Tag: Low Fat

Chimichurri Burrito Bowl Lunch Meal Prep

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, FoodLeave a comment

If you are new to my blog. I am a Chef. I have both a culinary and baking and pastry degree. I am on a fitness journey that I will be on for the rest of my life.

I like to cook, and like any chef I like to eat. Now I try to eat with the thought of fueling my body for my fitness journey. We truely are an amazing bio machine and we need good foods to fuel it.

I train Martial Arts 5 to 6 days a week for upwards of 10 hours a week total. So to support that I need to eat well. Now do I always eat well? Do I always pass up that cupcake. Heck no! But I do try to make good decisions.

Enough rambling so here is what I made. A chimichurri burrito bowl. This bowl is full of protein, gluten free, dairy free, low fat, contains lots of veggies, slow digesting carbs, and most importantly has lots of flavor.

I took a short cut and got chicken that was pre marinated at the grocery store, but I regularly make chimichurri sauce on my own and will include that in this recipe.

Chimichurri Burrito Bowl

Yield: 5 servings for lunch

Ingredients:

  1. 3 bell peppers that I charred on the gas stove, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  2. 1 jalapeno that I charred on the gas, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  3. 1 onion that I charred on the gas stove, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  4. 1.5 lbs of chicken marinated in chimichurri
  5. 3.75 cups of brown rice cooked
  6. 10 tablespoons of black beans
  7. 5 tablespoons of salsa – Optional
  8. 5 pinches of cilantro – Optional
  9. salt and pepper to taste
  10. granulated garlic to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook brown rice to directions on package
  2. Char your veggies over a BBQ or on a gas stove. Place them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam them.
  3. Cook your chicken marinated in chimichurri
  4. Chop up veggies, and lightly sautee them in a pan, adding pepper, salt, and granulated garlic to taste
  5. Heat up canned black beans, drained
  6. Add 3/4 cup/ 112g of brown rice to bowl, add 1 cup/130 g of chicken to each bowl, add 1 cup/148 g of veggies to bowl, add 2 tablespoons/52g of black beans, add 1 tablespoons/32 g of salsa.

Chimichurri sauce

Ingredients:

  1. 1/2 cup olive oil
  2. 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  3. 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
  4. 3-4 cloves garlic , finely chopped or minced
  5. 2 small red chilies , or 1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon finely chopped chili)
  6. 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  7. 1 level teaspoon coarse salt
  8. pepper , to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. Let sit for at least a few minutes. Letting it sit for 2 hours before use is much better. Marinate meat over night, reserve some for topping.

Nutritional Stats:
Calories 555, Fat 8.7 g, Fiber 11.7 g, Carbs 65.1 g, Sodium 1553.5 mg,
Protein 45.8 g

I hope you get a chance to try this recipe. You can reduce the sodium if you are concerned by omitting the salsa, and taking some of the salt out of the chimichurri sauce.

It was/is delicious and easy to make. It took about 40 minutes to prep for a whole week of lunches.

Try it out. Thank you for reading, if you liked this please let me know and feel free to share.

Easy Turkey Bulgogi Lunch Meal Prep

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, Food, workoutLeave a comment

I don’t have a lot of time, so meal preps that don’t take long to do are a must for me. This one was fast, simple, and is delicious to boot. I prepped this past Sunday for this week. It took me 30 minutes. That is fantastic in my book.

I made this for my husband and I for our lunches for the week. I took a short cut and got frozen veggies to help me prep. I also used pre-made bulgogi sauce.

This is low in fat, has good carbs, and great fiber, lean protein.

All you have to do is cook up some rice, saute up some ground turkey, add the sauce, spiced, and steam up some broccoli. I added some green onions, sriracha sauce, and kimchi but that is all optional. See easy peasy.. I will of course add more information below and a full recipe with nutritional stats.

Turkey Bulgogi Lunch

Ingredients:

  1. rice
  2. 1 lb ground turkey
  3. frozen stir fry veggies
  4. broccoli
  5. 1 tsp ground ginger or to taste
  6. 1 tsp ground garlic or to taste
  7. salt and pepper to taste
  8. 1 tbs oil
  9. Bulgogi sauce
    Optional
  10. green onions
  11. Sriracha sauce
  12. Kimchi

Directions:

  1. Cook rice according to directions on package
  2. Heat pan with oil, saute ground turkey, add spices and salt. Once meat is cooked add frozen stir fry veggies, and bulgogi sauce. Cook on medium for about 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. Steam broccoli
  4. Add 3/4 of cup of rice on one side of the container, 3/4 cup of bulgogi meat mixture next to rice, add 1 cup of broccoli.
  5. Top wit green onions, sprinkle Sriracha, add kimchi and enjoy

Stats:

Calories 633, Fat 26.2 g, Fiber 5.6 g, Carbs 64.2 g, Sodium 798.8 mg,
Protein 34.9 g

I hope you get a chance to try this out. The meat is fantastic without the sauce if you want to omit that part. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, and keep working to be the best that you can be.

Chocolate Protein Pancakes

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, FoodLeave a comment

I wanted pancakes, but I wanted healthy and I wanted to stay on track so I made these. They don’t have any extra sugar in them other than what is in your protein powder, and bananas. A bit of honey is what they needed to top them off. They were delicious, and exactly what I wanted.

This is gluten free, dairy free because I use (Vega protein powder), vegetarian, full of protein, low in fat, and have fiber in them.

  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 3/4 cup rolled oats, uncooked
  • 1/4 cup chocolate protein powder ( I use Vega)
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp coconut oil, for cooking
  • fruit garnish (I had frozen fruit)
  • Honey for serving

Directions:

Take all ingredients and blend together in the blender.

Cook them as you would a regular pancake.

Keep in mind when you cook anything chocolate it can be hard to tell when something is done due to the darkness of the batter.

Calories/Stats: Serving Size 2 servings, sans honey and fruit

Calories 800, Fat 31.6 g, Fiber 11.5 g, Carbs 80.7 g, Sodium 835.9 mg, Protein 56.7 g

I hope you all get a chance to try this out. Let me know what you think, and if you have a chance to try it out.

Spicy Mango Fruit Bowl

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, FoodLeave a comment

Ok this may seem strange to you, but this is such a tasty snack and healthy to boot. Its full of fiber, vitamins, good fats, and protein. It is gluten free, vegan, and did I mention it is tasty.

Cayenne pepper is so good on tropical fruits. I love the sweet and spicy mixture. My mango was a little under ripe so it was a little more acidic. But just as tasty.

Enough of my jabbering here is the recipe.

Spicy Mango Fruit Bowl

Ingredients:

  1. 1 mango diced
  2. 1 banana
  3. 1/4 cup or 24 grams of roasted almonds
  4. 10 grams of unsweetened tasted coconut
  5. Cayenne pepper to taste (beware the pepper packs a kick)

Directions:

  1. Dice mango up, slice banana, add roasted almonds, sprinkle on the cayenne, sprinkle on the tasted coconut.
  2. Mix together and enjoy

Stats:

Calories 371, Fat 12.9 g, Fiber 8.6 g, Carbs 63.7 g, Sodium 13.5 mg, Protein 8 g

I hope you get a chance to try this. It is one of my favorite snacks. Its a whole food snack, spicy, and tasty. Did I mention that it is easy to make. All you have to do is cut up the fruit. You could make it ahead of time and put it in a reusable container and take it to work with you.

Onigiri Rice Bowl – Spicy Salmon Mayo

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, FoodLeave a comment

I am half Japanese and I tend to have cravings that sometimes are hard to fulfill. Sometimes it is just a lot of extra work to form them into balls. So I just made it into a bowl.

I would normally add seaweed to it, but I ran out. I know… I know… I am going to loose my Asian card cause I don’t have seaweed in my house.

So when I don’t have time between my job, and dealing with my kids, and the rest of the household chores I just made it in to a bowl.

In Japan there is a thing that is famous around the world. Used for lunch boxes all over the country. I remember getting them in my lunch box and I would get so excited. Onigiri! Onigiri is what we call rice balls. There are many kinds of onigiri with many kinds of fillings. I love many of these flavors/combos, Umeboshi (pickled plumb, a favorite of mine), Tuna Mayo, kombu (simmered seaweed), shrimp, just to name a few. Another one of my favorite is spicy salmon mayo or Shake Mayo (pronounced sha kay mah yo).

Today I made a spicy salmon mayo onigiri bowl.

I really recommend you try it if you can. Luckily it is super easy. I added other fresh veggies to it cause I wanted some more veggies.

Spicy Salmon Mayo Onigiri Bowl

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup of cooked rice
  2. 1/2 cup shredded raw carrots
  3. 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms raw
  4. 1 green onion sliced raw
  5. 2 radishes sliced raw
  6. 2.5 oz of salmon in a pouch/can
  7. 1 tbs of mayo
  8. Sriracha to taste
  9. salt and pepper to taste
  10. seaweed (optional but so tasty)

Directions:

  1. Cook rice to direction on package
  2. Mix together salmon, mayo, sriracha, salt and pepper.
  3. Add salmon mixture to rice, add veggies to rice, and enjoy.
  4. (alternate toppings to add, seaweed, sesame seeds, umeboshi)
This is not my image. It is just the product I use.

Stats for the lunch:
Calories 401, Fat 12.9 g, Fiber 3.4 g, Carbs 51.5 g, Sodium 536.3 mg, Protein 17.9 g

The salmon mixture is what you may find in a spicy salmon mayo onigiri. I just put it on the outside, because I don’t have time to mold the rice into balls. But you know what it tastes phenomenal and looks beautiful to boot. Is it in the cute shape of a rice ball with seaweed? Nope but it is just as good.

Its also healthy, full of fresh veggies, low in fat, full of protein, and oh so tasty.

Like I said I would have added seaweed, but I did not have any.

I love this kind of lunch. I thought you all might. So I thought I would share it with you. I hope you get a chance to try this. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading this.

Pumpkin Pie Protein Waffle

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, Food1 Comment
Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

Yup I did it. I made pumpkin pie flavored protein pancakes this morning. I have 2.5 to 3 hours of training to do today. So I needed a good breakfast that stuck with me. The best part is it was delicious.

This is both light and full of protein so that it will take longer to digest. Its so good, and my husband and kiddos said that the topping tastes like pumpkin pie.

I added whipped cream to my waffle, and made a pumpkin pie puree topping.

Pumpkin Pie Protein Waffles

Ingredients Batter: (yield 7 servings)

  1. 2 cups Birch Benders Protein Pancakes
  2. 1 egg
  3. 1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
  4. 2 tbl veggie oil
  5. 1 tsp of cinnamon
  6. 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
  7. 1 1/2 cup of water

Ingredients Pumpkin Pie Topping: (yield 4 servings)

  1. 1 cup pumpkin puree
  2. cinnamon to taste
  3. pumpkin pie spice to taste
  4. 2 tbs maple syrup

Directions:

  1. Mix 2 cups of Birch Benders mix, with oil, water, egg and pumpkin puree.
  2. Heat up your waffle iron, spray with pan spray
  3. Fill the waffle iron with 1/2 cup of mix
  4. Cook till done

Directions for topping:

  1. Mix together 1 cup of pumpkin puree, the spices, and the maple syrup.

Stats: For 1 waffle the recipe made 7 waffles.

155 calories, 5.4 g Fat, 1.14 g fiber, 16.28 g carbs, 183.71 mg salt, 10.3 g protein

Stats: For 1 servings topping

46 calories, 0 g fat, 2 g fiber, 11.7 g carbs, 3.4 mg sodium, 0.5 g protein

__________________________________________

These were so tasty, low in fat, vegetarian, and very low in sugar.

I hope you get a chance to try these. It was a hit with the kiddos and husband. Let me know what you think if you get a chance to. I loved them. Thank you for reading, and keep trying to be the best you can be. My respects to you and your family.

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Egg Whites Scramble with Veggie Sausages

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, Food4 Comments

This is a simple breakfast. Its something that I do often. I waffled over if I should post it because it is so simple. But it is delicious vegetarian, full of protein, nutrients, and vegetarian. Which my body seems to run better on anyway. =)

It took about 15 minutes all in all to make.

So simple as it is here you go:

Ingredients:

  1. 4 egg whites
  2. 1 cup of portabella mushrooms sliced.
  3. 1 cup of sweet peppers sliced
  4. 1 green onion sliced
  5. 2 Morning Star Farms veggie sausages
  6. 1 tsp of olive oil

Directions:

  1. Follow the package details on sausages.
  2. Saute lower half of green onion, and mushrooms, add the sweet peppers.
  3. Move the veggies to the side, add egg whites and scramble.
  4. Serve up warm and enjoy.

Stats:
Calories 244, Fat 8.4 g, Fiber 6.7 g, Carbs 18 g, Sodium 527.7 mg,
Protein 27.2 g

I hope you get a chance to try this delicious and healthy breakfast. I added a plain bagel to get some carbs in. Let me know what you think.

Make Your Own Tropical Smoothie Bowl

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, FoodLeave a comment

If you have been anywhere in the metropolitan U.S. of A, you will notice that smoothie bowls are a thing. Especially in the summer when its hot and you don’t want to eat something hot. As fall is kicking in and its going to get colder and I don’t know about you but I will want less cold foods and more warm, or warming foods. But since it is still only the fall and summer is still holding on I thought I would post this.

Its easy peasy. Choose a frozen fruit you like, or a mix of them. Have frozen bananas on hand. And choose your toppings. For this one I chose nut and dried fruit mix for the healthy fats, a few dark chocolate chips to feel like I am getting a treat, desiccated coconut, and frozen raspberries.

You are going to blend the frozen fruits till you get tiny chunks of fruit. It kinda looks like confetti. It will look a little like this.

After you get the frozen fruit mix into tiny chunks, you add the liquid. Today I used soy milk and water. Blend again till smooth and you get something that looks like soft serve ice cream.

Tropical Smoothie Bowl

Ingredients:

  1. 2 cups of frozen fruit (this was a tropical fruit mix)
  2. 1 frozen banana
  3. 4 tbs of soy milk
  4. water as needed alternately you can use juice instead

    Topping ingredients
  5. 2 x tbs Nut and fruit mix (I used planters NUT-rition)
  6. 1/4 frozen raspberries
  7. 1 tsp of dark chocolate chips
  8. 2 grams of desiccated coconut

Directions:

  1. blend the frozen fruit till it is in small chunks
  2. add liquid and blend till smooth, add water if needed
  3. put the smoothie in a bowl and add toppings and enjoy.

Calories 426, Fat 11.71 g, Carbs 76.11 g, Protein 9.58 g, Fiber 10.93 g, Total Sugars 50.89 g, Sodium 59.36 mg

I hope you get a chance to try this on your own. Thanks for reading. My respect to you.

Healthy Vegan Snack… Sweet and Spicy Tropical Salad

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, Food3 Comments

I wanted a sweet and spicy snack so I “made” this. Made is such a grand word for what I did. I cut up some fruit and put it together added spice, and coconut and ate it. But made it I did. It is beautiful and so very tasty as well. You eat with your eyes first so it if is beautiful, it is more appetizing.


Sweet and Spicy Tropical Salad
Yield 1 serving

Ingredients:

  1. 1 mango diced ( about 2 cups)
  2. 1 dragon fruit diced ( about 2 cups)
  3. 2 tbs desiccated unsweetened coconut
  4. Cayenne Pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut fruit, add to bowl, add cayenne to mango, add unsweetened coconut. Mix and serve.

Calories/Stats

Calories 374, Fat 10.6 g, Fiber 13.7 g, Carbs 71.2 g, Sodium 9.1 mg,
Protein 6.1 g

Thank you for reading. If you get a chance to try it let me know. Be good to yourself, and always strive to make yourself a better you.