Naked Burgers and A New Way to Prepare Sweet Potatoes!

For dinner last night I tried the Naked Turkey Burgers from Skinny Taste with their homemade Bruschetta. I also took the Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo and sprinkled on the turkey burgers during the cooking process. With those, we had Easy Hasselback Sweet Potatoes from Oh Snap! Let's Eat! and then I steamed some fresh veggies to go along with it all.

I'll start with the burgers. 

I was kind of afraid of this recipe because I haven't had much luck in the past with burgers. We don't have the option to grill here and I haven't had much experience with burgers; every time I tried to make burgers, they would end up falling apart and there'd be a ton of liquid in the bottom of the pan. But I decided to give these turkey burgers a try. I was skeptical to see that there were no eggs involved, and I was thinking of adding them (just in case) but decided to go ahead with the original recipe and see how it turned out. So I threw it all together, which only took a couple of minutes, and then formed the patties. 

We ended up with about 10 patties since I used 2# of meat instead of the 1.25 in the recipe. I really didn't increase the quantity of the other ingredients much. I still used just one zucchini, but had a heaping 1/4 cup of coconut flour and added an extra tbsp. of onion. To my happy surprise, the burgers stuck together perfectly. They were so easy to flip over and didn't take long at all to cook all of them. I did decide to add a sprinkling of Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo on one side of the burgers during the cooking process. It ended up being a wonderful impromptu decision because it had just the right flavor, with just enough heat, and I think really gave the burgers that extra oomph! 

The bruschetta for the burgers was super easy to make. 

It took just a couple of minutes to chop and throw everything together. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of tomatoes, but I gave it a try and I don't think the burgers would be as good if they didn't come with the bruschetta. The two together really are a perfect pairing. The coolness from the tomatoes helps with the heat of the seasoning and the basil in there is very nice. 

I decided to give the Hasselbeck Sweet Potatoes a try. 

I saw them on Pinterest once and thought that they looked super cool! Cutting them was not my favorite task. I did try the chopstick method and that helped for the middle, but if any of the potato is not on the cutting board (it's elevated) then you have to just make sure the knife doesn't go all the way through. The potatoes ended up being delicious. How can you go wrong with sweet potatoes? However, my husband doesn't really like eating the skin, so he was constantly peeling it off. I do eat the skin and was doing so, but it just ended up being kind of difficult to eat. I think next time it'd just be easier to go ahead and cut all the way through and make chips instead. Just my preference though. 

So there's my review and our lovely Dinner #22 of our Whole30 program. Only 8 more to go!!

The recipes that I used to create this meal is listed below. Let me know what you think of them or any changes you made. I'll be saving this recipe and always look forward to learning new tips and tricks to spice up old recipes!!

Bruschetta from Skinny Taste
Bruschetta Ingredients:

credit: skinnytaste.com

• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 3 medium vine ripe tomatoes
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 3 oz part skim mozzarella, diced (did not include this)
  

Bruschetta Directions:

Combine the red onion, olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Set aside a few minutes while you chop the tomatoes, then place in the bowl. Add the garlic, basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste and mix well and set aside. Toss in the cheese when ready to serve.

Naked Turkey Burgers from Skinny Taste

Burger Ingredients:

• 1.25 lbs 93% lean ground turkey (I used 2# of turkey)
• 1 small zucchini, grated (1 cup, or 5 oz)
• 1/4 cup seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs (I used coconut flour)
  
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp red onion, grated
• salt and fresh pepper
• oil spray

Burger Directions:

1. Squeeze the excess moisture from the zucchini in a paper towel. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, shredded zucchini, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, salt 

    and pepper. 

3. Form into 5 equal sized patties about 5 oz each, forming them as flat as possible.

4. Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. When hot, lightly spray with oil. 

5. Add the burgers to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. 

6. Cook until browned, about 4 minutes, then flip and cook another 4 minutes, careful not to burn.

Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo
Seasoning Ingredients:
-  2 1/2 tablespoons of salt
-  1 tablespoon of dried oregano
-  1 tablespoon of paprika
-  1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
-  1 tablespoon of ground black pepper

Seasoning Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together and store in a small jar with the rest of your spice mixes until needed.

Easy Hasselback Sweet Potatoes from Oh Snap! Let's Eat!
Potato Ingredients:

credit: ohsnapletseat.com

• Sweet potatoes
• Olive oil
• Scallions, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Butter (optional)

Potato Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Carefully, slice the potato (but not ALL the 

    way through!) in to thin slices. A good trick 

    I’ve heard of is to use chopsticks or 

    something on the two sides of the potato so 

    that it stops you from 

    accidentally cutting it all the way through.

3. Rub the potatoes with olive oil. Make sure to get in between the slices so that the sweet potato 

    doesn’t dry out in the oven.

4. Line a baking pan or baking sheet with aluminum foil, and then place the potatoes on the baking 

    sheet or baking pan.  

5. Stick it in the oven until for about half an hour.

6. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven. We are going to fan out the potato slices and make it 

    pretty! Use a butter knife/spreader or something else dull and thin separate the slices from one 

    another.

7. Stick it back in the oven for another half an hour.

8. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and scallions as desired. If you want, I sometimes put small chunks of 

    butter between some of the slices to make it even tastier!

What's For Lunch?

Today I am making Skinny Taste's Turkey Taco Chili for lunch. We are having a bit of cold weather here this week and I have a feeling it will be short lived, so I want to get in the chili before it gets warm outside. Well, ok, that's an excuse. I just love chili and will make it whenever I can, haha! I am making it without the cheese or sour cream and definitely not the chips, as are shown in the picture.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that you cannot force open a can of tomato sauce if the lid is still attached on one side. My kitchen was the one to suffer. Red sauce EVERYWHERE!! Ah well, live and learn!

This is one of my hubby's favorite meals so I know he will enjoy it when he comes home for lunch!

Click HERE for the link to the original recipe.
Click HERE to see my blog post on the chili.
Click HERE to go to Skinny Taste's website.

Recipe: Roasted Acorn Squash and Leek Soup

This recipe is to die for! I love, love, LOVE anything to do with onions so I really made sure I didn't lose this recipe. I would absolutely recommend doubling or tripling this recipe and freezing it for later! I didn't use fat free chicken broth, but another option would be to make your own chicken broth. The ingredients are minimal and it is totally worth the wait!

Click here for the original link (found on SkinnyTaste.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 acorn squash
• 1 tbsp butter (vegans use olive oil)
• 1 (about 1 cup) large leek, light green and white part only
• 4 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth (vegans use vegetable stock)
• 2 tbsp pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)
• 2 tbsp chopped chives

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cut acorn squash in half and bake until tender, about 40 - 45 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, discard dark green part of the leek. Leeks usually tend to be sandy, so I like to clean them well by separating the layers and washing them well under cold water. Chop leeks and sauté in a large pot with butter or oil over medium low heat until tender, about 5 minutes.

When squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out seeds and discard. Scoop out the flesh from the skin and add to the pot with leeks.  

Add about 2/3 of the chicken stock to the pot; stir well and simmer about 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, blend soup until smooth. Add remaining broth and simmer a few more minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with pepitas and chopped chives.

Motivation: Tools to Use

I find that I perform the best when I am surrounded by helpful tools. These can be friends that help you stay on track, websites that motivate you to keep going, online calculators that help you see your progress, or even apps on your phone to remind you when to weigh in. Whatever it is that you need, there are a ton of options out there to help you lose weight and get healthy. I'm going to share some of my favorites with you!

Numbers: 

I like to keep several options open for keeping tracking of my weight loss. With many different numbers to keep track of, it's easier for me to stay on course than if I am only watching the scale. For example, I can keep track of my weight on Thintopia, a website designed to track weight loss, but not show the actual numbers. This is great for competitions because you can join with others, but they don't have to know how much you weigh; they only know the percentage of your total body weight that you have lost. In addition, I use a target weight loss date calculator so I know of a reasonable completion date and keep it as a goal to finish by that date. I also look at a body fat % calculator, which will tell me approximately how much of my weight is fat that can be lost. And finally, I keep track of my measurements, which you can do on your own or you can log on to a FREE Beach Body account. You get signed up for a coach who can help you stay on track and there are tons of free tools to keep track of your measurements and even your workouts too!

Aside from these tools, I use a calorie counting website to help me keep track of the food that I consume each day. Most of these types of websites allow you to also keep track of your activity calories burned, so you have a net amount of calories at the end of the day. I've tried several different options, but Calorie Count at about.com is my favorite. It seems to be very user-friendly.

1. Thingopia 
2. Target Weight Loss Date Calculator
3. Body Fat % Calculator
4. Beach Body Super Gym
5. Calorie Count
6. My Fitness Pal 
7. Spark People

Food:

Here is a list of some of my favorite websites to gather recipes. Some of them are Paleo, but some, like Skinny Taste or Chocolate Covered Katie, are not. They all have a wide range of recipes to choose from and I know you will not be disappointed with the recipes!

1. Skinny Taste
2. Chocolate Covered Katie
3. Fast Paleo
4. Chow Stalker
5. Dessert Stalker
6. Nutritional Weight and Wellness
7. On Diet and Health

Fitness:

I like FREE so I found a few different free websites to watch exercise videos. And believe me, they are challenging videos. But the nice thing is that the videos are very structured and most of them are run by professionals, so their workouts not only work, but they are safe too. 

1. BodyRock 
2. DailyHIIT
3. ZWow 
4. Hang Tight with MarC

Podcasts/Information:

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love podcasts. My husband got me into them! And I am hooked! I love to listen while I work, and some of my favorites are about nutrition and fitness. Here are the main ones that I listen to that have really helped me understand food and what it does to the body. I also have recently discovered the Get-Fit Guy, who has a great podcast on fitness. 

1. Primal Diet - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beverly-meyer-san-antonio/id577470427
2. Dishing Up Nutrition - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dishing-up-nutrition/id339853848
3. Get-Fit Guy - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/get-fit-guys-quick-dirty-tips/id371750376

Phone Apps

Phone apps are also a great way to stay connected and motivated when you don't have your computer with you. I try not to have too many, but it helps to have a calorie/activity tracker on my phone, which Calorie Count has, and then I have a fitness video app so I can workout even when I don't have anything else with me. And Pinterest is possibly one of the best apps because you can find anything on that site: recipes, workouts, motivation, friends, and tips for weight loss. 

1. Calorie Count 
2. Pinterest
3. Body Rock
4. Facebook

With all of the resources available, it's easier to stay motivated and there is always going to be something for everyone. If something doesn't work for you, then keep looking. I know you will find what you need! I hope my suggestions help, but go out and find some of your own. You never know what's out there until you look!

Recipe: Turkey Taco Chili (from SkinnyTaste.com)

I'd like to share one of my all time favorite chili recipes with you. It's a go-to recipe when you want that warm, comfort food without the guilt. Chili, in general, is a great comfort food, but this recipe is so yummy that everyone in the family will love it! I found it on the Skinny Taste website and now have it bookmarked so I never lose it. It's that good!





Turkey Chili Taco Soup
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 9 • Size: 1-1/4 cups • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 198.8 • Fat: 1.4 g • Carb: 29.7 g • Fiber: 7.0 g  • Protein: 19.5 g
 

• 1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 10 oz can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
• 15 oz canned or frozen corn, drained
• 15 oz kidney beans, drained
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• 16 oz fat free refried beans (I use regular refried beans)
• 1 packet taco seasoning (or make your own with this recipe)
• 2 1/2 cups fat free low sodium chicken broth (again, I don't use the fat-free version)

In a large pot, brown turkey on medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, add onions and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, tomato sauce, refried beans, taco seasoning and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10-15 minutes.

Serve with a few baked tortilla chips and your favorite toppings such as low fat sour cream, jalapeños, reduced fat cheese, chopped scallions,  onions, or chopped fresh cilantro. Freeze leftovers in individual portions for future meals.

This is another recipe that I would highly recommend doubling and freezing some for later because it's so good that I am sure it won't last long. I also think it's great to use for breakfast with an egg or two fried up on top. I hope you enjoy!

The Way I Eat

I'm not a fan of the term "diet" because I feel that "diet" has become a negative word to describe the self inflicted torture that we put ourselves through, eating only two different foods, in an attempt to get rid of those unwanted pounds. I feel that what we eat is a lifestyle rather than a short term fix, but since lifestyle way of eating is much longer, I'm going to use "diet" to describe how I eat.

I would say the way I eat is most like the Paleo way of eating, but I don't follow it exactly. What is the Paleo diet? Wikipedia defines it as:

"The paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years which ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture and grain-based diets. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes wheat, grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils." Click for full article.

On Diet and Health, a podcast by Beverly Meyer, is a great resource for learning about the Paleo way of eating. As I said, I follow the Paleo way of eating to an extent, but what do I do differently? I already don't eat many legumes, so I don't cut them out completely. I don't think having them from time to time is a problem. I love chili, and you can't have chili without beans. Not the kind I make anyhow! I particularly love the Skinny Taste recipe, Turkey Taco Chili, however, I usually make my own taco seasoning mix to make sure I'm not getting any extra "goodies" in those processed packages. I follow recipes like this one from AllRecipes.com and it's great because you can play with a little bit to fit the recipe to your preferred taste exactly.

Another exception to the rule is that I do still drink cow's milk from time to time. The reason you aren't supposed to drink the Wal-Mart or other big company cow's milk is because of the hormones and other lovely chemicals that the cows are exposed to before the milking process, which does then end up in your milk. I don't use it often though and have gotten into alternatives such as coconut milk, but I do use cow's milk from time to time as needed.

Basically, I have given up wheat and anything that comes processed, with the exception of frozen veggies (no sauces or other additives), as those are considered processed as well. I stick to foods that are located in the perimeter of the grocery store and foods that do not have those lovely "added ingredients". I like to tune in to another podcast done by the Nutritional Weight and Wellness team called Dishing Up Nutrition for more wonderful tips on how to eat healthy. This podcast gives you examples of what to eat, but also explains the science behind it so you can understand and know how to move forward on your own. The biggest part of it is to get away from the "fat-free" and "light" versions of food and stick to the whole, real foods. They also say to get in one healthy protein, one healthy fat, and one healthy carbohydrate in each meal and snack. I'll talk about healthy vs. not so healthy foods in a future post.

Eating this way, just clean, wholesome foods, leaves me full of energy, I don't feel like I'm starving myself throughout the day because I stay full, and best of all, I still lose weight. The more I get into posting, I'll break down the lifestyle I've chosen to follow and you all can decide if you'd like to try it or not. I don't think that there is any one particular right way to eat; each body is different and reacts differently to the different foods. So you have to find something that works for you. This is what works for me and I hope you'll enjoy learning about it, as I continue to do, in future posts!

For some great recipe ideas, check out:
The Primal Blueprint Cookbook by Sisson, Mark/ Meier, Jennifer [Hardco (Google Affiliate Ad)