Mango blueberry protein muffins

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baking, blueberries, body for life, chia seeds, clean diet, clean eating, healthy treat, mango, muffins, protein muffins, snack, sweet, yum

More protein muffins!  Can you stand it?!  I love them. I eat them every day! Things like these make life enjoyable nowadays.  You can have your frosting covered cupcakes, I am not the least bit jealous.  Actually I’ve never really liked these new cupcakes with tons of frosting anyway, too much frosting. Now a yummy scone on the other hand? Now I’m jealous. But I can have those on my cheat day.

Here’s the back story…awhile back I made a mango, candied ginger quick bread.  I took it to work and everyone loved it. One lady in particular loved it so much she asked for the recipe.  But somehow hers did not turn out which was disappointing as she wanted to make it for her new daughter-in-laws bridal shower.  So I offered to make if for her…turns out she needed at least 10!!!  So I made 10…in my tiny little kitchen….in the middle of my clean eating 12 week challenge…and they smelled heavenly.  I won’t lie, I made one for my cheat day and ate 3 pieces and didn’t feel one bit guilty.  But I still had lots of mango puree left over.  I thought about recreating the quick bread in a protein muffin but it’s crystalized ginger, which means lots of sugar. Back to the drawing board.  I had plenty of wonderful blueberries! That would be a winning combination. Oh and I added Chia seeds, what’s the big deal about Chia seeds?  They are good for you….and they remind me of poppy seeds.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup protein powder (I use Whey)
• 1T baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 T Chia seeds
• 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 cup mango puree
• 3 egg whites
• 3 T honey (if you like it sweet, you should use more)
• 1/2 c blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another, except the blueberries.  Fold the wet into the dry and do not overmix.  Gently fold in the blueberries. Separate the batter between 12 greased muffin tins (or use silicon cups) and bake for 20 mins.

The pictures below are courtesy of my beautiful step daughter.

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Soft Chicken tacos

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body for life, chicken soft taco, clean diet, clean recipe, dinner, food, roasted peppers, savory, yum

I love roasted peppers and look for any reason to toss them into a recipe.  If you’ve never roasted a pepper you really should try it. It adds a smoky flavor to a dish. I roast all kinds, hot, mild, bell, I’ve even been known to roast a tomato.  And tomatillos, if you’re making a green enchilada sauce, you must roast them first.  After I bought a big handfull of assorted peppers and roasted them I knew I would have to make soft tacos with them!

The process….wash the peppers and place them on tinfoil, you can cover a baking sheet with foil or do as I do and just put the foil straight onto the rack in your oven.  No need to put any oil on the pepper like you do when you roast other vegetables, turn the oven on broil and keep an eye on the peppers.  You’ll notice that the pepper skin starts to blister and even turn black, this is exactly what you want.  Turn them to the other side so that all sides get really dark.  Pull the peppers out and place them in a plastic bag for at least 5 minutes. Somehow this helps in removing the skin.  Then you just peel the skin off and pull out the inside seeds. Done!

I had some leeks so I decided to use them instead of onion.  I browned the leeks and some chopped garlic in about 1 1/2 T of coconut oil. I then added chicken that I had marinated for hours in lemon juice, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne, oregano and salt & pepper.  I cooked that until the chicken was done and then I added a bit more of the above spices and the chopped peppers. It smelled so good.

I served it on whole wheat tortillas with black beans, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. Quick and easy and yes, clean!

For those of you who have been following this blog and the changes that have occured, I am still on the Body for Life 12 week challenge and am starting week 7.  I’ve lost about 5 pounds but more importantly, I’ve dropped 4% bodyfat!!!  4% of my body has changed from fat to muscle!  To me that’s more important than the number on the scale because muscle looks better than fat, takes up less room than fat and burns calories even when resting.  All fabulous reasons to get out there and move and make some muscle.

 

Mexican Mash

Tags

black beans, casserole, clean diet, dinner, food, green enchilada, ground turkey, healthy treat, Mexican, Roasted chili, yum

Once again I have Janetha over at mealsandmovesblog to thank for this recipe.  I’ve modified it a bit but it’s quite tasty.  I think I’m getting the hang of what foods to eat on this challenge and how to combine them.  If you haven’t heard yet, I’m doing the 12 week Body for Life challenge.  12 weeks of clean eating and exercising!! What happens after the 12 week challenge is over you might ask?  Well by then I will have started some new habits and will continue on this path.  I am actually enjoying myself and have noticed a few changes in my body overall.  I’ve dropped a few pounds too! The one thing that has kept me on track is that one day a week I can eat whatever I want….anything in any amounts!  What I’ve found though is that the further into the challenge (I’m starting week 6), the less I really want any super-sweet things to eat. My so called cheat days are actually pretty boring lately.

On to the meal!  This is a casserole with lots of tasty things in it and with Mexican flavorings.  I wouldn’t call it too authentic though!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground turkey (or chicken)
• about a cup or more of brocolli (the original called for bell pepper but I didn’t have any)
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 6 mushrooms chopped (or more to taste)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 can black beans (14 oz can)
• 2-3 diced tomatoes
• 1 can green enchilada sauce
• 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• roasted Poblano chilis, chopped (about 3)
• roasted Serrano chilis, chopped (if you like the heat and as many as you like, or Jalapeno etc)
• taco seasoning (I make my own which I will share at the end)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• avocado, cilantro, salsa etc for garnish

My taco seasoning uses chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano & cayenne pepper in varying proportions. I don’t measure I just kinda eye it so I’ve written it in the order I use from most to least, you can taste it or just smell it!  Oh and salt.

Saute the onion, brocolli, onion & mushrooms in about 1 Tb olive oil.

Add the ground turkey and cook until browned. Add the taco seasoning, the roasted chilis and add the enchilada sauce.  Remove from heat and add the rice, the black beans and the tomatoes.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Add the Greek yogurt to the mixture and combine everything really well.  Transfer it all to a 9 X 13 baking dish and sprinkle with cheese.  Cover with foil and bake for about 25-30 minutes.  You can uncover the dish for the last 5 minutes or so to brown the cheese a bit.

Makes about 4 servings depending on the people. I had about a cup to a cup and a half for a serving and Jason had double servings (as usual!). There was enough left for both of us to eat some for lunch.  I would say it could serve 6-8 people who don’t eat seconds and thirds!  Garnish with avocado slices, cilantro, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, salsa etc.