Frozen Banana Nut Bites

Frozen Banana Nut Bites

Quick and simple meal #2....

Ingredients:

1 banana

2 tbsp raw almond butter

Slice banana into even amount of slices. Spread raw almond butter on half of the banana slices. Cover with other half of the banana slices. Freeze for at least 2 hours.

Ginger Jalepeno Chicken

Ginger Jalepeno Chicken

This week marks week #10 since I started the Transformation Center's #6weeks20pounds Challenge on January 5, 2015. I'm down over 45 pounds and over 6 inches in my waist. The coolest part is I've been eating some really tasty, clean and healthy food along the way.  

This week, I recommitted for myself to go back to basics with my food. I have 4 weeks left to lose as much weight as possible. I'm going to have to be disciplined and really stick to the nutrition program.

My mantra of the week: BACK TO BASICS does NOT mean BLAND!

My plan was to stick to grilled chicken breasts and salad for my final meal of the day after my workout. In order to stick to this plan, I knew I had to come up with a chicken marinade that is so good, I wouldn't get sick of it by the end of the week. This was really good...

 Ingredients:
2 pounds organic boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Jalepeno Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp pink himalayan salt
1.5 tbsp ground ginger
1.5 tbsp Mrs. Dash Table Blend
1 diced jalepeno with seeds

Combine all ingredients over chicken in a bowl and mix well by hand.  Cover and marinate in the fridge for 24 hours, stirring about 12 hours through. Grill, broil or bake.










The flavor of this chicken was AWESOME!  It went so well with my salad and side of spinach for meal #5. Super easy, back to basics, but still DELICIOUS! Here's to a successful week!!

Mexican Fried "Rice"

Mexican Fried "Rice"

I needed a quick meal #4 today so, here's what I came up with....it was so good!

Ingredients:

1 cup of my Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Couscous

1 egg and 2 egg whites lightly scrambled

Cholula Hot Sauce

In a hot non-stick frying pan sprayed with coconut oil, "fry" couscous for 3-4 minutes on high heat stirring regularly.  Create a hole in the middle of the couscous and drop egg in it.  Let egg set slightly and then begin to fold egg into couscous until cooked through. Top with Cholula hot sauce.

It was quick, easy and tasted great!

Pumpkin Pie Sweet Potato Pancakes

Pumpkin Pie Sweet Potato Pancakes

My friend and co-challenger JoAnna asked if anybody had a good sweet potato pancake recipe.  Although I really didn't have one, I immediately thought to myself, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" Here's what I came up with...

Ingredients:

4 oz. baked skinless sweet potato

1 whole egg*

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp cinnamon

After baking potato, peel skin off by hand. Mash potato with fork in bowl and mix in remaining ingredients to make your batter. Spoon batter onto hot griddle or non-stick frying pan sprayed with coconut spray. Cook until underside is firm and then flip.

Makes 3-4 small pancakes

I can't wait to try these tomorrow for meal 3 with some berry balsamic drizzled on top!

*PLEASE NOTE: since this is for meal 3 and you are adding an egg to your pancakes, be sure to reduce your protein item slightly for that meal since you are getting  6 grams of protein from the egg...

Homemade Applesauce

Homemade Applesauce

Did you know it is nearly impossible to find any canned item in your grocery store that doesn't have some kind of preservative in it?  It makes sense....how else would the item be able to stay "fresh" on the store shelves for so long without adding preservatives? Applesauce is included in that category as a healthy food item that is usually loaded with added sugar and preservatives...

Homemade applesauce is super easy to make and tastes so great!.  Enjoy it hot on a cold winter night or cold on a hot summer day! Either way, it's bound to be delicious.

Ingredients:

3 pounds apples (I like macintosh)

1 1/2 cup water

cinnamon (if desired)

Peel and core apples.* Cut into chunks and add water (there should be about an inch of water at the bottom of your pot). Cover and cook on medium-high until apples become soft and tender.  Mash with a potato masher or blend with an infusion blender. Add cinnamon to taste.

*Some say you can leave the skins on, others don't enjoy the texture it creates. Since I don't have an emersion bender, I typically peel the skin off the apples. You can do it either way.

The end result (YUM!):

Spicy Turkey Vegetable Chili

Spicy Turkey Vegetable Chili

This winter has been the coldest on record.... Because of this, I really wanted to come up with a good chili that is challenge approved...I made this and it came out GREAT! The flavor was out of this world (I only had 1 taste since it is fruit day). I honestly never would have thought that a chili with only 5 main ingredients could taste so good.  Remember, eat this for meal 5 and don't use the tomatoes on your salad (since they are used in this dish).

 Ingredients:
2 lbs. Spicy Turkey Sausage (same recipe from my stuffed peppers)
3 cups chopped carrots
3 cups chopped celery
2 red bell peppers
5 tomatoes off the vine
2 jalepeno peppers (I kept the seeds in for spice)
3 tbsp organic tomato paste (see product below)
1 tbsp pink himalayan salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp onion powder
1/2 cup hot chili powder
3 cups water

Brown turkey sausage and breakup into small pieces. Combine browned sausage, carrots, celery, peppers, and 2 diced tomatoes in stock pot. Puree 3 tomatoes with 1 1/2 cups of water in high-powered blender or food processor. Add to stock pot with remaining 1 1/12 cups of water, tomato paste and spices. Stir mixture. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Makes 8 servings

Here's the end result:

For the tomato paste, this is the ONLY brand I found in the Wegmans organic section with no added sugar or other preservatives: