Monday Meal Plan: Turkey Bolognese

Turkey Bolognese

Happy Monday friends! Wanted to hop on and share this awesome cold weather & family friendly recipe that is fast and easy…and also healthy!

A couple of notes- you can swap out the turkey for beef, and if you want to go lower carb, you can switch out the pasta for spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles. BUT if you remember what I said earlier…Carbs are not bad. I eat it with pasta! I just make sure I eat it on a day I am more active :)

Most stores have the mirepox already made & canned peas means easy peasy with 3 kids. I put the red pepper flakes on when I have dished the meal out because red pepper flakes + kids = no bueno! Ha!

Ingredients:
Ground Turkey
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Pasta of your choice
Zucchini (2-3)
Mirepox (I think you get this at Wegmans already made-but basically its onion, carrot & celery. Super easy!)
1 small can Tomato paste
1 & 3/4 cup Vegetable broth
Can of peas (I use about 1/2 the can)
Red chile flakes to taste

Directions:

1. Bring a medium sized pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook until tender. While the pasta cooks, prepare the turkey bolognase.

2. Chop and mince garlic. Cut the zuchinni into half moons.

3. In a frying pan, warm oil. Add mirepox, and cook until soft. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in tomato paste and cook until carmelized. Add turkey and cook until lightly browned but not yet cooked through. Add vegetable broth and zucchini, stirring until turkey is cooked through and zucchini is tender. Add the pasta and peas.

4. Remove from heat. Season to taste with red pepper chile flakes.

5. Enjoy!

Have a great night everyone!

xo

Alex

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: Stir Fried Pork with Vegetables

Meal Plan Monday

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. I’m here to share a really good recipe that I think you all will enjoy! This is a family friendly recipe that is pretty quick, easy to make and has great flavor. It’s been one of my favorites for years, mostly because its so different. Anyone else feel like they eat chicken every night??!! #ME. This is a one pan meal that encompasses everything: protein, fats, carbs….meat, veggies & starch! Also, you can prep this ahead of time and save about 10 mins. (Marinate the meat in the morning or early afternoon, slice the veggies)!

As you can see below, there are some parts of the recipe that are optional (like sugar), and things that can be substituted to make it easier for you at the grocery store (olive oil vs peanut oil!). I also love that you don’t need a bunch of sauces to make this-its just one kind of sauce and the flavor is so good!

Also…I am not a HUGE pork fan so take my word for it that this is a good meal!!

Hope you all enjoy this meal! xo

Stir fried pork with Vegetables

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
1 pound Pork Tenderloin
3 scallions, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 one inch piece of garlic, peeled and minced
Broccolli, cut
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar (optional, I did not use)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1-2 teaspoon Sherry or Shaohsing wine (optional, I used water today)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
5 tablespoons peanut oil (can be substituted with olive oil)
3/4 pound sugar snap peas
1 green pepper, sliced
Salt & pepper to taste
1.5 tablespoon hoisin sauce
Brown Rice

Directions:

1. Toss the pork with the scallion whites, half the garlic, half the soy sauce, sugar, 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch, the sherry and the sesame wine. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. (You can also marinate early in the morning before you leave for the day). Mix the remaining 2 teaspoon cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water.

2. Start cooking your rice.

3. Heat a skillet or wok over high heat. Add peanut il and heat. Add the green pepper & broccoli, cook for 2-3 minutes. Add sugar snap pas and the remaining garlic, ginger; stir fry until the sugar snaps are bright green & crisp. Cook in batches if needed. Pour into a large bowl.

4. Heat the same wok/saucepan and add 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the pork mixture (add in batches if necessary). Stir fry until slightly brown, 3-4 minutes. Add the sugar snap peas. Add the hoison sauce and cornstarch mix. Cook until the juice thickens, about one minute.

5. Spread the stir fry over rice on individual plates. Enjoy!

Let me know what you all think!

Happy Cooking!

xo

Alex

Meal Plan Monday: Sesame Chicken Stir Fry

Happy Monday! I’m a week into FASTer Way to Fat loss and I’m feeling great! I can already see a difference in my body and my milk supply has been great! I’m so excited to go through the full 6 weeks and share results!

Its been awhile since I threw a recipe on here…mostly because I have been eating the same thing over and over the last month or so #BASIC..haha. I did try this recipe at home yesterday though and it was easy to make so I had to share. It IS kid friendly but I would lay off the paprika in the dredge if you have young kids.

This meal is literally bomb.com and some of it can be prepped ahead of time (rice, and sauce!). I can’t take credit for this amazing-ness though-a friend of mine made it for me during my postpartum phase and it was pretty much heaven on earth. This is pretty much the first stir fry that isn’t sunbasket that I’ve made that actually tastes like a legit stir fry! So I’m here to tell you that this recipe can be mastered by anyone! Special shout out to my friend for this recipe! xo!

Anyway, enough talk. Let’s get to this stir fry!

Sesame Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pound chicken breasts sliced into frying pieces
Canola oil for frying
Broccoli
Rice

Batter:

1 C Flour
3 t paprika
1 t garlic powder
2 t salt & pepper
Mix above ingredients in large dish for chicken to be dipped in.

Dipping:

2 eggs beat (separate bowl)
1 C corn starch (separate bowl)

Sauce:

5 oz Mae ploy sweet chili sauce
5 Oz water
1/4 C low sodium soy sauce
1/8 C rice wine vinegar
1/4 C honey
1 t Thai chili sauce (more if want spicier)
1 T sesame oil
2 T corn starch

Combine all ingredients except cornstarch and mix well.

To Serve:

Sesame seeds
Cooked rice
Steamed Broccoli

Instructions:

1. Heat adequate oil in large frying pan

2. Dredge the chicken in the cornflour, then dip in the egg and then dredge in flour mixture.  Add to the frying pan and cook on medium high heat for 7-10 minutes or until brown on both sides.  Remove from the pan and place on paper towels.

3. While chicken is cooking, cook rice. Remove broccoli from stems, and steam.

4. add all the sauce ingredients to a hot pan. Mix in corn starch with whisk through fine sleeve to prevent clumping. and cook to thicken, generally 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy!

xo

Alex

Meal Plan Monday: 3/11/19

Happy Monday!

Anyone else super happy about Dayoght savings? I know a lot of people hate it because you “lose” n hour of sleep…but when you’re used to losing sleep it means nothing— ! I know it can cause a lot of havoc on sleep schedules to parents all over the nation but right now I will take that over darkness any day! This winter has honestly lasted 49053 days and I’m ready for SPRING.

Our big kids were off at their grandparents this weekend so I actually went grocery shopping on my own #score. I wanted to share my meal plan for the week with you all!

Sunday: I made Arugula Chicken - you can find my recipe linked here. I like this meal because its a two for one- meaning I don’t need to make an extra meal for the kids (HECK YEAH). I just give them the chicken plain and then just steam some veggies and pair it with some noodles. This meal is SO good, fast, and you can make it ahead of time (like I did today-I just put it in the fridge and when it was time to cook, popped it into the oven!!).

Monday- I have two Sunbasket meals arriving this week. The first is a Crispy tofu stir fry with sweet Sichuan sauce. The second we will be having on Tuesday night and its a Chipotle turkey chili with cucumber sumac salad. For those interested you can use my code to save money on your first order with Sunbasket!

Use this code: https://sunbasket.com/invite/Alex398281

Wednesday- I’ll be falling back on the trusty chicken pepperoni meal-the kids love it, and its easy!

Thursday- I’ll be making this cheesy chicken bake . This is another good recipe that can be made ahead of time & thrown into the oven, the kids like, and I substitute plain greek yogurt for mayo to make this pretty healthy. Yes, it has cheese in it, but this meal HAS been part of my rotation when I’ve been in the process of leaning out! Because when I’m leaning out, this works because I tend to focus on high fat/high protein! *Also, I have had this WITH mayo and honestly I don’t even like mayo and it still tastes good. I obviously prefer the greek yogurt because it packs extra protein and is lower fat/cal and just all around healthier!

Friday- Will be your standard Friday fish day! Salmon with good ol Paul Prudhomme’s spices!

I can’t think as far as Saturday so that is it for meal planning! ha! I wanted to share every week a few of my favorites.

This Weeks Faves:

1. Teriyaki Wegmans Chicken: I really like their pre-seasoned chicken. Yeah, its more expensive but for the season I’m in I need something easy, fast, healthy, and convinient that I can just make ahead of time and warm up on the go at home or bring with me to work. TIP: Cut these in half before cooking!! This will help give it an even cook. I always found it hard when leaving it whole to get it cooked just right. Either the outside would get burned, or the inside would be raw! Added bonus: Both of my boys like this chicken and I give it to them for dinner/lunch one or two times a week. I always make these ahead of time and put in the fridge for a fast meal in a pinch!

2. Wegmans Turkey Bacon -This stuff has great flavor, is awesome paired with eggs, or in an omelette!

3. Eggs are a big staple in our house. May-October we get eggs at the farmers market, but in the winter we rely on the grocery store options. Wegman’s came out with these this past year and they are worth the extra money. The flavor of them is AWESOME.

Lastly, I wanted to share these Lara truffles. Only 7 ingredients (and all goodies) make these a great snack.

Have a great day peeps! xo
Alex