healthy zucchini pizza boats; paleo, 21 Day Fix, clean eating!

Its pizza night in our house tonight.  Normally I would enjoy a couple huge pieces of empty-carb-laden, blood-sugar spiking, then dipping, emotion-high and stomach-ache inducing pizza.  

Ahh, a classic American treat!

But not tonight.  Tonight I am committing to my body.

Rosemary Chicken for Crockpot. so easy and 21 Day Fix approved

yum.  this was delish, and so easy!  i used NO oil and NO sweeteners, just simple ingredients!  plan about a total of 2 minutes to throw this together!

2 ingredient Banana Cookies

So easy, so healthy and so good!!

Only 2 ingredients needed: oats and bananas!

Mash up your bananas, add in your oats and toss in the oven. I like to add extras, chocolate always makes these into divine treats!!!  We put M&Ms and dried cranberries in this batch- oh YUM!

2 Ingredient Banana Cookies

preheat oven to 350 degrees

bake for 15 minutes

Mix this well after your banana is mashed:

1 cup oats

2 bananas

Thats it!!!! 

Drop onto greased pan and bake as normal. 

I always double or triple this excellent recipe. They probably freeze well- but we devour ours before I am ever needing to consider storage options.

I always love adding extras to ours! Some of my favorites are:

chocolate chips

M&Ms

cranberries

raisins

nuts

a dash salt

cinnamon

nutmeg

vanilla

protein powder

flax seeds

coconut oil

What would you add to yours?

Easy Delicious OMG Caesar Inspired Kale Salad

wow.  this is something i would easily find myself eating too much of.  maybe it is the fresh garlic...  maybe it is the tangy fresh lemon-ceasar infused with the earthiness of the kale....  its awesome and my whole family went crazy for it!  my preschooler only ate about half of her huge bowl and my hubby gave me a side glance as he quickly claimed it for himself.  yes folks, its that good.

Easy Delicious OMG Caesar Inspired Kale Salad

A bunch of kale, torn up and clean- a large bowl full works

3 Tbs Caesar dressing (from bottle or homemade)

3 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs olive oil

1 large clove fresh crushed garlic

a couple cracks of salt and pepper

mix all well, let sit a good 20-30 minutes for the acidic dressing to soften and shrink the kale a tad. lastly top with a few tomatoes or croutons and inhale!  your welcome! 

yummy, amazing, homemade, kick-ass garlic mayonnaise.

Seriously.  I have gotten this recipe down to a science.  I love my mayo, BUT it has to be packed with flavor, delicious and hit me with a BAM.  Thats how I love my mayo.

Making mayonnaise takes a little bit of skill, but if you can follow directions you should have no problem!  But wait!  If you get interrupted and/or mess up there are ways to save it- ask me how I know this :)

I like to make mine in a large jar that I can easily fit my stick-blender into, this way clean up is a breeze- I only have to clean my stick-blender, simply put your lid on the jar and its ready for the fridge!

Paying close attention to the steps, you MUST blend your eggs FIRST with the dry ingredients and spices/garlic, then add the wet.  It is important that your eggs emulsify so the whole process goes as planned....  otherwise you will have liquid mayo- good for potato salad but not so good for sandwiches!

Here I show my eggs and garlic and mustard in the jar right before I pulverize them, once they are thick I very VERY slowly drizzle in my oil, I mean VERY SLOW THIN TRICKLE OF OIL- wait for the magic to happen and VOILA we have beautiful mayonnaise!  This is said to last about 2 weeks, which is actually perfect for my family.  We eat a lot of sandwiches and I just love using this to make my own coleslaw, salad dressings, tuna, etc etc etc.....  seriously adding a wham bam of flavor awesomeness!!!

Simply put your lid on and keep in the fridge 'til gone!  You should only have your hand-blender to wash!  Don't have a hand blender?  A whisk will do the trick in a big shallow bowl, so will a regular blender or your kitchen aid mixer!

Amazing Garlic Mayo

In your jar:

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1 tsp hearty mustard

2 cloves garlic crushed

Once emulsified well SLOWLY drizzle in the following:

1 Tbs white vinegar

2 Tbs lemon juice

2 cups oil

Enjoy!  And try not to let your preschooler steal bites of this by the spoon....  but if she does you can be rest assured that it is good wholesome fat, and, hey- raw garlic IS a healing food anyway! 

Broccoli: its whats for lunch.

Broccoli is practically a super food.  So packed with healthy nutrients, fiber and goodness- its truly a perfect health food!

A single cup of broccoli contains 10% of your daily vitamin A, over 100% of your Vitamin C, 4% of both your Calcium and Iron!  Add to that 10% of your daily fiber and a whopping 5 grams of protein!  All of this for only 30 calories!  I need to eat more broccoli :)

My family loves my easy broccoli salad.  I whip the darn thing up in a big bowl and its good to go!  This time I used the bag of pre-chopped broccoli from Costco because I felt the pull of convenience during this purchase.  I simply toss my dressing in the bottom of the bowl, whisk then add the veggies and DONE!

Easy Broccoli Salad

1/3 cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

big splash white vinegar

1-2 tsp sugar/sweetener

dash salt

Add this to the bottom of your big bowl and whisk 'til blended!

Then mix in:

6-10 cups chopped broccoli

1 diced sweet onion

handful dried cranberries

roughly 60 calories per cup!

Get creative!  I've got some turkey bacon in the oven, just might chop that up and add it too! What would you add to your broccoli salad???

Oven Fajitas done right!

After much contemplating I decided to give this whole 'oven fajitas' thing a try.  I like food and I like my food to be GOOD.  Changing up standard fajitas was a risk but i was willing to take it!  Good news, this turned out pretty darn tasty, the whole family loved it and i was able to send leftovers with my daughter to school- which she ate every last drop of!

Trying hard to cut back my calories as i want to fit nicely into my winter clothing i adapted my portion to sit nicely on a bed of cabbage mix.  Topped with non-fat yoghurt, salsa and tomatoes it was darn yummy!  The rest of my family enjoyed theirs on a soft flour tortilla and generously sprinkled with cheddar.

Keeping on budget i purchased a bag of assorted bell peppers at Grocery Outlet for $1.99, which contained 6 peppers and i used 3.  My onion was roughly .50 and the chicken i got with a 30% discount on a large bulk package at Safeway making it roughly $1.80lb.  My bag of tortillas was less than $2 and they used about half...  add in a little salsa, spices, yoghurt and cheese i would say this entire meal cost a total of $7 to feed the 4 of us PLUS lunch the next day for 2.

I cooked my chicken first for 20 minutes after it sat in the marinade all afternoon.  While it baked i prepped my veggies and put them aside to wait.  Easy!

After the chicken had been in the oven for 20 minutes i puled it out and tossed in my veggies, threw it back in for 15 minutes and voila- ready! Cooking the peppers for only 15 minutes kept them ever so perfect with a hint of freshness to them still.

Oven Fajitas

the marinade: 

1.5lb chicken breast cut into bite size pieces

1 Tbs olive oil

4 Tbs lime juice or more

1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1 Tbs soy sauce

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chili powder

dash of salt

Veggies:

3 bell peppers- red, green, yellow, etc

1 large yellow onion

Simply toss your chicken and marinade mix into preferred container to marinate for a few hours.  

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Dump all chicken and marinade sauce into oiled pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Add in veggies, stir and pop back in to bake for 15 more minutes.  

Makes approximatly 6 servings at about 220 calories each.