Vegan Roasted Vegetable Burrito Bowl - Freezer Meal

Evening Chickpeas!

This is one of my all time favorite go-to lunch/freezer meals. I travel a lot for work and also I just like have prepared healthy meals ready in my house to save money and keep the waist trim so this recipe has become one of my stable freezer meals good for lunch or even dinner. I make it vegan because I like to eat vegan a few times a week but it can easily be transformed with some grilled chicken, sour cream, cheese, etc.

Roasted Veggie and Black Bean Rice Bowl

I must say I also make this recipe with NO ADDED SALT - it has soooooooo much flavor between the roasted vegetables with chili powder and the lime cilantro rice that I do not miss it at all. I have a low sodium salsa I put on top that usually adds a bit of salt but overall this is a very low sodium dish and you will not miss it at all.

I had a bag of dried beans so I just used that as opposed to canned black bean. Ignore all the soak for 6-8 hours. That is never really necessary.

I also made the lime cilantro rice which is my favorite recipe for any Mexican, Chinese, or any added flavor to rice.

This night I only had chili powder, garlic, and olive oil so that's what I used to dress onions,sweet potatoes, and jalapeno and it was just as good.

Chili Powder, Olive Oil, Garlic

Chunks of Sweet Potatoes and Onion to good bite size pieces

Then roast - my favorite way to make any vegetable delicious.

And finally - assemble

All the fixin's



Perfect little freezer meals - I add shredded lettuce and salsa for a little vegan burrito bowl.'

Enjoy!!

30 Day Challenge - Butt & Plank Challenge Update

Good Mornin' Chickpeas!

Just a quick fitness update. I did start my 30 Day Butt Challenge yesterday. However - when I went to do my normal workout this morning I was a little thrown at what to do. I typically do 30 minutes of cardio and then 30 minutes of weights either legs or abs/arms. Since I will be doing legs or butt for 30 days I didn't know if I should just try to do my typical lounges/squats in addition to the 30 day trial but decided to skip it. I will probably incorporate other leg exercises but will not do any bridges,lunges, or squats in the next 30 days besides what is on the challenge. In addition, I decided to listen to their advice on the website of adding another challenge to kind of create a whole work out. I still want to do other workouts but I did decide to add the 30 Day Plank Challenge. So far so good! Not sure how long I'll be saying that! I will be posting before/afters at the end of the month. Stay tuned!

Healthy Freezer Pizza

Good Mornin'

I've been getting more and more into making all natural food at home (especially when I had the time) and two weeks home and pretty much off work allowed me to dig into my Pinterest and pull out some great recipes I could create while I had the time as well as enjoy!

I'm very proud of myself for my little masterpiece last night of homemade pizza with homemade crust, marinara sauce, and healthy filling. This was all pieced together by a couple different recipes.

First was the crust - I put this together about a week ago and initially wanted to make it to freeze so we would have homemade pizza crust at the house instead of buying the sodium fat filled delivery or even processed frozen kind. I pulled this one out of my Pinterest and it was great and surprisingly very simple! Freezer-Friendly Pizza Dough.

Yeast, Sugar, and Warm Water dissolving

Using the Kitchaid to knead the dough

I followed the directions exactly and used 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour so 2 1/2 cups wheat and 2 1/2 cups white. It had a distinct wheat flavor which I loved and my boyfriend did not. He tends to think wheat is a little dry (as always) and just merely suggested that I used the second frozen dough to make two thin crust pizza so will be following up on that!

Marked each bag with what the food is, when it was made, and how to defrost/cook.

Second was the marina sauce. I had some leftover crushed tomatoes from a spaghetti night we had a couple days back so I was determined to make my own sauce for the pizza. It was great because I found a very simple one by Ina Garten I added some Italian Seasoning and Oregano before simmering to give it a more Italian flare. It was a great simple sauce for the recipe. Marinara Sauce.

Third and final was the delicious toppings. I found this recipe on Cooking Light which is always a favorite of mine. The do use processed food occasionally so I watch for that which is why I used my own dough marinara sauce even though the recipe calls for just a store bought dough and sauce. Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Pizza .

The store did not have spicy sausage so I went with the mild but then added some paprika and crushed red pepper flakes when I was cooking the sausage. Also - the package you see is 16 oz and the recipe only called for 4 oz. When I first put the 4 oz in the pan it look kind of minimal so I did end up adding another 4. I didn't need to... the 8 oz was a little too much and I ended up putting about 1/2 to 3/4 of the topping on and saved the rest to add into scrambled eggs in the morning. And finally I did add some salt and pepper. Cooking Light does a good job of keeping things low sodium but since everything was homemade and I was controlling the salt levels I need to added to bring out the flavors of the veggies.

Homemade marinara on the left. Spicy sausage and mushroom toppings on the right.

Then was the assemble!

Frozen dough sitting at room temperature in a greased bowl for 3-4 hours. Then I added 1 tablespoon of cornmeal to our pizza pan.

Leave about 1/2 inch boarder on the edges.

Spicy sausage, mushroom, onion, and green bell pepper.

Cheese Please! Followed recipe and added a little sprinkle more to cover the middle.

Yummmmmmmmy!

Makin' It Work ... in 2014

Hello there -

Welcome to my blog! I hope that throughout my journey of creating a blog you get to enjoy it and maybe learn something. I have a few new year's resolution and while creating my first blog is not on it, it is a great start for me to track my progress as well as share my adventures.

2014 Resolutions

1. Build stronger relationships with my friends and family. 

I included this one because although I have been friends with the same core group since middle school I tend to let life get in the way and do not keep in touch as much as I like. The way I'm going to change this is to incorporate something I saw from another blog about how to keep your home happy and it was simply to call a friend or family member every day. I am NOT a big phone person at all but I really think this is important for me to stay close to my old friends, new friends, and family by reaching out on more of a regular basis to enhance our relationships.

2. Set my 'practice' / intention every morning.

This one comes from my yoga roots. At the start of every class in yoga the instructor usually asks you to set your intentions for your practice - what is it that you want out of that yoga class - is it to be healthy - is it to relax - is it to take time to mentally reach out to someone else. I believe doing this each morning will help me remind me what is important in my life and to be a better person each day. I was lucky enough to get a book called A Year of Living Your Yoga for Christmas which is a great book that includes day by day intentions and ways to achieve it.

Jan 1 - Living well is not about being calm; it is about being present.
Living Your Yoga - For five minutes today, practice just being present with your emotions without reacting to them. Notice how they come and go.

This is a great one for me because I am always quick to react and use to consistently think I was unhappy because of this or that but when I started to let my unhappy, angry, jealous thoughts go I realized that I can make myself happy which has truly bettered my relationships.

I plan on sharing various intentions from the book throughout the year that I find help.

3. Set and keep fitness goals.

Pretty vague huh? Well I'm a pretty active person and have been for many years but I never seem to keep the fitness challenges I start. I want to finish the Couch to 5k this year as well as some other challenges I've found online. The first one will be the 30 Day Butt Challenge. Will keep you on the loop on that one!

So overall simple, straightforward, obtainable goals that I think will improve my health mentally and physically during 2014.

Besides my resolutions I will also be sharing my life as I try new recipes, go hunting with my boyfriend, help fix up a house, start a new job traveling, etc. I want to share my experiences with you and maybe we will both learn something! Enjoy and don't hesitate to reach out!