The Perfect Portion Cookbook Review

A healthy lifestyle is always something that I'm striving towards. Admittedly, sometimes I'm working harder at it than others! On my best days, I exercise, make healthy food choices and substitutions, and feel great about myself. My goal is to have more good days than bad days so I was excited when I received an advanced copy of The Perfect Portion Cookbook which goes on sale to the public later this month. I can always use some new, easy recipes to add to my (admittedly limited) rotation.

The Perfect Portion Cookbook is written by NY Times best-selling cookbook author, Bob Warden and food and nutrition expert, Mona Dolgov (of Natick, MA!) and was just featured on the TODAY show and on The Doctors as a new way to think about portion control and nutrition. The featured recipes are all divisible by 100 so you can eat what you love and enjoy 100, 200 or 300 or 400 calorie portions.  Yummy recipes like French toast, chili, chicken pot pie, and lasagna swap out better-for-you ingredients that don’t sacrifice flavor and might even taste better than the originals!

I decided to try out the Ratatouille & Sausage Bake Recipe which includes eggplant, zucchini, squash, peppers, and more! This dish is roasted in the oven to give it a robust flavor and has chicken sausage in it to make it a complete meal. I loved that it was easy to put together and I could prepare it ahead of time while the kids were at school. That meant when it was dinner time I could just pop it in the oven and be done!

Voila!

So how the cookbook works is that it tells you exactly how to slice/portion the dish so that each serving is 100 calories. Here is the breakdown for the dish that I made:

The idea behind the cookbook isn't simply about counting calories though. It's about understanding portion control. It's being aware of what a true serving looks like that so that you can make decent size choices in the future. The end of the cookbook is also filled with useful charts and information ranging from sample menus to 100 calorie portion cheat sheets for fruits, veggies, and snacks. Did you know that 100 medium radishes has only 100 calories? If only I liked radishes! 

 

I'm excited to try out some more recipes (especially desserts!) from the cookbook. Interested in buying your own copy? The Perfect Portion cookbook launches Feb. 7th on QVC. You can get a special pre-order price by clicking HERE. You can also pre-order on Amazon by clicking HERE. 

 

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of the cookbook in order to facilitate this review. As always, all opinions are my own. 

Our 4th Recap: Chips and Dip (recipe), 10K, and Fireworks!

On July 3rd, the kids and I were going to head out to watch my husband run a 10K and follow that up with a good old fashioned parking lot tailgate while we waited for fireworks. I figured this was a great opportunity to try out a new dip recipe. I am a die hard sour cream and onion dip fan. It is one of my (many) weaknesses. So when I saw THIS recipe for a healthier version I decided to tweak it a bit based on ingredients I had on hand. Here is the dip I made...

Ingredients:

2 Individual Size (5.3oz) Stonyfield Greek 0% Fat Plain Yogurt Containers

2 Teaspoons Fresh Dill

1/2 Teaspoon of Buttermilk Powder

1 Teaspoon of Onion Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

Super Simple Steps:

(1) Add all ingredients to one bowl

 

(2) Find a helper to stir it for you (or do it yourself)

 

(3) Refrigerate. You can pretty much serve it immediately but the longer it sits the more the flavors blend.

And that's IT. So easy to make!

Our additional steps from that day:

(4) Cheer on husband as he runs.

(5) Set up tailgate.

(6) Enjoy!

So the dip got 4 out 5 votes of approval from our house. Henry doesn't like sour cream and onion dips so it was not surprising that he didn't like this dip. This was the first time I had used greek yogurt in place of sour cream in cooking though and I will definitely do it again. I honestly wouldn't have known the difference if I hadn't made it myself. It also made me feel so much better about eating way too much of it!

We were also provided with a bag of Late July chips which we enjoyed with the dip. Although I actually enjoyed the chips more just on their own. I think I'd stick with a plain old potato chip (or veggies if that's your thing) with this dip going forward and eat the Late July chips directly from the bag! We ate their standard Sea Salt chip but they have a Bacon Habanero flavor that I want to try. How could anything with the word bacon in it be bad?

As for the Patriot Place fireworks, they received 5 out of 5 votes of approval from our household. Man, were those some good fireworks. They definitely put a lot of time and energy (and money!) into making it a great display. This was our first time watching them and we will definitely head back again next year. Such a fun night!

*Disclosure: This post was written in partnership with Stonyfield. As a YoGetter Ambassador, at times I receive free product and/or compensation. As always, all opinions are my own.

Easy, Natural, Homemade Power Bar Recipe

I often eat breakfast while doing a hundred other things in the morning so I don't have time to make a "real" meal and sit down to eat it. Therefore, I've grown to rely heavily on power bars (especially mornings that I exercise). I recently did a gluten free challenge and then a sugar free challenge which has opened my eyes to all the added ingredients in lots of products including my beloved bars.

I briefly looked into making my own bars but got scared off when I saw lists of ingredients that I had never heard of never mind had in my house. Then my boot camp instructor made some and shared them and  they were good. So I decided to bite the bullet and make some of my own this weekend by tweaking her recipe. I was able to find all the scary ingredients in the Natural/Organic section of my local grocery store without any trouble at all. So without further ado, I give you Diane's Nutty Power Bars which contain only natural ingredients and sugars.

Diane's Nutty Power Bars

Ingredients:

1 Cup Walnuts
1 Cup Almonds
1 Cup Sunflower Seeds
6 Pitted Dates (roughly chopped)
2 Tbsp Coconut Flour
2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal
1 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter
1 Ounce Dark Chocolate (roughly chopped or you could use chips)
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grind Walnuts, Almonds, and Sunflower seeds in a food processor. Transfer nuts/seeds to a mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients to bowl and mix well. Spread into a 8x8 (or similar size) pan and bake for 20 minutes. When you remove from the oven, bars will not be fully hardened/formed but will set together as they cool. Allow bars to cool completely before cutting into squares.

There you have it - easy, peasy and yummy. Do you have a power bar recipe that you love? Feel free to share!

Crock-Pot Freezer Recipes: Chicken

I recently wrote about how I got together with a couple of (new) friends to prep a bunch of freezer meals. Since then I've been asked by people for the recipes so I wanted to share them here.

Now as a warning, I have not tried the finished product for most of these yet but I assume that they are good! These are also not my original recipes but rather recipes that a friend gathered based on her own recipes, her friends', and recipe tweaks from various cookbooks/sites. Feel free to change them to fit your needs/likes. Also, if you are putting the ingredients directly from the freezer to the crockpot, I'd suggest cooking on the low setting. If you plan it out ahead of time you can defrost the bag the day before and then you can cook on low or high. You also don't need to freeze them at all if you want to just make the recipe one day and cook immediately.

So without further ado, I'm starting off with five chicken recipes (beef and pork to follow!):


CHICKEN WITH PINEAPPLE AND RICE

4 boneless chicken breast halves

1 can (14 oz.) pineapple tidbits in juice, undrained

3/4 cups finely chopped carrots

1/2 cup each chopped sweet red peppers and green peppers

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cups chopped green onions

2 cups of chicken broth

Combine all ingredients in freezer bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours.  Serve over rice. Sprinkle with sliced green onion.

ORANGE CHICKEN

2 cups carrots

2 cups bell pepper

1 lb chicken breast

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

8 oz orange juice concentrate

Combine all ingredients in freezer bag. Cook in crock pot on low 4-6 hours. Garnish with clementine or mandarin oranges and green onion. Serve over rice.

GARLIC LIME CHICKEN

1.5 lb chicken

1/4 cup lime juice

1 TBS chicken boullion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp pepper

2 TBS butter

Combine all ingredients in freezer bag. Add 1 cup water to crock pot with ingredients. Cook on low 7-8 or high 5-6 hrs. Serve with starch and veggie of choice.

BROWN SUGAR CHICKEN 

6 boneless, skinless breast halves

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup lemon-lime soda

2/3 cup white vinegar

3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic

2 T soy sauce

1 tsp ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in freezer bag. Cook low 6-9 hours or high 4-5 hours. Serve over rice with veggie of choice.

CHICKEN TACO SOUP

1 onion, chopped

1 (16 ounce) can chili beans

1 (15 ounce) can black beans

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle of beer

2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained

1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning

3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients in freezer bag. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream (or a dollop of diane), and crushed tortilla chips, if desired. 

New to slow cooking or just in need of a new crockpot? You can check out one of Amazon's best selling ones here! If mine ever bites the dust I'm definitely getting a programmable one just to make my life even that much more easier! Also, don't forget to pick up the Slow Cooker Liners. They were LIFE CHANGING for me!

Easy Chicken and Spinach Rice Dish #LoveEveryMinute

Even though I’m home all day and should have all the time in the world to plan out meals, I’m honestly not great at doing it. I often find myself looking at the clock at 4:30pm and realizing I have no idea what we’re doing for dinner. I keep saying I’m going to get better with planning but to date I haven’t. Therefore, I LOVE quick and easy recipes. If I can add healthy on to the end of that sentence it’s a total slam dunk.

One product that helps me out in a jam is Minute Rice because…well it cooks in just minutes! In a total pinch I can cook it up and just add a little butter and cheese and the kids will eat it!

The other night though I made a simple and easy Chicken and Spinach Rice dish with the help of my little chef Isabelle. 

Here is the recipe we used.

Chicken and Spinach Rice

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 pound Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut into bit size pieces)

1 bag (10 ounces) Fresh Baby Spinach

1 ½ cups Minute White Rice (uncooked)

1 cup Cherry Tomatoes (halved)

¾ cup Chicken Broth

1 Tbsp Minced Garlic (use more or less based on your taste preference)

½ Tsp Ground Pepper

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese (grated)

Directions

(1) Heat oil in large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and cook through (approx. 10 mins)

(2) Add spinach, garlic, rice, tomatoes, pepper, and chicken broth; mix well. 

(3) Bring ingredients to a boil.

(4) Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

(5) Finally, stir in the parmesan cheese and you have dinner!

One of the reasons I like this recipe is because you can also mix it up and add other ingredients, spices, etc based on your likes (or just what you have in the pantry!). 

 

Minute® Rice is so quick and easy to prepare and is great pantry staple. When meal time seems like a hassle, Minute® Rice is a go-to ingredient your whole family will love and allows you to have more quality time doing what you want with your loved ones.

Leftover rotisserie chicken or veggies from a meal earlier in the week? Minute® Rice can easily be paired with some of your leftover ingredients to make a quick, easy and wholesome meal your whole family will love in just a matter of minutes.

Visit http://www.minuterice.com/ to create a great main meal or side dish for your next family get-together or potluck. 

*This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Minute® Rice. All opinions are my own.*