Day 23 - Cilantro turkey burgers minus the bun

Cilantro Turkey Burgers

Today for lunch another meal made for me by +S'rae McCaslin.  These meals have come in really handy this week.  We had fun making them and when I haven't planned well enough in advance, I just grab one of these meals out of the freezer.  Now, if I can just do this myself each weekend to prepare for the week ahead.  Won't be as much fun as it was having all of us ladies around chatting and the kids running wild around the house.  Oh, and cute little Ava and Corin drooling on each other!

I was missing one very important ingredient - avocado!  I don't know how I let myself run out!  And, those are yam "fries" next to the burger.  All I did was slice them thin and put them in the oven with a little salt.  So good!

Day 22 - 13.1 Workout, then brunch at The Fork

Today we did the first workout for the CrossFit open games.  After doing 70 burpees and 30 snatches, I figured I deserved to go out for a good meal.  We ended up at The Fork again and I ordered the eggs with shredded pork.  I didn't ask for it to be WLC compliant, I just figured I would eat what I could.  I had to take the onion rings off the top and eat around the cheese on the black beans, but other than that it was a perfect WLC meal.  Again, this is a meal I would have never ordered prior to starting the challenge, but it was really good.  Especially for an after workout brunch.

After our meal the owners (whose little girl goes to preschool with our youngest), sent out a special treat.  This was definitely not WLC compliant.  I watched my kiddos and Richard enjoy it while I took a few photos.  After the challenge is over, we will be going back so I can have some.  Yummm!

Day 21 - Rosemary Balsamic Chicken

For dinner tonight I made Rosemary balsamic chicken with a spinach salad and turnips and zucchini sauteed with garlic and fresh thyme.

Day 20 - Crockpot Meatballs

Paleo Crockpot Meatballs

For dinner tonight, the meatballs that +S'rae McCaslin shared with us.  She found this recipe at Once a Month Mom.  It has some great plans for freezer meals (Paleo and several other dietary options).  They were great and so easy.  S'rae had made the sauce and meatballs in advance and put them in a Ziploc bag for us.  I pulled it out of my freezer, put it on to slow cook until warm and added a salad.  Very satisfying!

Day 19 - Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries

Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries

+Patrice Valentine brought this over on Sunday to share with Karen, S'rae and I.  She had all ingredients for the coconut chicken in a Ziploc bag except the egg and the chicken.  All I had to do for lunch today was dip the chicken in the egg and throw it in the bag and give it a good shake.  Same with the sweet potato fries.  She had them all cut up and the seasoning all ready for us so we just had to put them together and shake.  Her instructions on the Ziploc required that we do burpee's while we did the shaking.  I managed to get in a few, but I was too hungry and needed to get the food cooking!  (: Thanks Patrice, they were great and so easy after all of your prep work.

Coconut Chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken Strips
1 Egg
1 C Shredded Coconut
1 C Almond Flour
Salt (to taste)
1 T Coconut Oil

1. Mix flour, coconut and salt in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, crack and beat egg
3. Dip chicken strips in egg, then coat in the flour mixture.
4. Fry in pan with coconut oil until coconut is golden brown. If it is browning too quickly, remove from pan and bake until chicken is done at 375 degrees.

Sweet Potato Fries

1 Sweet Potato or Yam
1 t Cumin
1 t Salt
1 t Coriander
1 t Paprika
1 t Coconut oil
Peel and cut sweet potato into strips (try to make them all the same thickness).
Place in Ziploc bag, add seasoning and oil. Shake until fries are well coated.
Place fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
Bake in preheated oven (425 degrees) until done (approx 25 minutes)

Day 18 - Yam Lasagna

Yam Lasagna

Well, it was suppose to be sweet potato enchiladas, but I got yams and after deciding to layer it rather than roll and forgetting the green chili's ... it turned out more like a lasagna (no cheese of course).  I thought it turned out pretty good, but we'll wait to hear the final verdict after the other three ladies who took some home give it a try.

Recipe I planned to follow comes from PaleOMG.  

I followed the recipe pretty close, except for forgetting the green chili's (a major part for enchiladas I think), and just layering it in the pan rather than trying to wrap them like an enchilada.  Cutting the yams was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I even have a wound to show for it.  Not sure if sweet potatoes would have been easier or not.  Maybe next time I will try to zap them in the microwave for a short time before trying to slice with the madoline.  

If you decide to try the enchiladas from the PaleOMG site, or my version of lasagna, it's worth a try.  Maybe you'll come up with something of your own.

Day 17 - Omelet Muffins

Omelet Muffins

Here is one of the items Karen made and shared with Patrice, S'rae and I for the week.  She made up these muffins and gave us each a dozen to eat throughout the week.  Yumm.  I warmed mine up in the microwave and served with a grapefruit.  Perfect breakfast.  I was satisfied all morning even through my workout.  Thanks Karen!

Omelet Muffins

• 1lb ground meat (turkey, chicken, sausage or combo) or bacon or ham
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• 1 cup chopped bell peppers
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion
• handful of fresh spinach, chopped
• 18 eggs (or more if needed)

In a medium skillet, brown meat; adding peppers and onions about half way through.  Add seasonings.  Gently stir in spinach.  Spray muffin tins generously with olive oil non-stick spray.  Divide meat mixture evenly between all 24 muffin holes.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs.  pour eggs over meat mixture, dividing equally among all 24 muffins.  Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until muffins are set in the middle.  Remove from oven and let sit in pan for 5 minutes.  Using a small rubber scraper, carefully remove each muffin to cool completely on wire rack.  

When cooled, place in Ziploc bag and store in refrigerator.  To heat, place muffin(s) on plate and microwave about 30 seconds.