One Skillet Kale Meal!

Here's a quick and easy one skillet meal for lunch, dinner, or whenever!

All I used was:

-fresh kale 

-fresh vine tomatoes

-chicken sausages

( I also had left over pork loin from earlier dinners that I chopped up and used)

- garlic

-black pepper

I cut the kale off its stems ( I don't really like the stems!) and threw them into a hot skillet with olive oil, minced garlic, and cracked pepper.

While the kale was cooking up I sliced up the pork loin and chicken sausages and then added them into the pan.

My last addition was the fresh vine tomatoes. Since they are pretty delicate, I addsthem last so they maintain some structure and flavor.

Once it's all cooked up I dash some sea salt on top and that's it!

Another simple one skillet meal for the books!

What's you're favorite one skillet meal?

Bun-less Veggie Burgers!

Yummy, quick, easy dinner here! 

I didn't do too much grocery shopping this week, so I checked in with our freezer to see what we had.

Veggie burgers it is! 

These are Trader Joe's veggie burgers. They are not like the imitation meat veggie burgers, they have more of a falafel taste/texture :) 

I cooked the veggie patties in a skillet on the stove for a few minutes on each side.  While they were finishing cooking I added a slice if cheese to each patty so that it could melt a little.

After they were done I stacked them with sliced jalapeños, fresh avocado, sliced tomatoes off the vine, and drizzled with mustard:

Lastly I cracked some black pepper on top and that's it! 

Simple, quick, and healthy!

Do you have a favorite veggie burger style!?

Avocado Egg Bake!

Here's a new breakfast (or any meal!) idea that I tried out on Sunday! 

Baked avocado with egg, cracked pepper and sprinkled with Parmesan!

I started by cutting open the avocados in half and removing the pit:

Then, to make room for the egg I scooped out some of the avocado:

While they were baking I snacked on the avocado insides with lemon juice and salt!

I lined a Pyrex dish with foil and placed the avocados in it:

I cracked the eggs and poured them into the avocados and added cracked black pepper:

I didn't scoop out enough of the avocado, so some of the egg whites spilled out (glad I had the tin foil!) but I threw them in the oven just like that, at 450.

I let them bake for about 20/25 minutes, before I pulled them out, I sprinkled them with some shredded Parmesan:

Once the cheese was melted, I pulled out the dish. 

I think I may have baked them a little longer than I should have. I tend to like a runnier yolk, but these were definitely cooked all the way through! So maybe next times will shoot for 15 minutes in the oven. 

These we're packed with protein and kept me full for a while!

Have you tried a new breakfast recently?

MIA: what I've been up to!

It has been a crazy week! We had family in town, attended a wedding and much more! 

Needless to say, over indulging definitely took place! However, I did try and sneak in lots of healthy meals!

I love Whole Foods hot food bar! It is a great option when you are on the go. This was a post-work out breakfast stop: nice warm oatmeal with lots of blue berries and strawberries! They have lots of healthy options to help fill you up :)

We had a family BBQ on Thursday, so one of the dishes I made were little olive caprese skewers:

These are fun to eat and relatively healthy option for those big get togethers! All I used for these was large black olives, fresh mozzarella cheese, and cherry tomatoes! You can always add basil or drizzle with balsamic and olive oil too :) 

This plate was empty by the end of the night!

I did stay on top of my workouts though and got one in each day! 

Sunday after the wedding we went to I went for a short, but fun run!

I had a great Circuit Training class on Monday morning with lots of box work:

On Tuesday I took the girls to Fitness Kickboxing at Farley's:

 

This Sunday, instead of a run I opted for an at home circuit workout:

  

That was my busy week in a nutshell! 

Do you stay on track with workouts when family is in town?

Meal Prep: New Chili Attempt!

I am a huge fan of my turkey chili! I make it for our house almost every other week! 

This week was a little different...

We had so much left over sausage from our 4th of July BBQ I decided to chop it up and use that instead of ground turkey!

Here's what I started with: 

 

-1 can diced tomatoes

-1 can black beans

-1 can kidney beans

-1 can chili peppers

-1/2 can of jalapeños

-2 fresh bell peppers

-2 fresh carrots 

Next, I cut up a package of sausages that had been left over: 

I basically quartered the sausages and then added them to the batch of ingredients:

First I brought everything to a boil, and after that, let it simmer for a few hours ( I don't have a crockpot yet!). 

It got a little more soupy than the traditional ground turkey recipe. I think the sausages sweat out more than the turkey. 

In the end it came out great!

 

Simple and yummy! What more could you ask for!?

What's your favorite chili recipe!? 

4th of July BBQ Dishes!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July!!

We hosted a BBQ at our house with friends and family, it was a blast!

Here are two of my healthy dishes that I made:

Quinoa Pasta Salad:

Ingredients:

-1 box quinoa pasta

-1 can large black olives 

-1 pint cherry tomatoes 

-1/2 jar pesto sauce (or you can make your own)

I have always been a fan of pasta salad and for this one I was able to use two of my other favorite things: pesto and black olives! 

First cook the pasta,strain, and store in the fridge to cool it down. 

While cooking and cooling, chop up tomatoes and slice the black olives.

Once pasta has cooled, toss everything in a bowl with the pesto sauce and mix it up! Super simple!

Here's what I used for the pasta and sauce:

 

I like the quinoa pasta as a gluten free alternative because it provides more protein then some others like rice pasta etc. 

The pesto sauce was great and definitely a time saver to buy pre-made! But if you can/want to you can always make it home made. 

What was also great was we used the extra pesto sauce to make pesto chicken on the grill!

Edamame Salad:

I have posted this one before :) so the full recipe can be found in a earlier post. 

For this batch I ended up using fresh chives instead of cilantro, because the store was out! It turned out great and added some good crunch and flavor! It's fun to improvise with ingredients if what you need isn't always available!

These are both super simple dishes that work great for any get together! Also, they offer a healthy choice for those of us trying to stay on track, but still enjoy real food! 

What did you make for the 4th!?