Easy Homemade Ice Cream via Ziplocks

Hey there!  So yesterday we chatted about healthy vs unhealthy summer treats.  Well one of my all time favorite warm weather treat is of course ice cream.  I mean come on, if you don’t like ice cream, we can’t be friends:)

I had seen recipes on Pinterest and Facebook for making no cook ice cream that you just shake in plastic bag and really wanted to try it out.  My niece and nephew came over the other day to play so it was a perfect opportunity to give it a shot.

I just winged the recipe based off of what I saw online.

I used

• 3 cups of whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup of sugar

You just stir the ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved and then start dividing into snack sized baggies.  I put about a half cup of the cream mixture into each bag.  Make sure to squeeze out the excess air before sealing.

Next I took a sandwich sized bag and placed the snack sized bag inside.  Again, squeezing out any excess air before sealing.  Doubling the bags keeps the salt we will be using from contaminating the ice cream.

Now you get a gallon sized bag and put some ice in the bottom with a couple tablespoons of salt.  I used regular old table salt, but you can use the corse stuff.  Place a layer of ice cream bags on top of the ice.  Repeat, layer of ice, salt, and bags until all of your ice cream is  in the big bag.

I decided to wrap our ice cream up with a rag towel and tie it with rope to keep our hands from freezing and just in case we sprung a leak.

Then I sent the kiddos outside and had them toss our cute little package around for about 10 minutes.

Oh, and no they are not uber sweaty, they had just been spraying each other with the hose before this:)

Time to see if this actually worked…IT DID!!  Woohoo, soft serve ice cream made in no time!

The kids were quite excited about this little experiment and thoroughly enjoyed this yummy treat.  I had a taste and it was quite delicious.  I mean come on, cream, vanilla, and sugar?  It was totally rich, simple, and perfect on a hot summer day.

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I froze the leftover bags and I thought they were even better that way.

Give this little recipe a try for a quick and easy treat!

 

 

 

 

Monday Meal Prep!

Hello Hello!  I have another Meal Prep for ya!  Yesterday I did a bunch of cooking and assembling to get ready for the week.  It’s my girly’s Spring break and I’d like to spend more time playing and less time in the kitchen.

I’m still on a bit of a salad kick.  This week I did grilled chicken, peppers, and avocado.

I’m doing an experiment.  I tossed the avocados in dressing and then put them into little individual containers.  I’m hoping it keeps them from turning brown a little better.  I’ll let you know if it works!

I also did some chicken and veggies.  The broccoli I roasted with a little olive oil and parmesan.  The carrots I roasted with just olive oil and seasoning.  I love to use a gadget called a Misto.  Love that thing!  You just fill it with whatever oil you want and spray away.  It uses much less oil than if you were just to pour.

Since it was snowing here yesterday, boo, I had to make a soup as well.  I almost always have the ingredients for taco soup, so that’s what I made.  I used ground chicken breast instead of ground beef, rinsed all my canned items to decrease the sodium, and added lots and lots of veggies.

Finished!  There are a couple of items I didn’t take pics of, the chicken curry and the sesame veggie chicken.  Those are for my family and I’m totally jealous I don’t get to eat those this week, so I didn’t photograph them :).

Whew! Glad that’s done for the week.  Time to play!

 

Hope you all have an excellent Monday and a great start to your week!

Time For Some Meal Prep!

 

I kicked up my Beast training a bit the past week and it is resulting in something I call chronic hunger.  I’m trying to keep it “clean” and healthy and eat things to build muscle and lower body fat, but dang, when you are ravenous 7 times a day it’s tough to make the right choice every time!  I mean come on.  Why do they have to make so many delicious high carb, high sugar, fantastically temping snacks!?

So it’s back to the kitchen for some meal prep.

Lots of salads this week!  I also made 3 different batches of protein bars and failed to photograph them, boo.  But they are one of my new favorite things so I’m sure I’ll be making them again in the near future.

I kept on seeing recipes for broccoli salad and it sounded sooooo good.  However, the only thing healthy about broccoli salad is the broccoli.  The dressing is mayo based, it has cheese, bacon, sunflower seeds, etc.  Delicious and super fattening.  So I took a whirl at lightening it up and then adding chicken to make it a complete meal.  Quick recipe description after the jump…

Super Broccoli Salad with Red Onion Dressing

• 1.5 pounds of broccoli florets (blanched)
• 1 pound of beets (peeled, diced, and roasted)
• 1/2 pound shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries

To roast beets, peel them first, dice, and place on a cookie sheet.  Toss with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Put all the salad ingredients in a big bowl.

Dressing

• 1/2 of a red onion
• 7 Tbsp Miracle Whip (regular or light)
• 5 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• salt and pepper to taste

Place red onion in food processor and pulse until very fine.  Add all other ingredients and pulse to combine.  If it’s too thick add a little bit more vinegar.

Pour dressing over veggies and toss.  It tastes even better if you let it marinate!

Add some chicken and it’s a fantastic healthy meal!

Ok, next up is a simple shredded pork and avocado salad.  I seasoned the pork with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion.  Then placed the pork in a slow cooker with a can of coke and let it cook for 6 hours on low.  When it was done I shredded it and placed 3 oz. on each salad along with half an avocado that I tossed in lime.  When it comes time to eat the salad I put my new fave salsa on top, Archer Farms Corn and Black Bean Salsa!  So good, you must try it.

And lastly we have my favorite go to meal.  Grilled chicken, roasted butternut squash, and broccoli.  I also used some store bought curry sauce to spice things up a bit.

 

Alright hunger monster, let’s see you beat this round of meal prep! 🙂

Healthy Meal Prep Time!

Yesterday I spent the morning prepping lots of meals for the week.  I thawed out all the turkey I cooked on Valentine’s day and decided to use it all up.  I made a huge mess, but it’s worth it because now  I’m done cooking for the week!

First up, I made turkey soup with whole wheat noodles separate.  The noodles get all mushy if you put them in the soup.  Plus I like to control my noodle portion.

Second, I did some turkey fajita filling with lots of veggies.  I portioned it out into baggies so I can just heat it and pop it into a tortilla.  Yum, that is totally what I’m having for lunch today:)

Salads of course.  Must have a few salads.  These ones are romaine, turkey, carrots, fat free feta, and cranberries.  Later that day I decide to add beets as well.

I am not the biggest fan of dark meat, but when cooked as BBQ pulled turkey, it’s really delicious.  I make this with turkey thigh and drumstick meat that has been removed from the bone.  You just pop it into the crock pot with your favorite BBQ sauce.  I used one from a local restaurant.  Set it on low and cook for 4-5 hours.  The meat gets perfectly tender and is great on sandwiches.  I’m letting my family eat this dish though and I’m sticking to the white meat/sans sugar dishes.  Gotta start spring cleaning the old diet!

And lastly, whole wheat banana crunch muffins.  These are also for my family.  Not that I’m not going to steal a bit of Val’s every time she eats one :).

Woohoo!  I’m done cooking and it’s onto Spring cleaning the house!  I think I might need medication, I’m not sure why cleaning is so appealing right now.  Probably because it is gorgeous right now in SLC!!  I love it.  But ya know, next week or so when it’s snowing again, you’ll find me rocking in the corner cursing mother nature :).  But until then…HAPPY DAYS!!

Do you meal prep?

Do you like Spring cleaning or hate it with a passion and pretend it doesn’t exist?

Recipe: Cauliflower Mac & Cheese!

Well hello there!  I have a fab recipe for you today!  Cauliflower mac and cheese!!!  I’ve seen some versions of this recipe on Pinterest but I was looking to slim it down a bit.  Feel free to substitute the full fat stuff it you like, but I used low fat and smaller quantities of the the not so healthy ingredients.  But let me tell you, it’s still very tasty.  My daughter is not a cauliflower fan and she requests this dinner!  I highly recommend giving this one a try.

Oh, and try not to pass out due to my terrible cell phone photography.  I still haven’t hopped on the awesome camera bandwagon 🙂

Cauliflower Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

2 heads of cauliflower

1.5 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

2 cups 1% milk

1 tsp salt

¾ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 ounces low fat or fat free cream cheese

Remove the stem and core from the cauliflower.  Break the cauliflower up into large florets.  Place all the cauliflower in a crockpot and cover with water, salt water if you like.  Cook on high for about 2-3 hours depending on your crockpot.  Mine took 3 hours.  You can also just boil water and cook on the stove until soft.  After cauliflower is cooked, drain well and chop into small macaroni sized pieces.  Set aside while you make the sauce.

I put my crockpot outside and let it cook so it doesn’t smell up my house.  I’m sure my neighbors love me when I cook cauliflower in the backyard:)  I also added more water than in this pic so the cauliflower was covered.

Heat 2 cups of milk in a sauce pan.  Do not boil.

In a large pot place 1.5 Tbsp of butter.  Melt butter on medium heat.  Once melted, add 2 Tbsp of flour and whisk to combine.  Cook for 1 minute.  Add the warmed milk and whisk until smooth and thickened.  Turn down heat to low.  Add 1 tsp of salt, ¾ cup of sharp cheddar, and 4 ounces of low fat/fat free cream cheese.   Stir until all the cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.  Add the chopped cauliflower and stir to coat evenly.

I used a cheddar blend in this pic, but pure sharp is better!

 Serving suggestion:

Top cauliflower mac with an over easy egg and sliced avocado!!

Happy clean eating everyone!!

Creamy Pumpkin Smoothie

I’ve been seeing pumpkin flavored foods everywhere this week!  It kind of makes me excited for fall…kind of.  Don’t get me wrong I love Halloween and the change of the leaves and the crisp autumn days.  But it also means winter will be here soon and winter and I are not friends :).

Anyway onto my own pumpkin inspired recipe.

Creamy Pumpkin Smoothie

1 C. Ice

½ Pumpkin Puree (I used frozen)

1 Frozen Banana

1 6 oz container Yoplait Light Very Vanilla

½ C. Milk (any kind)

1 Tbsp. Honey

½ tsp. Vanilla

½ tsp. Cinnamon

¼ tsp. Nutmeg

1/8 tsp. Cloves

Put the ice in the bottom of the blender and then layer all other ingredients on top.  Blend until smooth.  Smoothie should be nice and thick.

I like as many ingredients as possible to be frozen when I make smoothies.  It makes them more thick and delicious.  I always keep a bunch of frozen bananas in the freezer, peels on.  then I can just pop one in the blender when needed.  The frozen pumpkin, that was luck.  I froze pumpkin last year in baggies when I decided to cook our jack-o-lanterns 🙂

Apparently I like orange.  I noticed my manicure is orange as well as my smoothie and straw.

An afternoon in the kitchen just isn’t complete without one disaster.  Yeah, I dropped a big yogurt container on the floor while putting away my groceries…and then I stepped in it…go me.

I have a super fun (well, fun to me) post coming up tomorrow.  So if there are any zombie fans out there be sure to stay tuned!

And go try this smoothie, it’s super tasty 🙂

Healthy Meal On The Go…Fajitas

I thought I would share a healthy tip on this lovely Monday, before I share my very unhealthy events that occurred this weekend :).

One of my favorite things to do for weekly meals is to make a big batch of fajitas and divide it up into individual ziplock bags.  That way you can just pull out a whole wheat tortilla, put in your filling, microwave, and enjoy!  Lean protein, veggies, and healthy carbs all wrapped up and ready to go, sweet.

I cook my chicken separately and weigh out 3 ounces for each serving.  For the veggies, I used peppers and onions here.  I also like to add zucchini or tomatoes sometimes.  I spray my biggest pan with olive oil and cook the veggies with taco seasoning.  I put a heaping half cup (probably 3/4 cup) of the veggies per serving.

So if you need a healthy lunch idea, I highly recommend this one!

Low Calorie Leftovers & Workout Update

I didn’t get around to posting my meal plan last week, so here it is.  I was burnt out and didn’t want to go to the store so I did some creative meal planning with whatever was left in the house.  Good thing I always keep frozen chicken breasts in the fridge as well as canned veggies.  This is a pic of some things I pulled out for meals.

I hate hate hate letting food go to waste, it’s a huge pet peeve of mine.  So what the heck and I going to do with all that purple cabbage?!  I found a recipe for sautéed cabbage that had a sweet and sour flare.  Sounded pretty good.  You just chop chop chop, add a bit of oil to a big pot, toss in the cabbage, salt and pepper and a tbsp of sugar.  Cook cook cook.  When it’s wilted but still has a crunch, add about a 1/3 cup of vinegar.  I used rice wine, but apple cider would be really good too.  This turned out to be so yummy, filled with nutrients, and low calorie.  Can’t get any better than that.

I am the worst photographer ever!  But you can kind of tell it’s cabbage 🙂

I wound up grilling off the chicken and using it in 3 different ways.  Salads, chicken with cabbage and peas, and chicken with green beans and edamame.  I also used garbanzo beans in place of chicken to make a few more salads.  Yippie, meals done.  

The salads smiling for their close up.  Most of the time I just doused the salads with balsamic vinegar and pepper instead of dressing.  Worked pretty well.  I would have preferred Cafe Rio creamy cilantro, but what ya gonna do?  

Ok, call me crazy but I forgot how much I liked canned peas.  It’s probably totally weird, but I do.  Only 60 calories per half cup, loaded with protein and fiber!  This meal was definitely the “hunger” winner.  If I was starving I grabbed one of these.  1 cups of peas, 1 cup of cabbage, and 3 ounces of chicken.  Hit the spot.

Haha, my edamame is still frozen here.  I wound up adding about a tbsp of teriyaki sauce to this after heating, perfect low cal asian.

One of my favorite things to buy at the store are the bags of shelled edamame.  They are usually about $2 for a pound.  Such a great deal for a very nutrient dense food.  I hardly ever buy the soybeans in the shell anymore.  They charge way more and you get way less.So that is how last week looked.  Still working on this week :).

I also wanted to give a workout update since I haven’t in a long time.  I’m still running and trying to get in 2 resistance sessions a week.  Today I did 7 miles and an insanity video to try and get a jump on my Monday.  I’m trying to stay motivated to push myself, but lately I’ve been a slacker.  Today I tried to break my slacker routine and turned on my marathon playlist.  Totally worked!  It is full of Disney music, since it was from the Disney marathon.  Nothing like Donny Osmond telling me to “Be A Man” to get the old legs moving.  Thanks Donny.

Weekly Meals, Low Calorie Asian

It’s been a while since I did a weekly meals post.  I am totally out of practice too.  My picture documenting did not go well, mostly I just forgot.  So I will do my best to describe the methods used 🙂

First off I did my weekly grocery shop.  Lots of veggies for stir fry this week and a few asian ingredients (rice wine vinegar, tofu, spices).

When I got home I washed up all the veggies and started chopping away.  Lots of peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, carrots, and broccoli.  I put the veggies in a really big bowl so it would be easy to transfer them to the wok.  I also chopped up a whole head of garlic and had that ready.

The first stir fry I did was a sweet and sour pork.  I started with a tablespoon of oil in a hot wok, put in a third of the veggies and tossed them around.  I then put the lid on and let it steam for just a minute while I got the ground pork out.  The ground pork cooks really fast so that went in next with the garlic.  Toss, toss, toss.  Cook, cook, cook.

Next I mixed up a Kikkoman sweet and sour sauce mix.  You just add vinegar and water.  I added a little ketchup and a splash of soy sauce.  Then you just dump it into the meat and veggies and let it thicken up.

Tada, sweet and sour pork with lots of veggies!  Oh and I added some pineapple we had leftover and some bamboo shoots that have been gathering dust in the pantry :).

Next, tofu and veggies with a sauce…of some kind :).  I started the same way with the veggies but then added the sauce mix next.  The sauce was just called asian seasoning, but it had almost the same directions as the sweet and sour sauce.  Mix and dump, excellent.  I added the tofu last because I didn’t want it to break up while stirring.

And there you have it tofu veggie stir fry.

I also did a chicken veggie stir fry, but alas, no pictures.  I was in a hurry and getting tired and yeah, no pictures.  On the chicken stir fry I did make my own sauce though.

1.5 cups of chicken broth

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 tsp sesame oil

A squeeze of chili sauce

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over veggies and chicken.  Allow to cook until thickened and then chow down.

I made white and brown rice this week.  I know white rice is a crime, but my family is going to go mutiny on me if I didn’t give a little.  So they each get a few meals with white rice this week.  I also have ingredients to make lots of salads and plenty of fresh fruit to round everything out.

Here’s to staying on track this week!

A Week of Healthy Meals In A Day-Take 2

Last week my challenge was to think before I eat.  I’m so happy to say that this challenge went fantastic.  The Naughty Box https://presentlyobsessed.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-naughty-box/ helped sooooo much!  Having the junk out of the pantry, but still available once a day really helped me to be mindful of my indulgences.  Also, prepping all our meals in a day has been one of the greatest things ever!  It is so easy to stay on track when all you have to do is grab a meal out of the fridge and heat it up.  Today is day 10 of our healthy eating venture and I feel so much more energized than when the hubby and I started.  I really feel like I’ve detoxed out all the yuck and actually fed my body.  Not to mention I’m feeling less jiggly, always a plus :), especially with our cruise coming up in 8 days 21 hours and 46 minutes!  I’m totally not counting down, haha.

Alright, so I made another week of meals on Monday.  I went to my favorite, Sunflower Market.  Look at all this pretty produce!  Plus I bought more chicken since it was on sale.  Total…$35 for the week.

First up, Greek salads.  Simple, just some lettus, tomato, cucumber, sliced green olives, and feta (2oz).  I made 4 in plastic containers.  Then when I’m ready to eat I just pour two tablespoons (70 calories) of The Original  Vinaigrette (Costco), and enjoy.

Next, I roasted and sautéed lots of veggies.  Sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus.

Yum, look at those tasty little morsels.

I also made oatmeals for breakfast, brown rice and mexican seasoned lentils for some nice healthy carbs.  Hubs likes the rice, I like the lentils.  I’ve also been letting him put a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce on his meals if he wants.  It’s only 35 calories and it makes him happy.

Protein is chicken again and some salmon and also ham.  I got out the grill this week and grilled the chicken.  Totally fast and easy, definitely doing that again.

So here are most of the meals all assembled and cute.  I went with a calorie count of close to 250 per meal this week.  We are still shooting for 4 meals a day, 2 snacks (fruit, yogurt/milk), and a treat.  On heavy workout days I will eat an extra meal or have an extra snack to fuel my muscles.  I love love love getting a treat everyday too!  Every night I go to the box like a little kid and pick out my treat and eat it with a giant mug of water and watch TV, love it.

For our dinner on Sunday I decided to make salmon salads with avocado and roasted peppers.  It was the end of the week and I wanted to spice up dinner a little.

And may favorite thing of the week is the Normandy Style veggies from Costco!  No chopping, just toss in boiling water and eat.  Always keep a bag in the freezer.

I used them to make ham and veggie fried rice.  I boiled about 6-7 cups of the veggies.  Chopped them up.  Chopped up 15 oz of ham. Scrambled 4 eggs plus 4 whites.  Then I tossed it all into a big hot pot with 2.5 cups of brown rice.  Soy sauce and garlic powder were the seasonings.

To measure our serving sizes I zeroed out a bowl on my food scale and weighed the veggie rice.  I then divided the total ounces by 5 since that’s how many servings I was aiming for, and then zeroed my containers and added that amount to each of them.  Not too bad.  These servings turned out huge too!  Tons of veggies, 3 oz ham, 1/2 cup brown rice, and egg.  About 300 calories, nice!

Ok, now that we are completely sick of cooking, lets eat!