Peach Tea with Apple Cider Vinegar

On March 28, 2023 By JillIn Recipes, Weight LossLeave a comment

I haven’t been making the best food choices lately and I’m trying to get back on track. Yesterday I had some very greasy food that is causing me some gallbladder pain. I read that apple cider vinegar can relieve gallbladder attack pain so I thought I would try this. A few years ago I found a recipe from Trim Healthy Mama called Good Girl Moonshine (completely alchohol free). I thought I’d modify this recipe a bit and make it WW point friendly.

Ingredients

Two black tea bags (whichever type you prefer)
Stevia or sweetener of your choice
DaVinci Sugar Free Peach Syrup
1 TBSP of Apple Cider Vinegar with Honey
Fresh lemon wedges

WW Points – 1 (for the honey acv)

To make this I put both tea bags in the mason jar and added hot water to about 2/3 full and let it sit for 5 or 6 minutes. Then remove the tea bags and add stevia, apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon wedges and one squirt of peach syrup. Mix well and then fill with ice all of the way to the top.

This is a refreshing drink and good way to get some apple cider vinegar in if that’s your thing. You can tweak this recipe in many ways to your liking – for example you could use flavored tea and leave out the peach syrup.

Salsa Verde ChickenTacos

On March 22, 2023 By JillIn Meal Prep, Recipes, Weight LossLeave a comment

Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos are one of my favorite things to make, especially when I have a busy week planned. These are so easy to make. Yesterday, I almost forgot about them, but was able to run into the kitchen in between meetings and get these started in less than 10 minutes. Then when I finished work, they were ready to eat.

Ingredients

3 boneless chicken breasts
taco seasoning or seasoning of your choice
16 oz jar of salsa verde

Steps

Season the chicken (on both sides) with the taco seasoning or spices of your choice. I use the homemade taco seasoning that I made and keep on hand.
Place chicken in the crockpot and top with the jar of salsa verde.
Cook on low for 3 and a half hours.
I think this has too much liquid in it, so I pull the chicken out to shred it and then large spoonfuls of the salsa to the chicken and mix together until desired consistency.

We usually use this chicken for chicken tacos. Here are the points values for the tacos:

Salsa Verde Chicken – 0 points
Carb Counter Snack Size Tortillas – 1 point each
Light Sour Cream – 2 points for 2 TBSP (I split this among across several tacos)
Cheese – usually around 1 – 3 points, depending on if I’m using fat free or not
Lettuce & Tomato – 0 points

What are your favorite healthy crock pot meals?

Low Fat Mug Cake (3-2-1 cake)

On March 12, 2023March 12, 2023 By JillIn Weight Loss, Recipes1 Comment

This mug cake is super easy to make and is great for a quick fix when you want sweets but don’t want all of the calories or fat.

To make this base for this you take one box of Angel Food Cake Mix and one box of regular cake mix and mix them together thoroughly. Then you this dry mixture and put it in a canister and label it as 321 cake mix.

Spray a coffee mug with nonstick spray.
Add 3 TBSP of the dry mix and 2 TBSP of water to the mug and mix.
Bake in the microwave for about 1 minute.
Carefully remove from the microwave and let cool for a minute.

You can eat it from the mug or remove it to a bowl or plate and top it with whatever you’d like. I used a strawberry cake mix and topped it with fresh strawberries and some fat-free whipped topping.

I chose strawberry cake mix for mine because I love strawberry cake and fresh strawberries are so good right now. You could also use a yellow cake mix, chocolate mix, or whatever flavor cake mix you like. If you use a sugar-free cake mix, the points/calories would be even lower.

WW Points: 4 per serving

Sheet Pan Eggs

On March 12, 2023March 12, 2023 By JillIn Meal Prep, Recipes, Weight Loss1 Comment

These sheet pan eggs are so good and so easy to make that I make them almost every week. These can be prepped and cooked in just a few minutes and then you save the leftovers and heat them up throughout the week for a quick breakfast.

Ingredients

8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
6 ounces cheese
Nonstick spray
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk eggs and milk together until smooth.
Spray a 9 x 9 pan lightly with nonstick spray. Pour eggs into the prepared sheet pan.
Bake eggs for 12 minutes at 375. Eggs should be almost completely cooked through. It’s okay if it is still a little runny in the middle.
Remove the pan from the oven, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with the cheese. Return to the oven for 3 minutes to melt the cheese and finish cooking the eggs.
Remove from the oven and cut into 9 squares. They can be served immediately, or put in the fridge or freezer.

My favorite way to have this is to add it to an extra toasted English muffin with either pre-cooked thick sliced bacon or Canadian bacon and a little bit of mustard. You can also just eat this with a fork like scrambled eggs. I’ll often have one or two topped with a bit of salsa.

If you are cooking for a crowd, you can use a 9 x 13 pan with 12 eggs and a half cup of milk. Everything else is the same.

Meal Prep Burrito Bowls

On May 27, 2019December 28, 2020 By JillIn Recipes, Weight LossLeave a comment

Last week I did chicken burrito bowls for my weekly meal prep and they were delicious! I found myself looking forward to my packed lunch each day instead of dreading it and wishing it were a cheeseburger instead. I decided to do the same thing this week with ground beef instead of chicken. I thought I’d share both recipes here.

The recipe for these is exactly the same except for the meat. For each, I start with the rice first and let it cook while I prep the meat. I used brown minute rice and did enough to have to have 1 cup of cooked rice in each bowl. I always do four at a time so both of these recipes are for four. While the rice is cooking, it’s time to prepare the meat. For the chicken I used pre-cooked frozen chicken fajita strips and cooked them with a little taco seasoning and a little water to keep it from being dry. For the ground beef, I used extra lean ground beef and drain and rinse it to keep it extra lean. Then prepare it with taco seasoning and a little water. Check out this post for my homemade taco seasoning.

After the rice and the meat is done, it’s time to start plating up the meal prep. I use square glass bowls that I found at Publix. I think the glass helps the food stay fresher longer it’s great for reheating. Divide the rice up evenly between the four dishes, then top with the meat. Next evenly divide a can of yellow corn (drained and rinsed) between the dishes. Do the same thing for two cans of black beans. You could easily use just one can of black beans, but I was trying to make it more filling and I love black beans. You could sub in pinto beans if you don’t like black beans. Then dice up a small tomato for each one and layer it on top. Then to finish it off, top it with fat free cheddar.

Voila! All done! To serve, reheat in the microwave for a couple minutes, mix and enjoy!

The points for the chicken are only 4 or 5 points depending on how much cheese you use. For the beef, it comes out around 7 points. I like to add light ranch to mine after heating and that adds a few points, but it’s worth the extra points for the added flavor.

What are some of your go to meal prep ideas? I’m always looking for something new and delicious.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

On May 27, 2019December 28, 2020 By JillIn Recipes, Weight Loss2 Comments

I’ve been trying to eat healthier and one of the pages I follow on Facebook is Clean Food Crush. I saw a post about a year ago for homemade taco seasoning and I tried it and really like it. I’ve been using it exclusively for the past year. I was running out today and decided to make some more. I use the recipe that I found on Clean Food Crush, but I modify it a bit (no red pepper flakes for me) and I multiple the number of servings so that I can store it and have it ready to go whenever I want.

Here is the recipe that I use:

Chili Powder – 12 Tbsp
Garlic Powder – 1 Tbsp
Onion Powder – 1 Tbsp
Dried Oregano – 1 Tbsp
Smoked Paprika – 2 Tbsp
Ground Cumin – 6 Tbsp
Sea Salt – 4 Tbsp
Black Pepper – 4 Tbsp

Mix together and store in a tightly closed container. I use a jar from one of the spaghetti sauces that we had. To use, for 1 pound of ground beef I normally use 2 Tbsp of the seasoning, but you can use more or less to taste. I was scared that moving away from the normal Old El Paso taco mix wouldn’t go over well, but my husband actually loves it and so does my daughter.

Day 2 – Small Changes

On January 3, 2019January 4, 2019 By JillIn Recipes, Weight Loss, Writing3 Comments

First things first – how did I do with my two baby step goals? Not terrible, but not great. I did drink at least 64 ounces of water if coffee counts. I think coffee with no cream or sugar should definitely count. I’m normally a “have a little coffee with my cream and sugar” kind of person. So, the fact that I had two cups of coffee today, both with only Truvia to sweeten it and no cream at all is progress to me. I only had two packs of Truvia in each coffee too, which some people think is way too much, but I quite like my two packets thank you very much. Maybe I’ll work my way down to one packet in the future, but come on. I normally have at least 4 Tbsp of creamer and a couple Truvia and maybe even a little sugar on top of that. You know what was really cool about the coffee I had today, I could actually taste the coffee! 🙂

So, next baby step goal – FitBit steps – not as great. As of right now I’m a little over 5,000 steps. I’ll get in some more before bed, but I doubt I’ll hit the 7,000 mark. Oh well, I won’t let it get me down. Tomorrow is a new day to try again!

I did get a little bit of workout time in tonight. I’m doing online personal training. She posts videos each day and I’m supposed to follow along doing as much of it as I can. I did almost half of it tonight. I didn’t stop because I couldn’t finish. I stopped because my five year wanted all of my attention and I was trying to check on the dinner that I was cooking at the same time. My arms are already sore and tomorrow I probably won’t be able to wave at anyone. But that’s good, right?

Now, on to dinner. I know I’m trying to do a low carb and make healthier choices, but I had bought all of the stuff to make tonight’s dinner before the New Year and I wanted to go ahead and try it out. It was actually really good! It was definitely not low carb though. It was a dish called Chicken & Noodles that was sort of a cross between chicken and dumplings and chicken noodle soup. It had the consistency of chicken and dumplings, only with noodles instead. I made it in the instant pot and it was a one dish, super easy meal.

Instant Pot Chicken & Noodles

2 small cans cream of chicken soup
2 small cans chicken broth
1 stick of butter
1 lb frozen chicken breasts
1 24 ounce package of Rheams frozen egg noodles

This is the recipe that I used but I made a couple of changes.

After cooking the chicken, I left it out while I cooked the noodles. After reading a few reviews I decided to cook the noodles for 9 minutes instead of 5 and they turned out great. After cooking the noodles I added the shredded chicken back to the pot and mixed everything up. My husband and my five year old LOVED it. Both of them had a second helping.

Alright, that’s enough for today. I need get a few more steps in before bed. Goodnight, all! See you tomorrow!