Revive Your Leftovers

Believe it or not I have not been in my office in 5 whole days! And WOW! What a lot have I accomplished. On one of my non-productive days I binged watched Chopped on the Food Network and found inspiration. Chopped Judges Leftover Challenge to be exact became such an inspiration. 

Here it is the end of the month and days after Thanksgiving. Many of us have nothing left in the fridge or in the pantry by this time and honestly I was thankful for the leftovers from my in laws to help carry us through on meals. 

Now there are only so many turkey sandwiches and reheated stuffing that even my husband let alone my children will eat. So today on my food prep Sunday I headed to my kitchen leftovers in hand and my inspiration from Chopped. How do you make turkey, stuffing, quinoa salad, corn casserole and roasted sweet potatoes new again. 

Here is what I made: 

Quinoa Salad Vegetable Frittata 

Sweet Potato Turkey Hash

Stuffing Waffle Sticks

Creamy Turkey Noodle Soup

Just a few ingredients from my pantry recreated all these items for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. I even invited my in laws over for dinner tonight since they had past on all these items to me and they could not believe it was all made from leftovers. 

For the frittata I just added the leftover salad to the egg mixture and topped with Parmesan cheese. 

For the hash I just added onions, garlic and fresh herbs to the leftover sweet potatoes and chopped turkey. I served the hash with a sunny side up egg and chives for a finishing touch. 

For the waffle I did not add anything I just heated up the waffle iron and it did all the work. It made a crisp waffle stick which I served with the soup. 

The soup was the longest project of the day. I started by making my own stock with the turkey carcass, onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary and lemons. After it simmered for hours and I strained it I added in carrots and let them soften. Once the carrots were softened I added the corn casserole simmered for and hour or so. I then blended with my stick blender. Finally I added the chunked turkey and a handful of edamame noodles. The noodles cook fairly quickly and I served with fresh herbs on top. 

My family was completely impressed by this meal and I am so thankful for the leftovers and a little inspiration. 

Holiday Season Business

Take a look around you and take a step back to think about what really is the importance of the season. 

What do you want your children to learn from you. You want them to learn the importance of season. The meaning of Christmas....Christ, family, love, friendship, giving....

Find projects that involve the family as a whole whether it be the reading of the Christmas Story or visiting elderly relatives, volunteering at your Church or going through snapshots of family photos.  
All of us have multiple events to attend. I would welcome you to step back and look at all these events and decide which ones are truly needed or which ones you are "just showing up to." Prioritizing events will take the stress off parents and give our children a chance to enjoy the time spent with the family instead of being rushed from place to place. 

So this Holiday Season as I watch my schedule get more and more cluttered I am going to take a step back and think, "Is this what makes my family happy?" "Am I just showing up, or is this really important." 

What I Love About Coaching

Fall in Mt. Shasta. Snow falling, wood stove burning, such a peacefulness surrounds us. I sit in my chair, hot coffee, notepads and laptop to begin my research for the week. I have a smile on my face thinking about everyone in my life that is effected by what I research. 

I go through each of my challengers each one has touched my heart in some way. 
For as long as I can remember I have been called Coach-Teacher. Whether it was when I was still in high school teaching 4 and 5 year olds to walk on tip toes in ballet to high school cheerleaders or little baseball players still learning to alligator close the ball and now the many busy moms, grandmas, dads and young adults starting out their health and fitness journey. 

Coaching has always been a part of my life. 

I absolutely love helping people. Coaching is the most rewarding job.


I can remember just last year coaching with my new assistant coach and the day our team perfectly did a skill she had been responsible for teaching them. She looked at me beaming and asked "Is this why you do it?" I nodded. "It is." That moment when everything comes together and you walk in to the school and a girl runs at you almost tackling you screaming "I got straight A's! Thank you for pushing me so hard." When you receive a screen shot of the scale that says "I am down 7lbs and I feel amazing, I kept hearing you in the back of my head pushing me to finish my work out, I did it!" 

I feel so fortunate the God has blessed me with the opportunity to help others and He continues to teach me new ways to help others.

 

Fall Cooking on a Budget

I have been working on my food prep for the week and budgeting our meals. We typically go major grocery shopping once a month and then on Sundays if I am missing anything I will pick it up. This last monthly trip I got 2 whole Foster Farms chicken for $12 and during my food prep I am trying to keep track of how many meals a family of four can get from them. It got me thinking that during food prep after a Costco and Trader Joes run that I can get several meals out of many of the items I purchase and maybe with a little prep that eating healthy isn't as expensive as you think. Below are a couple of items that I have worked on for my Fall Clean Eating Group using whole chickens.

2 Foster Farms Whole Chickens:
Family of 4 Week One: One Chicken
Baked Chicken for Sunday Night Dinner
Sliced Remaining Breast Meat for Lunch Meat for 2 days of school lunches of 2 kids
Chicken Quinoa Soup with  Veggies made with homemade chicken broth from the carcass which served dinner and lunch the following day

Family of 4 Week Two: One Chicken
BBQ Chicken Dinner with the legs, wings, back
Pulled all extra meat off and shredded for tacos and salad in the crock pot
Made Chicken stock with Carcass
Used both organ packets from chicken and made pate for snacking with veggies

If you do the math each meal the protein cost less than $2.00 for a family of 4. That is pretty good cost and good for you!

Fall Cooking

It's the day after Halloween and I am sitting here cleaning up the candy wrappers and trying to get the kids calmed down after two days of Halloween activities. Today is Sunday prep day and I start to build my menu for the week and map out what needs to be prepped. This week is the first week of rain and snow in the forecast so I have decided on some warm and homey recipes. I am baking a chicken to prepare homemade lunch meat and use the carcass for soup later in the week. I got some butternut squash a Trader Joe's so before I run over to choir practice it is my main goal to get done. I like my soups to be savory instead of sweet and this one has a little kick to it. Please enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup:

Ingredients:
1-Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp red pepper chile flakes
1T Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning Blend
.5 red onion, diced
1 clove of garlic minced
1 Container of Low Sodium Organic Chicken Broth
2T Unsweetened Canned Coconut Milk
1T butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees. Toss cubed butternut squash in olive oil, ginger, chile flakes and Mrs. Dash. Roast in high heat oven for 30 mins. until squash is golden brown. In a medium pot sauté your onions and garlic in the additional tsp of oil. Cook until translucent. Add roasted butternut squash and chicken stock to the pot. Turn heat down to low and let simmer another 30 mins. Take off heat, using your stick blender puree to creamy consistency. Place back on low heat add, salt and pepper, coconut milk and finish with the butter. Let simmer 5-10 more mins and soup is ready to serve.