I'm going to keep this pretty short and too the point. To have an awesome day and to feel good you HAVE to eat breakfast. Now that doesn't mean go stuff your face with a donut and call it breakfast, I'm talking about a real, healthy, clean eating breakfast. One that will get your metabolism going and pump your body full of awesome nutrients that it can use to help you get up and get going the whole day.

Here is an awesome breakfast that does not involve any bread at all, low in fat, and full of protein!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves: How ever many you choose to do!

Ingredients:

Portobello Mushrooms
Spinach Leaves
Organic Eggs
Red Bell Pepper
Pepper
Parsley
Cheese (optional)


Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Clean your mushrooms with a damp paper towel and remove the stems. Then if you would like place thin slices of cheese on top. Lastly, top with spinach leaves. Place on a baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes.

3. While the mushrooms are cooking you can cook the eggs!

4. Slice your bell pepper into rings. Place them in a pan over medium heat. Let the pan get warm for a little bit.

5. When the pan is warm enough, crack your eggs inside the bell pepper rings. (I cannot stand runny eggs so I broke the yolk on two of them and left one runny for my husband)

6. Season with pepper and parsley.

7. Remove the mushrooms from the oven and top them with your eggs. And you have one dang of a healthy and delicious breakfast.

In an earlier post, I did a meal that took simple ingredients and turned them into a yummy meal that took about 15 minutes to put together. Check it out here! I love those kinds of meals. Effortless, affordable, nutritious, and good! This meal is right along those lines. It uses ingredients you almost always buy at the grocery store or that are very common in your house, it uses cheap ingredients (but they are still healthy!) and is crazy good. So without further ado, here is the recipe for some delicious sandwiches.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Yields: 12 sandwiches or 6 people

Ingredients:

Inside the sandwiches:
1 dozen pre-made rolls (Hawaiian Rolls are the best or your local grocery store homemade rolls)
1/2 medium onion
A half to three quarters of a pound of sliced Oven Chicken Breast lunch meat
Sliced pepper jack cheese
Bunch of Spinach

Mustard-Poppy Seed Dressing:
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tbsp. prepared yellow mustard
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
4 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. poppy seeds
dash of pepper


Instructions:

1. To make the dressing, just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Stir really well. Set aside.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Also, get out a baking pan. Mine was a 9x13.

3. Cut the onion in half. Then make small slices along the half to get half-circles of onion strips.

4. In a pan on medium heat, add a little bit of olive oil and then add the onions. Cook the onions, continually stirring for 5 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from heat.

5. Take your dozen rolls and cut them in half horizontally.

6. Spread a generous amount of your Mustard-Poppy Seed dressing on the bottom half of the rolls.

7. Add a nice layer of your sliced Chicken Breast meat.

8. Then cover with spinach leaves.

9. On top of the spinach leaves, add your slices of pepper jack cheese.

10. Lastly, top with your cooked onions.

11. Put the tops of the rolls back on the sandwiches. Note: I was not smart and loaded up the sandwiches and put them together before I transferred them to the baking pan. It would have been wiser to put the bottom half of the rolls in the pan before I loaded them up with all the ingredients. haha hopefully you read this before you make the same mistake I did!

12. Lastly, brush or spoon a generous amount of the Mustard-Poppy Seed dressing on top of the rolls.

13. Pop in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes with foil on top, and then 10 minutes without the foil.

Okay here is my little lecture on why restaurants are naughty and why we fall into their trap. Appetizers are lovely. They hit the spot when you are craving something crunchy or salty or cheesy. They also trick us into thinking they are healthy. Let's look at some numbers:

At the Cheesecake Factory I have always enjoyed their Avocado Egg Rolls. I think this would be a smart order because it has avocado and other vegetables in it. One order has 6 pieces and it is suppose to serve 2-4 people. This is not including dipping sauces.

960 calories
1130 mg 49% sodium

At Outback Steakhouse, the Bloomin' Onion is a popular item. People think that it is not too bad because it is an onion, a vegetable, and it was only deep fried for a second. One onion is suppose to serve 6. This is not including dipping sauces.

1948 calories
1440 calories from fat
4085 mg. 170% sodium

The last example goes back to the Cheesecake Factory and their Fire Roasted Fresh Artichoke. Again another vegetable. It is suppose to serve 2-4 people.

1030 calories
760 mg. 34% sodium

Now, I did not do this to make people feel bad or to discourage them to not enjoy one of these amazing appetizers every once in a while. But just to make you be aware. Maybe plan ahead. It takes 5 minutes on your phone to look up a restaurants nutritional facts and they will tell you exactly what each item has in it.

Cool Fact: Mozzarella Sticks are far more better to eat than any of those options above! Who would have thought?!


Now back to my post. I have recreated Spinach Bites or Spinach Rolls, whatever you choose to call them, and tried to cut back on certain ingredients and replace others to try to bring that calorie count down but still keeping their delicious taste because duh...that's why we love them!

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yields: about 8 spinach pies

Ingredients:

1 box Puff Pastry Sheets, thawed
1 package (10 oz) frozen spinach, thawed
4 tbsp. sour cream
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese


Instructions:

1. Heat a skillet on medium heat. And preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Add the teaspoon of garlic and let cook for about 1-2 minutes in the warm skillet.

3. Then add the thawed spinach and cook for about 3 minutes until all of the spinach is warm.

4. In a bowl combine the sour cream, lemon pepper, and cheese. Then add the spinach mixture.

5. Mix really well.

6. The pastry puff sheets come in long rows so cut each row in half. Sorry I forgot to take a picture. But make sure your pastry puff is completely thawed. It takes about 40 minutes when taken directly from the freezer.

7. Place each square of pastry puff in a cup cake pan. Then place a spoonful of the spinach mixture inside.

8. Place the cupcake pan(s) in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Watch so they don't burn but the edges will turn a nice brown color.

This recipe brings me back to why I love to cook. When I was younger I was very fortunate to have great parents that helped me learn and grow everyday. They actually took the time to be with me and to show me things that sometimes the world can't. I have told in my About Me page that my love for cooking came from watching my mom in the kitchen when I was younger. While that is still true, my mom wasn't the only one who liked and was good and cooking. So was my dad. My dad had a different approach to cooking though. He never followed a recipe and came up with amazing meals from off the top of his head. This recipe being one of those. So fixing this recipe on my own tonight made me think of how awesome my family is!

Now this recipe isn't hard and it includes basic ingredients but the way it comes together is brilliant!

Prep time:  20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serving Size: 4-6 people

Ingredients:

1 lb. of cubed chicken
1/3 box of angel hair pasta
1 cup (15 oz can) baby corn, drained
1/2 cup (8 oz can) water chestnuts, drained and cut in half
2 cups of mushrooms
3 cups chopped broccoli
1 bunch of bok choy
1/4 cup water
1 cup stir fry Teriyaki sauce, divided


Instructions:

1. First, get all of your vegetables drained and cut. In a bowl combine the mushrooms, baby corn, and water chestnuts. In a separate bowl just have the broccoli.

2. To cut the bok choy, leave the bunch intact. I always like to cut off discard the very top of the leaves because most of the time they are brown and wilted. After that just make thin slices all the way down the stock until you are no longer cutting any green leaves. Make the slices about 1/2 inch wide. See picture. This should give you about 4 cups of chopped bok choy.

Place the bok choy in the strainer you will be using to drain your pasta. I will explain why the bok choy goes in the strainer and not just in a bowl a little later.

3. Now that the prep is done, you will need two pans/pots. One pan to cook the chicken and vegetables and the other to cook the pasta. Go ahead and start the water pot to cook the pasta.

4. In the pan, place the 1 pound of cubed chicken and 1/3 cup of the Teriyaki Sauce on medium heat. Cook until half way done.

5. When the chicken is half cooked, add the broccoli and 1/4 cup water. Cover and let sit on medium heat for 10 minutes....about the same time it will take for your pasta to cook which you should start now!

6. When your pasta is done, pour the noodles over the bok choy in the strainer and let it sit there until you complete the rest of the meal.

7. After the chicken and broccoli have cooked for 10 minutes, remove the cover and add the mushrooms, baby corn, and water chestnuts and another 1/3 cup of Teriyaki Sauce.

8. Stir well then cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

9. Then add the noodles and bok choy! You will notice that the hot water and the noodles cooked the bok choy. Then add the last 1/3 cup of Teriyaki Sauce to complete the meal. Stir well and serve!

MMMMMMM!

I'm back! I know to some of you I was never gone but I took a wonderful vacation with my two sisters and mom. We picked a great cruise that started in Los Angles and made its way up the coast of California and into Canada. It was a blast. We laughed and ate and toured cities and ate and ate and ate....haha it was so nice to have all three meals made for me! A much appreciated break from cooking for a little bit. Of course my favorite stop was at Ghirardelli's in San Francisco. I had to get my chocolate duh!

So today I bring you a 15 minute meal. Why? Because that is all I really wanted to spend on fixing dinner tonight lol where is that chef when you need him? Oh ya, I left him behind :( haha

But isn't that how we all feel every once in a while? We want to serve our family a good, healthy, tasteful meal every night but sometimes don't have the time or energy to do so. But with this meal I think you can hit all three of those goals with a smile and without breaking a sweat.

Here is what you need:

(and a package of ground turkey meat not pictured..it was already on the stove cooking when I took this picture!)

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Yields: 3 Corn Muffin Waffles

Ingredients:

1 box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

1 lb. of ground turkey

1 can of low-sodium Chili Beans

Olives

Lettuce

Onions

Any other vegetable topping you like: tomato, avocado, etc.

Light Sour Cream

Instructions:

1. In a pan, brown your ground turkey and season to your liking. We like our meat spicy so I seasoned it with pepper and chili powder.

2. Follow the instructions on the Jiffy Corn Muffin box. When ready, use a waffle iron to bake each batch.

(sorry that is not the best picture...one of the pieces crumbled when I removed it from the waffle maker)

3. Top your corn muffin waffle with your lettuce, meat, beans, olives, onions, and sour cream! Easy as that!!

It is so simple and basic but the flavors in the dish is what makes it new and exciting. The corn muffin waffle is sweet but the meat and onions bring in a little bit of spiciness that just makes it fantastic!