Week in Review & Turkey and Pasta Stuffed Squash

How has your week been so far? This was my first full week into my new work schedule. Work went great!

I took Kaylin to daycare for the first time. Her daycare is amazing- the people are SO sweet. Kaylin seemed to enjoy it, Mama shed a few tears after she dropped her off (I made it all the way to the car and only cried for a half a minute ). 

Workouts are going well! I taught Pump Monday and Attack Tuesday. It was my first time teaching a full attack class in over a year!! I somehow made it through. Love attack. I also fit in a bundle of great runs. I have a 10K race tomorrow (yikes!). My goal is to finish (last year I placed).

In terms of eats, lots of yumminess has gone on this week. A few highlights:

On Monday night, I made a stir fry of veggies and turkey. I usually make my own sauce, but I tried TJs satay peanut sauce this time:

Stir fry makes such a great meal! I liked the sauce, but I didn’t LOVE it. I prefer my homemade version, but its definitely good in a pinch.

I’ve been hoarding pumpkin (but I know I’m not alone!):

I used some of my stash to make another version of these bars. I love the flavor, but want to work on the consistency a bit:

Last night, I used a new-to-me squash (carnival) in our dinner.

I cooked up ground turkey and added marinara sauce and cooked pasta. I then cooked up the squash and stuffed it with the turkey/marinara/pasta. I put cheese on top of J’s (I miss cheese!). The outcome (sorry for the dark pictures!):

 

Delicious and easy. LOVE winter/fall squash.

Weekend time! What do you have on tap? Outside the run, we have dinner out tonight and lots of football.

Cookie’s Flour Free Energy Bars

A few weeks ago, Josh’s Mom (Cookie) was sending a package of energy bars to Josh’s brother. She noted that they contained no flour and gave me a piece to try before she packaged them up…I was HOOKED!

 

 

She recently sent me the recipe and I just had to share it with you. I have shown two sets of ingredients below; the set she used and the slightly adjusted set I used.

 

A lot of the ingredients can be switched out/adjusted. I made these for a friend of mine who just had a baby (congrats Ally!!!!). These are very yummy!

 

 

 

Cookie’s Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup pumpkin butter (TJs)
• 1 cup sunflower seed butter (TJs)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 cups TJs multigrain oats
• 1 small container sugar free granny smith applesauce
• 1/2 fresh apple diced in small pieces

My slightly adjusted ingredient list:

• 2/3 cup honey apple butter (TJs)
• 1 cup creamy unsalted peanut butter (TJs)
• 1/2 cup seeds and nuts (I used sunflower, flax and sesame seeds)
• 2  cups old fashion oats
• 1 small container unsweetened applesauce  (1/3 cup)
• 1/2 fresh apple diced in small pieces (I used a Macintosh)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. 

Hand mix together apple butter, peanut butter, apple sauce and apple.

Mix in oats and nuts/seeds.

Spray an 8x8 inch pan with non-stick spray (note: Cookie didn’t spray her pan, I’m just paranoid ). Spread mixture in pan. Bake for 40 minutes and cut bars while warm (not hot).

 

How has your week been so far?

Football Food

Monday, Monday! Today, I am teaching Body Pump and then I have errands and baking to do. My new schedule means my “work week” starts on Tuesday, so I am trying to get a chunk of my to-dos done today. How about you?

Yesterday was a good one. I went to the gym in the morning to take a CX30 class (soon to be called CXWorx). My head group fitness instructor was filming her certification video. CXWorx is Les Mill’s newest class that focuses on the core. Its 30 minutes and totally rocks.

When I got back to the house, I got our football food together. I made chili and pumpkin chocolate chunk bars:

 

I served the chili with jalapenos, cheese, and Chobani plain Greek yogurt:

J’s bowl:

Josh’s Mom brought over cornbread and an amazing fruit tray!

I had a little chili on top of a salad with fruit and cornbread (plus about 3/4 of the remaining fruit tray and more cornbread ):

Love football Sunday’s! Josh’s Mom & I are looking for some cool appetizers to make for next football Sunday. Any ideas? Any links? Please share!

Weekend & Kaylin/Frank VLOGs

Hi guys! Hope your Sunday is off to a good start. How was the early part of your weekend? Mine was good. Friday, my Mom came down and I got to go for a run and get my closet cleaned out(very necessary). I took a BIG step and put all of my maternity clothes away. No more leaning on the larger sizes. Now, I’m just working with the part of my “old” wardrobe that fits and focusing on losing the rest of my baby weight so I can fit into it all again.  My Mom and I also hit up an awesome sale at Ann Taylor loft. I got three new tops. Friday night was a lazy date night in. Josh and I had chicken burgers and caught up on our DVR.

Saturday, I got my hair done. My hair dresser is amazing. The rest of the day was spent getting things done around the house. Josh put together our new screened in porch furniture too.

Saturday night, we went to dinner with Josh’s Mom at Capriccio’s.

The restaurant is super cozy and the family who runs the place is SO inviting! We really loved the service. We started off with bread. They provide olive oil with cheese for dipping:

Since I’m on dairy restrictions….it was tough to find an option without cheese! I ended up getting a salad with chicken (note the fresh rosemary on top and excuse the flash):

Josh got chicken parm. They bring the chicken out in the pan they cooked it in- so cool!

Josh and his Mom:

Kaylin & Me:

A great spot!

 

And last, but not least, I put together Kaylin & Frank’s first VLOGs. Enjoy!

Kaylin’s debut:

 

A little Frank:

Coconut Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes & Clif Mojo

Happy Friday!! Thank you all for your sweet words of encouragement on my first day back at work/having to “give up” Kaylin for the first full day. I am VERY lucky that Josh’s Mom is here to watch her and, as Biz noted, our quality time yesterday felt even more special. I didn’t cry when I dropped her off- I’m so proud of myself

My plan for dinner last night was to make coconut flour pancakes. I found a few recipes on the web, but tried to lighten them up…epic failure! Bahh! As a backup, I ended up messing around with my oatmeal pancake recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup AP Flour

1/3 cup WW flour

2/3 cup Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

1/3-1/2 cup coconut
2 teaspoons baking powder

2-4 tablespoons brown sugar  (depends how sweet you like it)
1 1/4 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/4 cup egg beaters

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or you can substitute applesauce)

Directions:

1. In large bowl, combine flours, oats, coconut, baking powder; mix well.
2. In medium bowl, combine brown sugar, milk, egg beaters and oil; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not over mix)
3. Preheat electric skillet to 375 or skillet on stovetop to Medium, Medium High. Spray pans with Pam.
4. For each pancake, pour 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet.  Turn when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Turn only once.

This time, I used a smaller about of batter for each pancake. I loved how they turned out!  I do NOT like that its getting darker earlier….means not so nice pictures!

On a completely separate note, I recently received the new Clif Mojo flavors to taste test (disclaimer:I received these products for free from Clif and Double Forte). According to the company:

“CLIF MOJO, a delicious trail mix bar made with 70 percent organic ingredients, has introduced three new flavors that deliver a mouthwatering array of chocolate, nuts and coconut for a crispy, crunchy texture in bars that taste both sweet and salty.

CLIF MOJO Chocolate Almond Coconut blends toasted coconut, chunks of indulgent chocolate and deliciously salty whole roasted almonds. CLIF MOJO White Chocolate Macadamia combines freshly roasted macadamia nuts with richly flavored soy white chocolate chips. Not to be outdone, CLIF MOJO Dipped S’Mores is a healthy take on a classic campfire favorite, featuring crunchy graham cookies, creamy soy white chocolate and organic chocolate chunks. The new CLIF MOJO flavors (SRP: $1.39) are also on shelves now.”

Josh and I are HUGE mojo fans, and the new flavors did not disappoint! In fact, the White Chocolate Macadamia is our new favorite flavor!

What are you up to this weekend? I’m getting my hair done (whoop whoop!), spending time with my Mom, watching football and going to dinner with friends. I can’t wait!

Turkey Taco Filler & Jitters

Have you been enjoying your week so far? Mine has been great! I taught Pump, ran, met up with Amelia for coffee and Trader Joes, and spent lots of time with Josh, Kaylin & Franky. Tomorrow….I go back to work, gulp! As I mentioned before, I’m very sad to be giving the peanut up. Luckily, Josh’s Mom will be taking care of her for my first three days back (one day this week, two next), before she starts into daycare. I’m not sure if I will ball my eyes out tomorrow, but I can totally see it happening (and I am not a crier). In the past week, the peanut has started waving and has been giggling and smiling a ton. I don’t want to miss a minute of it! But, I know getting back into work will be good for me mentally. Plus, I get the best of both worlds only working half time.

Enough of my jitters, lets get to the food! I had been wanting to make Janetha’s green enchilada pie. When I looked back at the recipe, I noticed the cheese on top and figured this probably played a pretty large role in keeping the pie together. Since I have to stay away from dairy, I decided to just make taco-ish meat instead. I browned up ground turkey:

Once the turkey was cooked through, I removed it from the skillet and added yellow squash, corn and jalapenos. I cooked them for about 10 minutes (until the squash was soft and browning a bit) and then added the turkey back into the pan. I also added a teaspoon of TJs taco seasoning mix and 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce:

The taco filling was super tasty! I served Josh’s up with tortillas, cheese and pineapple:

I had mine on top of a salad with a side of toasted tortilla:

A great, easy meal! How do you prepare your taco filling?

Ghirardelli Sea Salt Double Chocolate Cookies

Lets start this Monday off with something sweet, shall we? As a part of the FoodBuzz Taste Testers program, I was sent a bundle of Ghiradelli chocolate to play with (disclaimer: I received these products for free). Aside from eating it straight up, I knew I wanted to bake with the chocolate, especially the Sea Salt Soiree.

 

I have made a few different double chocolate cookies, but wanted to play a bit with the recipes and add in some oat bran. I was happy with how the cookies turned out, but still want to tweak the recipe a bit. These cookies are soft and big! If you want a puffier cookie, eliminate the oat bran and use all flour.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

3/4 cup unbleached AP flour

1/4 cup oat bran (or ground up old fashion oats)

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 Sea Salt Soiree chocolate bar, chopped

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until combined. I love this vanilla:

 

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix together the flour, oat bran, cocoa powder and baking soda:

 

Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate.

Drop by the rounded tablespoonful onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 11-12 minutes. Makes ~ 1 1/2 dozen large cookies:

Milk or dark chocolate?