New Years Cooking and Exercising

OMG…it was a crazy Sunday!

Miguel and I set the intention to get to the grocery store and to shop for food for the week, then cook most of our food, and then pre-package it all into single-serving containers to make our life easier this week.

Well, we didn’t get to the grocery until 7pm.

I didn’t start cooking until 8, but in a few short hours it was over: our first Sunday night cook-off of the New Year.

Here’s what we made (by the way…these dinner ideas originated from your bad-ass 6am Los Gatos Bootcamp instructor, Kat. Very tasty…)

Turkey Meatballs with a tomato and veggie sauce.

Not using much of a recipe…here goes:

• Mix 2 pounds of ground turkey with egg whites (1/2 cup?), dried basil, oregano, 6-7 cloves of minced garlic, salt (little), and ¼ cup or less of tomato paste.
• Pat them into balls and place on baking sheet.
• Put in the oven at 350 and cook through, somewhere between 30-45 minutes.

For the sauce

• Sautee onions, mushrooms and peppers in a little olive oil until onions become opaque

• Add tomatoes (fresh or canned…I used 4 cans), a little basil pesto, more of the same spices I used in the turkey meat, can of garbanzo beans, broccoli, and cauliflower (you can add just about any veggie you want here…and don’t be shy…use a ton!)

• Let the flavors simmer together and cook until the broccoli turns bright green and ala dente.

Miguel wants to eat it with a whole wheat pasta. I’ll eat it with spaghetti squash underneath, or just as it is.

Salsa chicken with veggies, black beans and corn.

(this is my new favorite dish!)

• Spray a pan with Pam
• Season the chicken breast (this time I used Spike, garlic powder, and some new weird one I found at Trader Joes)
• Cook the chicken almost all the way through
• Add the salsa (I highly recommend Mrs. A’s Salsa Buena. Their local here in Los Gatos and might be the best salsa I’ve ever tasted) and let cook longer
• Add the veggies (whatever you want. I used mushrooms, red peppers and onions)
• Add a can of corn and can of black beans (or more if you’d like)

We (read: “I”) cooked all the food, and then portioned everything out into containers so we are fully set for the week! I’m so excited! I was able to work my butt off today without stressing over what to eat.

The big question is will we keep our momentum up and do it next Sunday? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!