: Fresh or frozen are preferred over canned. Stick with more greens and avoid starchy vegetables like corn.

Fruit: look for fruits lower on the Glycemic Index, but a good rule of thumb is northern fruits: apples and berries. Oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, grapes, kiwi, and bananas are OK but keep to one serving.

Healthy Fats: avocado, nuts, olive oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts

Meats: clean meats are best in the whole form, ground is OK, but not for every meal. Chicken, tuna, salmon, halibut, eggs, beef is OK, but is not the first choice, and turkey.

Clean Carbohydrates: sparingly during the cleanse –  Rice, hummus, oatmeal, quinoa, rice cakes.

Also OK: Lentils, legumes, fresh mint, lemon or lime juice, 100% cranberry juice to add flavor, egg beaters, mustards, relish, low mayo, pickles, spaghetti sauce with not added sugars (organic and clean) salsa.

What we both like about this cleanse is that it isn’t an unrealistic cleanse.  It is very doable and if you are trying to get rid of processed food from your diet this can very much aid you in that process.  To make this a successful cleanse try and do as much food prep early on so you don’t get in a bind later. Advocare recommends doing this cleanse once every 3 months.

Should you want to do the Advocare Ten Day Cleanse then you may go here to find all of your products.

Have you participated in a cleanse before, if so what kind? If not, what’s hold you back from trying one?

*all pictures courtesy of Advocare

**Disclaimer: Teal is an Advocare Distributor and became one because she believes in the product.  We are not being paid for writing this blog post, but want to share with you something we believe in ourselves.

Tasty Tuesday: Bridal Shower Foods

You might have seen yesterday, that this weekend was Beth’s bridal shower thrown by the bridesmaids and since I’m a bridesmaid (highly doubt you would have missed that by now) I had a job to do. I volunteered to do the dessert part of our spread.

Kate (Beth’s sister) had us all pick what we wanted to do so I chose Cake balls and Oreo cookie balls. I’m on Pinterest so I totally thought it would be doable. I am going to give you the recipes and the how to make said cake balls, and even a few pointers of what they do when they completely fail at 10pm the night before the shower and a race you have to wake up at 5 o’clock to get to!

Kate is also blogging today about the other shower snacks! You can find that information over on her blog! You should totally check it out for any future snacking you would like to partake in and/or some other awesome recipes!

Oreo Cake Balls

1 package of oreos
1 8 oz package of cream cheese softened
White melting chocolate (for your sanity DO NOT buy this kind )
You really should probably buy this kind instead (trust me!)

How to:

Crush the Oreos in a blender, or if you are angry at the world you could pound them with a hammer. Just make sure they are as small as you can get it.

Mix in the entire package of cream cheese. It will end up being a ball of cookie mush.

Ball the mixture into the size you would like and then place in the refrigerator. I would recommend freezing them over night because when they are not hard enough they fall through the sticks and it is a holy annoying mess. You could also just never put them on sticks and life might be easier.

So you might guess, the next step is to place them on sticks and dip them in the melting chocolate and you are done.

Hint: Keep refrigerated until you are ready to serve if they are on sticks they won’t stay!

Cakeballs

Cake Mix
Icing
Melting chocolate (again use the candy melts not the other one)

How to:

Bake the cake using the regular directions. Once baked, let cool and crumble the cake into the smallest pieces that you can.

Mix in the icing- the original way I saw this was to use the entire jar of icing, I think this was part of the reason that these bad boys didn’t work, sooooo in the future I will probably use about half so that they are not as moist (eww I hate that word)!

Once mixed, ball the cake and freeze. Once frozen dip in the melted chocolate and you are done!

Hint: too much icing in the mix, not freezing and only refrigerating, and using the wrong chocolate will give you a holy mess that looks much like the picture! While my cake balls failed miserably, I did figure out how to fix them by using the hints above.

If all else fails you could always get your husband on the phone with every Starbucks that will wait for you to get there before they close and ask them for all their cake balls. Then you can buy melting chocolate and cover them in whatever color you need. See! No one would ever know!

I figured I would include some extra pics of the shower just because it was so cute! Beth also has a super crafty Sister in law (She blogs too- Shocking, I know) Tiffany made tons of cute decoration pieces and snacks as well!

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So there you have it! The showering aspect of our weekend! 🙂  Please be advised we are not claiming cake balls are healthy….we are sharing the recipe and parts of our lives right now with you. Ha. Tomorrow we’ll finally let you  know ALLLL about Tour des Fleurs! 🙂

Oh, and additionally it should be noted that Teal’s Oreo cakeballs were WAY BETTER than Starbucks! Sorry Starbucks! We know we are already kind of a traitor to you with our Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf obsession! Only 10 more days until a CBTL opens in Dallas! 🙂  Ok, that’s all from us for real now.

Tasty Tuesday: Green Chili & Vegetable Soup and Green Juice

This post is brought to you by the color green!

So the pictures on this recipe are a little weak. Something mysteriously happened to my iphone and in the place of the finished products is a picture of strangers. How it got there is beyond me, but never the less the pictures are gone.

If you follow us on instagram you might remember from a couple of weeks ago, we used diptic to show you what we each had for lunch. This was mine! Green Chili and vegetable soup and green juice (not as scary as it sounds!)


Green Chili Vegetable Soup

Large green chili (whatever heat you like)
8-10 red potatoes (the little ones)
Garlic clove
Fresh green beans
Can of corn
48 oz Can of red diced tomatoes
1 can of peas
1 can of rotel
1 lb of lean ground beef or bison
2 carrots cut into slices

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I am not big on listing 8 million spices and their exact quantities; I did put garlic, sea salt, pepper, a little cumin, and chili powder. This is up to you. Really I don’t think it needs much and depends on the person- this is clearly my non-chef talk

To make: This is so easy! Brown the meat in a pan and place in the crockpot after it is finished. Add in remaining ingredients and cook for 6-8 hours depending on what temperature you need to set it at and what time you put it in. The meat is cooked so really all you need to do is make sure the potatoes finish.

I placed mine in mason jars and ate the soup for lunch all week.

Green juice

3oz spinach
3oz kale
½ large cucumber sliced
2 green apples
1 lemon.

To make: Cut apples in to cubes, peel lemon and slice cucumbers (note: you only have to do that part if your juicer is old school like mine and you have to cut and peel) and throw everything in the juicer. If you don’t have a juicer you can blend and then drain out the chunky parts. If I do it this way I usually blend and drain twice and you might have to add a little water. It tastes exactly the same but the texture is different.

**Advocare Note: If you make the Green Chili & Vegetable Soup during your 10 day cleanse either leave the potato out or you’ll need to count that as your one carb for the day!!**

Tasty Tuesday: Jalapeno Cheese Turkey Burgers

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?