Tailgate Boozin

It's football season which is basically CHRISTMAS over here - (Go Dawgs)! I hate being too far away to just bop down to Georgia for games, so for now I have to settle for Georgia bars and tailgates at home. Essential to the tailgates is the quality drinks. These are some of my favs:


Grapefruit Jalapeno Margaritas by Jillian Harris

Georgia Peach on Food.com

Moscow Mule from The Crazy Wise Woman

Grapefruit and Sage Mimosa from Bakeaholic Mom

You can check out my clean tailgate foods here. I also really like this wine pairing guide from

This guide to how much food and drink to serve is also  helpful, as well as this guide to pairing wine because my knowledge of wine is limited to me knowing that a bottle is $3 at Trader Joe's.

What is your favorite tailgate drink?

Paleo Barbecue Meatballs

We had people over the other night to watch a UFC fight (someone please explain how I get sucked into things like fights? Why was I cheering?) and these little BBQ meatballs were a perfect party food. Filing these into my mental index for superbowl party foods.

Sidenote: I had a massive home-made bbq sauce fail so served these with the bbq sauce we had on hand (Sweet Baby Ray's - OMG DELICIOUS but def not paleo friendly). Next time I'm going to try Skinny Ms' barbecue sauce recipe.

Servings: 20 medium sized meatballs
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins + 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground turkey ($4.00)
• 1/2 onion, minced ($.50)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup almond flour (or any flour you have on hand, this is just to make sure they stick together)
• 1 Tablespoon Paprika
• 1 Tablespoon Ground Cumin
• 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
• 2 Cups Paleo BBQ Sauce + 1 Tablespoon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray down with coconut oil spray or any nonstick spray you prefer.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the 2 Cups bbq sauce (DO add the 1 Tablespoon of BBQ sauce). I do the mixing with my hands.

Form 2 inch balls and put onto the baking sheet and heat in the oven for 40 minutes.

Once the meatballs are cooked, combine the meatballs and 2 Cups bbq sauce in a medium sized saucepan. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, mixing constantly. 

Enjoy!

What is your favorite healthy party food? Anyone have good/easy recipes for barbecue sauce?

Last watermelon of the season + weekend recap

So fall kind of came out of nowhere around these parts- last week was in the 90s and today I woke up to temps in the 50s! Time to go boot shoppingggg?

Anyway before we kiss all things summer goodbye, here is a recipe for that last watermelon of the season, one of my favs: watermelon goat cheese salad hallloo!

Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 0 mins
Servings: 6 (depending on the size of the watermelon)

Ingredients:

• 1 watermelon, cubed
• 1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Cup crumbled goat cheese (Trader Joe's has it for a great price, surprise)

Lay out the cubes in a single layer. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and top each cube with crumbles of goat cheese.

That's it and it's the perfect appetizer!

Onto the weekend...My family and I flew to Memphis to visit my little brother and it was so much fun! We did everythinggg.

Drank the local beer (obligatory local beer picture for Nadine - have you had this? I loved it!)

Saw this campaign ad for a senate candidate and got pissed that as a DC resident I don't have a voice in Congress yet the people who DO get to vote choose their candidates based on posters like this?

Spent time contemplating how on earth a restaurant and bar with LIVE DUCKS in it can pass health inspections at the Peabody?

Had a sweet view for a tiny price thanks to Airbnb (even though the apartment itself left a some to be desired...but I knew that from reading reviews and saved hundreds of dollars and stayed in prime location)

Went to a concert at Levitt Shell

Ate some BOMB FOOD ALL WEEKEND (note: the restaurant menus were seriously lacking healthy items. I'm so used to DC where menus are geared towards health nuts. Even the salads were topped with fried veggies/chicken). This Memphis Po Boy was from SoulFish. Highly, highly recommend.

Spent time with my brother and his boo (people always ask if we're twins, do you see it?)

Attended the Cooper-Young Festival (As an avid day-drinker I have attended probably close to 50 festivals. This was the MOST well organized street festival I have EVER seen. I see you, Memphis!)

I stepped into a building in Cooper-Young and saw this AMAZING mural (Lap infinity, still laughing)

Suffered a heart breaking loss to South Carolina due to a matter of TWO INCHES. My man summed up my feelings:

Explored some lovely sites on a morning jog:

Hope everyone has a great week!

Clean Eating Crockpot Meatballs with Sqash Noodles

So like I said yesterday, we only ate crockpot meals for about 2 weeks straight so that's all I've got right now. And if you don't own a crockpot get yourself one- mine came from Goodwill but Amazon has decent ones for under $30 too. 

PS does anyone else out there use Amazon Prime? It has changed my life! Every little thing in our house (light switch covers, outlet covers (which are usually expensive because we have to get baby-proofed ones because Andi licks outlets..I just), cabinet handles) came from there, and I've discovered ordering things like chia seeds and protein powder and other groceries that are harder to find at regular stores. And it all comes the next day! Like what?? I ordered a rug from Target and got an e-mail 3 days later that it had shipped but my take 48 hours for my shipping info to be available. My mind was blown because I forgot things take more than overnight to ship. So I'm spoiled.

Anway onto the recipe. The crowd I made this for was incredibly skeptical. That crowd being Harrison and my friend Leslie. Harrison is skeptical about anything that I say is clean even though he eats my clean meals every day, but old habits die hard I guess. Leslie was super skeptical about these squash noodles I made, but you know what? Everyone had seconds. Lindsay for the win, as usual.

Servings: 5
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 4 hours in the crockpot on high

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.50)
• 1/2 onion, diced finely ($.50)
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced finely ($.50)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (but we LOVE garlic so you can go easier if you're not such a fan)
• 1 cup of oat flower (I put old fashioned oats in the blender until they were a flour-like consistency)
• 1 jar clean tomato sauce, divided (I use Italian Spaghetti sauce from Trader Joe's- no sugar or other badness) ($2.50)
• 1/4 cup oats
• 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder

Mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the tomato sauce togheter (sidenote: if using your hands and removing your engagement ring to do so, put your engagement ring somewhere that you'll remember to avoid 3 minutes of sheer panic) and form into balls. Mine were about 4" around. Spray the crockpot with non-stick spray, put the balls in, pour half the jar of sauce in the crockpot and cook for 4 hours on high. I also threw in a few slices of onion and pepper.

For the squoodles (squash noodles): 2 squashes. Squashes? Squash? Sqashi? It all sounds wrong.

Anway, using a mandolin slice the squash lengthwise, then slice each slice into thin noodle-like slices. Toss them with olive oil or cocounut oil and salt and pepper and throw 'em on a plate like this:

And microwave for 2 mins. HA. That's it. So easy!

What is your favorite crockpot meal?


Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday, Turn It Up Tuesday, 

Clean Eating Turkey Sliders with Sweet Potato "Buns" + a little Tuesday pick-me-up

Sooo it's April! This is the first year that I'm not like "when did that happen?? APRIL?" Probably because of all the nights I spent bargaining with God "just get me to spring- just let me survive the world's coldest longest most miserable iciest snowiest winter please and I'll never complain about weather again pleasepleaseplease just get me to spring". 

Fitmencook instagrammed a picture of turkey sliders on sweet potatoes so I immediately had to try this and omggg it was delicious!! The sweet potato taste was perfect with these spunky little turkey sliders!

 *WAIT BUT FIRST: Obviously I LOVE good deals on clothes- head over to Belle in Boots because she is hosting a linkup for stylish people selling their own clothes! I just bought a dress and a shirt for pretty much $0. Lots of bloggers are participating so there is a variety of sizes/colors/styles/brands. Basically like thrift shopping ONLINE. What else can you ask for?



Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Servings: 10 sliders

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, sliced with a mandolin ($.80)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil/coconut oil
• 1 lb lean ground turkey ($4.00)
• 1/2 onion, minced ($.50)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1/2 large green bell pepper, diced ($.50)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 
• 1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the sweet potato slices with the oil, 1 teaspoon sea salt, black pepper, and half the garlic powder. Spread the coated sweet potato slices on a lined (with parchment paper or non stick spray) baking sheet- there should only be one layer! Do not stack them on top of each other!

Combine the turkey, onion, garlic, pepper, egg, oats, other half of sea salt, other half of garlic powder, and pepper flakes in bowl and mix well. Form small patties (I judged the size based on the size of my sweet potato slices).

Put the sweet potato slices into the oven and cook for 20 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes.

While the sweet potato slices are baking, cook the turkey patties over medium-high heat, covered, for 8-10 minutes on each side.

Now make little sweet potato-bunned sliders and enjoy! I didn't even use any condiments, I loved them plain!

OMG and while these were finishing cooking I finished reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette - MUST READ! Has anyone else read it? The twists! The end! It really got me thinking. What a great book!

Based on serving size of 3 sliders

Ok anyone else not feeling this Tuesday? Here's a little motivation (thanks to my friend Barbara for passing along this internet gold):

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday, What We Eat Wednesday, MamaMade Blog Hop and Turn it Up Tuesdays - check them out for some great recipes!

Clean Eating Salmon Cakes

I'm starting this off with a disclaimer: it involves canned salmon. I know, I know. But you know what else? I'm broke and canned salmon is approximately 1/11000 the price of real salmon so hey, you do what you gotta do to eat what you want. So feel free to substitute this with 12 ounces of actual salmon. When I get canned fish I always buy it in water, NOT in oil. When it is in oil there are added fats that are completely unnecessary. Weird sidenote about canned fish: my mom refuses to eat seafood with the exception of canned tuna. Does anyone have an explanation for this?

Servings: 3
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 1 14 oz can of salmon in water ($2.50)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 2 Tablespoons Parsley
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Lemon juice of half a lemon

Mix all the ingredients together and form into 6-7 patties. I tried to flatten them to be about 2 inches thick so they can cook quickly and easily.

Heat a coated (coconut oil, olive oil, cooking spray etc) over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, put the patties in the pan and cover, heating  6-8 minutes covered on each side. Keep a close eye on these, checking the bottoms to make sure they don't burn.

Once they are cooked eat them any way you want! Harrison ate his as a sandwich on an Udi's roll with some Greek Yogurt and lemon juice, I put mine on a bed of spinach with onions, tomato and extra lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Nutrition label for canned salmon:

Using fresh salmon:

Clean Eating Feta and Spinach Stuffed Turkey Sliders

Oh hey just got back from San Diego..could not be happier to land back in DC as we await another blast of winter, and of course return to work (sarcasm x 10). San Diego was so beautiful, and I don't even want to talk about the fact that my friend can see the beach from her house and pays less rent than I do in DC. We stayed right outside the city in Encinitas and soaked up sun (I even got to wear  new sunglasses) and got in quality time with my best friends from college. I'm proud of us because we even did a morning of triathalon training!

Anyway last week we ate this little tiny turkey sliders stuffed with spinach and feta and they were awesome! We put them on Udi's Rolls (one of my favorite gluten free bread options) and enjoyed a little Greek-ish supper.

Servings: 3 (2 sliders per person)
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb lean ground turkey ($3.00)
• 1 egg
• optional: 2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs (helps hold the patties together- totally not necessary)
• 1/4 medium red onion, diced
  1/3 cup crumbled Feta ($2.50)
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• For slider toppings: tomato slices, onion slices, lettuce and hummus (we used garlic hummus of course)

Chop the spinach and saute in a small frying pan- I do this by heating the chopped spinach with 1/4 cup of water over medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring the entire time so the spinach doesn't get stuck to the pan.

Combine the ground turkey with the sea salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon of parsley, the egg and te panko crumbs (if you're using them) and mix together.

Using 2/3 the turkey mixture, form little bowls (see the picture below). Fill each bowl with feta, diced onion, parsley, and sauteed spinach.

Use the remaining turkey to make little "lids" for the turkey bowls. Make sure to pinch the top turkey piece and "turkey bowl" together so there are no openings or holes (gotta make sure nothing oozes out during the cooking).

Cook the sliders in a non-stick pan covered over medium heat, about 8-10 minutes on each side. Serve with rolls, tomato slices, onion slices, lettuce and hummus and enjoy!

Turkey Bowls!

Turkey bowls topped off

this nutrition information is just for the sliders- does not include the roll or any toppings

Bonus: Encinitas sunsets. I'm moving.

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Healthy Super Bowl Snacks (all clean!)

A few months ago I published a post on Clean Eating Tailgate foods. Super Bowl is one of the best times to convert people to clean eating- show up with delicious snacks and people are like "Ohh this is so good" and then I'm like "yeah yall and it's clean!" and they're like "wait are you serious?" and then I'm laughing to myself. So for a little super bowl snacking inspiration, here are all my clean snacks that are totally appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday.

And in honor of Bruno Mars' halftime show, my favorite Bruno song (Gorrilas) WITH R.KELLEY. Really who doesn't love little tiny Bruno when he hits those high notes, and R. Kelley..well he's a great singer he just needs to stay off twitter, or to fire his publicist. Actually on second thought, keep it up R. I laughed so hard at the hashtags that came out of that.

10 Clean Eating Tailgate Foods

25 Clean Eating Snacks (Perfect Party Foods)

Snacky Saturday: Clean Eating CHILI CHEESE FRIES

Confession: I love fake cheese, especially fake cheese on top of fake chili on top of greasy fries- with lots and lots of fake cheese. Like, the faker the cheese the better. I hate baseball but you can find me at a Nat's game any day shoving through the crowd at the concession stand for some of that disgusting liquid nacho cheese. OMG and Velveeta! So needless to say chili cheese fries are a major point of weakness for me.

So I had lots of Turkey Chili leftover from the polar vortex weekend and came up with this. While there is no fake liquid cheese involved it truly hit the spot, and major bonus: not waking up in the middle of the night with heartburn, cramps, and horrible things going on inside my stomach. And you know what? It was really filling because of all the protein and fiber.

And just look how the nutrition facts stack up against each other:

Sonic Chili Cheese Fries

Broke and Bougie Chili Cheese Fries

Servings: 1
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups leftover Crockpot Turkey Chili 
• 1/2 large sweet potato ($.50)
• 1 slice avocado ($.25)
• 1/8 cup mozzarella cheese ($.50)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1-2 scoops reduced fat Greek Yogurt
• Juice of half lime ($.30)

Make the sweet potato fries- this time I used the mandolin to make large slices of the sweet potatoes and cut those into fries. Took a lot less muscle.

Once the fries are cooked pile them together on the baking sheet, scoop the chili on top of the fries, top with cheese, and return to the oven (at 450 degrees) for ten minutes.

Top with lime juice, garlic powder, Greek Yogurt and avocado. Enjoy!!

Sliced these with a mandolin

And cut them into these!

Loaded Irish Nachos

  

"Man I totally thought this was going to be a punishment meal but it actually tastes like something we shouldn't be eating."  -The BF. Yeah y'all, it's so freaking good.

The other day while happy houring at Mighty Pint and as I used all my will power to avoid my all-time favorite bar food, the Irish Nachos, I thought to myself HOLD ON why don't I just MAKE these myself with a few clean foods swapped in? So I ran home (jk, I waited 30 minutes for the redline, then ran home from the metro), sliced up a sweet potato, threw some stuff together and voila! My OWN CLEAN IRISH NACHOS.

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into wedges ($1.50)
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil/olive oil/your cooking oil of choice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.00)
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 3/4 Cup Chicken Broth ($.50)
• 1 Cup mushrooms, sliced ($1.00)
• 1 can black beans, drained ($.90)
• 1 Cup mozzarella cheese ($1.50)
• 1 red onion, diced ($1.00)
• 1 green pepper, diced ($.90)
• 1 large tomato, diced ($.90)
• 1/2 Cup cilantro, chopped ($.50)
• 3 small jalapenos, diced ($2.00)
• 1/2 Cup black olives, sliced
• 1 Cup clean salsa ($1.00)
•  Greek Yogurt- to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss the sweet potato wedges with the oil, salt and garlic powder. Line them onto a baking sheet in ONE layer and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, flip all the wedges over and throw them back into the oven for another 10 minutes. **lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, season the ground turkey with the cumin and chili powder. Cook the seasoned turkey with the chicken broth until the turkey is brown and the broth has absorbed. Add the mushrooms and black beans to the frying pan for the last 3 minutes.

Top the baked sweet potato wedges with the turkey/black bean mixture. Layer the mozzarella cheese on top of this. Place the concoction in the oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Now top it with pepper, onion, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, olives, salsa and yogurt. We set it up buffet style and everyone scooped up some sweet potato/meat/cheese and topped it with whatever they wanted.

Yall, just do it. You won't regret it.

HOW GOOD DOES MINE LOOK WITH ALL THE TOPPINGS

Little toppings buffet. Like Chipotle for Irish Nachos.

25 CLEAN EATING SNACKS! {perfect party foods}

Let me just say how difficult it is to stay healthy during the holiday season, especially for awkward people such as myself who find ourselves standing next to the food table stuffing our faces and chugging drinks in an attempt to "look busy" and not have to make awkward small talk.

Since I always bring food and booze to the parties I attend anyway, why not bring clean snacks? If I'm going to awkwardly binge, it might as well be healthy right? Plus I love when people are like "omg this is so good what is in it? Wait is it seriously clean??" Trickery at its finest.

Here's my rolodex of clean eating party snacks:

• Sweet Potato Fries
• Fruit with Sweet Yogurt Fruit Dip
• Mozzarella Sticks
• Crockpot Cinnamon Sugar Almonds
• Peppers and Hummus
• Cauliflower Bites with Bruschetta
• Crispy Sweet Potato Chips
• Pizza Potato Skins
• Greek Potato Skins
• Chili Stuffed Potato Skins
• Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potato Skins
• Avocado/Greek Yogurt Stuffed Deviled Eggs 
• Faux Pokey Sticks (aka Cauliflower "Bread"Sticks)
• "Fried" Okra
• Pumpkin Feta Stuffed Zucchini Bites
• Faux "Fried" Chicken Fingers 
• Crockpot Turkey Chili
• Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Savory Italian Meatballs
• Crispy Chicken Wings
• Juicy Fall-off-the-bone Crockpot Wings
• PIZZA!!
• Pulled Pork Sliders

Sweet Potato Fries {seriously as good as the real thing}

 

ZOOOOmmmMMGGG. Ok, this is almost embarrassing to confess but last weekend we even ate these on our cheat day- we just wanted something to go with our greasy burgers and these are seriously so much better than real fries. So enjoy this. I mean, really really enjoy. 

Oh and PS, they take about 15 minutes to make. I mean this is just too good. 

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 16 mins

Servings: 4 (4 "servings" of these babies = 1 for me..not sorry- they're super low carb and low cal)

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato ($.88)
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil (melted) or olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 475 degrees (I know, I didn't even know my oven goes this high). Slice the sweet potatoes into the inch thick fries (this takes some muscle, those sweet potatoes are tough!).

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Combine the seasonings (you can use any seasonings you want) with the oil and mix well. Toss the fries in the mixture and spread out in one layer (CAUTION: DO NOT STACK THEM ON TOP OF EACH OTHER! YOU WILL RUIN EVERYTHING- I speak from experience) on the baking sheet and put on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes. Flip the fries and allow to cook for an additional 6 minutes.

Let them cook for a sec and enjoy something better than the real deal..

"I'm feelin SNACKY" - Cauliflower bites with Bruschetta

So here's the thing about this snack- I have no idea what to call it. It's delicious, it tastes like bar food, it looks kind like mozzarella sticks but Cauliflower Sticks gives the total wrong idea, so what do we call it? After punishing an entire tray of them the BF came up with this list: sticks, crescents, swirls, twirls, nuggets, bits, bites, tots, tits (really?), chews. Um, ew. But, these nameless ditties are so delicious and make a great clean snack or party food. They store well and taste just as good reheated. Here's the breakdown:

Servings: 5 (3 per serving)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

For the nameless cauliflower snack-
Ingredients:

• 1/2 large head of cauliflower ($2.50)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese ($.50)
• 1/2 cup cornmeal ($.50)
• 1 egg (
• 1 egg white
• 3 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 3 Tablespoons dried Basil
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Click here for garlic bruschetta recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the cauliflower florets and steam them (easier than it sounds- if you don't have the equipment, just put it in a pot with about an inch of water, boil the water, cover and let it sit on the stove on high for 5-10 mins or until tender). Allow the cauliflower to cool for a few minutes.

Take the steamed cauliflower and wrap it up in paper towels and SQUEEEEZE all that water out. I went through 7 paper towels doing this, gotta get rid of that excess water!

Now take your dried, steamed caulflower and finely dice it. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pull out a chunk and roll together into an ovalish shape that is about 1 inch by 3 inches and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Do this until you have used up all the 'dough'- should make about 15 cauliflower snack things.

Cook for 10 minutes. Serve with bruschetta and enjoy!


PS anyone who went to high school with me may recognize this phrase from an old chemistry teacher. My brother still gets me laughing till I cry while he walks around the house flinging candy bars around yelling "I'm feelin SNACKY! Anyone else? SO SNACKY! Who got candy bars for me?" Anyway we always say "feelin snacky" instead of "hungry" or "snack time" or whatever.