Being prepared

This weekend I've been house/dog sitting for the doctor that owns the clinic I work at. My mom's been his head nurse for the past 13ish years, so I've known him since I was like 12, but I don't think I've ever actually seen where he lived. Wow. Let me just say this place is amazing!! I think the things I love the most are the kitchen:

I'd love to have a kitchen like this one day!

and the view:

I'm a sucker for a pretty view :)

Sometimes it feels like I could reach up and touch the clouds

So pretty.

I would love to be able to cook in this kitchen everyday. Everything's so nice and there's so much space. It's awesome! And if I had a view like this I'd be sitting/eating outside all the time. It's just a really different perspective to see Vegas from up here.

Anyways, I knew I'd be here for the weekend and I didn't really know what they'd have for me to eat (although I did get a little glimpse when I got the tour/instructions a few days before). So I came prepared. The night before I came over I made a batch of this cous cous, without any protein so I could add in whatever, from Janetha (which was super yummy and versatile...will definitely be experimenting more with it). I brought 2 servings worth of that with me and I brought dried lentils, figuring I could just make those to go with the cous cous if all else failed.

Here's some stuff I brought

That's protein powder on top of the PB2. Since I just took this picture, there is some stuff not pictured. Like my vegan chocolate chip cookies from Red Velvet. Or my BCAA's for after my workout yesterday. The cous cous. And I actually had 2 packs of dried seaweed.

The point is that I didn't go cray and bring everything I possibly could with me. But I did bring some good staple ingredients that I might want to use while here. Plus some snacks. And delicious dessert. And I ended up doing really well considering I'm not in my own kitchen.

Here's some meal creations I came up with:

This was my first night here and is the cous cous with lentils and an egg. I forgot my Trader Joe's hot sauce and they didn't have sriracha, so I had to use tobasco to give it a little flavor/spice. It was really tasty and filling. For dessert...my remaining half of my vegetarian icing-filled carrot cake cookie from Red Velvet with Coconut Vanilla white tea I found (omg so good!)

This was my breakfast/lunch after my workout yesterday...I had to get a bit more creative with this.
On top is 1 egg + 1 egg white scrambled with onion, cucumber, and some roasted turkey breast they had (topped with tobasco, of course). I saw that there was organic reduced fat unsweetened coconut in the fridge and I knew I had to use it in some way while I was here. So I decided to make oatmeal with it and the vanilla coconut tea...this turned out so freaking good, I will most definitely be experimenting with this sort of concoction again. I brewed the tea really strong (I probably let it brew for like 7-10 minutes while I did other stuff). I then used the tea to cook the oats, but added in 1 packer of Pure Via and some vanilla extract. After cooking I added 1 tbsp of this vanilla latte creamer and 1 heaping tsp of the coconut. Then I just added some water until it was a creamier consistency. Topped with some ancient grains granola. This was fabulous, I was so happy with this.

I don't have a picture of my dinner last night, but it was just the rest of the cous cous with a slice of chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken and a salad with raspberry balsamic dressing (really good!). For dessert I made protein fluff using PB2 and cookies and cream protein powder, which by the way is really not the same using water instead of milk...but alas I had no choice. I used this as frosting for my Red Velvet cookies...wow that was super tasty.

The point of this whole post is that being prepared is so important to being able to make healthier choices. Obviously it was really helpful for me this weekend to have some of my favorite things with me and some good staples. Even on a day to day basis it is important. At work we get drug reps bringing in lunch probably 2-3 times a month (on top of our work providing us with bagels/doughnuts/pizza every so often) and it is almost always something unhealthy, but always something tempting (although once a drug rep brought Rachel's Kitchen, which is this "natural foods kitchen", I was so freaking happy lol!). When I have a yummy lunch that I made myself waiting for me I am not even tempted to go get any of the food that was brought to us. Some people are able to prep their food for the whole week...I haven't quite gotten to that level yet...but I do always have a yummy lunch with me (on those rare occasions that I don't I will plan on going to Jimmy John's for one of their delicious sandwiches as a lettuce wrap).

Well I suppose that's it for now...now to go play with this adorable doggies :)

Love,

Tuffy

Recipe: Stuffed Greek Burgers

This is an original recipe for me, although I did have some inspiration. I made it on a whim a few weeks ago when I was just trying to figure out a way to use up the left over ground turkey and hummus we had in our fridge. My inspiration came from livefiteatclean on Instagram. She had posted multiple things that were topped with both hummus and Sriracha. I know that it initially sounds like a kind of bizarre combination, but let me tell you, it is amazing! It just gives your hummus a little kick...mmmm.

Anyways, so I knew I wanted to use the turkey and top it some how with hummus and sriracha. In trying to stick with the Mediterranean theme of the hummus, I decided to stuff the burgers with marinated artichoke hearts and feta. The combination of all of this turned out to be incredibly tasty, and I will most definitely be making these again. Not only did I surprise myself with these burgers, but the green beans I whipped up to go with the burgers ended up surprisingly tasty as well. I am notorious for just throwing stuff in a pan for a quick veggie saute, but the things I used for this saute ended up working incredibly well together. My boyfriend has asked me to make these veggies again on multiple occasions.

A finished picture of the turkey burger, green beans, and whole wheat cous cous

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb ground turkey (I go with extra lean)
• Quartered, marinated artichoke hearts, about 4 quarters
• 3-4 TBSP crumbled feta cheese (my choice: fat free crumbles from Trader Joe's)
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder
• Hummus (I make my own artichoke hummus, but store bought is fine)
• Sriracha

Directions

1. Separate the ground turkey into two roughly equal lumps of turkey.
2. With each lump of turkey, split in half and flatten out into patty shapes. You'll want to make the patties fairly thin, but not too thin that the stuffing won't stay in the burger while cooking.
3. Chop up the quartered artichoke hearts a bit, just into bite size pieces or so.
4. Add the artichoke hearts to one of each of the burger halves.
5. Sprinkle feta cheese on top. 

   

   It should look like this after step 5.

6. Place the empty patty halves over the halves with the filling.
7. In order to secure the halves together to make one stuffed burger you're going to have to squeeze together the edges of the halves. There isn't really one specific technique here. You will just have to continue to squeeze the edges together and then fold the thinned out edges over a bit and pat down. Basically you just want to create one burger instead of 2 patties sitting on top of each other, so you are trying to meld the edges of the two patties together. (sorry this is a bit of a ramble, I've never actually had to explain this technique...it's much easier to learn from watching!)
8. Once you've formed your burger liberally season the side facing up with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. When seasoning, be very liberal. It will seem like it's too much, but trust me it isn't. Some of the flavor gets lost during the cooking process, which is why you should be liberal.
9. On your heated pan/grill (I cooked on our grill) place the seasoned side down. Repeat the seasoning process on the side that is now facing up.
10. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side. It depends on what kind of heat your using, but that's a good general time. You just want to cook until they aren't pink in the middle (sometimes I have to cut into one of them to be sure).
11. After cooking, add some hummus (~2 TBSP) to each burger and top with sriracha (as much as you can handle!)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Fresh green beans (~1/2 lb)
• 1/4 - 1/2 yellow onion, sliced (depends on your taste)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped (again, depends on taste)
• 1/4 bell pepper, sliced (any color)
• 1/2 mini cucumber, thinly sliced
• ~3 TBSP Fat free feta crumbles
• Marinaded artichoke hearts (add to taste) + some marinade
• Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Add onions, garlic, and bell pepper to pan and saute a few minutes until they become a little wilted.
2. In the mean time, rinse the green beans and trim the ends.
3. Add the green beans to the pan, cover, and let cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Take cover off, add cucumber and as much artichoke hearts as you'd like.
5. Add about 2 teaspoons of the artichoke marinade.
6. Season liberally with spices.
7. Add feta crumbles and stir. Let cook for another 3-4 minutes. All of the flavors will come together and the cheese will melt a bit.

   

   Green bean saute

   Serve and enjoy!!!
   
   
   Love,
   Tuffy