21 Day Fix Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Another great recipe added to our rotation!  We loved the enchiladas a couple of weeks ago, but as I mentioned, we don't always want a "yellow" for our dinner.  We were big fans of the green chile enchilada sauce, so wanted another recipe to incorporate that flavor.  This one's easy too, so a great one to add into your weekly meal rotation when you have another more difficult recipe!

6 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
1 spaghetti squash
1 large can green chile enchilada sauce
1 T onion powder
1/2 cup greek yogurt

Optional toppings:
greek yogurt
shredded cheddar
diced tomato
diced onion
cilantro


We always bake our spaghetti squash whole.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake whole for about an hour, or until squash softens.  Slice in half.  After the squash cools, scrape out insides, discarding seeds.

Mix all ingredients, and place in 9 by 13 baking dish.  Bake uncovered at 350 for about 30 minutes. We topped with greek yogurt, diced tomato, and diced onion.  Shredded cheddar and cilantro would be great toppings as well!

21 Day Fix Challengers, the 9 by 13 dish made 8 servings.  We counted 1 serving as 1 red, 1 green.  I added a side salad tonight as well.

Meal Planning

I typically plan our weekly meals on Wednesday and Thursday of each week.  I try to base some of our meals on items that are on sale each week to keep costs down.  We've found our grocery budget drops pretty significantly when we plan and stick to our menu.  Not only do we look for sale items, we try to incorporate one crock pot recipe, and mix recipes based on complexity.  No one wants to spend the entire weekend in the kitchen (believe me, there are recipes we've planned that left us that way - not again!!).  Once you've planned and executed a few weeks, you'll get the swing of it and find what works for you.

I'll be posting Weekly Meal Plans in the coming months, though may only post a few until after April 15th.  All meal plans are based on the 21 Day Fix/Hammer and Chisel Meal Plan.  The plan I'll post is for someone in the lowest calorie/container count.  My husband increases his container counts as needed with a serving of oatmeal and fruit, extra protein at dinner, a whey protein shake, etc.  If you have any questions, email me here!

Here's the first weekly meal plan, and sorry for the size of the picture!  Still new at figuring out some of the tricks to posting!  Believe me, the larger size here is a much better option than what I originally attempted to post - would have required a magnifying glass to read ;)

Family Approved 21 Day Fix Lasagna

Who doesn't love a good lasagna recipe?  We haven't made lasagna in a while because we really like to use ezekiel bread or sweet potatoes for our "yellows" (carbs) versus noodles.  We decided to try thinly sliced zucchini in place of noodles, and we all loved it!  When I put a serving on the girls plates, I made sure to cut the serving into small pieces; made the zucchini a little less noticeable.

Family Approved 21 Day Fix Lasagna

4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup mushrooms, diced
28 oz crushed tomatoes
15 oz tomato sauce
2 T tomato paste
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1.5 lb ground beef
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
3 large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 cup Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup parmesan

Preheat oven to 425.

In a medium pot, saute garlic in a little olive oil.  Then add diced onion, red pepper, and mushrooms, cooking about 5 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and basil leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, brown ground beef, seasoning with salt, pepper, and oregano.  Drain beef and add to sauce.

Place Ricotta cheese and egg in food processor and pulse until smooth.

Spread thin layer of meat sauce on bottom of 9 by 13 baking dish.  Place a single layer of thinly sliced zucchini over sauce.  Note, I've seen recipes where you slice the zucchini lengthwise, however, we did not.  Spread Ricotta mixture over zucchini, then layer with meat sauce, then sprinkle mozzarella, then parmesan.   Repeat layers. Cover with foil, bake about 30 minutes.  

21 Day Fix Challengers - We cut the above into 8 servings and counted as 1.25 green, 1 red, 1 blue.

21 Day Fix Meatloaf

I've been through stages where I am not a big meat eater, so finding a meatloaf recipe I like was a little surprising!  We have found many amazing recipes on one of our favorite sites, paleomg.com, and her Bacon Chorizo Chipotle Smothered Meatloaf is one of our favorites (sometimes I prefer without the bacon)!  We wanted a recipe that would fit more closely into our current meal plan, so just modified the recipe.  If you are looking for a treat though, definitely check out her recipe - it's incredible!!

1.5 lb lean ground beef
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1/3 yellow onion, diced
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained well
1 cup diced mushrooms
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup almond flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients in large bowl and mix.  Place in 9 by 13 baking dish.  Bake about 1 hour, until center is completely cooked.  Top with tomato sauce and bake another 5 - 10 minutes.

21 Day Fix Challengers - We counted the above, which was about 1/8th of the baking dish, as 1 red, 1/4 green, and 1/4 yellow.  I served with zucchini, mushroom, and tomato sauteed with about 1 tsp coconut oil, oregano, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.

Weekend Wrap - More 21 Day Fix Approved Recipes!

Fun weekend for us!  I did work on Saturday, of course, but we still managed to squeeze lots of fun into the weekend!

Saturday started off with our workouts.  I mentioned last week that I wouldn't put off my workouts until Saturday evenings through tax season, and I stuck to my decision this weekend.  I was really happy to get the workout over and out of the way!  One thing I've realized, most people aren't waking up to their alarms super excited and happy to be woken up each day.  Most of us would love to sleep in and stay snuggled in our beds.  But, knowing that with hard work come results, I've been able to keep pushing myself out of bed each morning!  I really am so happy with how I'm feeling with this program, and I really think I can keep working out according to the program through the end of tax season - I have to come back to this post on about April 5th or so to remind myself!!

Onto the recipes from the weekend!  Saturday night we made enchiladas - 21 day fix approved enchiladas!!  As usual, we found a few recipes we liked and modified to fit our plan.  Here's how the enchiladas went down:

5 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
1 bunch of fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 - 2 tsp olive oil
1 large can green chile enchilada sauce
1 large can red enchilada sauce
12 wheat tortillas
shredded cheddar cheese
greek yogurt, as topping

Boil chicken until cooked thoroughly.  Shred chicken once cool.  Meanwhile, saute onions in olive oil until translucent, then add spinach and mushrooms and cook until spinach wilts.  Mix shredded chicken with spinach mixture.  We made 2 versions, one with green enchilada sauce and one with red enchilada sauce.  We split the chicken/spinach mixture in half, and added about 3/4 cup of green sauce to one, and about 3/4 cup red sauce to the other.

Preheat oven to 350.  Spread green enchilada sauce in the bottom of one glass 9 by 13 baking dish, and spread red enchilada sauce over the bottom of another glass 9 by 13 baking dish.  Measure 1 red container (3/4 cup) of chicken mixture and place in the center of wheat tortilla, roll, and place in baking dish.  Continue until you have placed 6 filled tortillas in each baking dish.  Pour remaining sauce over the top of enchiladas.  We measured about 1/2 a blue container of shredded cheese to top each enchilada.  Feel free to add cheese as you see fit!  Bake approximately 15 minutes.

We counted the below as 1.25 red (chicken and greek yogurt), 1.5 yellow (tortilla and black beans), 1.5 green (salad and spinach/onion/mushroom in enchiladas) .5 blue (cheese).  This meal is completely worth saving your yellows!!!

Sunday was Valentine's Day, so we had to indulge in a little dessert!  We bought dark chocolate chips and made chocolate covered pineapple and bananas.  We also love strawberries and grapes, but I think we all would choose pineapple as our favorite.  Unfortunately this wasn't the only dessert I had all weekend because peanut M&Ms showed up in our house!  I cannot resist peanut M&Ms, so I've had my fair share over the past 24 hours!  Good for me I've been mostly on track lately, so definitely still feel like we've followed our meal plan 80% of the time.

We have a few other great recipes coming this week, so be on the lookout for lasagna and meatloaf!!

Weekend Wrap - Sweet Potato Skins

Busy weekend here!  Between my first weekend working and lots of fun birthday parties for the girls, we had lots going on this weekend!  Saturday morning I was ready to get to the office and get my day started versus workout.  I told DJ I had to workout as soon as I got home, so making the verbal commitment helped; however, going forward I have got to get my workout in before I head into the office on the weekends.  I really did not want to workout when I got home.  I was tired, hungry, had a headache - a million reasons why I should've just skipped!!  I'm glad I pushed through and got the workout knocked out, but this coming weekend I'm working out first thing Saturday morning!

Luckily this weekend we had quite a bit of food frozen from the past several weeks.  We pulled out shredded chicken for chicken salad on Sunday, chili for dinner one night, and frozen meatballs and marinara sauce for another meal.  DJ also grilled a variety of chicken drummies, which we enjoyed for the Super Bowl and we froze enough for lunch several days next week.  It's great during tax season to have a few things already prepared, so we'll continue to cook extra when we cook new meals and throw half in the freezer.

We did try a new recipe this weekend - sweet potato skins!  We did regular potatoes for the girls, and the sweet potatoes for us.  Saved our yellow and blue for the day so they fit exactly into our meal plan!  Here's the recipe we used:

Sweet potato
Salt
Pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese
Green onion
Bacon
Plain greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake sweet potato until soft, about one hour, slice in half and let cool.  Once cooled, score with a knife, leaving about 1/4 inch of the potato along edge.  Scoop out insides and sit to the side, .  Drizzle inside of potato with olive oil.  Place sweet potato back into oven and bake about 10 minutes.  While sweet potato skin is baking, mash insides from potato and add salt and pepper to taste.  Once skin is baked, remove from oven and fill with mashed potato.  Top with shredded cheese, bake about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven, top with diced green onion and chopped bacon.  Add greek yogurt.  We were really pleased with how these turned out, and will definitely make these again!

Day 30 Results!!

Day 30 RESULTS!!!

DJ:
Chest - stayed the same
L Arm - same
R Arm - same
Waist - lost 3/4 inch
Hips - lost 3 1/2 inches (HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??? I measured, remeasured, and remeasured, mostly because I was ticked that he could lose that much in his hips in 30 days - ha!!!)
L thigh - up 1/2 inch - which he wants, unlike me and my thighs wink emoticon
R thigh - up 1 inch

Me:
Chest - down 1/4 inch
L Arm - 1/4 inch smaller - ?? Not what I'm wanting here, but DJ says it's b/c it's going to get leaner first
R Arm - same
Waist - lost 1 inch
Hips - lost 2 inches!!!! Huge victory for me!
L thigh - lost 1/2 inch
R thigh - lost 1/4 inch

We are thrilled with our results, y'all!!!  The 30 days has FLOWN by, and I am so excited to keep going!  I really cannot wait to see how our results are in another 30 days!!  If anyone is interested in joining us, email me here!!  I'm telling you, if we can do this, YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

21 Day Fix Meatballs and "Spaghetti"

We are about to take measurements for Day 30!!!  So excited to see how much progress we've made!  I'll report in with measurements to let you guys know how the program has worked for us.  I definitely feel better than I did a month ago, and increasing weights has been great for me.  I have been sore, but in a good way.  I'm glad to be feeling stronger, and looking forward to the next 30 days of the program!

The below recipe has been a hit this week!  Even the "picky" eater in the family chowed down on the meatballs, which was a pleasant sight!  These meatballs were easy and fast; finding a store bought marinara definitely helps because we didn't have any homemade sauce frozen.  Nice to just throw in a prepared jar!  We just added a few sauteed mushrooms on the side.  Enjoy!

21 Day Fix Meatballs
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup ground carrots
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
Zucchini noodles or whole wheat pasta noodles
Marinara sauce (homemade or store bought with no added sugar)

Grease baking sheet with olive oil.  Mix together ground beef and next 5 ingredients, and form meatballs into size of golf balls.  Place onto greased baking sheet.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 - 12 minutes.  Serve meatballs over zucchini noodles or whole wheat pasta noodles, top with marinara sauce.

21 Day Fix Challengers - 3 meatballs equals 1 red, zucchini noodles mixed with marinara sauce equals 1 green (Note, if you do not find a marinara sauce that is no sugar added, you will need to count the sauce as a purple, not a green.  See video from Autumn explaining the difference.)

Marinara Sauce - Green or Purple?

Weekend Wrap - New Recipes!

Another busy weekend around here, but enjoyed the last free weekend before tax season gears up!  Much warmer weather, so it was nice to be able to get outside and let the kids play.

We are getting close to Day 30 of Hammer and Chisel now; hard to believe!! Hoping our results are good; we follow the meal plan pretty closely, however, I like to enjoy my wine on the weekends.  Plus, the chocolate chips from a couple of weekends ago have been calling my name - glad they are finally out of the house - ha!!  We will be reporting in measurements later this week!

We have been taking turns working out on Saturday, and we've managed to get our workouts done early in the day.  Otherwise, it's too easy to let the day get away from you and miss a workout!  Sunday is our rest day, so we spend a little time Sunday packing up lunches for the week, and then get to relax!

Here are a few new recipes from the weekend:

Flank Steak Roll Ups

2 1/2 lbs flank steak

Salt

Black Pepper 

Garlic Powder

Veggie filling:

2 zucchini

2 carrots

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1/2 yellow onion

Balsamic Glaze:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/4 cup beef broth

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp red wine

3 Tbsp Worcestershire

2 sprigs of rosemary

Start by prepping flank steak.  Pound with meat mallet to thin, and cut into about 2 inch wide strips.  Season meat with salt, black pepper and garlic powder.

Slice veggies into matchstick size pieces.  Saute veggies with 2 tsp olive oil, about 3 minutes.  Place a few veggies onto steak, wrap, and secure with toothpick.  Place steak rolls in baking dish.

Heat olive oil, then add beef broth, balsamic vinegar, red wine, worcestershire, and rosemary.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.  Discard rosemary sprigs.  Pour glaze over steak rolls.  

Bake in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes (depending on your preference for beef).  

21 Day Fix Challengers - This is one of those recipes that is not an exact measurement.  I am counting 3 roll ups as 1 red, 1 green, and 1 tsp!

21 Day Fix Approved Chicken Salad

5 chicken breasts

4 stalks celery, diced

3 green onions, chopped

3/4 cup greek yogurt

1 tsp parsley flakes

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

Boil chicken breasts, let cool, then shred.  After shredded, add additional ingredients, stir!  I am eating the chicken salad for lunch this week with a side salad and sweet potato fries.

Glad we finally found a chicken salad recipe without mayo that we both like!

21 Day Fix Challengers - I measured the chicken salad into a red container for my serving size.  I am not strict on measurements of green, as long as they are close, so I don't really count the celery and green onion.  The above recipe made 7 servings, so between 7 servings a few stalks of celery and green onion doesn't amount to much of a green!!  

21 Day Fix Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

Steel Cut Oats, cooked according to package directions

*Apples

*Cinnamon

Slice apple(s) in half.  Place in baking dish.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake on 400 until soft, approximately 15 minutes.  Dice apples when cool.  Add one apple to one serving of oatmeal.  I'm not a huge fan of cooked fruit, but this is actually really good!  You can also bake the apples and eat as a snack without the oatmeal, if you are using your yellows another way throughout the day.  

*My husband makes 5 servings at a time, and he uses 5 apples and 1 tsp of cinnamon.  

21 Day Fix Challengers - Measure one yellow container of oatmeal and combine with one apple for 1 yellow, 1 purple.