Easy Vegetarian Lunch

Enjoy this great vegetarian dish! It's also an easy meal-for-one.

Ingredients, serves 1
2 eggs
1/2 red onion, chopped into large chunks
1/2 bell pepper, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
Olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 375.
Toss vegetables in olive oil or use an olive oil sprayer. Combine with goat cheese and add the mixture to a small crock or baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
Crack eggs over top of vegetables and return to oven for another 15 minutes. Eat as is, with whole-wheat toast, over quinoa or with couscous.

Roast Chicken with Anjou Pears, Potatoes and Thyme

I love this recipe using fresh pears-- it adds a certain sweetness to this dish.

I would also recommend adding chopped carrots to up your vegetable intake!

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Anjou Pears

Ingredients, serves 4 (adapted from a whole chicken recipe from Martha Stewart)

4 chicken thighs, skin on

2 cups red potatoes, chopped into chunks

4 shallots, cut into chunks

2 Anjou pears, cut into chunks (these do not need to be ripe)

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Fresh thyme

Juice of ½ lemon, fresh

Preheat oven to 350.

Layer potatoes, onions and pears into bottom of casserole dish and sprinkle in some fresh sprigs of thyme. Place chicken thighs over top of mixture and spray lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and some more fresh thyme. Squeeze juice of lemon over top.

Cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes until top of chicken is browned.

1 red container

1 yellow container

1/2 purple container

1/2 green container 

Chicken Stock from a Slow Cooker

Ingredients, Makes about 8 cups of stock

Step 1 Ingredients:

●      1 Whole Chicken, about 4 lbs

●      1 onion, chopped

●      1 lemon, halved

●      Seasoning, your choice

            Toss chopped onion in bottom of slow cooker. Remove innards from chicken and coat in seasoning of your choice. I used a good mix of paprika, cayenne pepper, thyme and so much more. I’ll leave this up to you since it’s not my focus today. Stuff chicken with lemon halves and place breast-up in cooker. Set to medium/high and cook for 6 hours.

Step 2 Ingredients:

Adapted from www.100daysofrealfood.com

●      1 carrot, roughly chopped (or a few baby carrots)

●      1 sprig fresh parsley

●      ½ tsp dried thyme

●      A dash of salt

            Add all these ingredients (and more if you like- bay leaf? Celery stick?) into the slow cooker after you have removed all the meat. I removed the lemon halves but left the chopped onions. Fill slow cooker with water until almost full. Cook on low for 8-10 hours (I did this overnight). When finished, strain bones and any other solid things from the stock and store in fridge or freezer. Voila!

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker

This is a meal prep dream. Cook a chicken in a slow cooker and you will eat for days!

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Ingredients

●      One whole chicken, about 4 lbs

●      1 lemon, halved

●      1-2 sweet onions, largely chopped

●      Potatoes, largely chopped (vary amount based on people eating) (Skip this if you like!)

●      Adobo seasoning or just salt and pepper

            Layer potatoes and onions in bottom of crock pot. Stuff lemon halves inside chicken and place chicken breast up in crock pot. Rub seasoning (and feel free to use one of the seasoning recipes from the 21 Day Fix booklet) on chicken. Slow cook for 8 hours. Serve and use leftovers for EVERYTHING.

Mostly a red container per serving unless you added the potatoes, yellow. 

In addition to being able to eat for days off of this recipe, you can easily make your own chicken stock!

Seriously the easiest ever!

Chicken Fajita Casserole

This recipe is really similar to my Clean Chicken Fajita recipe BUT it's super easy to make ahead of time and just pop in the oven.

Chicken Fajita Casserole, Serves 4

• 2 chicken breasts cut into 1-inch thick strips 
• ½ sweet onion, sliced 
• 1 green pepper, sliced 
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 
• 1 cup salsa 
• Fajita Seasoning (I really wing it! Make sure you taste and test) 
• 1 tbsp. chili powder 
• 1 ½ tbsp. Adobo seasoning 
• ½ tsp. paprika 
• 1 tsp. dried minced garlic  
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper 
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch 
• ¼ cup water 
• Serving suggestions: Tortillas (yellow container), Plain low fat Greek yogurt (in lieu of sour cream- blue container) Avocado Slices (blue container)

           Preheat oven to 350. Place sliced vegetables in bottom of 9X9 casserole dish and top with chicken. In a small bowl, mix together spices, cornstarch and water to make fajita seasoning, being sure to test along the way. Pour “sauce” over chicken evenly and then pour the salsa over the chicken evenly. Sprinkle cheese over top and bake for about 40 minutes, until cooked all the way through. Serve on tortillas with sour cream or avocados.

1 red container
1/4 purple container
1/2 blue container
(without toppings and tortillas)

Chicken Fajitas

I adore Mexican food--it is amazing! But for the longest time, I cheated myself out of having amazing Mexican food in my own home. You see, I was taking the "easy" way out and buying seasoning packets. You see them- those easy little packets in the food aisle just looking at you saying, "what you come up with won't be as good as this!" Well, they are liars! And filled to the brim with sodium- yuck! Try my recipe below.

Chicken Fajitas- a clean recipe               

Serves 4

●      2 boneless chicken breasts, about 1 lb, cut into strips (1/4 of this is a red container)

●      1 bell pepper

●      1 onion (I used a Vidalia)

●      6 inch Whole-wheat tortillas (1 larger wheat tortilla = 1 yellow) or smaller, corn tortillas (2 small corn tortillas = 1 yellow)

Seasoning

●      1 tbsp corn starch

●      2 ½ tbsp chili powder

●      1 tsp salt

●      1 tsp raw sugar

●      1 tsp cayenne pepper

●      1 ½ tbsp Goya Adobo seasoning OR 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp more salt

Toppings

Shredded cheddar cheese (blue container)

Plain lowfat Greek Yogurt (in place of sour cream) (red container)

Avocado slices (blue container)

Salsa (purple container)

            Combine spices in small bowl and set aside.

            In large frying pan, sauté chicken in olive oil cooking spray over high heat for about 1 minute before adding onions. Stir continuously until chicken is just about cooked and onions are soft. Add the pepper and seasoning mix with about ½ cup of water. Mix until water is mostly absorbed and a light “sauce” has been created. Serve on tortillas with your choice of toppings.

21 Day Fix Turkey Vegetable Chili

Turkey Vegetable Chili, serves 4-6

●      1 lb. Extra Lean Ground Turkey

●      1 large onion, chopped

●      Cayenne Pepper

●      Chili Pepper

●      2 bell Peppers, different colors

●      2-3 tomatoes, chopped

●      1 can sweet whole kernel corn (optional- more yellows!)

●      1 can tomato sauce or ½ jar marinara sauce (Make sure it's no sugar added or it counts as a purple for the 21 Day Fix, here's my recipe for clean tomato sauce). You can even add salsa (but that's a purple, too!)

●      1 can organic beans (kidney or black bean work well)

Brown ground turkey (the leaner the better) along with onion in a large pan (I usually use a wok for the whole thing because they’re so big, it’s easy and that’s what I have) and add seasoning to taste. Try Goya’s Adobo seasoning because of its interesting blend that is great for poultry. After meat is browned and the aroma of the onions permeates the kitchen, start throwing in everything else, beginning with the peppers, tomatoes and corn. From here, tomato sauce (or even half a jar of marinara sauce) works great in addition to any salsa that remains from my late night tortilla chip binge the night before. Depending on how much chili is desired, add one or two cans of beans. I always add a lot of chili powder and voila!, this dish comes together! Stir for about 5-10 minutes (making this earlier in the evening, leaving it on low heat, could make for a stress-free evening!), taste for level of spiciness and serve with any favorite additions.

Need some toppings? Top with plain low fat greek yogurt and cheddar cheese (blue container). Spice it up even more with some jalapeños.

1 red container

1 yellow container

1 purple (depending on if you use clean tomato sauce and/or salsa)