BBQ Chicken Pineapple Lettuce Wraps

Ok, I am totally and completely addicted to the "Food and Drink" section on Pinterest. So many of the recipes are not clean or healthy... those are saved and revisited on special occasions. That being said, I get really excited when I find a recipe that looks amazing and its healthy AND my family will love it... WINNING!

This recipe is pretty healthy for the most part. BBQ sauce has a lot of sugar and "junk" in it, so it's not really "clean", but its not too bad... especially served on lettuce leaves! You could always modify the recipe and use whatever you want as the sauce. I will have to try some different variations too!

Crockpot BBQ chicken and pineapple

1 bag frozen chicken breasts
1 bottle Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce
1 20oz can pineapple chunks (drained)

Cook on high for 4 hours and that's it!

I sliced up cucmber, carrots and avacado to put on top. No joke, they tasted every bit as delicious as they look!

This is a great recipe for spring/summer especially! The best part is it cooks in the crockpot! Nothing better than coming home from a long day at work to a "ready to eat" dinner!

Cocoa Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

I am always on the lookout for quick, healthy snacks... and the ones that I can bring with me "on the go" get bonus points! I don't consider my diet "clean" although I do try to eat as clean as possible when I can. Where am I going with this? Well I kept seeing these amazingly delicious looking cocoa almonds all over Instagram. All these health/fitness buffs were finding the huge canisters of them at Sam's Club and honestly, I think they are hoarding them because I can't find them there =( I did find the regular sized cans and 100 calorie packs at Target (my home away from home!). I snagged them the second I saw them...They taste like heaven. I figured if all of these health nuts on Instagram were hoarding them, they couldn't be too bad for me. To my surprise (because of how delicious they are) they had hardly any sodium or sugar which is AWESOME... but I decided I wanted to try to make my own.

I bought the cocoa and the cinnamon versions and both were REALLY good... but I thought a cocoa AND cinnamon version would be amazing... so that's what I made.

Cocoa Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

5-6 Cups RAW almonds
1-2 Tbsp coconut oil (just to coat almonds for coating to stick)
1/4 Cups unsweetened cocoa (I used Hersheys and I "eyeballed" it)
Cinnamon to taste (I was generous and used probably a couple teaspoons... I like cinnamon!)
1 tsp sugar

In a large mixing bowl I combined the almonds and coconut oil until the almonds were coated evenly. Add cocoa and cinnamon and mix well coating all of the almonds evenly. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes

This is another recipe you could have many variations of. Have fun with it!

Chicken Meatballs

As you know, I have been on a meal prepping mission any Sunday that I have the time. It gets really hard to come up with new things that will stay fresh since I prep for the week. Regular old chicken breasts are getting a little old, so this week I decided to try meatballs with ground chicken and I am definitely goign to do them again! They are delish!

Ground Chicken Meatballs

1lb ground chicken
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1/4 small red onion
1 egg
2 tbsp BBQ Sauce (I went light, but next time I will probably add a little more)

Mixed all ingredients in a mixing bowl and made into 6 equal sized meatballs. Baked at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

They don't look that appetizing in this picture, but I ate them with boiled broccoli and cauliflower and a little bbq sauce over the top and they were MMM MMM good! Totally making them again, I might try ground turkey next time!

My "famous" salsa

I call my salsa recipe "famous" because people LOVE it... I mean LOVE... its like crack salsa. People are always asking me to bring it to parties and raving about it. I am a salsa FREAK and I love it, but it makes me happy that other people love it too!

The original recipe is a "copy cat" of a Chili's salsa recipe I found online... I just added a couple of ingredients, so I feel like its my OWN!

http://www.copykat.com/2009/03/27/chilis-salsa/

"Famous" Salsa Recipe

1 handful of cilantro
1 jalepeno
1/2 white onion
2 tbsp lime juice (give or take, I am not really sure how much, I just squeeze a few times around the bowl)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis and mexican seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp sugar

Blend jalepeno, cilantro, onion, lime and all of the spices in the food processor, add both cans of tomatoes, blend more and VIOLA... the best salsa ever!

Sunday Meal Prep

WHERE does the weekend go? Seriously… weekends at home are so busy anymore, it makes it hard to throw anything fun in the mix because everything at home seems to fall behind… but the fun stuff is worth it!
Last weekend was pretty busy, so I didn’t get to do as much of my meal prep as I like to do normally. Meal prep is great because it keeps me from blindly grabbing things out of the fridge in a rush in the mornings before work and better yet, it keeps me from eating out too much. So, while it’s a couple hours of WORK on a Sunday, I actually really enjoy doing it and it keeps me on track throughout the week.
I just started prepping my own food for the whole week at a time… so honestly, I don’t have a whole lot of variety just yet. Also, my little family doesn’t really like the same stuff I do, so I usually make them something quick and as healthy as I can get with them as they are pretty picky eaters : /
I normally prep snacks and my protein shakes (which I blend up w/ ice, strawberries and bananas) in the mornings as I go… so the stuff I do on Sunday is normally mostly lunches and dinners… and I keep it pretty simple.
This past Sunday I prepped ground turkey taco salads

With homemade salsa


Egg white cups

Spaghetti squash with chorizo chicken sausage


And roasted almonds with cocoa, cinnamon and a little coconut oil (recipe to follow!)

All with help from my little helper…

Healthy fudge!

I've been on a roll today... I have many past recipes I want to post, but everything from today way quick, easy and healthy! my baby girl was sick and slept a lot, so I went for it!

Paleo Peanut Butter Fudge

1/2 coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 natural peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt coconut oil, add peanut butter, cocoa, honey and vanilla to melted coconut oil. Mix well and distribute into ice cube tray. Chill in fridge 30 min and move to the freezer for another 10 min.

Recipe Credit

I'll be keeping the rest in the freezer for quick chocolate fixes!

Baked Apple Chips

The worlds easiest, most delicious, HEALTHY snack...

Baked Apple Chips

Ingredients...

Apples

That's it.

You could season them up with cinnamon and even some brown sugar if you wanted, but these babies are delicious just baked on their own.

I sliced them on the thinnest setting on my mandolin and baked them on a cooling rack on a baking sheet at 250 degrees for 50 minutes... perfect!