Healthy Chocolate Pudding

OMG, this is so yummy!  I've been doing the 21 Day Fix Extreme workouts and trying to follow the meal plan.  There are no cheats on this plan...no wine (though I don't drink), no chocolate.  And of course, when you're not allowed to eat something, that is the EXACT something that you want to eat.  Well, looking through the meal plan, I came across the chocolate pudding recipe.   It's soo good, and I don't feel any guilt eating it at all.  It's a 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow, and 1/2 blue container.  Yummy goodness.

Makes 4 servings, approximately 1/2 cup each

1.5 scoops         Chocolate Shakeology
1                        Ripe Medium avocado
1                        medium banana, cut into chunks
1 C                    unsweetened almond milk

1. Place Shakeology, avocado, banana, and almond milk in blender.  Blend until smooth (If too thick, add additional almond milk).

2. Pour into 4 dessert cups; refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until set.

Yummy Turkey Meatloaf

Since I'm doing 21 Day Fix Extreme currently, I'm doing my best to try to follow the nutrition program too. Here is a recipe that was super easy to make. I made it ahead of time for us to have for dinner later in the week. Super yummy. The picture does not do it justice. Just make sure the salsa you use does not have a lot of salt. If it does, bypass the added salt.  This was a mistake that I made, but it was still yummy.  Enjoy! 

2 lbs raw (93%) lean ground turkey
1 Cup all-natural mild salsa (I used medium and it added a nice kick.  It was also all I had at the time)
1 Cup cooked quinoa, cooled
2 Large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
Ground pepper to taste (optional)
Fresh chopped parsley (for garnish, optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine turkey, salsa, quinoa, eggs, garlic, salt, and pepper in a large bowl; mix well by hand or with a rubber spatula
3. Shape mixture into shape of a loaf and place on ungreased 13x9 inch baking pan.
4. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until center is no longer pink and meat is cooked through.
5. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
6. Serve garnished w/parsley.

You can also cut the cooked meatloaf into single servings and freeze for future meals. Delicious!

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread/Muffins

 Have you noticed that a lot of my recipes consist of breakfast foods?  Why do I post so many breakfast-y foods you may ask?   Because our mornings are go-go-go and I want my kids to have as healthy a meal as they can even when we're rushing out the door.   Another go-to in our family is Zucchini bread baked in muffin tins.  Here's the recipe with my tweaks in parentheses. ‪

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hr (if in loaf pans). ~30 minutes in regular sized muffin tins. ~20 in mini sized muffin tins

Yields about 18 muffins.
Ingredients:
- 3 C all-purpose flour (I made mine with 2 C whole wheat, 1 C white flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tsps ground cinnamon (I used 2 tsp)
- 3 eggs
- 1 C vegetable oil (I used 1 C coconut oil, melted)
- 2 1/4 C white sugar (I used almost 2 C)
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 C grated zucchini (about 1 medium and 1 small)
- 1 C chopped walnuts (I opted out as I didn't have any)

Directions:
1. Grease and flour 2 8x4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. (I greased two regular sized muffin tins).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. If you're making muffins, bake for ~30 minutes or until tested in center comes out clean. Cool in muffin tins for 10 minutes. Remove and completely cool on rack.
If you're baking bread, bake for 40-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookies I'm OK with giving my children

Sometimes you just need a treat. In this case, it was my son's 5th birthday last month and the teacher asked if I was going to bring something in for them to celebrate in preschool. I thought I could get away with not bringing anything (since we had a party which included his classmates), but I felt the mommy guilt. I didn't want to buy pre-made small cupcakes, as I always think there's way too much sugar in them, and the frosting itself can verifiably leave your kids on a sugar high for hours. So in comes #100daysofrealfood and me tweaking the recipe slightly to make that recipe even healthier. Here's the recipe for Whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies per the website. I have notes on where I changed things. You can definitely taste the lack of butter in these cookies. But you also get that wonderful coconut-ty flavor instead. 

 


2/3c whole wheat flour
1/2c white flour (or use all whole-wheat instead)--that's what I did
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter (8 TBSP), slightly colder than room temp. (I substituted with coconut oil-- see here to read all the great benefits of cooking with coconut oil)
1/4c brown sugar
1/4c white sugar (I used mostly brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4c choc. chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1) In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a hand-held whisk including the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter. The butter is the KEY ingredient in this recipe and for best results it must be “slightly” colder than room temperature.

2) Add the egg, both sugars, and vanilla to butter until well mixed. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.

3) With the electric mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in batches) to the butter mixture.

4) With a large spatula stir in the chocolate chips.

5) If you have time, and for the very best results, it is recommended that you chill the batter for 10 – 15 minutes before putting the cookies in the oven (even if your butter was the perfect temperature!). {Since coconut oil is room temp, I did chill the cookie dough by putting the whole mixing bowl into our deep freezer for 5 minutes. I would've kept it there longer if I wasn't pressed for time.}

6) Put spoonfuls of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7 – 9 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!

  

Spinach Banana Smoothie Pancakes

YUMMY!

Another staple in my household, Spinach Banana Smoothie Pancakes. I'm always trying to find ways to get my kids to eat more veggies. I found this recipe online a few years ago when I was trying to get my son to eat green things, and have tweaked it here and there. I made a double batch of these over the weekend, so I could freeze them for the kids' breakfasts. I just placed them between wax paper, put them in a ziploc freezer bag, freeze, and voila! Easy breakfast. The great thing about spinach is that it's super healthy, and when blended, there's no taste to it, especially when you have ripe bananas in there too.


Single batch...makes about 22 pancakes, using scant 1/4 cup to pour batter.

1 C almond milk, unsweetened
1 very ripe banana
2 C fresh baby spinach
1 C flour (I did 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white)
1 TBSP sugar (I already reduced this from the original 2 TBSP)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
2 TBSP butter, melted  

Syrup and butter for topping, or whatever you'd like. My kids get a few chocolate chips on top.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a blender, add milk, banana and spinach and blend until there are no flecks of spinach seen in the mixture. Blend in the egg and butter.

Pour green mixture in with the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Preheat griddle on medium low. Using a 1/4 measuring cup, drop batter onto the griddle. Cook until the tops are bubbly and edges are dry (darker green). Flip and cook another minute or so. 

Benefits of Using Coconut Oil

I am by no means a nutritionist at all, but I do try to be educated about some topics.  Of course, if you ever have any questions about whether something is healthy for YOUR particular diet/health, always check with a medical professional.  Here's what I found about cooking with coconut oil.

1) Digestion

Cooking with coconut oil can benefit your digestive system because it contains saturated fats with anti-microbial properties, which help eliminate parasites, bacteria and other causes of indigestion.  What does all that mean?  It means it may help prevent stomach-related problems because it is easy to digest.  Coconut oil is also healthy because it helps your body absorb nutrients, vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

2) Weight loss

Cooking with coconut oil can be helpful if you are trying to lose weight.  Woot woot!  According to www.organicfacts.net, coconut oil naturally increases your metabolism.  Coconut oil also has short -- and medium -- chain fatty acids, which can help you keep weight off.  Easy to digest, you will also find that coconut oil helps keep your thyroid healthy, too.

3)  Heart Disease  

Cooking with coconut oil is also now considered to be good for your heart. The oil contains 50 percent lauric acid, which is known to help control conditions like high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The saturated fat in coconut oil, unlike other vegetable oils, is not harmful and won't increase your LDL levels.

Now these are just a few of the benefits.  I've only used coconut oil so far with baking but will be thinking about using it more often now.

Easy Peasy Roasted Butternut Squash

I don't use the oven much for roasting, but I may be doing it more often now. I made butternut squash the other night and it was a huge hit with my 5yo (not so much my 2yo...yet). It was even made easier by buying the pre-cut organic package from Costco.  Super simple and yummy!  Of course, you can always prepare your squash from scratch, but coming home after a long day at work, I want a wholesome, hearty, and quick dish to make.

A bit of sweet and salty

2 TBSP olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat butternut squash in olive oil, garlic, and salt mixture (I didn't use pepper because of the kids).

Roast for 20-25 minutes until squash is tender and slightly brown.

A Hearty Salad with Spinach and Kale

Diet is a key part of health and fitness. I have about 1/2 the serving of these huge salads at least once a day. This bowl (originally the large mixing bowl from a set of three) is the one my husband uses at home and it's HUGE.  Yes, that IS a standard sized place mat.  At work, I eat various versions of this for lunch. Some times we add cut up turkey jerky.  Other times leftover chicken from dinner.  Some times cold salmon leftover from dinner.  Beans, etc.  You get the picture.  You can really vary it up.  Since we've been eating this consistently throughout the late Spring and Summer, our children are beginning to incorporate this into their diets (with our help, of course).  Our older child (almost 5 yo) is requesting this for lunch on the weekends (all the fruit helps), and our little one (2+ yo) is more than willing to try her own small bowl too. 



I thought I'd share the recipe below, enjoy!

1. baby kale and baby spinach, chopped. add dressing and toss before other ingredients are added. It helps limit the amount of dressing needed.
2. 2 mushrooms
3. 1/2 cup grapes
4. 1/2 cup strawberries
5. 1/4 to 1/2 cup raspberries
6. 1/2 cup blueberries
7. 1-2 boiled eggs, or edemame, or 1/2 cup black/pinto/kidney beans
8. 1/4 avocado or 1/4 cup roasted coconut chips
9. low fat dressing to taste

The picture below has coconut chips and 2 eggs, tossed with creamy poppyseed dressing. Soooo good.