Goat Cheese & Carmelized Onion Stuffed Turkey Sliders + new cheap wine

As I mentioned yesterday, Friday night we had some dinner, did some Greek dance practicing, and drank a few gallons little wine. So somehow I had never made caramelized onions before and I assumed I would just slice up some onions and throw them in a frying pan. So that's not how you caramelize onions. Here is everything I learned about caramelizing onions and stuffing burgers with them:

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• 1.5 lb lean ground turkey ($6.00)
• 1/2 cup goat cheese ($2.50)
• 1/2 onion, sliced ($.50)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Heat olive oil over low heat in a medium sized frying pan. Now throw your onion slices in the frying pan and let them cook over low heat for 45 minutes. Yes, 45 minutes. Stir them occasionally to make sure they don't get stuck to the pan, and make sure it's super low heat too.

Meanwhile mix together the turkey and all the seasonings and peppers. Using half the turkey, form little tiny bowls (pictured below) by making your hand into a little bowl and molding it into the shape of your palm. Fill your little bowls goat cheese and the caramelized onions. Now make little tiny lids and pinch them onto the bowls so you have a full patty. 

Flatten your sliders out as much as possible and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes on each side. I covered mine for the first half of the cooking process. 

We put them on whole wheat slider buns and ate with Maria's Greek Salad (she's actually Greek and was teaching us our dances to prep for the wedding). Sidenote: did you know Greeks don't use lettuce? Ever? Weird right?

Ok, these were freaking DELICIOUS and I'm going to be that bougie girl that brings goat cheese stuffed burgers to the 4th of July cookout but whatever, they were that good. 

You know what else I'm bringing to 4th of July cookout? This CK Mondavi Wine we had the chance to sample. This wine is awesome because it a) is under $10, b) donates proceeds to support war veterans via the Fallen Heroes Fund, c) is completely American wine, d) is the only American made/grown wine in the “supermarket wine under $10” category. Soo you're saying on the 4th I can drink tasty wine for under $10 that is American AND proceeds go to veterans? Yes please.

I'm not much of a wine connoisseur (I had to google how to spell it) but this stuff was good! My favorite was the Scarlet Five- it was basically a combo of the best parts of 5 reds, and it tasted soo good with these sliders. So for me, CK Mondavi is the perfect 4th of July wine. Not only is it the only wine in this price point to be 100% American made & grown, but a percentage of sales goes to supporting veterans.

Tell me: what is your favorite clean food to take to the 4th of July? Are you eating clean this 4th? What is your favorite wine under $10?

Linking up today at DDT, Turn it up Tuesdays, Tickle My Tastebuds

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Goat Cheese & Carmelized Onion Stuffed Turkey Sliders + new cheap wine

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

So I'm not quite sure what the deal with pasta is. Is it clean? Is it not? Some people say whole wheat pasta is fine, some people only eat rice noodles, some people use gluten-free. You know what I did? Bought the cheapest out of those 3 options- which happened to be the gluten free version. I recognized all the ingredients so I figured what the hey, why not give it a shot? 

Also I know bacon isn't necessarily clean but it's paleo right? I try to stick to 80/20 (clean/not clean) so it fit into my week perfectly.

Ok and can we just talk about something? I've been cooking clean for almost a year now. Which means Harrison has only eaten clean dinners for almost a year. There have been maybe 3 times that he (ok we) hated the dish- 3 out of probably 300 is a pretty good average - yet every single time he is super skeptical and all like "ok I mean I'll try this to be nice" and 5 minutes later this man has eaten 5 servings. This was one of those meals.

The Sauce (adapted from PPK)

• 1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
• 1 cup natural chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (ordered mine on Amazon!)
• Fresh lemon juice of one lemon
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Pasta:

• 1/2 pack of Pasta Noodles (whatever you feel is best!), cooked
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• 4 strips turkey bacon, cooked
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender and blend. 

Toss all the pasta ingredients together.

En.freaking.joy.

I don't know what about this was so good, maybe it was that I haven't had pasta in almost a year, but it was amazing.

Oh and wedding update: every time Harrison and I set aside time to send out our save the dates we get drunk and get nothing done. Which is fine. But really, we have opposite work schedules and the amount of times we have been to happy hour together in the last 3 years I can count on one hand, yet we have hit one hand worth of happy hours in the last two weeks. But hey, everyone tells us to enjoy our time as an engaged couple so I guess we are just taking their advice to heart? Tonight we went to a new place around the block from my work and Harrison got a fun-sized drink that I couldn't stop laughing about:

Tonight we're going to a wedding food tasting at Main Event Catering, can't wait!

Tell me: Any advice for wedding food tasting? What kind of pasta do you consider clean or DO you consider ANY pasta clean?

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday

Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

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 Crockpot Meatballs with Sqash Noodles

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

4 Ingredient Crockpot Balsamic Vinaigrette Chicken + House Updates

Ok first off I want to send a huge thanks and send lots of v-hugs (virtual hugs, not vajayjay hugs which is what I just thought as I was reading over this, how old am I??) to everyone- friends and bloggy bffs- who has been so encouraging and given me advice over the last 2 weeks. I hate moving. I can't think of anything I want to do less- I get crabby, I can't find anything, unpacking takes a decade, and Harrison and I snap at each other because we can't really snap at the move itself. But every time I logged onto social media, the blog, and my email it was like a virtual cheerleading squad, so thank yall- your comments and e-mails mean a lot! Aaannd I'm officially one of those people who has online friends haha.

This weekend my parents were here to help out around the house and we worked every waking second (minus about 30 minutes for me to throw a 5-year-oldish temper tantrum, eat food, realize I was hangry, apologize to everyone, parents to say "it's ok you've been a hangry person since you were born"- thank you, Mom and Dad for helping out even though I'm such a hangry a-hole). We didn't want to take time/spend money to go pick up food (not to mention I may actually go into cardiac arrest if I spend one more penny) so I threw some of the food I found in the fridge into the crockpot and came up with this delicious dinner of Balsamic Vinaigrette Chicken (I def had to google how to spell vinaigrette). OH also our brand new oven broke and it will take 7-10 days to get the new parts in so please please please share any clean(ish) recipes that don't involve an oven or stove- we also don't have a grill (sadface). At this point it doesn't even have to be totally clean, I just can't do Lean Cuisine or anymore take out. 

Servings: 4 

Prep Time: less than 5 mins

Cook Time: 4 hours in the crockpot

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken breast, thawed ($6.00)
• 1 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (I used Paul Newman's, I know it's not exactly clean but it's close enough right now. This weekend I'm going to make my own clean dressing via Pinterest)
• 1/2 onion, sliced ($.50)
• 2 tomatoes, diced ($1.00)

Throw it in the crockpot for 4 hours then enjoy! I had a bag of frozen veggies that I just microwaved (didn't even have to take them out of the bag!!) for 3 minutes to eat with the chicken. Yall this was so freaking good. 

So when I was getting ready to move I told my dad I was frustrated with having incomplete projects to which he said "welcome to home-ownership". I was like NO EVERYTHING WILL BE COMPLETED BY MONDAY. But there are little things that need to happen and boxes unchecked and you know what? I'm still alive. But here's progress on the paint. 

My dad thinks he's so funny because he hung those paper towels from the hand towel ring. I had to leave it so he can share his jokes with the world.

Look at that oven. Sitting there being broken.

Not pictured: the bedroom we painted. Every time I think to take a picture Harrison is sleeping in it, and I don't need to offend the internet with pictures of 250-lb man sleeping in his undies. Not that kinda blog here.

Left on my list:

• Find a rug for the living room area
• Find a side table for the living room area (Goodwill here I come! Taking notes from Meg)
• Hang stuff on the walls (I am the WORST at this- anyone know of a guide for how-to make it look like not just a bunch of crap randomly thrown on the walls?)
• Mount the TV on the wall (oh hey surprise brick wall behind the actual walls that is making this harder than necessary)
• Blinds
• Curtains 

Happy Tuesday and have a great week! Don't forget to leave me links to any of your healthy recipes that don't need to be cooked in an oven/on a stovetop!

OH PS: Zulily has an Under Armour sale today! go get your's! I love me some Under Armour!

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday, Turn It Up Tuesdays, Tuesday Recipe Swap

4 Ingredient Crockpot Balsamic Vinaigrette Chicken + House Updates

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Clean Eating Calzones

Today's recipe is the cleaned up version of my all-time favorite high school cafeteria lunch: CALZONE DAY! This was, of course, before my awareness of calories/fat/carbs/food in general as well as a 16 year old metabolism (so jealous of 16 year old self), so I had zero problem stuffing my face with 1-2 calzones and greasy french fries followed by a few Otis Spunkmeyer cookies (EEK).

We ate these with sweet potato fries and you know what? It was just as good as it was in high school!

Servings: 2
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower, grated (or riced in a food processor if you have one) ($3.00)
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 Tablespoon Garlic powder
• 1/2 lb lean ground turkey ($1.50)
• 1 green bell pepper, diced ($.80)
• 1/2 medium onion, diced ($.50)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 cup clean tomato sauce (sugar free, natural, etc. Trader Joe's has lots of good ones, or you can use crushed tomatoes and add seasonings)
• 1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided ($1.50)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the grated cauliflower in the microwave for 4 minutes. Give it a few minutes to cool, then wring the water out of the cauliflower using a dishtowel- THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!! You should get up to a cup of water out of this cauliflower- if you don't wring it enough you'll have super soggy crust which is gross.

Combine the egg, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and cauliflower and mix well. Divide the "dough" in half, flatten each one out  on a non-stick baking sheet and heat in the oven for 20 minutes. 

While the "crust" is cooking, sesaon the turkey with garlic powder and Italian seasoning and brown in a large frying pan. Once browned, add the bell pepper, onion, and garlic to the mixture and saute for about 6 minutes over medium heat. 

Once your round flats come out of the oven, top each one with the sauce, meat and veggie mixture, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese. Fold the cauliflower "dough" over to make it into a "calzone" and enjoy!

And in honor of my favorite high school meal, I present this gif of my favorite high school cafeteria moment:

Linking up today with Turn It Up Tuesdays, Delicious Dish Tuesdays, Tuesday Recipe Swap, Tough It Out Tuesday, Mamade Blog Hop, What We Eat Wednesday

Clean Eating Calzones

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Clean Eating Mexican Pizza + Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! We survived another weekend of home reno and we are finally getting into the part I like- where we are starting to SEE the changes! It's really exciting, I'm just so ready to MOVE IN! 

Since things were chaos I didn't have much of a meal plan or a grocery list and just bought $40 worth of goodies at Trader Joe's (oopsies!). With the random assortment of TJ's sale items I came up with this Mexican Pizza:

Servings: 3

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 2 Tortillas (I use Ezekiel)
• 1/2 lb lean ground turkey, cooked ($1.50)
• 2 tomatoes, diced ($2.00)
• 1/2 large white onion, diced ($.50)
• 1/2 package of diced butternut squash (this is about 1 lb) ($2.00)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup salsa ($1.50)
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded ($1.50)
• 1 avocado, diced ($1.00)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Saute the onion, butternut squash and garlic together.  Place the 2 tortillas in a baking dish. Evenly distribute the turkey onto the tortillas. Top with the sauteed veggies. Layer the tomatoes on top of the veggies. Top the veggies with the mozzarella cheese. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes, slice up and enjoy! I took the leftovers to work the next day.

We spent Easter weekend working on the house- have I mentioned how grateful I am to have parents who drive 2 hours just to help out with this home reno stuff? It's getting to the fun part where we can actually SEE the progress:

My mom and I painted the cabinets, and the granite guy came and gave us counters! And thank you, Mom for coming to Home Depot to help me cope with my semi-mental breakdown over gloss vs. semi-gloss vs. eggshell paint and choosing between approximately 682 shades of almost-black paint...

Here's what that same wall looked like before:

And we added a wall to the bedroom to give ourselves a WALK IN CLOSET WITH TWO ENTRANCES (the opening and the door go into the same closet). Next stop: Ikea!

My mom and I went to Community Forklift, which, if you are in DC you have to go. It's basically a thrift store for home goods. I found this and can't wait to buy it to put in the dining room:

Since my parents are in town we still had a semi-easter celebration. I tried to make resurrection rolls (family tradition) and failed. See the marshmallow inside the crescent roll is supposed to be "Jesus", and when you pull them into the oven aka the "tomb", the marshmallow/Jesus is gone! However I just ended up with Jesus as a sticky mess all over the cookie sheet:

And since I have no life outside of this house stuff right now (socially this consists of my parents, Harrison, and about 4 contractors who don't speak English), I live through everyone else and can we just talk about this fabulousness that was happening down the street? Michelle! I don't care what your political views are, you gotta admit the Obamas know how to dress!

And Andi's Thundershirt came just in time for the thunderstorm and wind storm we are supposed to have this week- look at that model workin it! She let me put it on which is a good first step...we'll see how this goes...

Anyone have recommendations for dog anxiety? And recommendations for walk-in closet organization? 

Happy Monday! Linking up today with Monday Morning Gossip, Much Ado About Monday,  Healthy Tips. Weekend Recap

Clean Eating Mexican Pizza + Weekend Recap

Monday, April 21, 2014

Clean Eating Spaghetti Pie + Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekends? We survived a weekend of kitchen renovations..and ate a delishhhh spaghetti pie made with spaghetti squash zomg.

Servings: 5

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 80 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash ($3.00)
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons oil (coconut or olive)
• 1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.00)
• 1/2 cup natural chicken broth
• 1 cup clean (sugar-free, natural- I used a garlic basil sauce from Trader Joe's) tomato sauce ($1.50)
• 1 green bell pepper, diced ($.80)
• 1/2 large onion, diced ($.50)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese ($1.50)
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Basil 
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop your spaghetti squash in half long-wise and scoop out the ribs and seeds in the middles. Put the two halves on a baking sheet, cut side up (so they are sitting on the round sides) and brush the oil onto the inside of the cut halves. Heat in the oven for an hour.

While the squash is cooking, start cooking the ground turkey in a large frying pan on the stove over medium high heat with the chicken broth and seasonings (Italian seasoning, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder). Once the turkey is browned and most of the broth is absorbed, add the onion, green pepper, and garlic and lower the heat to medium. Heat for about 5 minutes. 

Add the tomato sauce to the mixture and heat for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly (I may or may not be a super obsessive stirrer and the excessive stirring may or may not be totally unnecessary).  Remove the mixture from heat.

Remove the spaghetti squash from the oven and allow to cool about 5 minutes. Once cooled a little, use a fork to poke at the edges and scoop the innards (the spaghetti-ish stuff) out of the spaghetti squash. Get as much of the "spaghetti" scooped out as possible, there should only be a really thin skin left. 

Combine an egg with the "spaghetti noodles" until the egg is completely mixed in. Pat the "spaghetti" down around a 9x9 round pan (you can use a square pan too), making sure to press it up around the edges too (see pic below). Evenly spread the meat mixture on top of the spaghetti squash. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top and heat for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Slice up and enjoy!

Sooo this weekend was jam-packed. My parents came in town and totally demolished the kitchen and hung the cabinets- now that I can see what it's going to be I'm ZOOO EXCITED

Before (remember how there was a wall there? If you follow me on Instagram you know that my mom knocked the wall down with a hammer BY HERSELF):

After:

I got in on some of the action (construction goggle swag):

I took a little break from getting in the way of helping with renovations to go see one of my good friends from home's documentary premier at the Cherry Blossom Festival- yall my friends are going places! It was so amazing and inspiring- after college Wesley taught in Japan for 2 years, and had gone back to see his students graduate the day the tsunami hit. He was missing for a week, and thankfully survived, but unfortunately not all of his friends did. He made this documentary telling the story of volunteers who rallied around the town of Tohoku (Tohoku Tomo means Friend of Tohoku). It was such a powerful reminder that no matter what your skill set, you can always serve others. It was also interesting to see how the recovery process is going years later. Check out the documentary website and go like their Facebook Page! Here's my friend and his crew doing the Q & A session:

Linking up today with Monday Morning Gossip, Much Ado About Monday, Fluerty and Fit , A Change of Pace, Delicious Dish Tuesday

Clean Eating Spaghetti Pie + Weekend Recap

Monday, April 14, 2014

Clean Eating "Pizza" Bites + New House Rennovation!!

Ok these little ditties were so good and took about 5 seconds to prep. I was super rushed the other night but determined not to eat out in between small group/work/exercise/dog walking so I threw these together and WHOA.

Servings: 1-2 (depending on the size of the sweet potato and how hungry you are- I ate almost the whole thing)
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, scrubbed ($.80)
• 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded ($.40)
• 3 Tablespoons CLEAN (aka no sugar added, low sodium, etc) tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon garlic seasoning
• Any other toppings you would put on pizza (bell pepper, mushrooms, onions, fresh tomatoes..)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice the sweet potato with a mandolin. Place the sweet potato slices onto a non-stick baking sheet (my baking sheet is so raggedy I cover it with parchment paper to make it non-stick). Throw the sweet potato slices into the oven for 10 mins.

After 10 minutes, pull the slices out and spoon the tomato sauce evenly onto each sweet potato slice. Now sprinkle mozzarella cheese onto each slice. Sprinkle garlic and Italian seasonings to your liking onto each one, and add any other toppings.

Heat in the oven for 5-8 minutes.

And that is it. It is laughably easy.

OH also we went to check on the new house renovations today!! They just pulled up all the nasty carpet and there are beautiful wood floors underneath! Here are the "before" pix- stay tuned for updates!!

This is the view from the front door (living/dining area). See that wall Harrison is standing in front of? We are knocking it down and making it into a bar with extra cabinet space underneath!

Ahh yes and a very DC sized master closet. We are also knocking the back wall out to make it a bigger closet (for Harrison's shoes of course).

The view of the front door (I should keep the curtains right? jkjkjk)

Andi went to explore the new yard and immediately got busy flirting with the neighbor across the alley...

...and then immediately took care of business in her new backyard bathroom.. I just...

Linking up today with Mamade (check them out! I'm featured today!!), Turn It Up Tuesdays, Share Your Sparkle,  Tuesday Recipe Swap, Tough It Out Tuesday, Delicious Dish Tuesday

Clean Eating "Pizza" Bites + New House Rennovation!!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

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

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Clean Eating GROWN UP GRILLED CHEESE

Since winter has refused to end and my ultimatums to mother nature have gotten us nowhere, I've decided to embrace all things winter. When life hands you lemons, make a vodka-water-lemon-juice right? One of my favorite winter standbys is grilled cheese so I decided to make myself a grown up grilled cheese with a glass of red wine while I wait for the impending doom that is 1-3 inches of snow on its way.

Weird sidenote- I used to be so jealous of my friends who got to eat grilled cheese with Kraft Singles because my mom only bought Velveeta. Not gonna lie, I do still get the occasional craving for some super processed chemical-compound-cheese flavored mass once in awhile. And may or may not be looking forward to a few Nats games this year with some nachos drenched in ballpark cheese (cheat days).

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

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of Ezekiel Bread, thawed
• 2 Tablespoons goat cheese
• 2 slices tomato
• 2 slices avocado
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 slice onion
• 1 teaspoon garlic seasoning

Spread the goat cheese on one slice of bread. Top with tomato and avocado. On the other slice of bread sprinkle the mozzarella and top with onion. Evenly sprinkle the garlic seasoning. Heat both slices face up in a toaster oven at 275 for about 4-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. If you don't have a toaster oven you can heat them on a frying pan over medium heat.

PS Harrison and I ate this while watching Jesus Camp on Netflix (gotta finish my Netflix binges while the weather still sucks so much I can' set foot outside..)- anyone else seen that? I grew up going to church camp so def have mixed feelings about it but MAN.

Linking up today at Turn It Up Tuesdays and Delicious Dish Tuesdays

Clean Eating GROWN UP GRILLED CHEESE

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Clean Eating Burgers: Avocado & Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Burgers

So the theme for last week was "live like it's freaking spring even though Mother Nature is refusing to cooperate". So we had a classic spring/summer bbq meal (burgers) gone clean. These were awesome because 1) the toppings were INSIDE aka nothing can fall off the burger when you go in for that first bite- really why didn't a messy eater like myself start doing this years ago? 2) It tasted like summer; 3) It had avocado; 4) It's clean (clean like clean eating and also clean like no mess because the toppings are inside). Sidenote: things "grilled" on the stovetop taste like summer to us because our awesome apartment complex closes the grilling area at like 5 pm- really who is even home by 5 pm to use the grill?? And why can't we have alcohol at the pool?

K anyway here it is, enjoy- and I'd love some ideas of what else to cook INSIDE of my burgers- let me know how you do stuffed burgers!

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground turkey, thawed ($3.99)
• 1 egg ($.10)
• 1/3 cup oats 
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.00)
• 1/2 avocado, diced ($.50)
• 1/4 large onion, minced ($.25)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (we love garlic)

In a large bowl, mix your raw turkey with the minced garlic, oats, egg, crushed red pepper, ground cumin, and garlic powder (I used my hands for this- oddly liberating).

Using 2/3 of the raw seasoned turkey, form little turkey bowls and set on a plate. Evenly sprinkle the shredded cheese, avocado and onion on top of each "bowl". Make sure the avocado/mozzarella/onion are not on the edges of the patties so nothing oozes out in the cooking (can never be too careful with this stuff).

Using the other 1/3 of the turkey, form "lids" for your bowls and pinch the two sections (lid and bowl) of turkey together around the edges. DO NOT FORGET TO PINCH IT TOGETHER- again, you risk serious leakage during the cooking if you don't pinch it.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Put the burgers into the frying pan and flatten out as much as possible using a spatula (without letting anything ooze out of the edges of course). Cook over medium-high heat for about 7-10 minutes or until edges start browning. Flip the burgers and let them finish cooking for about 10 minutes- or until there is NO pink left anywhere on the patties.

Serve with Udi's Rolls (click the link for a $1 coupon too), or over lettuce, sauteed onions,  tomatoes...the possibilities are endless! I think next time I'm going to add jalapenos to the stuffing too?

What do YOU like on your burgers? I want more ideas for Clean (as in clean eating and clean to eat aka no mess) stuffings for my turkey burgers!

Linking up this week :

(PS my 3 Ingredient Crockpot Beans & Chicken is being featured today so go check out Delicious Dish Tuesday!!)

Clean Eating Burgers: Avocado & Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Tuesday, March 11, 2014