Tortellini Chicken Soup

First recipe of 2021! Here we go! 

I’m always game for a good one pot meal, especially with 3 littles running around. I love how this one is only 6 ingredients and virtually no work! If meat isn’t your thing, you can always omit the chicken sausage! Or, if you wanted, you could use Italian sausage. If you want it a little on the creamier side, add more cream cheese than 8 oz! I served mine with some bread on the side! 

Let me know how yours turns out! 

Ingredients:

2 cans diced tomatoes 

6-8 oz Cream cheese 

3-4 cups Spinach 

Chicken sausage (I used 6) 

4 cups Vegetable broth 

Tortellini 

1. Slice sausage, brown for 3-5 mins in saucepan.

2. Cut cream cheese into squares.

3. Pour vegetable broth, diced tomatoes and cream cheese in crockpot. Add browned sausage.

4. Cook on low for 3-4 hours

5. Put tortellini in crockpot. Let cook for 7-10 mins. Add spinach, in batches, if needed. Cook until wilted.

6. Serve & enjoy!

Meal Plan Monday: Chicken Tetrazzini

Fall is officially here which means saying hello to crockpots and easy oven meals! I wanted to share this meal that is super easy and convenient to make (read: you can make most of it ahead of time)

Most importantly, this is kid and family friendly.

Now, before I get into the recipe, I want to let you all know that…YES. I do eat this with my family. I feel like sometimes there is a misconception that I only eat salads and grilled chicken! News flash…I DON’T! Carbs are good. Period. It is important to know that. The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone is be smart about when you eat them! I choose to eat a dish like this on a day that I’ve trained hard (ie. leg day or a longer run) to make sure these carbs go to good use!

My kids LOVE this meal- in fact when I made it last week my oldest asked if we could eat it every night! ha! Both of my older sons had seconds! He also asked for it again today!

I love oven meals because once you get them set up, you have the time they are in the oven to do other things and not stand in front of the stove. This is so important with three small kiddos.

For this particular recipe, the chicken, bacon, pasta and mushrooms can all be made earlier in the day. This is totally clutch for me. If you have kids at school, or who nap (naptime is a great time to prep), this is a great meal to bust out. Yes, I know that time is “yours” but I don’t know about you…but the stress I get cooking when the three kids are running around…making it ahead of time is worth it!

Once everything is made, all you have to do is dump it in the pan, make the sauce (which literally takes 4 minutes) and throw it in the oven. BINGO.

I think pairing this with a simple salad would really complete the meal!

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti noodles (I use wheat or barilla protein)
1 container mushrooms
1 lb bacon cut in pieces (I use turkey bacon)
4-5 lb chicken breasts
Shredded mozarella

Sauce:
2 tablespoons melted butter
2-4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 pint Heavy cream
1 cup Chicken broth
Pepper

1. Boil Water & cook pasta. Cut bacon & dice chicken.

2. While pasta is cooking, sautee mushrooms in frying pan. In different pan, cook chicken. Place in dish.

3. Preheat oven to 375 F.

4. When mushrooms are finished sauteeing, brown bacon.

5. Place cooked pasta in 9 x 12 pan. Put cooked chicken, bacon and mushrooms on top of noodles.

6. Make Sauce: Add flour to melted butter and stir until there are no lumps. Pour into pot and add 1 cup chicken broth. Add 1/2 pint of cream. Heat over stovetop until thickened. (you may have to add more flour/more broth depending on thickness. More flour if it is too watery, more broth if too thick)

7. Stir sauce and pour over pasta mixture.

8. Put motzarella cheese on top and cook for 25-30 minutes or until browned. (sometimes I put the broiler on at the end to make it crispy)

   Enjoy! Happy Monday!

   xo

   Alex

Meal Plan Monday: Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Happy Monday peeps! 

Hope you all had a great weekend... I’m so excited because it’s the LAST week of January! It always seems to be 489202 days long and this year has been no exception adjusting to three kids and literally no sleep the last 2 weeks 😫😫along with this CRAZY cold and snowy weather we’ve been having ugh.

I wanted to share a quick, easy recipe that I make for the kids (and even sometimes I eat if all else fails)! 

My love for nuggets runs deep.. anyone else wish they could eat Chick-fil-A everyday??!!

The crazy thing is neither of my kids like the frozen kind you buy at the store.. (and obv I try to stay away from fast food …)!!! It’s crazy. I even have an air fryer and they still don’t like them. Which I guess is a good thing .. but tbh it would be nice once in awhile to make something super easy especially now that I have three kids!!

So... I had been on the hunt a couple of years ago on how to make chicken nuggets at home so my kids would actually eat them. Enter, the below recipe. 

What I love is they taste good, are healthy, add a little protein / dairy to the meal, and prep time is legit like 3 minutes. Which is GOALS for me right now with the chaos in our house! Anything I can pop in the oven and leave is a WIN in my book. These are great for kids/toddlers of ANY age even older elementary kids/middle schoolers.

They are also great leftover, and to put in sandwiches, pizza, or in fajitas. I also freeze them for a later date 🙌🏼

Homemade Chicken Nuggets 

Prep time : 5 mins 
Cook time: 30 mins 

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts
Bread crumbs 
Greek yogurt or plain yogurt (just depends on what flavoring you like best..I use Greek because its what we have in our house!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. Cut chicken into small pieces (nugget like pieces). Don’t stress about the size of them, I just cut super fast and go! 

3. Fill a small bowl with your yogurt of choice- 3-4 tablespoons. Put the nuggets in the bowl and stir until the nuggets are covered with yogurt. 

4. Take 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (add more if you have more chicken) and put in a bowl. Transfer the chicken from the yogurt bowl to the bread crumb bowl. Mix until chicken is coated with bread crumbs. 

5. Place chicken nuggets on parchment paper and spread. If you see bare spots on your chicken, take a spoon and sprinkle bread crumbs on the spots. 

6. Cook for 12-15 mins, then flip. Cook for another 12-15 mins. Take out of oven, let cool. 

7. Serve with ketchup, bbq sauce, or if you’re like me,…HOT SAUCE. . enjoy! 

Have a great day! 

Xo

Alex 

Meal Plan Monday #2: No Bean Chili

How is it already Monday?! This weekend literally flew by and I think I need an extra day just looking outside! This weather...smh.  I'm looking forward to the temperatures warming up and the ability to get outside later on this week...this never ending winter has been brutal. The recipe on tap today is actually perfect for these RIDIC temps/ice storm we have right now! 

I wanted to share a meal I made last week that I think some of you will enjoy. To be honest, I've never been a huge chili fan. A couple of years ago I started to make it in the crockpot but I mostly made it because it was easy, convenient, and relatively fast to make. I'm always looking to make meals that are healthy but that there's no drop off in taste and flavor. Ones that I actually look forward to eating lol. Who's with me on that? Nothing better than coming home from a long day at work and having a yummy meal to look forward to!

After making several different chili recipes, I've pieced together my favorite version of this staple! 

Sweet Potato Chili

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:
Ground Turkey
Red Pepper
Green Pepper
2 tomatillos or a can of diced tomatillos
1 large sweet potato (or 2 smaller sized ones)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Diced tomatoes
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup onion
Cilantro to taste
Cayenne, paprika, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder

Directions: 
Dice onion, green and red pepper, and tomatillos (if needed).  In a large saucepan, heat oil. Add onion, and sweet potatoes. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Add green and red peppers. Cook until soft. Remove from heat. Use same pan and heat oil (if pan is dry) and cook turkey. Add vegetables to turkey along with the tomatillos, vegetable broth, 1/2 cup of water and tomato paste. Sprinkle with desired amount of spice blend. Let simmer and thicken for 10-15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

You can honestly use a different pan if you want to cook the turkey at the same time that the veggies are cooking-that saves a little time. I mostly do it in the same pan to get the extra flavoring thats in the pan after the veggies cook. Also, if your chili is "too thick" you can add more water, or more paste if not thick enough. This is all down to what you like. 

This is a great recipe because you can play around with the ingredients- if you want it really spicy or just mild just adjust you spice levels. Keep in mind that spicy food does kick the metabolism up a little! #winning #givemealllllthespice

I LOVE the sweet potatoes as the carb vs the beans personally! Sweet Potatoes are one of the best slow burning carbohydrates and are great fuel for anyone!

In addition if you don't want it as "tomatoey" (if thats a word ha) then you could use 1 cup of water instead of the crushed tomatoes. Also Diced tomatillos are such an awesome way to add flavor and they are super easy to cut up and find in the grocery store! 

I have 3 sunbasket meals on tap for this week which I am SO looking forward to. This past week got a bit monotonous with salmon and chicken! 

Have a great week everyone and enjoy! 

xo

Alex
 

Friday Free For All

Hey everyone! Wow..its friday and its SEPTEMBER. Bring on the cardigans, booties, chunky sweaters, and thick socks. I swear that every month I'm like "omg, I can't believe it's already ___" And this month is no exception. How is it almost FALL already? It's somehow shocking to me (still lol) how fast time can go.
 

                                                            Hellooooo September!!!

Last year at this time I was just flat out scared. totally. absolutely. scared. I had no idea what was coming my way with adding little Seb into our family. I'm really looking forward to this fall. The hardest days are in the past (well at least in terms of sheer exhaustion and lack of sleep), and I'm looking forward to embracing the routine of school starting the week of the 11th for Max. He'll start going 3 mornings a week and while I love my time with him, I know how important it is for him to feel comfortable away from his "safe place" at home. He's definitely a shy boy and is super attached so getting out in a school and socialization environment is great for him. Also, I'm going to embrace having mornings on my own to spend some time with my almost one year old ...(tear). 

Easy Breakfast

With the 1st day of school quickly approaching next week after labor day for kids in our area, I thought I would share one of my go-to quick but healthy breakfasts. This is an awesome one for hectic mornings especially the first few weeks of school when everyone is still adjusting to a routine. All you need is any kind of bread that you (or your child likes), a cup, and an egg! To make the "gas-house egg," grab your bread and a small cup (Your kids cups are perfect- you don't want the hole too large). Press down into the bread making a circular indent enough to take the indent out of the bread. Next, place the bread on the pan. Crack the egg in the open, circular area and cook to desired liking and flip. I also place the small circular piece in the pan so it gets a little toasted. My boys like it when I add jam to the toast when its finished cooking, but you can add whatever you want (peanut butter, butter) or nothing at all if you like a nice runny egg to dip your toasted egg in! There's something about the way this tastes cooked inside the bread that is just super tasty! Protein & carbs to keep you and your little ones going all morning, all in one shot! 

                                                                  The final product!!!

Bobs Double Stroller

If you follow me on instagram, you probably have seen my post on the Bobs double stroller. I have had the Bob single running stroller ever since Max was 9 or 10 months old and have loved it. Ever since Seb was "of age" to take a run, I've been eyeing the double stroller but the price always stopped me in my tracks. I thought that someone, SOMEWHERE would be wanting to offload theirs and I could get a used one? Please? Someone? .....Anyway weeks turned into months and I honestly could not find a used one for under $300 or $350 which I thought was completely outrageous. Fast forward to last week. I'm just done. Done having to rely on other people to get my cardio in and at this point in time, a lot of the time I'm still up once a night, so waking up at 5 am to run just isn't going to happen. The Double runner was my answer. 
 

SO.  I went to buy buy baby over the weekend to "test" the double out. I was honestly worried that maybe it would be too tough to push with the two boys in it? Anyway, I went to the store with the mindset that I would just have a look at it and keep waiting for A. a huge sale or B. a used one, if I liked how it moved.
 

                                Testing the BOB Double stroller out in store. They look thrilled! Ha!

I LOVED HOW IT MOVED, guys. So I'm sure you can finish the story for me. I BOUGHT IT. But- the catch is I got it for 15% off PLUS another 20% off.. #WINNING. Best thing I ever did. I am such a big proponent of online shopping but sometimes it sure does pay to go to actual stores. 

I would definitely recommend the stroller to anyone who runs consistently during the week and has two little ones. It glides and is super easy to run with. I was pleasantly suprised that my splits weren't much different than with the single! And yeah, when anyone asks me about my stroller I'll definitely be bragging not only about my mileage, but how cheap I got it for :) 

Hope you all have an amazing labor day weekend :) 

xo

Alex