Thai Chicken w/ Peanut Sauce in the Slow Cooker

Over the summer when I received my kids school calendar, I was putting the dates in my phone and I started to panic...summer was almost over! 

I don't know where the time went, but school was starting in just a couple weeks.  This made me think about all the hectic, rushed mornings and busy evenings filled with practices and early bedtimes for school the next day. This year, I will be prepared! Before school even started, I wanted to have my freezer full of grab-and-go healthy meals.  One of my favorite grab-and-go meals is a meal already prepped, in a freezer bag that I can just dump in the slow cooker in the morning and not touch until it's time for dinner!

I have a few of these recipes already, but I wanted more variety in our dinners, so I gave this one a try.  

Can we all say--> WINNER!

Before I commit to making this for my freezer dinners stash, I wanted to give a try first.  I had seen several versions of this on my favorite recipe search spot, Pinterest, but I couldn't find one that included enough veggies or was healthy, most of them included adding sugar. So, I decided to take the best of the ideas I had found and create my own version!

I think most people associate Slow Cooker with WINTER, however I challenge you to think outside the box. I LOVE using my slow cooker in the summer (and all year round) because it uses less energy than the stove or oven, and does not heat up the house like using the stove or oven! 

Simple. Healthy. And keeps the house cool!

Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
2 cups carrots, cut in medium sized pieces
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce (preferably homemade)
2 TBSP rice vinegar
3 TBSP fish sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic
2-3 TBSP peanut butter
Garnish optional: chopped peanuts

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients, except peanut butter, into a gallon sized resealable bag.  Freeze.

When ready to cook:

Remove from freezer the night before to thaw in the fridge overnight. Dump into the slow cooker and and cook on low 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken and stir in peanut butter. Serve over rice or noodles and garnish with chopped peanuts.

OR

Remove from freezer. Run bag under warm water until it releases from the sides of the bag.  Dump into the slow cooker and cook on low 8 hours. Shred chicken and stir in peanut butter.  Serve over rice or noodles and garnish with chopped peanuts.

Enjoy!

My Journey through P90X3- Part 1

I'm Baaaaaaaaaccckkkk!

I took a little summer hiatus from the Blog.  We spent a lot of time traveling, visiting family and overall just having a great time! Unfortunately, this left me with very little time to Blog, or do anything with Wi-Fi.  BUT, the kids are back in school, routine has returned to our lives and I am ready to catch up!

First, I'd like to catch up on my fitness journey.  Over the summer, since we were traveling I did continue to work out for the most part (everyone needs a little break once in a while).  I mostly used Beachbody On Demand, and tried many new programs that I had not done before; Turbofire is one I fell in love with! Then, after Beachbody Coach Summit, (more on this later) and the release of CIZE, I found THE program that was going to get my booty back in gear. 

CIZE, by my favorite trainer Shaun T, is a super fun Dance workout.  Shaun T teaches you a dance routine to a song, step by step, and then at the end you put it all together and DANCE IT OUT! I am definitely NOT a good dancer (check out the video below for evidence), BUT I love to dance! It's so much fun and in the privacy of my own living room I was able to let go and just MOVE.  CIZE was perfect for getting me back into the workout routine that had been all over the place during the summer.  I got my routine back and I had a daily source of happiness and stress relief.  It feels so good to just let loose and dance.  Even when I couldn't master the routines, I still had fun and just danced my heart out!

I'm Not a Dancer: my CIZE video 

If I'm being really honest here, I would admit that the summer was STRESSFUL! Don't get me wrong. I had a BLAST and LOVED  traveling and visiting family, but doing that with kids is stressful too. No routine. Seeing lots of new people (read: new people to test limits and boundaries) and general lack of sleep from time changes and busyness.  We were all, kids included, ready to get back to normal.  After returning home from about 8 weeks of traveling here and there, having visitors stay with us and being out of routine, we were back home.  There were a couple days of enjoying the peacefulness that comes with just being the 4 of us, and then the kids settled back into being kids.  You know, the popular phrases in our house became, "I'm just using the bathroom. I don't need an audience." and "When does school start?" Lol! Other moms can relate! I loved all the time we had together, but the kids and me, were ready for our normal routine! Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining! We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to do so much this summer. Beachbody blessed us financially and with many travel opportunities!  I am so grateful that we were able to take advantage of it! I am simply setting the scene for the chaos that is a mom's daily life. Haha!

Enter CIZE! CIZE provided a daily dose of happy endorphins, stress relief, a little "me" time and the return of my normal workout routine.  I wasn't crazy sore or pushing my limits with weights each day, but my dancer muscles were sore and I worked out a great sweat each day.  This was the perfect program for what I was looking for--> FUN!

I'm Not a Dancer but I love CIZE Part 2

Once I finished CIZE, I wanted to challenge myself a little more.  I had eased back into my routine with CIZE and now I am ready to step it up. My birthday is coming up and I want to be rid of the summer vacation pounds by then.  I chose to try a new program, P90X3. About 7 years ago, my husband and I attempted to do P90X together.  We made it about 3 weeks before we started slipping up, cheating on our food, and by week 4 we had basically quit.  P90X3 is the 30 minute version of P90X.  Tony Horton is a genius and delivers all of P90X in only 30 minutes, instead of an hour to an hour and a half.

I am already seeing the benefits! I am almost done with Week 2 and I am done 3.4 lbs, feel so much better, and my pants feel a little looser in the waist thanks to less bloating! The picture on the left is my before picture from Day 1 of starting P90X3 and the picture on the right was taken on Day 11.  I can't wait to see where this program will take me!

There is no better gift than feeling HEALTHY on a day when I am "supposed" to feel older. Bring on 33! :)

Shrimp "Scampi"

One thing the 21 Day Fix Extreme eating plan had me doing was getting creative! I LOVE pasta and I really wanted to create a dish that was just as comforting and satisfying without breaking my eating plan.  The result: Shrimp "Scampi"!

Traditional Shrimp Scampi is made with butter, lots of butter, but I wanted to give it a different spin.  It was delicious and loved by the whole family. :)

Ingredients:

1 pound shrimp
2 lemons
3 medium zucchini
1/2 package of brown rice and quinoa spaghetti noodles
1 bunch parsley
4 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preparation:

Prepare the pasta according to package directions.  Using a Veggetti (or a spiralizer), make the zucchini into "noodles".  Place 1 tsp olive oil in a saute pan.  Heat over medium heat and add zucchini noodles.  Cover with a lid and steam, tossing frequently, for about 5 minutes until tender.  Strain pasta noodles and zucchini noodles.  In a large stock pot add 2 tsp olive oil and garlic.  Heat over medium heat until garlic is fragrant and browning, careful not to burn it.  Add shrimp and cook about 5 minutes until just pink.  Remove from heat add pasta and zucchini noodles, zest from 1 lemon, the juice from 2 lemons, a handful of parsley leaves, salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Eat What You Have Challenge

AHHH! It has been way too long since I have posted! My apologies.  Although I have not had the time to write some new posts, I have a lengthy list of ideas that I want to share with you! Let the writing juices flow!

I like to shop for DEALS. When I find a great deal I stock up on that item and then it takes up space (lots of space) in my pantry, fridge and freezer.  I have found lots of good deals lately, so it was time to clear out! This is what led me to start the Eat What You Have Challenge.

How often do we go to the store and buy what we need for a recipe, without checking to see what we have first? How often do we start with a recipe or a meal we want instead of opening the fridge to see what we have first? How often do we create a meal plan based on ideas from Pinterest instead of what is already in our house?

I am SO guilty of doing all of these! I started this challenge 13 days ago and I am still going strong!  The Eat What You Have Challenge simply means: be creative, make meals from the food you have and do not go grocery shopping.  Pretty simple, right?  Since I am still going strong, I had to make a slight modification to this as I still have small children, so I have gone grocery shopping, but I only purchased the perishable items my family cannot live without: milk, eggs, fruit, and veggies (and in MODERATION).  Every recipe I have made has been with ingredients I already had on hand.  I had to get creative.  I had to make some adjustments and substitute this instead of that, but in the end I have made some delicious new recipes! Not to mention the money I have saved.  Phew! My bank account is thanking me! ;)

Here are some of the meals I made since starting this challenge:

 

Oatmeal with dried blueberries! Yum! I don't know about you, but I have a lot of dried fruit in my pantry.  For a while my kids would eat it as a snack with some nuts, but recently they decided that wasn't cool any more. Kids change their minds so often, it's hard to keep up! I didn't want the fruit to go to waste, so I needed to find a way to use it--> Oatmeal! Cooking it with oatmeal rehydrates the fruit and therefore my kids had no idea that they were eating the food that they rejected the day before.  A win for Mommy! Not to mention this uses 2 items in my pantry, it's delicious, healthy and the whole family loves it.  Needless to say we had this for breakfast a few times. :)

 

Fish Tacos!  I usually prefer fresh fish, especially since I live near the coast. I feel like there is just no excuse to eat frozen fish...except when I find a great deal on one of our favorites! We try to eat fish regularly, but that can get pricey, so occasionally buying frozen keeps the cost down.  I used some frozen white fish from our freezer and used some Greek yogurt to make a scrumptious sauce.  Lots of people have asked what I put in the sauce and really it's simple: whatever I want! Lol! I usually wing it and just open the fridge and add whatever sounds good.  Sometimes I add relish to make a mock tartar sauce, other times I add cilantro, garlic and the seasoning I used on the fish.  It just depends on what I am in the mood for!

 

Baked Chicken & "Hashbrown" Casserole!  This was so simple and so yummy.  Thawed 2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces and seasoned both sides with Chicken Dust. My husband made this delicious Dust for some grilled chicken a while back and it was yummy, so I wanted to try it on baked chicken too! Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your chicken strips.   The "Hashbrown" Casserole is actually spaghetti squash! Recipe for this one is coming soon! I am still tweeking the recipe!

 

These meals were not crazy, or gross or out of the ordinary.  The key to this challenge is to start by cleaning and organizing the fridge, pantry and freezer.  Knowing what you have, create a meal plan that only uses the ingredients you have on hand.  For me this meant really being creative with lunches.  Once I had the dinner figured out, I used the leftovers to repurpose for lunches.  For instance I used the left over chicken and make a Chicken Quinoa bowl: leftover chicken-chopped, quinoa, steamed frozen veggies, and some seasonings for flavor.  That's it! It didn't feel like leftovers because it was totally different from how we ate the chicken for dinner. 

 

Are you up to the Challenge? How long to you think you could go without going to the grocery store?

3 Day Refresh (AKA Bloat Be Gone) RESULTS!

I would like to rename the 3 Day Refresh "The Bloat Blaster!" or "Bloat Be Gone!"  Do you think anyone would want it with a name like that? Hehe! But in all seriousness, this 3 day program works miracles!

I finished up the 21 Day Fix Extreme on Easter (sidenote: I have a blog post coming soon with this one but I had some technical difficulties when my phone decided to delete all my pictures, and I am not as tech savvy as I wish I was in order to "find" them on the mysterious Cloud.  I am determined to find them, so I WILL...it's just taking longer than I thought. Lol!).  Anyway, back to the 3 Day Refresh...so after I finished 21 Day Fix Extreme and the very strict eating plan, I let loose a little.  I was still eating healthy, but I definitely let myself indulge in a few too many cheats and a few too many carbs.  The result: feeling BLAH and BLOATED!    Enter the 3 Day Refresh! 

I LOVE this program for many reasons:

1) It is fast (literally 3 days from start to finish),
2) It's effective. 
3) I am back on track with my healthy eating.
4) I feel GREAT-->  healthy and MORE ENERGY
5) No more BLOAT!
6)  and I can see the beginnings of AB definition.

Woohoo!

It's completely worth it to get even 1 of these results, but 200% worth it for ALL of these amazing BENEFITS!

I like doing the 3 Day Refresh every couple months, just to keep things on track and in check.  I also like to do it after a bit of indulgence like a vacation or a delicious holiday!

5 signs that you may need a detox:

1--> Food Cravings
2--> Bad Sleeping Habits
3--> Brain Fog
4--> Excess Weight
5--> Low Energy Levels

If you answered yes to any of these, consider the 3 Day Refresh. It's only 3 days and you will feel so much better! Healthier! More energy! And you will probably drop a few pounds.  That never hurts. Lol! Plus, look at some of the yummy food you could be enjoying while detoxing/cleansing/refreshing?!?!? Delicious!

In addition to all this food, you also get tea, LOTS of water, a Fiber Sweep and another snack! All of this food for only 3 days and amazing results!

If you want more info on this awesome program send me a message! I could chat about this amazingness (yes, I made that word up and yes, it fits this program perfectly) all day!

Have a Happy, Healthy Day! :)

Deviled Eggs: The Kind the WHOLE Family Loves

Do you have dozens of beautiful colored eggs sitting in your fridge?

There are so many things you can do with hard boiled eggs, but the most common around this time of year is Deviled Eggs.

I LOVE Deviled Eggs.  I love how easy they are to make and eat. I love that they make such a perfect snack, but what I don't love is the all the mayo in typical recipes that makes them unhealthy. 

Enter the kid approved recipe I am sharing with you today! I didn't want to skimp on the flavor, but I wanted to eliminate the mayo, and the result was delicious!

 

 

I know, I know.  These eggs may not look the prettiest, but they definitely deliver on the flavor front! Besides, I think they look pretty awesome considering my 4 year old created them!  I added the ingredients but he did all the peeling, mixing and filling. :) Proud momma over here!

 

 

My kids always want to help in the kitchen, and this is perfect for little hands.  Even my 2 year old helped for a little bit, until she became to hungry and asked to just eat the egg she peeled. Haha! She loved it plain and she loved it deviled!

 

We started with our hard boiled eggs that we dyed for Easter.  My son and daughter helped peel the shells off.  Great job for little hands! I did go back over them to make sure there were no little shell pieces left.  This is why some of the eggs look a little lopsided, because on some of them more than the shell came off.  ;) But overall, they did a great job!

 

 

 

Next I cut them in half and put the yolks into a bowl.  Some of the eggs that were misshaped and not able to hold a filling were added to the mix.  Next I added the mustard, paprika, salt, pepper, and Greek yogurt to the yolks.  I gave my son a fork and told him to mash all the yolks and mix everything together.  He loved getting to smash the yolks!

 

Lastly, using a spoon we scooped some of the filling and placed it back in the eggs.  Topped with an additional sprinkle of paprika! The swap of Greek yogurt for mayo cannot even be tasted! My kids loved eating them and loved helping me make them!  I am sure we will be making these again in the near future! 

Ingredients:

12 hard boiled eggs

Filling:
12 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 -1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Peel 12 hard boiled eggs. Slice in half, lengthwise.  Place egg yolks in separate bowl.  Mix all filling ingredients together. Start with 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and add more to your liking as you mix it.  Using a spoon, place the filling inside the remaining egg whites.  Sprinkle with paprika. Enjoy! :)

30 in 30 Free Fitness Challenge Group!

Interested in getting a little taste of what Challenge Groups are like?

You have heard me talking about them and how fabulous they are! Challenge Groups have helped me so much because of the accountability.  Keeping me focused and on track was key to getting into a routine and helping me lose weight and keep it off.  Here is the perfect chance to take Challenge Groups for a test drive!

This group is completely FREE!

All you need to do is comment "ME!" and I will add you to the group!

(This is a Facebook group so please send me a friend request on Facebook www.facebook.com/kayla.gossett.1)