Hello my dears and welcome to the first installment of the Recipe Roundup.
I know that so many of us are spending time doing this and that, leaving very little room for exploring blogs and finding new things to cook and try out. I’m totally guilty of neglecting blogs and never getting around to trying out new recipes. So, with the help of Feedly (my favorite replacement for Google Reader), I’m going to try turning over a new leaf!
The plan is as follows:
I will read the feeds in my reader like always and bookmark the ones that seem really awesome. (Actually, I’m going to be saving them in Evernote so I can find them in the future and make meal plans.) Then, every week, I will make a list of new fabulous recipes here. Some of them I may have tried already, and others will probably still be on the meal plan to be tried…but whatever they are, they will look and sound delicious. I’m also going to be trying various themes each week — so if you’d love to see a certain type of recipes, shout it out in the comment below! 😉
We’re making an effort to eat more “clean” around here since our official 16-week marathon training has begun, especially for breakfasts and lunches which we don’t typically plan for which leads to us just running out for something quick once we reach the point of starvation. We still burn more calories than we consume, and most days fall miserably short of consuming healthy amounts of calories to keep our bodies from fully eating itself in a bad way — but we’re trying. I’m finding that even after a big, hearty, balanced dinner, I still get wicked cravings for something to snack on at around 9:30pm. Definitely not the best time to be eating anything since my body won’t have time to work off the calories — but my body seems to think it’s a must anyway. So if you’ve got some great clean & healthy snacking ideas (we’ve been going for fresh fruit salad and things of that nature), I’d love to see the links!
“The Clean” Recipes
- Salads in jars — I think this idea is brilliantly simple and LOVE that you can make them on Sunday and eat them for the next 5 days. They are idea to take to work with you or just have around the house. And it’s been proved time and time again that if you chop everything at once for several days of cooking ahead (like onions, bell peppers, carrots, etc), the entire cooking (and cleanup) process goes faster. I’m going to have to dig out some liter-sized canning jars from the basement for this over the weekend — but for summer, I adore this idea! it’s also a wonderful thing to take to friends for new baby or pregnancy gifts, get well soon gifts and the like.
- Paleo-friendly Nutty Snack Mix — You’ll notice that this snack mix has no extra carbs in it, ie it’s only nuts. And that’s what makes it Paleo. 😉 I love that she just throws in whatever salt mix available in the pantry and am totally going to grab some nuts from the market tomorrow and try out a few new snack mix blends!
- Stuffed Protein Crepes — We recently started having a quick protein shake with coffee in it to wake up in the morning and get something substantial in our stomaches before we have to dash out the door to take Mackenzie. I can see these crepes not only being a hit on busy mornings, but weekends too. I would even venture to guess that if you made them smaller, like pancakes, that you could just make a bunch of freeze them, then pop one or two in the toaster when you want to eat them and thaw+warm them up.
- Veggie Popsicles — I LOVE the idea of using carrots, sweet potatoes and apples to make popsicles that are not totally laden with sugar and empty carbs. Every kid loves sweets — but if you can sneak in something at least slightly healthy in the mix, it’s got to better for them, right? We are going to try out at least one of these variations in the near future!
- Hibiscus Lime Soda (with Stevia) — Speaking of things that your kids will love to devour and that you won’t feel quite so bad about giving them, this homemade soda sounds awesome. Plus, you can use stevia for so many other things too. Not to mention that you can even grow stevia yourself (but you would need a LOT of plants to use like this on a regular basis.)
- Make-Ahead Chicken Marinades — Ok, this is one of those ideas where you see it and think, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” I really like this idea and you could even use a FoodSaver if you like to decrease the chances of freezer burner if you tend to lose track of things in your freezer. I’m going to stock up on chicken and totally do this!
Now it’s your turn to share! What are you favorite healthy (or even not to healthy) recipes this week? Leave your mark in the comments below!
