Do re mi fajitas

Admit it. You love the smell of the sizzling onions and peppers from the fajita dish at your favorite Mexican restaurant, but you despise the smoke going up your nostrils and burning your eyeballs. There's also the extremely hot cast iron skillet you fear your child grabbing and getting burned from.

Sometimes, you want that Mexican food but don't want your eyes and nostrils burned ;)

Here's a simple way you can make a healthier version of fajitas at home. First, you'll want to substitute flour tortillas for corn tortillas. If you've ever been to Mexico, you know the traditional one is with corn. It's also gluten free!

Another easy substitution is yellow rice for brown rice. Guess what? You can keep the refried or black beans!

For the chicken

Ingredients:

1 green pepper, sliced

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

Extra virgin Olive oil, 3 tbsp

1 lb organic skinless chicken breasts

2tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tbsp lime juice 

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup water 

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Sauté the onion and green pepper over medium heat in 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan. While that is sautéing, mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the chicken breasts in a medium bowl. Let marinate for about 10 minutes while you continue to sauté the veggies. 

Remove the veggies from pan. Increase heat to medium high. Cook chicken breasts on each side for 5 minutes. Lower  head to medium low, cover, and cook on each side for about 10 minutes. Voila!

For the beans

Ingredients

1 can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 yellow onion

This part gets so fun! You will need a food processor (or magic bullet). Puree the bell peppers and onion in your food processor. This is an easy way to slide veggies into your beans for the picky eaters! 

Next, bring a small pot to medium heat with the olive oil. You never want to cook olive oil over medium heat, because then you lost it's nutritional benefits. Saute your veggie puree (or what my mom would call sofrito) in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Then, add the black beans, and about a cup of water, and garlic powder. Stir and bring to a boil. Once the beans are boiling, bring heat down to low, cover and let continue to cooke for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off and leave covered until ready to serve.

For the rice

Ingredients

1 bag of bird's eye steam brown rice

3 tsp lime juice

2 tsp dry cilantro

This is the hardest part. JUST KIDDING! I used to dread cooking brown rice because of how long it took, until I found the little blue bag of brown rice in the freezer isle. It cooks by steaming in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, let it cool for about 4 minutes. Open the bag, pour lime juice and sprinkle cilantro into the bag, and stir with a spoon. Ta-da!

We like to create a "DIY" fajita bar at home, and let each person build their own over the corn tortillas. Enjoy!

Sweet potato chips

Last week a friend shared with me the concept of using a mandolin- best idea ever! A HUGE time saver, and much safer than the traditional knife and chop block.

Lo and behold, I took a trip to Target last night with my daughter to buy her a backpack before the back to school madness begins (I'm glad we went- it was the very last My Little Pony one). Every woman knows how it goes at Target- my $20 trip turned into a $100 trip. One of those items was my new mandolin!

I got to use it for the first time today, and love how these sweet potato chips turned out. Besides a mandolin, here's what you'll need:

-1 sweet potato

-2 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tbsp olive oil

-crushed black pepper to taste 

Preheat your over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Slice your sweet potato with the lovely mandolin.

Toss the slices in the garlic powder, olive oil, and black pepper.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, turning at halftime, and then broil for 2 minutes. Voila!

Spinach- aka Popeye's fuel

Most of us lack consuming enough vegetables each day to properly fuel our bodies. I've mentioned this before, but the easiest way to include a large amount of vegetables for a smaller bite is to include them in your egg scramble. It takes less than a minute!

Bring your pan to medium heat, spray with coconut oil, and watch your spinach shrink!

Check out my video:

http://youtu.be/HdfJGwpAmYs

Egg muffins

On Sundays, I like to do my meal preparations for the week. Breakfast is on my high priority list, since I am grab and go, in a rush, trying to stop my daughter off at daycare before making it to work. These little egg muffins come in handy anytime!

I recommend pre-portioning them out into freezer ziplock bags of 2 in each bag. Keep about 3 out in the fridge, and freeze the rest. After you go through the 3 servings, take one bag from the freezer and thaw them out overnight in the fridge. All you need to do is pop them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds each day. They're even great cold!

Ingredients

• 12 slices turkey bacon, chopped
• 12 organic eggs
• 1 TB organic coconut oil (to coat baking dish)
• ¼ tsp aluminum free baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• Pepper to taste
• 2 cups of spinach, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, diced
• Shredded cheese of choice- I recommend skim mozzarella or sharp cheddar (optional)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven 375 degrees.
2. Brown the sausage in some butter or coconut oil.
3. Beat the eggs,  baking powder, salt, and pepper in a small mixing bowl.
4. In a well greased (with coconut oil) 12 muffin tin, divide the bell peppers, turkey bacon, and spinach in each cup.
5. Pour the egg mixture over the spinach, turkey bacon and bell peppers.
6. Top with cheese.
7. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Zoodles dish- Zucchini Noodles

There is nothing like walking down the farmer's market on a Saturday morning. One of my favorite items? Zucchini! Here is a very simple and easy recipe using zucchini. You will need a vegetable spiral cutter (I recommend vegetti).

Zoodle Turkey Spaghetti

1. Brown the ground turkey breast over medium heat in a pan coated with extra virgin coconut or olive oil. Once browned, mix in 1 tsp oregano, 1tsp garlic, and 1 tsp Italian seasoning. Lower heat to low, cover, and let cook for about 10 more minutes.

2. While the turkey is cooking, follow the directions of your vegetable spiral cutter to cut your zucchini. It should look like this when you are done-

3. Cook the zucchini in boiling water for about 5 minutes, then drain and set aside.

4. Add 1 can (32 ounces) of organic tomato sauce of your choice (or you can make your own) to the ground turkey in the pan. Stir.

5. Place 2 tsp Italian seasoning and 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil into the ground turkey/tomato sauce in the pan and stir. Cover and let simmer over low heat for about another 10 minutes.

6. When turkey tomato sauce is ready, serve over the zoodles (zucchini noodles) and enjoy!

Do you ever get that craving for something cinnamon raisin? Or maybe a cold banana? One of my favorite go to snacks combines the too. Particularly, I prefer my bread extra toasty.

A quick, delicious, healthy snack:1 slice Ezekiel cinnamon raison bread1 tsp natural almond butter1/2 a banana, slicedSaigon cinnamon, dash of

Slice half a banana into 1/2 inch slices. This tool is very handy if you're a little OCD and like having your slices cut even ;)

Toast the slice of bread to desire (I love the full flavors of the grains in Ezekiel). Spread almond butter on toast, layer with banana slices, and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Did you know cinnamon is loaded with health benefits?-It is loaded with antioxidants, which help with free radicals in your body-Serves as an anti-inflammatory-Cut the risk of heart disease-Lowers blood sugar levels

I recommend using the organic Saigon cinnamon- it's my favorite! 

I scream, you scream, we all scream...

For ICE CREAM!!

This recipe looks absolutely delicious, and I am going to have to give it a try this summer.  I will be substituting the sugar for some local raw honey, and using fresh picked local blueberries from the farmers market on Palafox.

The recipe is from the blog Renee's Kitchen Adventures
http://www.reneeskitchenadventures.com/2014/08/blueberry-frozen-yogurt.html

A summer frozen treat made with Greek yogurt 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (I will substitute for raw honey)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1-12 ounce bag frozen blueberries
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 cups plain 2% milk fat Greek yogurt
• Ice cream maker

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, vanilla, blueberries, juice of lemon, and lemon zest. Turn heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved. Press the berries with the spoon to burst them. Remove from heat. 
2. Pour mixture into a container, and refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours. 
3. Once the mixture is well chilled, add to a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add in the yogurt and continue to process until well blended. 
4. Freeze in your ice cream maker, according to manufacturers directions. Once the consistency of soft serve, spoon into container with cover and freeze for several hours.