Meal Prep Monday - Blueberry Breakfast Pizza and Oven Roasted Turkey Breast

I had a super fun and busy weekend, including my first ever attempt at salsa dancing on Saturday. My coworker invited me, and in my effort to show up more I went despite having zero partner dancing experience. There was a class before the live band started, and I got the basic steps down (credit Zumba for that!) but was really confused when I had to work a partner. That didn't stop me from dancing for most of the next 4 hours though!

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There were a lot of good dancers, and most of the guys kept throwing me around the floor in spins even after my "ok but I've never done this before" disclaimer. I still had a pretty good time even though I had no idea what I was doing. Definitely made me want to get better at dancing, but maybe in a safer, more beginner friendly environment.

Between getting my groove on, I also found time to get my meal prep on.
 
Breakfast

I wanted to switch up my normal baked breakfast goods this week and came across this 
Oatmeal Blueberry Breakfast Pizza Cookie Thingy recipe from Yeah...imma eat that. I loved the concept (and the blog name!) but because I didn't have all of the ingredients/can't follow a recipe to save my life/etc, I ended up putting my own spin on it. Here's what I came up with.

Blueberry Breakfast Pizza

Calories: 211 | Fat: 7 g | Cholest: 0 mg | Sodium: 532 mg | Carbs: 29 g | Fiber: 8 g | Sugars: 10 g | Protein: 9 g

3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup flax meal
3 tbsp chia seeds
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 very ripe banana, mashed
1/2 baked sweet potato, mashed
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together dry ingredients.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Divide the dough into 6 roughly even balls. 
Flatten the balls onto a well greased cookie sheet into roughly 1/2 inch thick discs.  
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm in the middle.
Top with Greek yogurt, your favorite nut butter, or whatever floats your boat.
Makes 6 servings.

I really like the way these turned out. The "crust" has a lot of texture, a nice nutty flavor and isn't super sweet, but you still feel like you're eating a giant cookie for breakfast. Topping the pizza with 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and 1 tbsp nut butter gives you 20 grams of protein and 13 grams of fat for a breakfast with a lot of staying power. 

Protein

In the spirit of switching things up, I picked up a pack of turkey breast tenders at Trader Joe's instead of my normal chicken breasts. This Roasted Turkey Breast Tenderloins & Vegetables recipe inspired me to step away from the slow cooker and cook my poultry in the oven for once.

Oven Roasted Turkey Breast

Calories: 114 | Fat: 2 g | Cholest: 0 mg | Sodium: 46 mg | Carbs: 3 g | Fiber: 0 g | Sugars: 1 g | Protein: 21 g

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup Trader Joe's pomegranate vinegar (or other vinegar)
Juice from 1 large lemon
3 chopped garlic cloves
1 tbsp salt-free seasoning mix
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 lb boneless skinless turkey breast cutlets

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together all the ingredients except the turkey in a small bowl to make a marinade.
Place turkey breast into a large ziplock bag, pour in the marinade and shake to coat the turkey.
Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Place the turkey in a baking dish and poor the marinade over the turkey.
Cover and bake for 20 minutes, basting with the marinade 1-2 two times (if you remember).
Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the turkey feels firm and is not pink in the middle.
Makes 8 servings.

I'm not the biggest turkey fan but this is pretty yummy. The marinade gives the turkey a lot of flavor, and the combination of cooking it in the marinade and keeping it covered for the first 20 minutes keeps the meat pretty moist. 

Sides

I baked some sweet potatoes as usual (not pictured because the collage came out better without them and you see them almost every week) and roasted some green beans, super fancy looking carrots of many colors that caught my eye at Trader Joe's, and fennel! 

I'd never cooked fennel before, bu it was super easy. t I just sliced it vertically and tossed it with a little olive oil, salt-free seasoning mix, and roasted it for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees. It was tasty--kind of like a milder, meatier onion.

Workouts

This week is all about getting my miles up for my 10 mi training plan. I'm only 3 weeks out from the Chardonnay 10 miler, so I'm planning on deciding for sure whether or not to sign up after this week!!

Monday: Pilates at Pulse Fitness
Tuesday: 5 mile run
Wednesday: Fitness Blender Fat Burning Functional Strength Training Workout
Thursday: 3 mile run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Slow 6 mile run
Sunday: Beach volleyball (if I have any legs left) or yoga

Q: Are you a dancing fiend? Any salsa or other partner dancing tips for me?

Meal Prep Monday - Blueberry Almond Flax Muffins and Road Trip Snacks

Psst- My ENERGYbits giveaway is still open! Don't forget to enter here :)

As you read this I'm driving cross country to my new home in Santa Barbara, California! Because I'll be gone the whole week I'm not doing my usual meal prep, so if you need some ideas you can check out my previous meal preps here. But I did make a new muffin recipe and get a lot of great road trip snacks! 

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Since the bf and I plan to pretty much eat our way through as many Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives locations as possible during the next week, having a healthy breakfast and snacks will be key to not completely OD-ing on delicious fried things.

Breakfast

I made a lighter flax meal muffin recipe for breakfast with plenty of fruit, healthy fats and protein to start the day right during our drive.

Gluten Free Blueberry Almond Flax Muffins

Calories: 98 | Fat: 6 g | Cholest: 40 mg | Sodium: 73 mg | Carbs: 9 g | Fiber: 2 g | Sugars: 3 g | Protein: 4 g

1/2 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 1 small banana)

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs
1 tbsp honey
1 cup flax meal

1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the sweet potato through honey together until there are very few lumps.
Stir in the flax meal, cinnamon and baking soda.
Fold in almonds and cranberries
Pour batter into muffin tins lined with paper muffin cups and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the muffins feel firm and are starting to brown around the edges.
Makes 18 one-muffin servings.

These muffins are dense, nutty, and full of great flavors and textures. And at 98 calories a piece, they're light enough to snack on but two muffins with some nut butter is enough to make a filling grab and go breakfast.

Snacks

To help get in our fruits and veggies, I picked up a bunch of produce including oranges, snap peas, carrots and oranges. I also got a mix of sweet and salty snacks, granola bars for when hunger strikes between stops, and some low-sugar juice boxes to stay hydrated.

Workouts

I'm not sure what our schedule will be like or how much I'll want to workout after driving 8 plus hours each day, but I know my body will feel a lot better if I make the effort to stay active. So here's my tentative plan:

Monday: Fitness Blender Feel Good Stretching Routine
Tuesday: 30 minute tempo run
Wednesday: Fitness Blender Calorie Blasting Low Impact Cardio Boot Camp
Thursday: Easy 3 plus mile run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Slow 4 plus mile run
Sunday: BeFit Yoga Shape Up: Detoxifying Workout

Q: Have you ever been on a long road trip? Any tips?

Meal Prep Monday - Gluten Free Cranberry Flax Muffins and Slow Cooker Chicken

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Mine was pretty full with FOUR family Christmas celebrations and four holiday feasts over three days. Lots of fun but I'm definitely looking forward to getting out of holiday mode once New Years is over.

We have a bunch of leftovers and are going away on an overnight ski trip for New Years, but I wanted to make sure to get a good meal prep in anyways to help counteract the puffy, sluggish feeling I have from all this feasting.

Breakfast

I'm almost out of oatmeal so I took a brief break from my baked oatmeal kick this week and made some muffins. I started with this yummy looking Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins recipe from The Lean Green Bean. But I didn't have any almond meal and didn't feel like making a special Whole Foods trip to find some. And then I picked up a bag of fresh cranberries on a whim. So all in all I ended up with a fairly different recipe, but it still turned out pretty great.

Gluten Free Cranberry Flax Muffins

Calories: 120 | Fat: 8 g | Cholest: 54 mg | Sodium: 93 mg | Carbs: 9 g | Fiber: 3 g | Sugars: 4 g | Protein: 3 g

1/2 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
2/3 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 1 medium banana)

4 tbsp coconut oil
4 eggs
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 cup flax meal

1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the sweet potato, banana, eggs, oil and maple syrup until there are very few lumps.
Stir in the flax meal, cinnamon and baking soda.
Fold in cranberries
Pour batter into greased muffin tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins feel firm and are starting to brown around the edges.
Makes 14 one-muffin servings.

These muffins are dense, moist and rich tasting. The flax meal gives them a nutty flavor and they aren't super sweet, but the tart cranberries give a nice flavor kick. Two of these muffins topped with a little Greek yogurt would make a tasty,nutritious and filling breakfast. If you're looking for more muffin recipes, you can find mine here.

Protein

I kept it light and simple so I made my slow cooker shredded chicken again. It's the easiest meal prep protein to make--just dump 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the slow cooker, add spices and enough broth to cover the chicken, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. It's also super versatile. Check out my post here for some ideas on how to use it. 

Sides

Sticking with the easy theme, I cooked up some quinoa and made my normal oven roasted broccoli and squash. This time I also added carrots for variety.

Workouts

I only have a couple days left in my Washington Sports Club LivingSocial deal so I'll be doing a few more group classes and then it's back to my normal free home workout routine.

Monday: WSC Dupont Circle UXF Burn at 6:00pm

Tuesday: NYE Night Ski 

Wednesday: Skiing! 

Thursday: WSC Clarendon BodyPump at 6:00pm

Friday: FitnessBlender 23 Minute At Home Interval Cardio Training

Saturday: Run

Sunday: Tara Stiles: Yoga Weight Loss & Balance Workout