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 

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 

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