My husband and I are following a south beach inspired menu this week. As with most everyone at the beginning of January- the diet begins.
Breakfast: I made two frittatas this week. They are great! It's easy to throw together and it reheats well.
Mexican Frittata: I used a frozen pepper onion blend (I always keep a bag or two on hand) and some diced tomatoes. So this recipe was more my inspiration.
Tomato Pesto Frittata: My husband really liked this one! He sent me a text with "This frittata is the shit!"
Lunches: We had salads all week, though I did bring the occasional left over. We used our new
Stay Fit salad bowls. I prepped different toppings, like garbanzo beans, cucumbers, deli meats, ect. in small snack bags. It was easy in the morning to just filled our bottom section of the bowls with our greens and pick our toppings.
I love this bowl! The green tray goes in the freezer so it keeps your salad nice and cold. The tray also keeps your ingredients separate so you don't end up with a soggy salad by the time lunch rolls around. I also think it helps with portion control. The trays only hold so much of the more caloric parts of your meal which means you cut back :) Down side is that the plastic tray has to be hand washed and the other pieces stay in better shape when hand washed.
Dinners:
Almond Crusted Baked Chicken with a Roasted Tomato Jam and Cauliflower Au gratin
Here is what I did:
The recipe is basically
The South Beach Diet Oven Fried Chicken Recipe however I left off the bread and just used almond meal.
For the Tomatoes: I saute a small onion diced, with a pint of cherry tomatoes over medium high heat. I used just enough olive oil to coat the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes begin to burst I added a little bit of agave syrup (a once around the pan) and balsamic oil and salt. I placed the pan (which is oven safe) in the oven to finish cooking and thickening up while the chicken baked.
For the Cauliflower Au Gratin: I just used frozen cauliflower I had on hand and boiled it until just tender. I then mixed the cauliflower with a little bit (maybe a 1/4 cup) of 2% milk, a tablespoon of low fat cream cheese and about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. I placed the cauliflower mixture into a backing dish and baked until brown and bubbly. (this took about 20 min)
Balsamic Salmon Spinach Salad
Flank Steak with Lemon Spinach Spaghetti Squash and Roasted Balsamic Tomatoes
Here's what I did:
For the Flank Steak: Simply drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle Montreal seasoning. I grilled it until Medium Rare, which is about 3-4 min on each side.
For the Tomatoes: In a baking dish drizzle a pint of cherry tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bake at 400 degrees of 15-20 minutes.
Slow Cooker Cannellini Bean Soup with Kale
Grilled Chicken Salad
Here's what I did:
We have this once a week. I simply season a boneless skinless chicken breast with whatever seasonings I feel like that day (usually salt, pepper, thyme and garlic powder) and either saute or grill. I also boil an egg or two. I chop everything together and top the salad off with other toppings like tomatoes, avocado, sunflower seeds, ect.
Baked Chicken Stuffed with Sundried Tomato Pesto and Goat Cheese with Saute Spinach and Brown Rice with Quinoa.
For the Brown Rice and Quinoa I picked
these up the Costco. They are great and only take 90 sec in the microwave.
Extras:
Cake Batter Protein Shake, Peanut Butter Cookies, Stuffed Mini Peppers
Notes:
Cake Batter Shake- was a little sweet. I think next time I will use a little bit of agave instead of the stevia. I also might up the flavoring of the almond extract.
Peanut Butter Cookies- instead of Splenda I used 1/2 cup of agave syrup and to help bind the ingredients better I added a 1/4 cup of almond meal.
