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 3 Ingredient Crockpot Mexican Chicken + Weekend Recap + Ice Cream Pie

Happy Monday! I can barely sit still because I am SO excited for my friend's big fat Greek wedding this weekend (it's literally a Greek wedding) and I'm going to be reunited with some of my favorite people ever at 5 pm Friday. Until then I'll be practicing Greek dances via Youtube haha.

Our oven is officially fixed so rest easy, this is the last crockpot recipe for awhile. Again, laughably easy. This was my lunch for the week.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken breasts ($4.00)
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chiles (I use Rotel) ($.99)
• 3 Tablespoons taco seasoning (clean eating taco seasoning = 2 Tbs ground cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp black pepper)

Combine the ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 7 hours. I switched up how I ate it each day- some days at it on a salad, some days in Ezekiel tortillas, some days with black beans, added some salsa, added Greek yogurt. It was so good!

Anyone else have an amazing weekend? I have back to back weddings for the next 3 weekends (Richmond, Boston, and Lancaster here I come!) so I HAD to be productive- at least for part of the weekend

Friday night I stayed in to watch Orange Is The New Black which I have been anxiously awaiting for the last...oh you know year or so. I'm a grandma so despite my excitement and how much I was loving it, I passed out somewhere around episode 4 (DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME OR I WILL KNIFE YOU). Andi was unimpressed however.

My storage unit, which was packed to the brim with furniture from my old house that I have not even thought about for the last year, was dropped off on Friday so we spent the weekend throwing a pseudo yard-sale. We didn't have a backup plan so I was super stressed that we'd be stuck with all this stuff and nowhere to put it so I threw a few tantrums (sorry, Harrison).

We got rid of all the big stuff, so a few boxes will be headed to Goodwill this week. Temper tantrums were 100% unnecessary.

I also found tons of pictures from back when I used to print out pictures, like this little throwback of Harrison and me 3 years ago when we FIRST started dating:

Saturday was my friend Kyle's birthday so we cooked out and I ate about a million pounds of food.

Played an insanely intense round of Taboo (girls vs. boys- always gets out of hand). For the record, "starts with letter V" is NEVER OK RIGHT??? NEVER! Sorry for being a rule follower.:

My friend Anna who makes everything look super easy (oh don't minder her just completing a post-bach med school program and cooking her husband's birthday dinner for 50 people 2 days before HUGE tests. I mean really) made this delicious apple/kale/quinoa salad that I MUST eat again soon. She said she just looks at SweetGreen's salads and then makes them herself. Genius. She also made this ice cream pies:

Listen to how she made these pies. Scooped ice cream into a pie crust. Let the ice cream soften and melt a little. Put it back in the freezer. So like I said, she makes everything so freaking easy.

Sunday was insanely productive. I cleaned (PS if you have wood floors you HAVE to use Muprhy's Oil. Decent price, I just spray it on our wood floors and dry mop right over it- our floors are IMMACULATE). Andi and I went for a run in the park and took a break for a selfie photoshoot:

Annnd of course threw in a few episodes with Piper and the crew in the clink.

Tell me: can you EVER say "starts with a [insert letter here]"?? And what is your favorite salad?

Linking up today with LeeAnn, Kimberlee, Biana, Much Ado About Monday, Motivation Monday

Clean Eating 3 Ingredient Crockpot Mexican Chicken + Weekend Recap + Ice Cream Pie

Monday, June 9, 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

Wednesday Workout: Clean Foods That Give You Energy

When I started clean eating the first two weeks were pretty miz- I was hungry (hangry) all the time and just wanted my regular ole easy processed foods and snacks back! Plus I couldn't figure out how in the WORLD people found energy to exercise without eating energy bars and drinking Diet Coke.

The truth is, our bodies function best when they are getting all the nutrients they are supposed to get, which is a lot of stuff you don't get from microwave meals and Subway sandwiches. Sounds pretty basic, but this is kind of a hard one to plan for when you have lived (what you thought was super healthy) on bread, Diet Coke, zero calorie snacks and frozen entrees for 27 years. Here is my list of power foods - clean foods - that keep me going during day and with enough energy to exercise after work.

One thing to note: I really had to change my mindset when I started eating clean. To me fat, carbs and calories were the enemy- I was probably more scared of those 3 things than getting struck by lightning (my biggest fear which is a story for another day) or giant spiders. I did a lot of reading and found that  there is a right way to do fats, carbs and calories, and now when I'm checking nutrition labels at the store it's to make sure I recognize all the ingredients and NOT to make sure it is low calorie/carb/fat.

via

1. Almonds
High in protein, fiber, Vitamin E and magnesium (magnesium helps with blood sugar), these are tiny capsules of energy. Also I read a study that found people who eat almonds daily are more likely to lose weight than those who don't. Of course I can't find it anywhere to post but I promise I read it! Just be careful, these are easy to mindlessly snack on so I portion out about 10 for my snacks
How to incorporate: Overnight oats, breakfast bakes, salad topping, casserole topping, snack

2. Greek Yogurt
High protein, low carbs, low lactose (woo lactards!). What else do you need to know!
How to incorporate: My fav way to eat this is with honey and/or fruit. It works as a substitute for pretty much all things creamy.

via

3. Leafy Greens
We all used to watch Popeye immediately bulk up after eating his spinach, and while we won't see THAT extreme of results, we do experience decreased fatigue and more alertness due to the high iron levels. Iron deficiency is especially common in women so it's essential to get plenty of these puppies in the diet.
How to incorporate: Salads, green smoothies, sauteed sides

4. WATER
This is probably the most important factor in energy levels. Our blood is 80% water and helps the blood absorb nutrients and facilitate digestion. Dehydration = brain clouds (the worst), fatigue, and weakness. And it's free.
How to incorporate: I try to drink a cup of water each hour.

5. Carbs via Natural Sources
Carbs get a bad rap but they are where our bodies go for 40% of our energy. There's nothing wrong with getting carbs from natural sources like fruit, starchy veggies and sweet potatoes.
How to incorporate: Snack on fruits and veggies with hummus or fruit dip, smoothies, salads, honey

6. Eggs
Eggs have the highest amount of protein of any other food and supply 30% of our daily protein needs. And they're cheap. And they're easy to cook. Liiiike what else do you need? The protein gives us energy, keeps us full longer, and improves brain functionality.
How to incorporate: Breakfast casseroles, hard boiled, scrambles

6. Healthy Fats
OK READ THIS BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY- I know when I used to see the words "healthy fats" I was like "yeah nope bye!". However healthy fats are necessary for our bodies functionality- they are good for our hearts, have been found to prevent cancer, and help our bodies absorb fat soluble vitamins (E, D, B, K). The fats we need to stay away from are yucky fats that come from unnatural sources. As with anything, moderation is our BFF, and if you are working on losing weight moderation of these is REALLY our BFF.
How to incorporate: Avocados, egg yolks, nuts, nut butters, fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna), coconut oil, olive oil


One last way I have found more energy was cutting out Diet Coke. This was the hardest for me, but after reading Erin's article on benefits of cutting DC out, I had to do it. I'm not going to lie- the first 10 days were hell. I had killer headaches and would fall asleep on the bus every afternoon. But I've been DC free for a month now and don't even think about it anymore! Ever! No more 2:30 pm crashes and my sweets cravings have gone down.

Question: what foods do you eat to give you energy??

Linking up today at Humpday Blog Hop, WOW Linkup, Weigh In Wednesday

Wednesday Workout: Clean Foods That Give You Energy

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

2 Ingredient Crockpot Green Chicken + Weekend Recap

Ugh, Tuesday after a long weekend is like Monday on steroids. Fortunately I had a great/refreshing weekend and made a few delicious ovenless meals like this green chicken- I threw the 2 ingredients in the crockpot before I went hiking and when I came home it was ready!

This dish is also Tonii-approved which means anyone will like it (backstory: Tonii was a roommate who had never tried hummus , avocado, and a whole host of other "white" foods before we lived together. For the record- he would never choose to eat hummus or avocado but if they were the last 2 foods on the planet he could handle it).

Prep Time: 1 min (to pour stuff in the crockpot)
Cook Time: 6-8 hours
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• Green Salsa (I used the one pictured below from Wal-Mart for $2.00)
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast ($3.50)

Throw it all in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Cut off the crockpot and allow to cool and absorb the juices for about 45 mins before serving.

I ate it with a black bean salad which was just a few spoonfuls of black beans, shredded lettuce, a scoop of fat-free Greek Yogurt and a scoop of salsa. I had leftovers as a salad the next day. MMM mmm.

This weekend some friends came over and we christened the front porch with a happy hour and some Sam Adams Summer Ale (y'all I wait all year for these and hoard them like Cadbury Mini Eggs).

Some friends and I went hiking in Great Falls on Saturday and I remembered why DC is the greatest city ever to live in, I mean really this is amazing:

My friend Tonii (as in Tonii-approved chicken) came home from Boston and we ate green chicken and watched the Ana Nicole Smith Story and Jodi Arias Story on Lifetime (Lifetime please give me more of these "docudramas")

Sunday we got up and went to see Christine Cain speak at church and ohhheemmmgeee I am ready to stop making excuses and do something with myself- this woman has done so much in her life, and had a major impact on human trafficking. Really take a lunch break and watch this video about not making excuses and putting our pride aside. And in case you don't want to click I put the video right here because this talk is THAT necessary to hear:



We at on the porch of Desperado's on U Street after- the drinks were good and my portobello burger was deelish!

Cooked out with some old friends Sunday night, had a lil photoshoot in front of an American flag:

FYI that's Tonii in the middle

Monday I made a green soup that I read is Zooey Deschanel's favorite to serve friends and ate it for lunch with a limited edition Sam. Obvi it was amazing:

Cooked out Monday night with Harrison's family and now to get back to some serious clean eating.

Linking up at Turn it Up Tuesdays, Delicious Dish Tuesdays,

2 Ingredient Crockpot Green Chicken + Weekend Recap

Tuesday, May 27, 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 Hard-boiled egg and Avocado Salad + HOUSE UPDATE

Ok so if you are like me and your main food groups consist of eggs + anything you can put avocado with, you're going to be veeerrryyy happy with this lil recipe I came up with. I saw something similar on Pinterest but it was loaded with mayonaise (sorry but even the smell of mayo gets me gagging like Mama June)

So here is the maranaise-less egg salad with AVOS!

Servings: 5 (my lunch for the week)
Prep Time: 5 mins + 20 mins-ish to hard boil the eggs
Cook Time: 0

Ingredients:

• 7 Hard-Boiled Eggs ($1.00)
• 3 ripe avocados (mine were pretty small) ($4.00)
• 2 Tablespoons fat-free Greek Yogurt 
• Sea Salt and Pepper to taste

Scoop out the avocados and put them in a bowl. Chop up the hard-boiled eggs and add them to the avocados, add the Greek Yogurt and mix it all up. Add salt and pepper, and that is it. Yes, that is all you have to do to make the most delicious egg salad in the world.

I topped Ezekiel bread with my egg salad and enjoyed a nice lil egg salad lunch every day!

Soooo as far as the house goes there are a few issues (surprise!).

1. We have to be moved out of our current apt by Wednesday (yes tomorrow)
2. Due to freakish May weather, the wood floors took twice as long to dry. And the fact that they put the finish down then couldn't walk on the floor to access the heater to speed the process up...
3. Due to wood floor finish taking a million years to dry, we didn't get painting done.
4. The electrician knocked about 5,000 giant holes in the ceiling then patched them up without smoothing them over. I was like "oh cool I'll just sand them myself and paint over." Yeah not so much. I think they use heavy machinery for that kind of stuff. So, ceiling painting is also not done. 
5. I hate moving.
6. I am mean to everyone right now due to #5
7. I went on a little online shopping binge to cope with #5 and the clothes are not here yet but are getting sent to this apartment. So NOW WHAT!
8. I also did online shopping for curtains, blinds, rugs and they cost A MILLION DOLLARS???? Where do you buy your stuff like this?!? HAYLP!

BUT! All this being said, it's all good because we have a house to move into! Andi has a yard to run around in tomorrow! We'll have a bed to sleep in! This whole process has been one big learning experience for me to understand that I can't always get my way, and when I don't life still goes on, and it goes on surprisingly smoothly.

More smoothly than Jay-z and Solange's Met Gala Afterparty. <--can we just talk about this? What is going on with my dream couple and my hair goddess? Anyone have any ideas?? Is the perfect couple not so perfect after all??

Anyway, back to house stuff. Pix coming tomorrow as we start moving in, until then- where can I buy inexpensive blinds, curtains, rugs, etc? Why is it 10x more than it should cost???

And don't forget about Women's Health Month! The infograph of the day- Healthy Eating:

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday, and please leave a comment about where to buy curtains, blinds, rugs, house stuff!

Linking up today at Turn It Up Tuesday, Delicious Dish Tuesday, Tough It Out Tuesday, What We Ate Wednesday

Clean Eating Hard-boiled egg and Avocado Salad + HOUSE UPDATE

Tuesday, May 13, 2014