Oh Hey! It's Me! It's 2016?! + Meal Plan for the week

Oh! Hey! It's me! I still go here! Things got a little crazy over the last few months - taking classes on the weekends, changes at work, blah blah same old stuff everyone deals with and somehow manages to maintain a blog. I've also been caught up in all the stuff everyone else has been caught up in:

Throwing plates at the TV and screaming out loud at Making a Murderer



Crying my eyes out to Adele on repeat



Sporting tacky sweaters all holiday season (shoutout to my husband for giving me a gift that combines 3 of my favorite things: tackiness, Christmas, and Drake). I know- how photogenic are we.



Defending my opinion that Jenna Dewan-Tatum's performance was better than Channing's on Lip Sync Battle (Beyonce wins all obvi but I'm saying if it's just between Channing and Jenna)

Purchased Power Ball tickets - FYI when I hit the jackpot I do not intend on telling anyone. We've all seen the E! True Hollywood Story about the lotto curse.

And I also went on a tiny trip to CAPE TOWN with my friends (this trip deserves its own post, more later but for now enjoy pictures on Insta).

Did a little healthy eating and a lot of holiday splurging (whoopsies #notsorry).

Annnnd I signed up for a marathon. Yes, I have officially lost my mind or hit a quarter life crisis or something along those lines. Thankfully I obsessively combed Courtney's blog for everything I could possibly need to know about training - and btw I actually MET Courtney on the street a few weeks ago, I was starstruck! #Blogcrush

This whole marathon thing has changed up my eating plans a little bit with the need for carb loading etc, so after a year (yes a YEAR!) of eating paleo we are adding pasta and rice into the ole meal plan. Random side note: I have never never been a pasta or rice eater. Everyone acts like this is just the craziest thing they've ever heard but it's true. So please do pass along any resources for good/healthy/carby recipes. Because this training has me hungry. as. a. hippo.

Here's my meal plan for the week with a big emphasis on foods that yield lots of leftovers because this is my first week back from vacation and that sucks and no one wants to cook. At all. Also includes my reminders to add CARBS the night before and after my long runs - shoutout to my friend Petar for teaching me Carbs 101.

Note: For the Chicken Broc Pasta Bake with Cauli Sauce I am replacing the cheese with this sauce. It's supes easy. Because *hi* lactose intolerance! Not doing cheese before a long run. Couldn't pay me. You can also find my fav breakfast casserole (oops forgot to link in the plan) here and my green smoothies here.

Wednesday Workouts:Videos lately

Now that the weather is freaking gorgeous I've been running outside a lot. But at least two days each week I get up early to exercise (before you think I'm so motivated for doing that, it's so I can go to happy hour after work). And for nights when I get home late and it's already dark, I need a good ole basement workout. These are my favs right now:



I took a break from Millionaire Hoy to do T25, and I was so happy to get back with his workouts. I love his 500 calorie videos- most are ~30 minutes. He has a lot!



I love Leslie. I have been having back discomfort lately (really why are we still sitting at desks all day when we know how bad it is for us?) and this twisty video has really helped.




Fitness Blender is back and putting out new videos like crazy! I liked this workout - half weights and half pilates. I also love how Fitness Blender gives all the info about their videos (like below):

I've started playing this in the background when I do yoga and it takes it to a whole other level of relaxation and focus. Plus something about music makes concentrating so much easier for me.

Anyone have some good free workout videos I should be checking out?

Clean Eating Greek Stuffed Meatballs + The Time I tried Blue Apron

I'm only talking about Blue Apron because this Blue Apron subscription is the reason I had parsley and decided to make these sliders which turned into meatballs which were delicious. 

Ok so everyone loves Blue Apron. I hear about it everywhere, I read about it everywhere, it is apparently the best thing ever. Do you know what, to me who has a weekly goal of feeding 2 people all organic whole foods on $75/week, is NOT the best thing ever? Paying $10 per meal per person. The other thing, to me who fast forwards through YouTube tutorials to just see the first and middle step because I am confident I can figure it out from there, that is not awesome is following intense directions. So here I am, the only person in the whole world who canceled their Blue Apron subscription. 

I do however think it's worth a try for 2 weeks - I DID have some great meals that inspired me to try new things this winter (recipes to come!). I also learned something from them - add lots of salt and lemon juice to everything and it will taste better! Did I miss that in cooking 101?

Anyway, all that to say I'm horrible at following directions (is that why I never enjoyed school?) and somehow ended up with a random assortment of leftover ingredients from my Blue Apron meals including: 4 cloves of garlic, 1 small onion, 1 tiny baggie of parsley, a bunch of green onions, and a purple potato. So while my chili cooked in the crockpot with 2/3 pack ground chicken I thought what they hey, let's throw a few things together and see what happens!

Servings: 5 Meatballs

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb ground chicken ($2)
• 2 stems (is that what you call it? but you know what I mean right? like 2 stalks maybe?) vidalia onions chopped  ($.50)
• 1/4 Cup fresh parsley, chopped ($.50)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon ($.50)
• 3 Tablespoons crumbled Feta ($1)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Black pepper to taste
• 3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 egg
• Optional seasonings: marjoram, basil, dill

Preheat the oven to 400. Mix all the ingredients together except for the Feta. Spoon about 1/5 of the mixture onto a separate plate and flatten it out. Sprinkle some of the Feta into the center of your flat meat stuff. Now pull all the edges up around the Feta and pinch them together until the Feta is completely wrapped up. I rolled mine around in my hands to get the round shape too.

Repeat this with the rest of the meat mixture and place your meatballs onto a baking sheet. Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until cooked all the way through. 

I just ate mine plain. I ate them quickly, hence the reason I only have pictures of one cooked meatball.

What is your favorite spin on meatballs?