Minestrone soup!

It’s getting warmer, veggies are starting to pop up everywhere! In my opinion it’s never too warm for soup! It’s packed full of fiber and lots of nutrition! Plus it’s super easy to make. 

Minestrone soup 

2tsp olive oil 

2 onions chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped 

2 carrots diced

2 stalks of celery diced 

1 can 28oz chopped tomatos (with juice)

4 cups water 

4 cups plain tomato juice 

1C small shell pasta (uncooked still) 

1 cup fresh green beans, cut in half 

2 zucchini chopped 

1 bag spinach torn 

1 can light red kidney beans drained

1 can dark red kidney beans drained 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Parmesan cheese for garnish (optinal) 

1) cut everything up before you even start trust me it will make your life a hell of a lot easier!!!! 

2) in a large pot sauté onion, garlic, carrot and celery until soft. 

3) add water and tomato juice, season lightly and allow to simmer for 45 minutes.
4) add green beans, zucchini, and kidney beans. Simmer for 20 minutes. 

5) Add pasta and torn spinach and cook for 15 minutes or until pasta is tender. 

6) season to taste and serve, or cool, portion and freeze! 

Seriously, this is like the ultimate good for you soup! Better then chicken noodle in my humble opinion, and it’s beautiful! Eat as much as you want and you don’t have to even feel guilty about it! 

I would have taken a picture of the result….but I kind of ate it all already…. sorrry guys 💔

Happy slurping 

TMPP 

The missing post

I’m too pissed off to re write the post I was making. Spent over an hour on it and the app bugged out. SON OF A BITCH! 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Just know that something great is on the way lol. 

Time flies

Yep. That’s right. Time freaking flys!!! I’m training to work mornings at the pub and it’s got my schedule all out of whack! With that combined with little sleep and being hella busy I have broken quite a few of my rules these past two weeks. I have over indulged in sugary coffee drinks (it’s been in the 80’s this past week) I have eaten wedding cupcakes, had all sorts of gross fast food, skipped prep, skipped any sort of exercise outside of work and let me tell you I am paying for it. I stepped on the scale for the first time in a few weeks and I *surprise* put on a few lbs…. 5 to be precise. No big deal, no sweat, just have to get back into making the right choices. I did a little prep this past Sunday and made a nourish bowl, lots of fruit and veggie snacks, whole grain cereal, and some chicken rice and asparagus, plus plenty of low fat, low sodium lunch meat for sandwiches and high protein snacking. 

I recognized that I fell off the wagon and actively made a choice and a plan to correct the action. I didn’t just go “well there goes all my hard work might as well quit” it’s a continuous work in progress. I made myself a plan: no soda (not even a sip because let’s be honest who just has a little sip of soda?) no sugar, no refined carbs, AND NO SUGARY DELICOUS WONDERFUL HAPPY COFFEE DRINKS (cries). 

You might be thinking about now that I have some sort of problem, well I do. I have a bit of a caffeine addiction, I also have a massive sweet tooth and if I wasn’t paying attention I could seriously eat an entire box of sugar cereal, cookies, cupcakes, frosting, ice cream, sprinkles, pudding, pie, whipped cream, doughnuts, candy, chocolate, bon bons, and just about anything that is sweet in mass. Sugar is a trigger food for me, once I have a little bit I literally cannot stop myself from eating whatever it might be. Coffee drinks are my weakness because it combines two of my most favorite things caffeine and sugar. 

One. Just one a week. Black coffee with milk, unsweet tea, and water, lots and lots of water (seriously, hydration in hot weather is important for a lot of reasons, my kitchen at work can get up into the triple digits real fast) 

But my nourish bowl was amazing. Full of whole grain (ethically sourced!!!) quinoa, roasted peppers, squash, mushrooms, and broccoli, grilled tofu, seasame seeds, and a yummy homemade Korean BBQ sauce. (Recipe to follow, put it on anything and everything) 
1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 teaspoon sriracha

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, grated

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Throw everything but the oil in a pot, simmer gently for 3 minutes while whisking gently, remove from heat and whisk in the oil. Boom. Keeps in the fridge for a week and it is freaking amazing. 

Toss with noodles, pour over rice, grill some tofu and baste with the sauce, chicken, shrimp, the possibilities are endless! And the best part is you know everything that went into making it! 

Enjoy some Korean BBQ my friends! 

Love

MPP 

The best apple pie ever. Seriously

So I skipped prep and decided to just get the basics and make an apple pie, which I haven’t actually done in a pretty long time. Now this recipe utilizes the amazing and magical properties of CAST IRON! Cast iron is a beautiful way to cook and clean up is always a breeze, because all you do is rinse with hot water, dry, and wipe down with oil. It’s naturally non-stick, and adds a dash of iron into your food when you cook with it (ladies naturally need more iron in their diets), and it’s heavy enough to be used as a weapon during a breaking and entering. You can fry chicken, sear a steak, and make the best damn apple pie you will ever taste. Trust me. 

The best cast iron apple pie ever

3 large Granny Smith apples peeled and sliced 

3 large Braeburn apples peeled and sliced 

3/4C. White sugar

Pinch of salt 

1 tbsp. apple pie seasoning (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) 

3 tbsp flour 

1 stick unsalted butter

1C. Brown sugar

1 pkg of 2 refrigerated pie crusts 

1 egg white

2tsp water 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

2. Toss apples in white sugar and a pinch of salt, place in a colander over a bowl and allow to drain for 1 hour, save the liquid. 

2. After apples are drained place liquid in a small saucepan and reduce by half 5-10 minutes, allow to cool. 

3. Toss drained apples in flour and apple pie spice, drizzle cooled reduced apple pie liquid over apples and toss again.

4. Heat butter in cast iron skillet over medium heat, add brown sugar and cook for about 2 minutes stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and cool slightly. 

5. Lay first layer of pie crust over top the brown sugar mixture, then arrange the apples slightly overlapping around the bottom of the crust. Make sure to pour any liquid left in the bowl over top. Add second pie crust over top, cutting 4 slits in the top to allow steam to escape. 

6. Whip egg white and water with a fork until foamy, brush over the entire crust to create a light glaze, then sprinkle with about 2 tsp. white sugar.  

7. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, checking periodically for browning (you can cover with aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning as needed) I turn my pie at 35 minutes to ensure even browning.

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes (seriously, no touching! This is important! If you cut it hot, all that juice will run everywhere, if you let it cool that juice has a time to set and hold everything in nice slices) 

As the old saying goes, “to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe” -Carl Sagan

The real MPP 

The (seriously) Late post

I have been one busy princess these past two weeks! I’m getting married in 3 months and 12 days and I have been spending as much spare time as I can with finalizing plans, invitations, guest lists, seating charts, bridal shower registrys, attending my lovely cousin to be’s bridal shower, working 48 hours a week, keeping my house clean, keeping up with laundry, and sometimes I sleep.
Yesterday due to a schedule fluke I was given Saturday off! It was mildly terrifying because if I ever have a Saturday off it’s because I ask for it and have some sort of event I have to attend. But an unplanned Saturday off? What? 

So the fiancé and I went to IKEA for the first time (hey there social anxiety didn’t see you there), and went to one of our favorite places Ann Arbor Michigan!!!! We had a pint at Conner O’Neils then had a lovely time walking around the university (congratulations graduates!) visited the law quad (its where we got engaged 2 years ago, seems like just yesterday), I had my first insomnia cookie (dude. It’s worth the calories, plus you burn it all off walking everywhere) and had a nice dinner at the HopCat (the crack fries though) so I guess you could call yesterday my 20% day. 

All of the above was written last week. I never hit post like a big dumb dumb idiot! 

Here we go again 😂

The MPP

Seriously the fastest and tastiest fried rice ever

I pull crazy long shifts in the restaurant, and when I get home I am tired, filthy, I usually smell like onions and hate, but with that said I wouldn’t have it any other way. I freaking love being a chef, but does that mean I want to cook the moment I get home after cooking literally all day long? Not so much. Hence why I meal prep 1 day out of the week so I don’t have to deal with it. But there are times when like this week I don’t prep and need to eat a hot meal. Hey, I can’t survive off of yougert and granola for a week solid. So I have literally the fastest and easiest fried rice you will ever make, it tastes better and is better for you then take out. 

Fried rice (serves 2) 

1C. Frozen peas and carrots (or any frozen veggies, or chopped fresh veggies, literally whatever you have laying around) 

1 bag microwave uncle bens brown rice, heated according to package directions 

2 eggs 

3tbsp of soy sauce 

If you have leftover cooked chicken, shrimp, beef, whatever throw it in or leave it vegetarian. 

1. Heat a few tbsp of oil in a skillet, add frozen veggies and cook till tender 

2. Make a well in the center and crack the eggs, break the yolks and scramble with the veggies 

3. Dump in the cooked rice

4. Add soy sauce 

5. Eat

This literally took me 5 minutes or less to throw together and BOOM I have a hot healthy meal for the love of my life as well as myself. 

Try it next time you feel like reaching for the Chinese take out menu 🙂 

Keep it real!

The meal prep princess 

Tired princess

No meal prep this week due to the Easter holiday, and the princess needs a break! After a lovely lunch with my absolutely amazing family (seriously love them!) I did manage a trip to the store for some staples to make it through the week prep free. I always pick up fresh fruit like apples and bananas, berries if they are fresh and good looking. Baby carrots for out of hand eating, whole grain bread and lunch meats for sandwhiches, packages of tuna, eggs, milk, cereal, yougert, and soup for the hubby (he’s sick 🙁) it is still possible to eat well even without prepping (though there might be a few more trips to the grocery store mid week). 

Tomorrow is all fun though! My dearest friend and fellow culinary badass are going hunting for morel mushrooms tomorrow!!! These babies are prized! They can not be grown on mushroom farms, and have a very limited window in spring when they appear. They are so so so delicious, woodsy, earthy, rich, and just so full of deep flavor. Simply fried in butter is like visiting heaven. Hopefully we can find some tomorrow, but if not we will keep searching until we hit the mother load! So I need to get some extra sleep for tomorrow I am going to be lacing up my hiking shoes and putting some extra miles on them! 

Happy (late) Easter! 

The meal prep princess 

(Pic unrelated, just being a goober) 

Slow simmered pasta sauce

It’s prep Sunday again!! So you know what that means, recipe time!!!! I love pasta, but what I love even more is a slow simmered sauce full of rich developed flavors. I have a sauce here that is built off of Marcella Hazan’s original recipe which calls for butter instead of the traditional olive oil, and trust me when I say don’t wuss out and use olive oil (it’s okay to have a little butter when you are eating clean and healthy).

But. I decided to add some different elements to my sauce instead of the simple butter, onion, salt, tomato recipe. 

Here’s mine, and trust me it’s soooo worth the wait!

Slow simmered tomato sauce 

4 big cans peeled plum tomatos 

1 whole head roasted garlic (directions below) 

1C white wine 

5tbsp butter

1 onion sliced in half, peel/paper removed

2tsp white sugar  

2tbsp. Fresh basil 

Salt and pepper to taste 

(1lb ground chuck browned if you want to make meat sauce, which is what I did) 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees 

2. Take your bulb of garlic and slice right across the top with the paper still on. Drizzle bulb with olive oil, wrap in foil and roast for 2 hours. Remove, allow to cool, squeeze the guts out of it and set aside. 

3. Melt butter in large pot over medium low heat, add roasted garlic and allow to become fragment for about 2 minutes.

4. Add the white wine and the onion and reduce for about 7 minutes. 

5. Add tomatos with their juices and simmer on low for 4 hours. 

6. Season to taste and add fresh basil right before tossing your favorite pasta in this magical sauce. 

*freezes well 

*keeps in the fridge for 1 week

Perfect for my prep meal strategy this week!

Enjoy! 

The meal prep princess 

Baked oatmeal cups

I finally had a day off today!!!! So instead of doing nothing all day I wanted to make a new recipe. Breakfast is the hardest meal for me, most days its just a cup of coffee and I’m out the door on to the next activity. I need something filling, tasty, and something I can eat one handed. I decided to browse some recipes and baked oatmeal seems to be pretty popular amongst the diet community lately. It’s a pretty straight forward concept, make oatmeal and bake…well sort of… after a lot of experimenting today I think I have created a recipe that I can make time and time again. One part breakfast, one part cookie, one part muffin, all parts delicious! 

I actually made 3 different kinds from my base recipe, raspberry chocolate, peanut butter chocolate chip, and cinnamon apple strudel. I will post the base recipe, then the steps on how to flavor it 🙂 good luck! 

Baked Oatmeal Cups

1 egg

1/2C unsweetened applesauce 

1/4C raw honey 

1/8C chia seeds (it’s like 2 bucks a bag, just buy it. It’s so good for you and you won’t even know it’s there) 

1 banana 

1 1/4C. Milk (I use 2%) 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

Pinch salt 

2 teasooons vanilla extract 

2 1/2C old fashioned oats

For peanut butter chocolate chip

3-4 tablespoons peanut butter powder 

4 tablespoons Cacao nibs (6 bucks a bag, superfood, will last you for awhile, little goes a long way) 

3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips 

For apple cinnamon 

1 green apple, peeled and diced 

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

For raspberry chocolate 

1/2 cup chopped raspberries

3 tablespoons cacao nibs 

4tbsp mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease the cups of a muffin tin and set aside.

Smash banana as fine as possible, whisk in egg, milk, applesauce, honey, vanilla, and chia seeds. 

Add oats and baking powder

Add your choice of mix ins and sit for 5 minutes before scooping into greased tins and baking for 30-35 minutes or until browned and centers are set. 

Remove from pan and allow to cool before turning out. 

These freeze beautifully and can be eaten warmed in the microwave, room temperature, or cold. Perfect with your morning coffee 😉

Seriously, these are so good. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and experiment with mix ins. Nuts and seeds, dried fruit, anything you can really think of. 

Have a happy breakfast 

The meal prep princess 

What the hell is BMR?

Honestly, I hate the word “diet” when 9/10 times it is a full lifestyle change. Americans are so caught up in the “quick fix” diet culture that most people can’t see the root of the problem. 

Sorry guys but shitty diets are almost always the problem (apart from lack of exercise). Look at not only what we eat but how much of it we are eating. When was the last time you can honestly say you counted out a single serving of potato chips (about 12 chips)? Before I began my lifestyle change I would sit and eat half a bag of potato chips while watching Netflix and not even bat an eyelash. But then I really looked at how many calories I was actually consuming on something that I would consider a snack. 500 or more whopping calories in one go….. it is pretty widely known that 2,000-2,500 calories is recommended per day….. that is wrong over half the time. A woman who is a 5ft tall and sits at a desk job, doesn’t need as many calories as someone who is say is a 6ft waitress . That’s where BMR comes into play.

BMR stands for base metabolic rate, which is the amount of calories you need just to keep you alive if you were bedridden. This number changes based on age and height. Then you add on an activity factor (not active, mildly active, very active) here is mine as an example:

(For women) 655 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years) 

(For men) 66 + (6.23 x weight in lbs) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years) 

So….

655 + (4.35 x 130) + (4.7 x 65) – (4.7 x 26) = 1404 calories (rounded up) 

But… 

if you go to bmi-calculator.net and choose BMR you can just punch in the numbers without all the extra work!  

Then you would consider your activity factor, which is how active you are (now be honest with yourself or this will get you nowhere) 

Sedentary: BMR x 1.2 

Lightly active: BMR x 1.375

Moderately active: BMR x 1.55 

Very active: BMR x 1.725 

With my active job and lifestyle my activity factor is considered moderately active which means to maintain my weight I need to consume about 2100 calories per day (not as many as you would think right?) 

To loose 1lb a week you would have to reduce your calories by 500 per day which is a healthy for weight loss. To lose 1lb you need to burn through 3,500 calories per week by reducing your calorie intake or burning the extra off at the gym or doing another activity. 

With that said, never eat under your BMR!!! I don’t care how tempting fast weight loss seems, your body will go into “starvation mode” which means it will hold onto every single calorie it can because your body doesn’t know when it is going to get fuel again. Plus, it is unhealthy and can lead to a potentially life threatening eating disorder. Love yourself first and foremost always! If you don’t need to lose weight then you should eat the same amount of calories in healthier options (you end up getting to eat more in quantity and quality) 

I know this is a lot of math, but a simple google search can lead you in the right direction. I love the myfitnesspal app for my iPhone, it does all of this math for you and it helps you not only keep track of things like calories (you can even add your own recipes to calculate calories per serving which I LOVE) it also tracks your steps, progress, and you can add friends and be a part of a very supportive fitness and healthy lifestyle community. Support for a lifestyle change is so very important! 

Eating healthy isn’t a punishment, being healthy shouldn’t be torture. Lifestyle changes like these should be a journey of self discovery, self love, as well as giving you the opportunity to experiment with new foods and expand your culinary horizon. You never know if you don’t like something if you don’t try it! Just because you didn’t like broccoli when you were 10 doesn’t mean you won’t like it as an adult, your tastebuds mature right along with you. Give new food a chance and give yourself a chance to be the healthiest version of yourself not only physically but mentally as well.  

Eat well, be well, and cook fearlessly! 

The meal prep princess