We only managed to try three of the recipes on our “to-try” list last week, but the good news is — they were all easy and very good! We’ll be saving the meatloaf stuffed peppers for next week, but I’ll be sure to share the recipe once we’ve given it a try.
Monday was a school holiday, so I was at home with the girls. Josh had to work, but since his office is in our bedroom, we did at least get to hang out with him a little bit. We ignored our vow to eat clean over breakfast and continued to celebrate our working oven by cooking up another batch of pigs-in-a-blanket. Can you tell my children are obsessed? Then Ella added a request for pancakes, so I just kept on cooking. I mentioned on Instagram that I “had a turkey ready to go in the oven” and Josh was heart-broken that I was stealing his thunder! Let me rephrase… I got two boneless turkey breasts out of the fridge and preheated the oven while Josh prepped them for baking and then carved them once they were ready. He loves turkey and decided it would give him one more clean lunch option during the week. We all enjoyed having fresh turkey slices to eat and even the girls added them to a “variety plate” a couple of times.
And just in case I’ve never shared, this is what our girls’ dinner plates look like five days out of seven!
First up on our menu were a few recipes my Insta-friend Marla shared last week. Chili-Cilantro-Lime Chicken and Garlic, Mashed Cauliflower. The only changes I made to the chicken were that we used boneless, skinless breasts and just coated all sides with the dry rub. I put them into the crock-pot frozen and we cooked them on low for about six hours. They were super yummy (although we decided not to cook another cumin-based recipe for awhile, since we seem to be in a rut) with just the right about of spice! For the cauliflower, I added a few tablespoons of Kerrygold grass-fed butter, some salt and pepper and a little garlic powder. Fresh garlic would have been good, too, but I was going to for easy here! The cauliflower had a similar texture to grits and it was a lot better than I expected. I found another recipe this week that has garlic, chives and cheese, so we’re going to give it another go!
We did eat pretty clean the rest of the week, but it was pretty basic. There were grilled chicken breasts and stir-fried veggies and even grass-fed burgers with no bun one night. We splurged on pizza Thursday night and Josh was mad at me for tempting him, but we’re taking this in baby steps. I’m planning to work on my lunches this week and then start being a little stricter starting in February. The last two weeks have certainly helped us figure out new ways to cook foods we already love and to add plenty of variety to our meals.
The third thing I made this week was “breadless” breakfast muffins. Essentially, they are breakfast casserole without the bread. I saw several recipes on Pinterest for similar muffins, but I figured this was one of those things we could wing and it worked out just right!
First up, I finely chopped up half of a white onion and added it to a pound of mild breakfast sausage cooking on the stove. If you are a stringent clean-eater, you might yell at me for “fried sausage”, but the point here was something quick and easy for breakfast that contained no wheat! Once the sausage was browned and the onions were transparent, I drained and rinsed the meat and then added a few spoonfuls to each of my silicone muffin cups.
Next up was the egg! I added a few tablespoons of Greek yogurt and beat the eggs really well. You can be the judge of how many to use, but I think one egg per muffin was perfect. I just poured the egg mixture right on top of the sausage.
Then we topped them with cheese and stuck them in a 350* oven for almost twenty minutes.
When we took them out, the cheese was bubbling and they smelled SO good! We had a few for a late night snack and stuck the rest in the fridge for breakfast all week. These would be super easy to freeze, also, if you wanted to make them in bulk.
I think I’ll try adding a little bit of hash browns to the bottom of the muffin cup next time and maybe top with white cheddar since that is our favorite!
Are you cooking anything good this week?
