The Makings of an Incredibly Delicious Detox Salad Meal - Tools of the 'Veggie' Trade

Let me share with you a meal I recently made for my family, filled with healthy veggies, fruits and tons of nutrients. Turkey, ham and pineapple burger with Detox salad and homemade oven roasted fries- prepared with some great little kitchen tools.

Looks gorgeous right? You eat with your eyes, so here is a great way to make your meals exciting, ADD COLOUR and TEXTURE. In this meal, we have all the colours of the rainbow, crunchy, zingy, crispy, soft and juicy. And the flavours.... bright, tangy salad, crispy outside, tender inside oven roasted fries and smokey turkey burger with slightly salty ham and crunchy, sweet, roasted pineapple. Let me tell you, it was a huge hit with my family!

Here's how I did it.  Started with the washed veggies...

Brussel Sprouts and Potatoes.

Now here is a sweet little tool of the veggie trade that we just love. It's a little 'french fry' maker.

See what it does. You just need to apply a bit, no- a lot-  of pressure. Use those big muscles- and voila! Some gorgeous French Fries ready to be created.

This is how I prep them... Put oven to 430 degrees, spray a sheet pan with Pam, put your cut potatoes (yukon golds are good) on the pan, drizzle some olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika on them and then toss them with your hands until they are all coated. Make sure there is space between them, if the pan is too crowded, they will not crisp up.  Bake for about 20 minutes, then flip them and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Now here's another neat tool (by the way, thanks to my Mom for these two lovely gadgets). It's a shredder, but it stands up, and the bottom has a little receptacle basket that holds the food you just shredded.

It comes with different blade attachments that you snap into place.

I used it to shred these baby brussel sprouts and shred some carrots too.

Here's the awesome detox salad created using my nifty kitchen gadgets. It's incredibly refreshing, bright and real good for you. I absolutely love the lemon juice!!!

Detox Salad (adapted from http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/3540122-Fall-Detox-Salad)

Ingredients:

• 18-20  brussels sprouts, washed and stems removed
• 2 large carrots carrots, peeled
• 1 apple, diced (I used Honeycrisp)
• 1 large celery stalk, diced
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 4-6 tbsp raisins
• 2-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, to taste
• 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1 tsp fresh parsley
• Pure liquid honey, to taste

Directions

1. Add the grate/shred blade to food processor. Turn machine on and drop in the brussels sprouts to shred. Now drop in the carrots to shred. Alternatively, you can finely chop brussels and shred carrots with a hand-held grater. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

2. Stir in the diced apple, celery, sunflower seeds, and raisins into the carrot and brussels sprout mixture.

3. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and parsley to taste. Add a small amount of honey (about 1 Tbsp) to take the edge off the lemon juice. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. 

Oatmeal Cups a Healthy Breakfast Muffin reinvented

Let me share with you a wonderful recipe I stumbled upon on Facebook for some healthy, NO SUGAR, NO FAT muffins. These are great for your quick on the go mornings.

These are my little version with walnuts, dark chocolate chips, craisins and raisins.  The best is there is no flour, no added sugar and no fat.

Oatmeal Cups (adapted from www.fb.com/FitfabulousLife)

Ingredients:
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cups applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 1/2 cups, Old Fashioned rolled oats
• 1/8 cup chai seeds (optional)
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• Optional toppings: blueberries, raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips, pomegranate seeds.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, banana and honey together in a bowl. Add in oats, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and mix well with wet ingredients. Finally pour in milk and combine. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Divide mixture evenly into muffin tin cups. I used a 1/4 measuring cup, measure just a tad under 1/4 cup to make 12 servings. Add the toppings. 

Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy or freeze them in gallon freezer bags

Zucchini Boats - Healthified 'No Pasta' Italian Dinner

Get ready for a fresh and 'healthified' way to enjoy a delicious Italian meal. Still on my 'half your plate should be vegetables' kick, I was looking for a healthy alternative, yet flavourful substitute. Well, I think I found it. Zucchini Boats and Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower - no pasta invited to this dinner.

I found this great recipe through one of my favourite healthy websites skinnytaste.com.  I wanted to create an Italian meal so I adapted the recipe with Italian flavours. Added tomato sauce, oregano, garlic and basil instead of the Mexican ingredients listed below

Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats 
(adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/07/taco-stuffed-zucchini-boats.html)
Ingredients: 

• 4 medium (32 ounces) zucchinis, cut in half lengthwise

• 1 lb ground turkey

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

• 1 tsp basil

• 1/2 small onion, minced

• 2 tbsp bell pepper, minced

• 8 oz can tomato sauce

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/2 cup reduced fat Mozzarella shredded cheese

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley for topping

Directions: 
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place 1/4 cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of a large baking dish. Using a small spoon or melon baller, hollow out the center of the zucchini halves, leaving 1/4-inch thick shell on each half. Chop the scooped out flesh of the zucchini in small pieces and set aside 3/4 of a cup to add to the turkey filling. Drop zucchini halves in boiling water and cook 1 minute. Remove from water.
Brown turkey in a large skillet, breaking up while it cooks. When no longer pink add the spices and mix well. Add the onion, bell pepper, reserved zucchini, tomato sauce and water. Stir and cover, simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

Using a spoon, fill the hollowed zucchini boats dividing the taco meat equally, about 1/3 cup in each, pressing firmly. Top each with 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes until cheese is melted and zucchini is cooked through. Top with scallions and serve with salsa on the side.

Next, I decided to roast some cauliflower, adding more veggies to our dinner again! I'm on a mission.



Here's what I did,

Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the oil and spices. Chop the cauliflower into florets and add to the bowl. Place your coated cauliflower on a sheet pan and spread evenly in one layer. Bake for about 30 minutes.  Take the cauliflower out of the oven, flip the pieces over and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until the cheese has melted.


Here you have them. They are soooooo good, just like eating candy... well, veggie candy!

Here are the Zuchinni boats out of the oven. Made the house smell so good!

Here's the best thing, 3/4 of our dinner was vegetables- no pasta needed- it was so delicious and flavourful and my family absolutely loved it. It's a new 5 Star family favourite and so good for you!

Let's Eat More Veggies!

That's right!!!! We all need to eat more veggies. According to healthy living experts, half of our plates should be made up of veggies- and the darker the better!  So that is my mission right now. Fill my family up with veggies. Funny enough (but not really, as everything happens for a reason), last night I watched a new show I PVR'd by one of my favourite 'healthy eating' Chefs- Jamie Oliver. His new show is called 'Jamie's Super Food' and he was saying just that! We need to eat more veggies, in fact, he was touring the world to explore the diets of the healthiest, longest-living individuals in the world (Costa Rica and Greece, if I recall) and their diets were filled with vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish etc.... You know where I am going with this....

Well, before I even saw this show, I prepared my own version of  'half your plate should be veggies dinner' this week.

So here it is.

Taco Sweet Potato

                                    

Very simple really, all you need is to prepare your 'Taco meat'- it could be beef, chicken, turkey.... In the meantime, place sweet potatoes that you have pricked with a fork many times in the microwave for about 10-15 minutes (careful, very hot!!!!!)

Cut the sweet potato in half, place a couple of Tbsp of 'taco meat', add shredded cheddar cheese, place in microwave for another 30 secs to melt the cheese, then add your favourite toppings- salsa, low fat sour cream - CILANTRO ( my fave!).

To complete the dinner, I added some fresh cut veggies on the plate- and there you go....half - if not 3/4 of a plate filled with veggies. Enjoy making your own version!

Hello 2016, I'm back and ready for battle with my bottles

That's right, after a long pause in my healthy living journey, I am back and ready for battle.  I have updated the look of my blog, some pictures and captions 'Healthy Living Warrior' to reflect the way I feel right now!

It is a Journey, it is a daily Battle, and you have to be a committed 'Warrior' to succeed day after day. So I have committed to myself that 2016 is the year where I return to traveling along my healthy living journey. Key to success is planning and dedication, so I started with some fantastic ideas I took from Pinterest for Meal Prep Sunday.

Here's the final result....

So quite a bit of planning went into this undertaking. I purchased 12x1 Litre Mason Jars from my local Canadian Tire and I made a list of some of ideas I had for my Salad Jars.

Jar Salad Pointers:

Start with dressing, then hard vegetables that can soak in dressing for a few days, then softer veggies, then protein, nuts, then lettuce on top.

Jar Salad Ideas:

Asian salad dressing, edemame, peppers, chicken, shredded carrots, peanuts, romaine lettuce

Greek salad dressing, little tomatoes, peppers, quinoa, olives, cucumbers, feta, chicken, romaine lettuce

Italian dressing, broccoli, carrots, peppers, diced ham, romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs

Raspberry vinaigrette, grapes, chicken, cranberries, apples, pecans, spinach 

Balsamic dressing, apple, celery, radish, walnut, lettuce

Fig balsamic dressing, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries, celery, cucumber, feta, almonds, spinach

Italian dressing, grape tomatoes, basil, baby bocconcini, romaine lettuce

Here was step one, getting all the ingredients needed. Nutrition, protein, colour and taste.

Now that everything was chopped, I did some assembly line work and packed the jars, but little labels on them so that my family could select the jars to bring to work and school this week. They should last about 4 days in the fridge... we shall see!