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 

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 

Meal prep Sunday!

Guess what day it is!? It’s prep day prep day prep day! I have some seriously lovely items on my menu today, so healthful and delicious, perfect to kick off spring weather (you know freeze in the morning, heatstroke by noon, snow by 8pm) 

1) spinach salad: fresh spinach, blanched asparagus, sliced strawberries, blueberries, sliced almonds, feta crumbles, and some grilled chicken. Gotta have a good salad for the week ahead ❤️! 

2) vegan chili: packed with veggies and beans! Trust me, I won’t be hungry after eating a bowl of this with some fresh cornbread (I freaking love cornbread)

3) spinach feta turkey burger with cucumber dill tatziki sauce: the most perfect alternative to a beef burger. This is so packed with flavor you won’t even notice the beef is missinf! I will be posting this recipe ASAP! 

4) tons of fresh fruit: watermelon, strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, cantaloupe, and grapes. Perfect for snacking anytime! 

Hope your prep Sunday was full of delicious food, friends, and sunshine! 

The meal prep princess 

Snacks

Hello all, today’s installment talks about one of my favorite things ever. Snacks. I LOVE snacks of all shapes, sizes, and textures! Snacks can also be sneaky and tricky, without realizing it we can sit and eat a whole family sized bag of potato chips and not even realize it until we have hit the bottom of the bag. But I do have some solutions for successful snacking! 

The snacks I love the most would have to be pretzel sticks, dried fruit such as pineapple and mango, freeze dried strawberries, fresh fruit of all kinds, baby carrots and celery, gluten free crackers with tuna, babybell cheese with grapes, yougrt and granola, cottage cheese, dark chocolate, rice crisps, pickles, olives, I really could go on forever and ever about snacks. But apart from snacking right is watching the portion! 

Always pre portion snacks, this has saved me time and time again and it’s handy for keeping in your lunch bag for mid afternoon hunger pains. I bag things like pretzels and dried fruit in zip lock bags. Dose them out in serving sizes, 1/3C of dried pineapple has about 130 calories. Dried pineapple is more calorie dense then fresh pineapple so watch out, however it is good to raise blood sugar and it’s better then eating a bag of candy. Fresh fruit and veggies I pack into small deep to-go’s and stash them in the fridge for breakfast as well as snacking. 

Follow your hunger cues, when you are reaching for a snack, think to yourself “am I hungry enough to eat an apple” if yes, then you are hungry and should eat, if no then your mind is bored, you aren’t actually hungry. Try not to snack in front of the TV if at all possible, because I have a tendency to eat snack after snack if I’m watching tv, so I try to keep my hands busy instead by sketching, playing with a stress ball, crochet (which was an epic fail I should add). 

Always try to have a snack after a workout, something lite, with healthy fat and protein, turkey, a handful of nuts, an avacado and egg on toast, fresh fruits with Greek yougert are all excellent picks! 

Also eating small meals throughout the day keeps your blood sugars level and can help you fight fatigue and help curb the cravings for the junk food. Eating several small meals a day also helps promote weight loss, and better overall health. 

Happy snacking! 

The meal prep princess 

Why diets fail

Today I want to touch on an important topic that seems to be buzzing all through my social media pages. The dreaded “get your summer body diet!” Ugh *insert serious eye roll* I have seen articles boasting the successes of drinking apple cider vinegar every morning, ketosis, the military diet, beach body diet, it works! (No it doesn’t). I swear there is a pill, shake, wrap, quick fix solution for everything. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but weight loss isn’t a “quick fix” it’s not a “3 day miricle detox diet” or my favorite “loose 10lbs your first week!”. No. No. No. No. NO!  

We will discuss BMI, BMR, and calories in another installment but healthy weight loss is 1-2lbs a week, 1lb = 3500 calories that have to be burned off to loose just 1lb. 

The biggest reason diets fail is because people set the bar wayyyyy to high and set unrealistic goals. A goal of “I’m going to run 5 miles a day” isn’t a great beginner goal, because after the first few days they get tired, give up and are back to square 1 all over again. Make a realistic obtainable short term goal this is a goal that can be achieved within 1 year, for example “I will only have fast food once a week” or “I will do 30 minutes of exercise 3 days a week” or “I will only get a fancy coffee drink on Sunday, and drink regular black coffee (or with half and half if you are me) the rest of the week” those are easily obtainable goals that even a beginner can accomplish and feel good about accomplishing. Weight loss and good health are all about baby steps and climbing the ladder to success. 

Once you have your short term goals figured out, set yourself a long term goal which is something that is accomplished in the long term, not next week or even this year. For example “I will loose 20lbs this year (short term) and I will maintain and keep it off by eating healthy and exercising regularly (long term goal)” 

Diets also tend to fail because people get into this mindset of “oh I can’t eat anything good anymore” eating healthy is not a punishment! We as Americans are addicted to food that is seriously not meant to be eaten! As I said in “how it all began” I used to eat a lot of fast food, then I started eating clean and the first few weeks I really really wanted to hit up the drive through because “I deserve it” but I maintained my willpower to achieve my short term goals and after 2 months I no longer wanted that kind of food. Trust me, after a few weeks of eating what humans were made to eat fast food won’t taste good, it won’t taste right anymore. Keep the faith and believe in yourself above all things, you deserve more than eating out of a paper bag. 

Slip ups are bound to happen, we are all human and we all make mistakes. Another reason diets fail is because one little dietary misstep or a skipped gym day leads to “I’m just a failure, I can’t do anything right, I might as well give up” don’t give up!!!! Tomorrow is a brand new day and a day to get back on track, never give up just because of one bad day or even a bad weekend. You can do anything you set your mind to. I promise over time things will get easier. 

Believe in yourself, love yourself, and don’t give up! Remember, it’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle change. 

Love

The meal prep princess