Recipes for you!

Here are a few meal ideas/recipes for you to try!

"Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes"

Ingredients:
1 can pumpkin puree
1 box of Deviled cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix puree and cake mix together. Fill each cupcake slot half full. Bake for 25 minutes or so, depending on how gooey you like them.

 "English Muffin Pizzas"

Ingredients: 

Whole wheat English muffins
Pinch of Italian seasoning 

And whatever else you want to make a bomb tasting pizza

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First, toast the English muffins in a toaster. Put the muffins onto aluminum foil. Load them up with sauce and toppings. Bake for 2 minutes, then add cheese and sprinkle Italian seasoning on top. Bake until cheese is melted.

"Homemade Pizza"

Ingredients:
Toppings
Chopped onions
Broccoli
Green bell peppers
Mushrooms
Baked chicken (I'll post the different ways I bake/season my chicken)
1-2 slices fat free cheese
Pizza sauce of choice

Crust
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Water (add until you get a doughy texture)
Dash of salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine crust ingredients in a bowl, adding dry ingredients first, then liquids. I always mix with a spoon, then use my hands to form a ball. Put the bowl in the refrigerator for about 2-3 minutes, letting the dough rest. During this time, wash, cut, and prepare any veggies you want for toppings. Next, spray your pie pan and spread out the dough evenly. Bake for 2-5 minutes, or until crust is slightly solid. Then, add sauce, veggies, and baked chicken. Put back into oven for about 15-20 minutes or until crust looks light brown and crunchy. Add cheese on top and put back into the oven until cheese is melted. 

"Loaded Potato"

Ingredients:
Sweet potato
Nonfat, plain Greek yogurt
Chopped green onions
Pepper flakes
Part skim Mozzarella cheese
Bacon bits (optional)

Directions:
Bake or microwave sweet potato. When finished, top with greek yogurt, green onions, pepper flakes, and cheese. Microwave for a couple seconds to melt cheese.

 "Chicken Quesadillas"

Ingredients:
Tortilla of choice (I use a low carb/high fiber brand)
Chicken (boiled/shredded)
1/2 cup fat free cheese
1/2 cup Onions
1/2 avocado

Dipping Sauce:
Nonfat, plain Greek yogurt
1 tbsp green onions
Lime (optional)

Directions:
You will need to bake and shred the chicken first. Grease a pan with light, olive oil spray. Lay 1 tortilla flat in the pan and top with cooked chicken [strips, pieces, tenders], and onions. Let cook for a minute and add chopped avocado and cheese. Top with second tortilla and cook for a minute longer then flip quesadilla. Cook until both sides are slightly brown. Cut into slices and serve with a dipping sauce. My dipping sauce of choice was nonfat, plain Greek yogurt topped with chopped green onions. *Squeeze lime onto the dip for that extra zest*

"Quinoa Chicken Casserole"

Ingredients:
1 cup cook quinoa
Baked chicken (1-2 small packs of the boneless, skinless tenders)
1 can corn
1 small tomato, diced
1 can black beans
1 cup fat free, shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup fat free, mozzarella cheese
1/2 avocado, diced
1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small can of green chilies
1 tsp cumin
1-2 tbsp of chili powder
2-3 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 small can of tomato sauce
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake chicken-using season of choice. Then, cook quinoa as directed. Next, mix all ingredients except the avocado in a bowl, also only using 1/2 cup of both types of cheeses, (save the other 1/2 cup) and, hold out a little of the tomatoes and bell pepper for topping. Once ingredients are mixed, spread evenly into pan like a casserole. Bake for 20 minutes. Top with the remaining cheese, bell pepper, tomatoes, and avocado. Bake until cheese is melted.

"Pumpkin Brownies"

Ingredients: 

2 cups oats

1/3 unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 can pumpkin puree

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/3 cup Walden Farms sugar free syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

2 packets stevia (add more or less depending on sweetness you want)

Peanut butter/almond butter to top (optional)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Use blender to make oats a flour-like consistency. Mix all of the dry  ingredients first, then mix in the rest. Spread mixture into a loaf pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Top with peanut/almond butter or even powdered sugar, then serve!

Macros without peanut butter: 

8 servings

Per serving- 100 cals, 2.4g fat, 4g protein, 18g carbs

Spring Rolls in January

The colder it gets outside, the more I use my crock pot.

Okay, that's a lie.... I'm addicted to using my crock pot and would use it even if we were experiencing 100 degree weather.

Instead of always baking chicken, crock pot it! Just throw a bunch of random spices and veggies in with the chicken and *boom*, dinner is waiting on YOU after the gym.


I simply love the recipe I am about to share with ya'll!

"Chicken Spring Rolls"

Ingredients:
6 Nasoya All Natural Egg Roll Wraps
Fresh, raw cole slaw
6 boneless chicken tenders
Olive oil
Fresh cilantro (optional)
1 cup slice onion
Spices (garlic powder, pepper, chili powder)
1 slice Go Veggie-vegan cheese
Asparagus (optional)

Directions: I used a leftover chicken crock pot mix to fill my wraps. The chicken mix was made like this--> *Crock pot set on high for 4-5 hours. Place 6 chicken tenders, spices, 1 cup sliced onions, and asparagus (optional)--this is my favorite way to cook my asparagus; I don't like it crunchy! Add 1 cup of water to the mix and let it cook.

When the chicken mix is almost finished, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take 1 egg roll wrap and follow instructions on package on how to fold/wrap. You'll place your chicken mix, cole slaw, and small piece of the cheese onto the corner of the wrap, fold and seal. Brush olive oil on top of each wrap and sprinkle fresh cilantro on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Good with or without a sauce, but my next experiment will definitely be coming up with a low sodium sauce for these yummy rolls!

For those needing macro info, here is a CLOSE estimate for 1 roll.

(Makes 6 rolls)
Serving size=1 roll
143 cals
3g fat
12g carbs
15g protein

Past Meal Ideas

To explain the post below this....

I edited and kept most all of the IIFYM post from my old blog, {SwankySouthernCanvas}. I knew it would a good reference for people who want to incorporate their favorite foods into their diet. Read more about flexible dieting here.

So, this is my first post on my new blog.

I wanted to start off by sharing a couple of my favorite recipes/meal ideas with you!

"Crock Pot Chicken Alfredo"

Ingredients:
Boneless/Skinless chicken breasts  *I used two packs of small-medium chicken breasts and tenders*
1 block of 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken
1 can of  fat free cream of mushroom
1/2 cp Fat Free italian dressing
1 bag of frozen peas or broccoli
Whole wheat linguini noodles
Penne noodles (or noodles of choice)
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional: Sliced mushrooms, green onions, Parmesan cheese


Directions:
Place chicken in crock pot. Add in the cans of mushroom/chicken, 1 cp italian dressing, salt & pepper then mix. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8 hours. Once time is up, make sure to shred chicken into smaller pieces. Then add in the block of cream cheese. Cook for another 1-2 hours. Near the end of the time place on warm and start boiling water for the noodles. Once the noodles are almost done, add in the frozen peas or broccoli into the boiling water of noodles. The water will cook the veggies. Next, drain the noodles and veggies. Serve either the chicken mix over the noodles or mix all together in a bowl and serve. Top with Parmesan cheese or green onions if desired.

"Protein French Toast"

Ingredients:
Bread (I like to use Sara Lee low cal bread or Ezekiel)
2-3 egg whites
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1/2-1 scoop protein powder of choice (I use Cellucor Cinnamon Swirl or Vanilla)
Fruit of choice

Directions:
Mix egg whites, cinnamon, and protein powder together
Dip each side of a slice of bread into mix, coating the entire slice
Cook on stove over medium heat; flipping sides until egg is cooked
Top with favorite fruit and Walden Farms sugar free syrup

"Pumpkin Cheesecake-Pie"

Ingredients: 

 Filling--

1 pkg of Cheesecake pudding mix
1/2 can of Pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 scoop protein powder (I used Cellucor Cinnamon Swirl)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp Walden Farms sugar free syrup
2 whole eggs
3 Stevia packets

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt

 crust--
8 sheets of low fat graham crackers
2 handfuls (1 serving) of fat free, unsalted pretzels

2 tbsp of peanut butter (I use low sodium, crunchy Jif)

1 cup almond milk

*Feel free to play around with the sweeteners! Also, to make this an actual cheesecake, add cream cheese to the mix. I may test this out soon and substitute the cheesecake pudding mix for cream cheese and see how the texture turns out*

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust directions: Mix crust ingredients in either a food processor or blender. I chose to use a Ninja blender. Blend 4 sheets of low fat graham crackers, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 handful of pretzels and 1/2 cup almond milk. Transfer this to your pie pan. Then mixed the other halves of the ingredients in the blender, and put the rest in the pan. My blender isn't big enough for the full amount of ingredients, so I split mine into two parts to make the crust. Once the mix is in the pan, flatten out to form the crust. I put the crust in the oven for about 5 minutes before I added the filling.

Filling directions: Basically, mix all your filling ingredients together in a bowl really well then pour on top of your crust. Put back into the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Occasionally, check with a fork to see if it's almost finished. Put back in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until done. Cook longer if needed. Let cool for a bit, then put it in the fridge overnight. Serve the next day!

Macros: 
10 servings

1 serving = 4g fat, 33g carbs, 5g protein

And extra info.... 19g sugar, 188 cals