Good lord. This is a spiral. The more I stress about what I’m eating, the more I’m complelled to stress eat. It’s a weird cycle. I have moved my little dumbells to the office so when I get the urge to boredom eat, I can grab them and do some workouts. It’s working, for the most part. I’m coupling that with eating filling, healthy meals and snacks today and seeing how that works for me. I also need to dye my hair today or tomorrow.
Meal planning is getting harder as the weeks go by, because I’m bored with everything I’ve done. My husband is getting more annoyed with stuff too, like for instance the ribs I made on Sunday. They were amazing but he didn’t want to bring messy food to work. I get it, but I’m just trying to keep it tasty and a little different when I can, and cooking on weekends is when I can take my time and make good stuff.
I think it’s time to take back to my original hunting grounds and hit up Pinterest. I have so many recipes saved on TikTok these days, but that is so hard to sort through. At least on Pinterest, it’s saved into groups and easy to find. What I need to do is move the video links from the recipe videos I liked to its own Pinterest group. Brainstorming out loud here.
If you are reading this and have something new I can try, let me know. I’m getting bored over here and running out of new ideas.
Ingredients:
2 12 ounce packages of steam in bag frozen cauliflower
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
Seasoning to taste
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 packet ranch dressing
1 cup no sugar added barbecue sauce
1 package shredded cheese of your choice
1 package bacon crumbles
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Microwave cauliflower for five minutes. Cut chicken breast into small pieces and brown in a skillet with the seasoning of choice. I used my usual house meat seasoning. It’s ok if the chicken doesn’t get fully done, as it’s going to finish in the oven. Once it’s browned, on a parchment lined sheet pan arrange layers. Start off with cauliflower then add the chicken in a layer on top. Mix the Greek yogurt with the ranch packet, then spread it over top the chicken. Drizzle the barbecue sauce evenly over the top, then add the cheese. You can use fat free cheese if you want here, but I just had a bag of colby jack in the fridge that I decided to use up. Sprinkle the bacon crumbles on top, then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
This makes four servings, and this is the nutritional information Nourish gave me:
In my food week, I usually take mid-week to plan my meals and make my shopping list. HEB and Kroger usually publish their sale papers on Wednesday, so I comb through those and try to use the sale papers to help plan what the next week’s meals will be. Saturday morning is my shopping day, so meals get planned Sat-Fri. There is usually one take-out night planned in the week, though lately it’s been a little random. Last week we ate out Friday after kiddo’s performance (And I think I did well! Grilled catfish and shrimp, dirty rice and grilled veggies with a salad). The options for healthy fast food around here are limited, though, so I’ve not been eating a lot of it. But everything in moderation, right?
I’ve been buying things like cucumbers and lettuce boats in bulk because it’s low calorie and things I can grab to eat to fill the void between meals that won’t wreck me with calories. I’ve also been trying to wait longer in the morning before my first meal, but that is a balance. If you wait too long and you’re too hungry it can set the tone for the rest of the day and you’re just gobblin’ all day long. I think next post will be detailing “What I eat in a day!” I might do a video on tiktok for one day too. Not today though because I look awful.
Anyway, I am struggling this week to develop recipes and a meal plan that can both be fitting for me and delicious for my husband. I will see what the sale papers contain this week – hopefully something good!
Ingredients:
2 tbsp avocado oil
1 pound ground turkey
Meat Seasonings
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 cups spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 package sausage and cheese stuffed tortellini
Vegetables to taste
Cook the tortellini according to package instructions. While it cooks, brown the ground turkey, any vegetables you are adding, and seasonings in the oil, adding the garlic at the end. In a blender, blend the spaghetti sauce and cottage cheese until it is well combined and smooth. Turn off the heat and add the sauce and tortellini to the browned turkey along with a splash of pasta water, then add the parmesan cheese. mix until well combined.
The first thing you might ask is “vegetables to taste?” Yes. Not everyone likes the same things. I sauteed an onion and sliced mini bell peppers and cooked them beforehand, because my husband does not like that. I wish I’d had mushrooms to add as well, but alas I did not. And as far as “meat seasoning,” I decided to use the meat house seasoning blend I keep on hand to make it a little “beefier” since it was ground turkey. The avocado oil is being used because the ground turkey does not produce much fat.
Sunday: “Beefy” “Cheesy” tortellini pasta Monday: Crock pot French dip, dill pickle potatoes, corn Tuesday: Chicken bacon ranch cauliflower bake Wednesday: Crock Pot Pork Loin, rice, peas and carrots Thursday: Steak lettuce wraps
Friday we’re going to grill out burgers! I got some Morningstar grillers for myself, and I’ll make some beef ones for the mister. I am not feeling froggy enough to attempt my own veggie burgers at this time. I am also today going to make some of the pudding fluff, but make it strawberry cheesecake flavored. This week I’m also making a protein packed pie. I’ll be posting the recipe to that this week! There are lots of recipes on the horizon, actually. Going to do the tortellini that I do later, my pickle seasoning, maybe the French dip and definitely the chicken bake.
The pickle seasoning has come from the new Sonic Grillo’s pickles collab. I tried the pickle seasoned tots and now it’s an obsession. I need to come up with something that I can make at home that mirrors it. Roasting potatoes and tossing them in the seasoning will definitely help curb that craving. Here’s to a great week!
Ingredients: For The Chicken
2 large chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 cup flour
2 eggs
2 cups Porq pork panko bread crumbs (or ground pork rinds)
Seasonings YOU like!
1 Cup grated parmesan cheese
Olive or Avocado oil spray For The Fries
2 lbs Russet Potatoes
Olive or Avocado oil spray
Salt or other seasonings you like
In one shallow bowl or dish, mix the flour with a generous amount of the seasonings you are gonna use. I use a house blend that I keep on hand that is salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, Texjoy, Tony’s, and Kinder’s Buttery Steakhouse seasoning. In another dish beat the two eggs well with about 1/4 cup of water. In a third dish, mix the porq crumbs, liberal seasoning (the same you used in the flour) and the parmesan cheese. I just use the kind from the shelf-stable container but you can be fancy and use fresh grated if you want. I just find that the finely grated sawdust type tends to mix better with the crumbs. Preheat the air fryer to 400 while you are dredging your chicken.
Dredge the Chicken: Drag the chicken through the flour, then knock off the excess before repeating the process in the egg mixture. Press it into the crumbs in the third dish, making sure it is fully coated, and place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment to sit. Repeat this process with all the other chicken. Take over to the air fryer, and spray a little oil on the bottom of the fryer then arrange chicken in a single layer. Hit the top with a light dusting of spray and cook at 400 for 8-10 minutes.
The Fries: I start the fries a few hours before I’m going to be cooking, because of this crucial step. Cut off the top and bottom of the potatoes, and then cut the potatoes into even sticks. I made mine pretty thin. You can also peel the potato if you prefer no peel but remember – that’s where the nutrients are! Once they are all sliced I submerge in a bowl of water and soak for a few hours to get the starches out. Once I’m done soaking I drain into a colander and dry further with paper towels.
Fries are ready to cook! you can bake them in the oven if you want to cook at the same time as the chicken, but I like them in the air fryer. I just put the chicken in the oven on a warm setting while I do the fries. Either way they get a spray of the oil, shaken around in it, and into the apparatus they go. They cook at 390 for 25 minutes with a shaking around every 5 minutes or so. once they come out hit them immediately with whatever you are going to season them with. I did a pink salt and kept it basic, but you could use anything you want.
To be EXTRA extra, I made a sauce for everything. I mixed low fat mayo, no sugar ketchup, mustard, a smidge of swerve brown sugar substitute, and extremely finely chopped dill pickle with a trickle of the juice together. It was delicious!
For this plate, this is what Nourish told me the macros are:
The only thing that is not great about this meal is it is kinda low fiber for my liking. I might pair it with some fiber rich veggie for another side if you have the wiggle room for calories and other allotments! These were better than any fast food tendies I’ve gotten recently and even my skinny husband gobbled them down! I have leftovers for today as well, so I’m pumped.
