Fix Approved Shrimp Chowder

Servings: 5

21 Day Fix Container Equivalents:

• 1 green (cauliflower, onion)
• 1 red (shrimp, bacon, yogurt)
• 1/2 yellow (corn, almond milk)
• 1/2 blue (cheese)

 Ingredients:

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup frozen sweet corn
• 3 cups cooked, peeled shrimp
• 2 slices cooked turkey bacon

Directions:

1. Place cauliflower, garlic, onion, and chicken broth in slow cooker for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low
2. Remove cauliflower and blend in blender until smooth, put back into slow cooker
3. Put corn in microwave safe dish, add 1 tbsp water, and microwave for 1.5 min or until warm
4. Add corn, yogurt, cheese, milk, and shrimp to slow cooker until warm through
5. Serve soup and top with turkey bacon crumbles

Nutritional Information: Calories 320, Fat 10 g, Cholesterol 24.2 mg, Sodium 98.7 mg, Potassium 1388.5 mg, Carbs 26.9 g, Protein 35.3 g, Vitamin A 10.0%, Vitamin C 270.6%, Calcium 34.8%, Iron 19.8%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them. Feel free to contact me in the comments below. Check out my story here.

21 Day Fix Approved Sweet Potato Crusted Quiche

My husband found an idea online where someone had had made quiche crust using sweet potatoes and asked if we could try it. The result was super flavorful and definitely my new favorite way to make quiche!

  
Servings: 4

21 Day Fix Container Equivalents: 

• 1/2 yellow (sweet potato)
• 1 red (eggs and turkey bacon)
• 1 green (spinach, onion, mushrooms, peppers)
• 1/2 blue (cheddar cheese)
• 1 teaspoon (olive oil)

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato
• Cooking spray (preferably olive oil)
• Olive oil
• 2/3 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2/3 cup chopped mushrooms
• 2 cups spinach
• 6 eggs
• 4 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumpled
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray pie pan with cooking spray
3. Cut sweet potato into ~1/8 in slivers (I used a spiralizer)
4. Cover bottom and sides of pan with sweet potato slices (see picture below)
5. Spray lightly with cooking spray 
6. Bake for 15 minutes
7. Lower temperature to 350 degrees
8. Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in skillet over medium heat
9. Add onions, peppers, and mushrooms
10. Cook and stir until unions are translucent
11. Add spinach
12. Cook and stir until spinach has wilted
13. Remove from heat
14. Beat eggs in medium bowl
15. Mix cheese into egg mixture
16. Mix vegetables and bacon into egg mixture
17. Pour egg mixture into crust
18. Bake for 35 minute or until egg mixture is firm and browned

  

Nutritional Information: Calories 295, Fat 20 g, Cholesterol 344.1 mg, Sodium 524.8 mg, Potassium 471 mg, Carbs 11.7 g, Protein 17.3 g, Vitamin A 133.6%, Vitamin C 30.1%, Calcium 20.5%, Iron 11.4%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them. Feel free to contact me in the comments below. Check out my story here.

Clean Mini Pumpkin Pie

I’ve been craving pumpkin pie lately.  I really have a thing for pumpkin pie.  Before I started eating clean, I picked up the individual servings of pumpkin pie almost every time I went to the grocery store!  I tried some of the clean pumpkin pie recipes I found online, but they just weren’t cutting.  I played with a recipe this weekend until I got it just the way I wanted.  These babies only have 71 calories!

Servings: 16

21 Day Fix Container Equivalents:  1 Yellow (I’m counting these as a yellow treat.  They actually have a very small fraction of purple, yellow, blue, red, and tsp.  Their container count isn’t clear.)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 12 oz unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Baking Truvia Blend
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 eggs
• 16 pecan halves for garnish

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare 16 muffin cups with silicone liners or spray with cooking spray
3. Place oats and 1/2 tsp of salt in food processor and pulse until oats become a flour-like consistency
4. Add butter to food processor and pulse until butter and oats have mixed into a dough
5. Press approximately 1 tbsp of dough into the bottom of each muffin cup
6. Mix pumpkin, almond milk, Truvia, pumpkin pie spice, eggs, and remaining salt until well blended
7. Pour mixture on top of dough
8. Place a pecan half on top of each mini pie
9. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle of mini pie comes out clean

Nutritional Information: Calories 71, Fat 4.7 g, Cholesterol 34.1 mg, Sodium 192 mg, Potassium 13.9 mg, Carbs 6.2 g, Protein 1.7 g, Vitamin A 3.3%, Vitamin C 0.1%, Calcium 4.8%, Iron 2.1%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them. Feel free to contact me in the comments below. Check out my story here.

Fix Approved Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling (Gluten Free)

My husband loves carrot cake, and I wanted to try to make a clean version.  A typical carrot cake is loaded with fat and calories.  It seemed like I ought to be able to make it healthy.  Carrot cake has a ton of carrots in it after all!  In the 21 Day Fix Fixate cookbook, there is recipe for a pumpkin muffin with cream cheese filling.  I realized that I could use the same concept for a carrot cake muffin.  These turned out so good!  (With only 84 calories per muffin!)

Servings:  5 (2 muffins per serving)

Muffin Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats (make sure the container says gluten-free)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup baking stevia or 3 tablespoons stevia
• 1/4 cup brown sugar baking Truvia
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups of carrots
• 20 pecan halves

Muffin Filling:

• 2 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1/2 yellow
• 1/2 green
• 1/2 blue
• 1/2 teaspoon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare muffin tins with cooking spray, paper cups, or silicon cups
3. Put all filling ingredients in a small bowl and whip with fork until blended, set aside
4. Put all muffin ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
5. Fill 10 muffin cups halfway with muffin batter
6. Spoon one teaspoon of cream cheese mixture in center of each muffin cup
7. Spoon remainder of batter evenly over each muffin cup
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean!

Nutritional Information:  Calories 168, Fat 5 g, Cholesterol 84.4 mg, Sodium 406 mg, Potassium 166 mg, Carbs 36.6 g, Protein 6.6 g, Vitamin A 53.2%, Vitamin C 4.6%, Calcium 5.6%, Iron 8.2%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

Fix Approved Bacon and Cheese Crockpot Quiche

By far my most popular post on my blog has been Bacon and Cheese Crockpot Quiche.  The meal is delicious and I decided to update the recipe so it was 21 Day Fix approved. The changes greatly reduced the calories and fat while maintaining the great flavor!

Servings:  8 (I like to half the recipe and make it in my mini crockpot.)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 10 eggs
• 1/2 cup of 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• 6 pieces of turkey bacon
• 2 cups of torn fresh baby spinach (about 4 cups loosely packed whole leaves)
• 1 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cup of multi-colored bell peppers
• 1 cup of sliced mushrooms

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1 red (eggs, bacon, yogurt)
• 1 green (onions, peppers, mushrooms)
• 1/2 blue (cheese)

Directions:

1. Grease the crock pot with the butter.  Turn the crock pot on low and leave the remaining butter in the bottom.  It will melt while you are preparing the other ingredients.
2. Cook the bacon.  I cook the bacon in the microwave while I am preparing the other ingredients.  Feel free to cook it any way you want.
3. Cut the stems off of the spinach and tear the spinach into about 1/2 inch pieces.  I tear the pieces into a measuring cup.
4. Chop the onion, peppers, and mushrooms (or buy pre-chopped).
5. Beat the eggs in a large bowl.  Whisk in the yogurt, almond milk, cheese, pepper, spinach, onion, peppers, and mushrooms.
6. Pour the mixture into the crock pot.
7. Tear the bacon into approximately 1/2 inch pieces and top the mixture with bacon.
8. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 2.5 to 3 hours.  The quiche is ready to eat when it is firm to the touch.

Nutritional Information:  Calories 249, Fat 17.9 g, Cholesterol 305 mg, Sodium 393 mg, Potassium 283 mg, Carbs 2.6 g, Protein 19 g, Vitamin A 28.6%, Vitamin C 15.4%, Calcium 27.8%, Iron 10.3%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

21 Day Fix Approved Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle (Gluten-Free)

I developed quite a liking for brownie brittle before starting the 21 Day Fix and was really craving it today.  I decided to run by the grocery to pick up supplies and try to make my own clean, Fix-approved version.  This is what I came up with, and it was great!  You also can’t beat 70 calories per serving!

Servings:  6

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats (make sure the container says gluten-free)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cups baking stevia or 3 tablespoons stevia
• 2 tablespoons unsweeted cocoa powder
• 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon caramel extract
• 1 tablespoon almond milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 tablespoon miniature chocolate chips

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1/2 yellow (oats)
• All other ingredients less than 1/4 of a container

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet
3. Put all ingredients except for salt and chocolate chips in blender (oats, baking powder, stevia, cocoa powder, applesauce, vanilla, caramel extract, almond milk, egg whites, and paprika)
4. Blend ingredients until fully mixed with no large oat pieces (will be very runny)
5. Pour batter into middle of prepared baking sheet
6. Use a spoon or spatula to spread batter as thin as possible
7. Sprinkle top of batter with salt and chocolate chips
8. Bake for 20 minutes
9. Remove from oven and pick up paper by corners transferring baked brittle to countertop to cool
10. After cooling for 2-5 minutes, the brittle should be cool enough to touch and easy to tear into bite-size pieces; you will notice that at this point the brittle is a soft, chewy consistency (because of the nature of the oat/applesauce base, the brittle will not get super crunchy)
11. Optional:  While you are tearing your brittle into pieces, increase your oven temperature to 400 degrees
12. Optional:  Place the parchment paper back onto the baking sheet and spread brittle pieces evenly on top
13. Optional:  Continue baking for 5-10 minute intervals checking the “crunchiness” of the brittle until it is the consistency you desire; the edges will begin to curl as the brittle hardens

Nutritional Information:  Calories 70, Fat 1g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 115 mg, Potassium 68.4 mg, Carbs 13.5g, Protein 3.7 g, Vitamin A 5.2%, Vitamin C 0.1%, Calcium 0.2%, Iron 5.2%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

Pumpkin, Gingerbread, Chocolate Waffles (Gluten-Free)

I really wanted 21 Day Fix approved waffles or pancakes this morning but didn’t have all of the ingredients for any of my existing recipes.  I decided to experiment with what I did have, and the outcome was delicious!

Servings:  2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1.5 tablespoons unsweet cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons 0% fat Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• chocolate chips (a few)
• Honey or maple syrup for topping

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1 yellow (oats)
• 1 red (eggs, egg whites, yogurt)
• 1/4 green (there’s so little pumpkin you don’t really have to count it unless you really want to…)
• teaspoons (depends on how much honey/syrup you use)

Directions:

1. Turn on your waffle iron and allow it to preheat
2. Add all ingredients except chocolate chips and honey/maple syrup to blender (oats, eggs, pumpkin, cocoa powder, Greek yogurt, vanilla, salt, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and nutmeg)
3. Blend ingredients until fully mixed with no large oat pieces
4. Separate batter into two equal amounts (I like to measure it in two measuring cups)
5. Pour 1/2 of the batter into your iron; depending on the iron size, it may not fill the entire iron
6. Put a few chocolate chips on top of batter and close iron
7. Cook waffle according to your waffle iron instructions
8. Repeat cooking process with second waffle

Nutritional Information (without topping):  Calories 310, Fat 9.8 g, Cholesterol 211 mg, Sodium 726 mg, Potassium 207 mg, Carbs 38.4 g, Protein 17.8 g, Vitamin A 4.9%, Vitamin C 0.4%, Calcium 8.0%, Iron 20.6%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

Slow Cooker Apricot Pork Roast

This recipe is a little fluid…  I make it a little differently every time.  Feel free to experiment!  This started out as a recipe from my mom, but I’ve added to it over the years.  The roast turns out extremely moist with a sweet glaze.  Adding root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes to the roast creates a complete meal.  I don’t have a picture here, but sliced tenderloin on a platter surrounded by carrots and potatoes presents beautifully.

Ingredients:

• Hormel Original Pork Tenderloin
• Approximately 8 small red potatoes
• Approximately 16 baby carrots
• Dijon mustard
• Salt
• Pepper
• Approximately 4 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar
• Approximately half a jar of Smuckers Appricot Preserves
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• Olive oil

Instructions:

• Unwrap pork tenderloin and place in slow cooker
• Salt and pepper tenderloin to taste
• Squeeze dijon mustard onto tenderloin
• Drizzle tenderloin with balsamic vinegar
• Cut butter into single tablespoons and arrange evenly around tenderloin

• Spoon half a jar of apricot preserves on tenderloin

• Cook tenderloin on low for four hours
• While tenderloin is cooking, wash and quarter the potatoes
• Add potatoes and carrots to a ziplock bag and drizzle with olive oil
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Shake bag to coat carrots and potatoes

• After the tenderloin has been cooking for about four hours, add the carrots and potatoes and allow to cook for an additional two hours (a total of six hours of cook time)

 

 

Grandma Sula’s Peanut Butter Cake

I made my great-grandma’s peanut butter cake for work today.  Something is a little off in the recipe I was given, and I always end up improvising.  I decided to actually record what I think I did last night so I can repeat it!  The cake turned out delicious.  It was mostly gone before 9:30 this morning.  The powdered sugar heart was added at the last minute to make it holiday appropriate.

Cake Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 2 cups of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 eggs, beaten

Icing Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 6 tablespoons of coffee
• 1/4 cup of peanut butter

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• Grease a 9 by 13 inch pan
• Cream white sugar, 1/2 cup of butter, and 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• Beat in eggs
• Sift flour and baking soda in another bowl
• Mix the milk and apple cider vinegar in a liquid measuring cup
• Add the flour mixture to the first mixture alternating with milk
• Pour batter into pan and bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center of the cake clean; the cake should be a dark golden brown
• Allow the cake to cool
• Using an electric mixer, mix the powdered sugar, remaining butter (melted), peanut butter, and coffee.  You may want to adjust the ingredients for taste or consistency.  Adding more sugar will make the icing thicker.  Adding more butter and coffee will turn the icing into more of a glaze.
• Ice the cake

Eyeball Cake Pops and Punch

Since it’s Halloween, we interrupt all of the wedding posts for…well…a Halloween post.

My engineering firm has an annual Halloween dessert contest.  After seeing the outcome of last year’s competition, I realized that the vote goes to aesthetics rather than flavor.  I bake a lot, but do very little dessert decorating.  (I do no dessert decorating.)  After an extensive Pinterest search, I chose to make eyeball cake pops.  I actually get to bake something rather than just putting together pieces of candy.  I had also been wanting to try cake pops for quite some time.  To add to the dessert, I also made eyeball punch.

This process turned out to be an exercise on how NOT to make cake pops.  They turned out cute/creepy in the end.  I didn’t even come close to placing in the competition.  I probably need to work on my decorating skills.

Materials/Ingredients:

• Cake Mix (I chose red velvet cake to make the inside of eyeballs super creepy.)
• Ingredients necessary to make cake mix
• Canned frosting
• Vanilla almond bark
• Cake pop sticks
• Cake pop stand
• Food coloring
• Water color paint brushes
• Ping pong balls
• Colorful Sharpies
• Pitcher
• 1 gallon of Hawaiian Punch
• 2 liter of Sprite

Cake Pop Instructions:

• Make the cake as indicated on your cake mix.  (My red cake was really creepy.)

• Allow to cool fully.  (I made mine the night before.)
• Crumble the cake using a fork and place crumbs in large bowl.
• Mix the crumbs and 1/2 to 3/4 of a container of store bought frosting.  Mix until the frosting is completely absorbed.  My mixture was the consistency of Play-doh.  Since this was my first attempt at cake pops, I’m not sure that was correct.
• Use a cookie or ice cream scoop to create balls of the mixture.  I used an ice cream scoop and rounded the balls with my hands.
• (After this point lots of things started going wrong.  So as to not confuse, I’ll continue with the steps that seemed to work.  See carnage below.)

• Place balls in small containers and put into FREEZER.  (Multiple containers are good because you can rotate the containers and only take a few balls out of the freezer at a time.  I used small baking dishes.)
• While the balls are cooling, use a double boiler (or put water in a pot and put a glass bowl over it as I did) and bring your water to a boil.  Turn the heat down so the water is simmering.  Melt the almond bark in the upper compartment of the double boiler or in the bowl.  Add a few drops of vegetable oil if you wish your almond bark to have a smoother consistency.
• Remove a container of balls from the freezer.  Dip the end of one stick and push it into the center of the ball. ( Don’t push the stick too far or you will see balls sliding down your sticks later as the ends of the sticks push through the tops of the balls.)  Repeat the process for the rest of the balls in the container.  Put the container back into the freezer and remove a different container.  Repeat until all of the balls have sticks.  Leave the balls in the freezer until the almond bark on the sticks has hardened.

• After the almond bark has hardened for the first container of balls, remove it from the freezer.  Dip the entire ball in the almond bark.  You may need to spoon almond bark over the ball near the stick.  Remove the ball from the bowl of almond bark and spin the ball to remove access almond bark.  I found a wire whisk to be a useful tool for removing access almond bark.  Place the coated ball in the cake pop holder or place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper.  Repeat until all of the balls are covered in almond bark.
• Paint the eye design onto the balls using food coloring.  (I tried to use the food coloring markers first.  They did not work.  I would not suggest purchasing them.)  Mixing one drop of red with one drop of green made an almost black.  I painted the pupils first.  After letting the dry, I painted the iris region.  I started out painting the entire iris region a solid color, but the food color pigments were so dark that it looked like a giant, dark dot.  It looked much better when I painted the outer border of the iris and then painted lines going towards but not touching the pupil.  See below.

The balls turned out OK.  I had lots of problems and trial and error.  I had several pops break apart in my almond bark, causing the almond bark to have cake in it.  This resulted in a much less smooth almond bark.  I also didn’t like the design on the early pops.  They were really creepy when you tried to eat them.

Eyeball Punch Instructions:

• Draw eye designs on ping pong balls using Sharpies
• (I thoroughly tested them to make sure they wouldn’t bleed in my punch.  After drawing on them, I washed them.  I then left them in a small bowl of water for two days to make sure they wouldn’t bleed.)

• Make punch using equal parts Hawaiian Punch and Sprite in the pitcher.  Place the ping pong balls on top for a creepy touch.