Coach G - Fit Family Fun!

The weather is really cooling down these days. I was at the grocery store and saw some lamb shanks and was reminded of a delicious soup I used to make. Nothing better to warm the body and soul than soups and stews. The lamb and orzo soup has all the essentials, it is chock full of protein, vitamins, and iron. It's very fresh and filling. The polenta and beef stew warms you down to your toes it's so delicious. For nutritional purposes I decided to exclude the polenta and replace it with brown rice instead. The one pan honey garlic chicken and vegetables was very easy to make and smells so good! Finally for a pasta dish I made my lasagna because my daughter requested it and she gave me a literal thumbs up when she saw me making it :) I know I sound like a broken record but for lunch I made the ol' reliable spuds. They are easy to make, nutritious and delicious and my husband requested them. Meal prep was not difficult today but the dishes did take a long time t

After 4 days off from work and taking the weekend off from meal prepping last weekend, it's back to the routine now. My stomach also needs a break from all the thanksgiving leftovers we've had over the past few days, This meal prep was a very simple one and took about two and a half hours to get done. I was done before the bread and the slow cooker were! It seems my husband was missing his lunches, he requested stuffed spuds for lunch. Dinner Prep   Swedish Meatballs - I made this using fat free half and half and extra lean ground beef. Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry Crock Pot Cashew Chicken Vegetarian Three Bean Chili Lunch Prep Stuffed Spuds I also always bake a bread and it is a delicious Ezekiel bread. The machine bread recipe can be found  here As always I encourage your comments and look forward to hearing from you

This is a quick, healthy, and very simple recipe. Ingredients: 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1.5 lbs beef sirloin, sliced 2 garlic cloves 1 tsp grated ginger 12 oz mixed veggies of your choice (I like to use, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) 1/2 C teriyaki sauce Instructions Heat oil in a medium pan on medium high heat. Add beef and stir for about 7 minutes Add garlic and ginger and stir. cook until chicken is cooked through. Add vegetables, stir and let it cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables start to get tender. Add Teriyaki sauce and let it cook for 5 minutes. Serve over rice. Makes 4 servings.

These past few weeks I've been on a tidying binge. Clutter has been stressing me out. Actually a lot of things have been stressing me out lately!  I've been going through all the rooms trying to find better ways to organize. Finally I tackled my work room or as it's recently been dubbed "the room of requirements" where basically everything ended up. I cleaned it up and finally got see my work desk tidy and clutter free for the first time in a long time. Working down here also helps to keep my stress levels down so it's a win win situation. I worked on a jewelry piece on Saturday evening and put it in the kiln on Sunday morning. It sat in the kiln for about 4 hours so what to do in the meantime? Cook of course and help alleviate the weekly stresses of worrying about  dinner time and lunch time. Last week I made a spinach lasagna and if my husband were reading this blog... ahem... he would have figured that out instead of being disappointed by the lack

Ingredients: 2 C baby spinach and arugula mix 1/4 C chopped cucumbers 1/4 C shredded carrots 1/4 C chopped red bell pepper 1 chopped green onion 5 cherry tomatoes 1/2 C cooked steak Your favorite dressing. I like an oil and vinegar dressing on this. Instructions: Layer the ingredients in the order given above and enjoy!

Ingredients 4 large whole wheat tortillas 4 tbsp Fire Roasted Artichoke and Spinach Hummus 2 oz baby spinach and arugula mix 2 C cooked steak, chopped 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped Instructions Layer the ingredients on 1 tortilla in the following order: 1 tbsp hummus, 0.5 oz greens, 1/2 C steak, 1/4 of the red bell peppers. Fold two sides and roll the tortilla Serves 4

Ingredients: For the red sauce: 2 tsp olive oil 1 lb lean ground beef 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp allspice 1/4 tsp pepper 1 tsp salt 1 onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves 29 oz canned tomato sauce 2 tsp Italian seasoning For the white sauce: 4 tbsp unsalted butter 4 tbsp all purpose flour 2 C reduced fat milk 1/4 tsp salt 9 oven ready lasagna noodles 1/2C reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese Instructions: Preheat oven to 350F To prepare the red sauce: Heat oil in a medium pot. Add beef and break up into small pieces. Add the spices, salt, and pepper, and brown beef. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low and let it simmer for 20 minutes. To prepare the white sauce: In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter and add the flour. Cook until the mixture starts to brown, Slowly add the milk while stirring constantly.

Daylights saving time gave me an extra hour today since I woke up early. I had time to go buy a new bookshelf for my daughter, build it (I actually enjoy doing that), and re-organize her room. After I was done I started with my meal prep. I discovered 4 new recipes this week and seem quite good. I also like that they include a starch, protein, and veggies. I ended up going for kale salads for lunch because I doubled up my kale order last week. I wanted 3 bunches and didn't realize that each "bunch" was actually two bunches. Kale overload!!! As usual I tweaked some of the recipes to make them a bit healthier. Dinner prep  C rispy Parmesan Garlic Chicken With Zucchini -This looks really delicious but requires 8 tbsp of butter! Instead of using 4 tbsp butter to dredge the chicken I used egg whites.   Spinach and Ricotta Lasagna. I've made some modifications to this recipe and I'm working on a video to add. Slow Cooker Sausage, Spinach A

This week meal prep was inspired by some kale recipes suggested by Pinterest. I also had a lot  going this weekend so I only had a maximum of 3 hours to prep on Sunday. Except for the slow cooker meal these dishes took around 20-30 minutes to create. Trying to keep the fats down and the protein up so the kale and potato soup was made with turkey sausage and light cream, the creole chicken and sausage had smoked turkey sausage, and I used Barilla protein plus pasta for the spaghetti. I have a colleague coming in from the Netherlands to work with me all week so I didn't prep any lunches for myself. My husband is really enjoying those spuds so he asked for them again. They are so yummy and easy to make. Dinner Prep   Slow Cooker Creole Chicken and Sausage   Sausage, potato, and kale soup     Sweet Potato, Kale and Shrimp Skillet   Spaghetti Sauce Lunch Prep   Stuffed Spuds  The bread is a delicious Ezekiel bread. The machine bread recipe can be

This week we go on a trip around the world. I went looking for recipes that were quick to make but I wanted some variety. We have flavors from Korea, Mexico, and Thailand. My daughter's been after me to have a "Taco Tuesday." If you use extra lean ground beef tacos are not so bad for you. You just need to be judicious with your sour cream and cheese consumption. Taco Tuesday doesn't take much prep. I just bought a taco kit and precooked my seasoned ground beef. Then on Tuesday evening I'll chop up some veggies and toast the shells up a bit. For the other meals there are two that have a side of rice so I precook that as well.  Lunches were a repeat from last week. Those spuds are a seriously delicious and when I asked my husband what he wanted to eat this week he asked for a repeat without even hesitating. The spuds and wraps are very easy to make and I buy a whole rotisserie chicken to use in both recipes. I tried something a little different with the wra

To be quite honest I wasn't really feeling the meal prepping this weekend. I had had a long week where I spent many nights working late on a cake for my son's birthday and by the time the party was over yesterday I was completely exhausted,  hadn't done my recipe list, and therefore hadn't done my grocery list. I was seriously considering dipping into my planning ahead stash in the freezer downstairs. Finally I decided to suck it up buttercup and sat down to think of recipes that were healthy and really quick to make. The four recipes I came up with ended up filling the bill quite well. As part of my grocery list I bought a 10 ounce container of fresh baby spinach and therefore I wanted to use it all instead of letting it go to waste so a lot of the recipes have spinach in them.  Popeye would be so proud! the beans and rice recipe was big enough to feed us for dinner on Sunday and I have enough for another dinner during the week, I also pre-cook my rice so I won'