Quick Power Breakfast (on the go!): The Frittata

I don’t know about you, but my mornings usually start way too early and always in a rush. That doesn’t change the fact that I NEED a power-packed breakfast to get me through my first five hours of coaching and lifting before I have a moment to breathe/eat. 

My ABSOLUTE favorite fast, easy, can-take-it-on-the-go breakfast is one I’ve been making for years (since grad school, when it was my go to for how CHEAP it is too). It’s the humble frittata!

A frittata is sort of like a crustless quiche or an omelette in nature, is INSANELY easy to make, and you can re-heat it in about a minute in the mornings. It’s filled with vegetables, protein, it’s LEAN, it’s filling, and have I mentioned it’s easy?

The basic recipe

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Crack open 6-8 eggs and whisk them.
• Pick your add ins (spinach, onion, mushroom, carrots, zucchini, feta, chicken, cheddar, salt, pepper, WHATEVER YOU WANT OR LIKE). Cut em up small (big fan of grating things like zucchini into mine). Mix them together. 
• Coat a muffin tin with spray/butter and fill the cups up halfway. 
• Bake for 20-25 minutes (you know they’re done when you can stick a fork in the middle and it comes out cleanly). Let cool for a bit. 
• Eat hot, or refrigerate them in a sealed container (heyo, Tupperware for days). You can even freeze these for up to three months (why you would, I don’t know…I eat mine too fast!)
• I love throwing mine on a whole wheat English muffin to make it portable but you do you. 

There’s really no wrong way to do this (besides forgetting to spray the muffin tin, don’t forget that, it’s no fun). I mean, you could even do this with egg whites (although I don’t know why you’d ignore the yolk like that with all the goodness it holds, but I won’t hold that against you). 

Give it a try, save yourself some time in the mornings. And if you have kids who were like me growing up and ALWAYS late out the door, it saves you some time there too (and THEY can even learn how to make these and come up with their own favorite recipes).

Turkey and Vegetable Meatballs

I have gotten insanely lazy about food prep the last few months, mainly because my fiancé has been home to make dinner every night (and he’s a phenomenal chef, so who am I to say no to that?!)

That’s changed, now that spring training is underway and baseball season is around the corner.

Sundays are always my day to go to the farmer’s market anyways, so I decided to spend a few extra hours coming up with some recipes and actually preparing food for the next week.

One of the recipes I wanted to try? A turkey meatball. I looked around and found one I could play with and dress up how I liked, and came up with this one. It made about 30 meatballs, which, with veggies and rice, is a good four or five meals for me.

Turkey and Vegetable Meatballs
Prep Time: 25 minutes*   | Cook Time: 15 minutes
(*This took me so much longer because I don’t have a food processor to chop things up, so I did it all by hand. Worth it, and very therapeutic somehow). 

Ingredients:
1 small yellow onion
80z mushrooms (I used baby bellas because I had some left over)
1/2 cup carrots
1 celery stalk
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
1/2 cup spinach
2 tbsp Italian seasoning (I mixed my own because I didn’t have any but I had all the parts to it)
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound of lean ground turkey meat
olive oil

Directions:

1. Finely chop mushrooms, onion, celery and garlic in a food processor, or by hand, if you’re like me and just don’t have one. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a tray with tinfoil and coat it with cooking spray.
3. Add the spices, parsley, and spinach to the veggie mix, then add in the turkey. Fold everything together but don’t over mix it.
4. Form this into little meatballs! I used a spoon to scoop some out and make them. You can certainly go ham and make massive meatballs, just keep in mind the cook time will be wildly different.
5. Bake these bad boys for about 15 minutes, give or take.
6. If you want to freeze some for the future, let them cool, seal them in an airtight container, and you can keep them for up to three months (though I kinda doubt they’ll last that long here).
7. ENJOY. No but seriously, enjoy these bad boys. They’re good AND healthy.

You can certainly add zucchini or any other vegetables to this as well. I’m a huge fan of hiding veggies in my meals JUST to get a few extra.

A Kale Salad Worth Trying

I came across this recipe a few years ago while procrastinating on my thesis taking a study break, and have to say, I’m really happy I stumbled back across it while spring cleaning files. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten kale (I go through phases with my food), but with the hot weather kicking in for the summer, it’s time to dig back into cooler recipes.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it looked so irresistibly good that I had to try it out. Yes, I know, I actually MADE a recipe I pinned (I didn’t think people did that). Not to mention, it’s power-packed with nutrients and flavor, and I’m all about that. Sweet, nutty, a little punch of citrus (my favorite). It’s the perfect summery salad, full of protein and calcium (did you know kale has calcium in it? It does).

As a disclaimer, my method of cooking is “a pinch of this, a dash of that.” I rarely measure.

Kale Edamame Salad
Kale
Quinoa
Edamame
1/2 Red Onion
Mango

Add however much of each as you want. I used half a bunch of kale, a cup of quinoa, half a red onion, a whole mango, and a cup of shelled and cooked edamame.

Lemon Basil Dressing
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1 basil leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

And blend! The recipe itself calls for sugar but I don’t usually keep sugar in the house, so honey it is.

This recipe easily makes enough to last me the whole week–which I’m thankful for, because while I’m normally a cook-as-I-go girl, I’m appreciating the freedom some food prep provides me, especially on busy or unpredictable days. And the best part: the longer it sits in the dressing, the softer the kale gets and the more flavorful the salad is (the acid from the lemons breaks down the kale a bit).

You can add in other goodies–avocado, cucumbers, carrots, sprouts, cabbage–take your pick and dress it up.

 

Lo-key lo mein

I love Chinese food. 

Actually let’s be serious, I love FOOD, and I love trying new recipes and flavors to keep things fresh. I’m also usually looking for easy recipes because, well, life is busy.

Anyways, I’ve been craving Chinese food and decided to try making a healthy version at home. Lo mein is my absolute favorite, and I figured a low risk recipe for my first attempt at the rich flavors of Chinese food. (I also had a bunch of vegetables in my fridge that I needed to use, and this is a great recipe to try this with). 

If I do say so myself, this turned out pretty well, and I’ll be making more versions in the future. 

Vegetable Lo Mein 

The sauce (mix together in a small bowl and set aside):

• Soy sauce (2 tbsp) 
• Sugar (2 tsp) 
• Sesame oil (1 tsp)
• Ground ginger (1/2 tsp) 
• Sriracha (1/2 tsp…I used more for a bit more kick) 

The rest: 

• Cook your lo mein noodles according to the packaging. They don’t take long, maybe 4 minutes. 
• In a pan or a wok, heat up some olive oil and toss your choices of vegetables (and/or proteins) in. I went with snap peas, broccoli slaw, water chestnuts and bell peppers.

Put them all together, toss them in the sauce, and bam, deliciousness. 

Easy, right? Next adventure might be making the noodles from scratch.