Sweet Potato Stew

After a long morning of working with my team and scheduling our upcoming Fitness Accountability groups, I was feeling very productive and wanted to go ahead and get dinner taken care of!

Do you ever look in your fridge and grab everything that needs to be cooked before it goes bad, put it together with a few more ingredients, and make a meal out of it?  This is one of my favorite ways to cook...just throwing things together and crossing my fingers it turns out OK.  =)

Today I had some meat that I had thawed a couple days ago to make Taco Soup, never got around to it, and now it needed to be cooked before it went bad.  I also had some sweet potatoes that were on the verge of growing roots into my pantry floor, so those needed to be cooked too.  I figured I could make this work so I grabbed some more ingredients and alas...Sweet Potato Stew was made, it was eaten, and it was a 10 out of 10 for everyone!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs lean ground meat
• 16 oz frozen spinach or 1 can of spinach
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 3 vegetable bullion cubes
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can ranch style beans
• 1 can green beans
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1-2 cans of water depending on your preference
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Brown the meat in a pot.  Drain if needed.
• While it's cooking, peel and dice your sweet potatoes and then add them to the pot, keeping it covered to cook to potatoes.  
• Once all the potatoes are in the pot you can add in the remaining ingredients (potatoes will not be cooked through yet) and let simmer on low for 4 hours. 
• Once it was time to eat we topped our stew with mozzarella cheese and paired it with HEB Gluten Free Cornbread.  This is seriously the BEST gluten free cornbread I have ever had!  

Could dinner be any easier?  Try it and let me know what you think!!  

 

Honey Veggie Mix

You know those nights when dinnertime is approaching and you have no idea what you're going to fix?!  Surely I'm not the only one...right?!?

Ok, well that happens to me often!  The days are busy and by the time we get home from one of the kids practices after school, they're ready to eat!  Yesterday was one of these days that I didn't plan for and I had nothing made.  We could have made sandwiches or something else super easy but I wanted to feed us some VEGGIES!!  I had some ground meat cooked in the fridge that was extra from a baked ziti dish I made for a friend the other night and I needed to use it!  So my wheels started turning...I'll just make bakes ziti!  The kids weren't having that!  They giggled as they yelled, "NOOOOO!!" in unison!   Apparently I make that a lot!  So a concoction it was!

I looked in the fridge and grabbed some things, looked in the pantry and did the same and got busy.

Can I just tell you that my thrown together meal was a hit with all 5 members of our family!  So delicious, so easy, and I made it with things I already had in the kitchen...WIN, WIN, WIN!!  The kids helped name it...Honey Veggie Mix.  Genius! ;)

Here is the recipe below.  I hope you enjoy!!

Disclaimer: I am not a chef (that just made me laugh out loud!) or remotely close to being an expert.  AT. ALL.  So if you don't see a measurement it means I just added a "normal" amount...so cilantro, honey, olive oil... I just added enough to saute the veggies!  If I had to guess on the honey I would say 4 Tbsp.?!  Anyway, it's not a science..add as you want!  =)

Ingredients

1. rice (brown rice or quinoa would be even better!)
2. olive oil
3. honey
4. 1 yellow bell pepper
5. 1 red bell pepper
6. 1 orange bell pepper
7. 3 cups spinach
8. cilantro
9. 1 pound lean ground meat
10. 1 can black beans
11. 1 can Amy's Chunky Tomato Bisque
12. salt
13. pepper
14. seasonings of your choice- I used Tony Chachere's
15. cheese

Directions:

1. Start cooking rice in a pot per directions on bag.
2. Pour your olive oil and honey into a large pan and begin heating.
3. Dice your peppers and put into a pan with spinach and cilantro.  Saute until veggies are soft and spinach is cooked down.
4. Pour in cooked ground meat, black beans, and Tomato Bisque.  Stir it all together and add your seasonings. 
5. Rice should be finished so they you scoop some rice into a bowl, dish your meat mixture on top of the rice and top with cheese!  ENJOY!!!!  

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Bell Peppers...I see them everywhere and they're a great idea but once they're made how the heck do you eat them?!  We just cut them up which then made me wonder why we stuff them in the first place instead of just chopping the peppers from the beginning but I guess that's because the peppers would get too soft?!  Something to think about but regardless they were delicious and my 7 & 5 year old actually gave me a hug and thanked me while they praised how yummy they were! =) I was pretty shocked and made a mental note that I will keep this recipe on the list of regulars!  I actually made this recipe up...  I've seen lots of different recipes out there that I've wanted to try but last night my daughter had gymnastics and I didn't have a clue what I was cooking for dinner.  I got home and decided I would throw some things together to make a healthy dish and this is what I decided on!  I'm pretty proud of the spinach addition because nobody would EVER know it's in there!  So healthy and so yummy!!   Try them yourself and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

• Quinoa
• 6 Bell Peppers
• 2 pounds lean ground turkey or I used venison from our freezer (perks of a hunter husband!) which is super lean.
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 TBSP coconut oil
• 1 cup chopped spinach (I chopped fresh spinach in my food processor) 
• 2 tomatoes, diced OR you can use 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 3 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning (it's salt free!)
• pepper to taste (a little salt is delicious but if you're doing the 21 Day Fix then don't add it!)
• grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook Quinoa according to box.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the top of each bell pepper and rinse out seeds. If you need to trim some of the pepper on the bottom so it stands up on the pan you can! 

Place foil on a pan or casserole dish and place bell peppers inside.

Heat coconut oil in large skillet and add onion, garlic, and chopped spinach and saute for 5 minutes or until soft.

Add the ground meat and cook through.

Add the tomatoes and spices and mix well.  

Once Quinoa is finished, mix it in the skillet and blend.

Tightly stuff the mixture into the peppers and then top with shredded cheese.  

Bake for 30 minutes.  ENJOY!!!!  Please share or pin this recipe with someone you think would like it!  How do you eat your stuffed peppers?  

Day 19 of the 21 Day Fix

I can't believe this is my last weekend of my 21 days!  What a journey it's been so far!  I can tell my body has changed but I don't own a scale so I wont know the numbers until the end when I'll go to a friends house to weigh myself!  =)  I really don't care about weight, I just go by how I FEEL!  If I'm  happy and feeling good in my clothes and daily life then that's my perfect weight!  When my clothes start getting tighter and I'm feeling sluggish and blah...I know it's time to make some changes!  =)

This morning I tried Greenberry Shakeology for the first time and it was delicious!  My usual Chocolate is so sweet and tastes like a yummy dessert so the Greenberry was a nice change and very refreshing!  I can't wait to try more recipes with it but here is the one I had today and will definitely repeat in the future!  =)

Today was a double day of Cardio Fix and Upper Fix.  I can really tell that I am getting stronger!  I really didn't feel like doing a double but pushed play twice and of course felt amazing afterwards!  Why do I ever even argue with myself...JUST DO IT!!!  =)

Day 19 down, 2 more to go!!!

Day 18 of the 21 Day Fix

Oh man...when that alarm went off this morning I did NOT want to get up!  I really wanted to roll over and go back to sleep.  I actually might have done that but I really had to pee so I had no other choice but to get out of bed..true story.  ;)

So I got up and was so tired that I knew if I wanted to kill this workout my usual slummy gear wouldn't work.  No, today I needed something fierce to fire me up so I naturally went for my camo pants!  Nothing says POWER better than camo!  Then I had some E&E to kick-start me into enthusiasm!  =)

I not only finished my double day of Total Body Cardio Fix and Pilates Fix,  I killed it!  I've said it before but there is no greater feeling then finishing what you set out to do!  WINNING!!!

I decided to try a different recipe today and I knew I needed coffee in it!  I'm really not a huge coffee fan, it has to be sweetened!  This was delicious and another recipe I loved! Try it and let me know what you think!! 

I had a busy day and was at my sons school for most of it.  I loved being able to have lunch with him and I skipped out on getting fast food or eating at the cafeteria and instead ate a salad when I got home!

18 down, 3 more to go!!