Recipe Wednesday - Turkey Zucchini Casserole

As some of you may know, I love casseroles. I adapted this from a recipe in the original Gourmet Nutrition recipe book (part of the Precision Nutrition package). As a quick side note, Gourmet Nutrition V2 would make a lovely Holiday gift for the fit food lover on your list (wink, wink).

Turkey Zucchini Casserole

8 oz extra lean ground turkey breast
2 Tablespoons salsa
1/4 to 1/2 of a small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small to medium zucchini
1 cup fat free or low fat cottage cheese (I used low fat)
1 egg
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 1.5 quart baking dish with nonstick spray.

2. Roughly chop the zucchini and then pulse in a food processor. Just pulse, don't puree.

3. Lightly spray a large skillet with nonstick spray and cook the turkey until no pink remains. Stir in the 2T of salsa and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and place in the prepared casserole dish.

4. Respray the skillet with a somewhat heavier layer of nonstick spray. Add the onions to the pan and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Next stir in the zucchini and cook for 2-3 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, in the food processor, blend the cottage cheese and egg until smooth. Don't worry if there is still zucchini in the processor's bowl, it's all going to the same place. :)

6. Next place the zucchini mixture on top of the turkey in the casserole dish, then top with the cottage cheese mixture.

7. Bake for 25 minutes. Top with the mozzarella cheese and bake for 5 minutes more.


Makes 2 servings, each with approximately:

345 calories
51.0g protein
9.1g fat
11.5g carbs
1.8g fiber

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase the product, I will receive a small portion. I don't get paid for reviews, and I only review items that I actually own.

Week Six Update

I took some 6 week comparison pictures on Saturday and I was not impressed. I will really have to work hard to get to where I want to be by the end of this contest. Only 6 more weeks to go!

1. I will make every workout count
Had another great week with Turbulence Training 2K9. Getting a little tired of taking my kettlebells to the gym though! :) My next program is going to be the February Workout of the Month - TT for Buff Dudes and Hot Chicks! I will start that in 2 weeks. :)

2. I will drink less diet soda
Did well on some days, not so well on others.

3. I will weigh myself ONLY once per week
I was all over the scale this week! Not sure why. Just found myself on the scale all week.

4. I will eat 2000-2200 calories per day on workout days and 1600-1800 on non-workout/light workout days (updated goal).
Workout days were: 2611, 2008, and 2187 calories; Non-workout/Light days were: 1545, 1835, 1895 and 2151 calories. A little high again on the non-workout/light days. This next week I am slashing calories, but not too much, as I don't want to lose muscle. I am aiming for closer to 1500-1600 on non-workout/light days, and 1800 on workout days. Although, I am also beginning to cycle calories/carbs, so I may be a bit high or low depending on the cycle. I am trying to take into consideration whether or not it is a workout day.

5. I will eat cleanly, but will allow treat meals
Did well this week. Still using all my new Gourmet Nutrition V1 recipes (from Precision Nutrition V3). Yum yum!

6. I will eat 5-7 fruits/vegetables per day
Achieved everyday except for Friday, depending on the definition of a serving. One of my servings was a cup of cauliflower. If I count that as one vegetable, I only have four for the day. If I say 1/2 cup is a serving, then I count it as two and I achieve my minimum of five. Hmmm....

7. I will not worry about gaining extra weight while building muscle
Didn't worry about gaining weight this week!

8. I will not be neurotic with my diet
Did pretty good this week. I did print out the nutritional information and brought it to the restaurant we went to this weekend, but I don't find that too neurotic.

9. I will not be grumpy at my family
I did awful. I was a grumpity grump!! :(

10. I will enjoy the contest and will not allow it to stress me out
Not too stressed this week. But starting to feel the pressure of not having the results I was hoping for by this point.

Recipe Wednesday - Blueberry Protein Muffins

A big Thank You to Sara at Sanaworld for the basis of this recipe. I've tweaked and tweaked and have now come up with this version of blueberry protein muffins. These are quite dense, but very tasty!

Blueberry Protein Muffins

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (measure first, then grind in a food processor)
1.5 cups vanilla whey protein powder (about 6 scoops)
1/4 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
6 oz lite firm tofu
1 container blueberries (1 to 1.5 cups)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the first 6 (dry) ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Blend the remaining ingredients (except for the blueberries) in another bowl until smooth, either with a blender/food processor or an immersion blender.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together. Stir in the blueberries.

5. Spoon into muffin tins lightly sprayed with nonstick spray up to 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.


I frosted mine with a cream cheese frosting from Sharron Long's Extreme Lo-Carb Cuisine. Here's the recipe for that:

3T butter
2 oz neufchatel or cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 packet Stevia Plus
8 packets Splenda
dash of salt
1/4 cup milk and egg protein powder (about 1 scoop)

1. Cream butter, neufchatel cheese, vanilla, salt, SteviaPlus and Splenda until smooth.

2. Add milk and egg protein a little at a time, blended well each time.

This will be very thick but is easier to spread if you let the neufchatel cheese and butter sit out for a bit first. I usually make it in a blender and add the milk & egg protein slowly in through the top. This will frost exactly 12 muffins.


Each muffin, with frosting, has:

152 calories
14.4g protein
5.7g fat
11.1g carbs
1.4g fiber

I am super excited because my Precision Nutrition V3 arrived yesterday and I've been reading like a madwoman! I started with Gourmet Nutrition V1 (included with the PN V3) because I am always looking for new recipes. (I already own Gourmet Nutrition V2 and love it!) I like how V1 is not just a recipe book, but also has tips like how to flip an omelet, and little history lessons on things like quinoa and kung pao chicken. Tonight or tomorrow I should have some time to get into the actual tenets of the program, but for now I am drooling over the recipes! :)

Week Two Update

I think I did better with my goals this week. Only 10 more weeks to go and I have a feeling they are going to fly by!

1. I will make every workout count
I did good this week. I raised the weight on a number of exercises and felt I got good workouts. I also conquered my fear of 1-legged squats and did them in my workout on Wednesday (most with an assist from the cable system, 4 on each leg with no assistance).

2. I will drink less soda
Still drinking too much. I have trouble with this one because I like diet soda too much. Although, I have been drinking near 100oz of water per day as well. Needless to say, I spend a lot of my day going back and forth to the bathroom. :)

3. I will weigh myself ONLY once per week
I weighed myself less often this week, but still more than once. I made this a goal to help myself stop being neurotic about my weight, but I'm not sure it's working. See goal #7 below.

4. I will eat 2200-2500 calories per day while building muscle (to be reassessed as needed)
Way below this week. I think my brain is nervous about extra calories. This week so far I had four days around 1900, one day at about 2100 and one day at about 2500 (pot luck at work). Oddly enough, my ratios for every single day were right around 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbs (within a couple percentage points). I don't think about exact number ratios when I plan my meals for the week, I just try to eat protein and a good carb with every meal (usually just veggies with dinner) with a little bit of fat. Seems to be working great!

5. I will eat cleanly, but will allow cheat meals
Much better this week. Still a few more treats than I probably should have had, but I finished off the sugar free, fat free vanilla ice cream so there's one less temptation. I even made it through a potluck at work without any major guilty feelings.

6. I will eat 5-7 fruits per day
Achieved!

7. I will not worry about gaining extra weight while building muscle
Got a little nervous this week. I think I am having trouble with this because I gained a few pounds over the holidays, and I want to be sure I lose them. I think muscle building now is making me feel like I am still eating too much, like I did a few weeks ago. I may try to lose a few more pounds in an effort to set my brain at ease.

8. I will not neurotic with my diet
Did much better this week! So what if I still weigh my jelly before I put it on my toast. That's not neurotic, right? My husband may beg to differ... I am working on being more flexible in my planning (is that an oxymoron? flexible planning?) so that I will be able to adapt better in the future to unexpected changes.

9. I will not be grumpy at my family
Did better with this goal. I had a lot of energy this week and I got a lot done. This in turn makes me feel less stressed and I am less grumpy. Plus I got a lot done around the house so I don't have to look at half-done projects all the time.

10. I will enjoy the contest and will not allow it to stress me out
Still so far so good!

I think I forgot to mention that I ordered my copy of Precision Nutrition V3. I'm pretty excited to get it because I don't actually have my own copy. I've just heard about bits and pieces from friends. It won't ship until January 20th, but if you order before then, you can get it for 33% off. Check it out!

Recipe Wednesday - Thin Crust Pizza

Today's recipe is one that I love. It's so good! In Gourmet Nutrition, there is a recipe for Texas Thin Crust Pizza, which is a very good recipe. But over time I have tweaked it and this is my version. It's still best for a special dinner, as it has a lot of calories, but it is very filling and tasty when you want pizza!

Thin Crust Pizza

1 large or 2 small whole wheat/low carb tortillas

1 link of sweet italian or spicy turkey sausage

1/4 cup salsa

1t minced garlic (about 2 cloves)

1/2 small can chunk pineapple in juice, drained (about 1/2 cup)

4-6 cherry tomatoes, or 1/2 of a small tomato

1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Chop the cherry tomatoes in quarters (or chop the small tomato).

3. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet that has been lightly coated with cooking spray. Place in the oven.

4. Remove the sausage from it's casing and place in a hot skillet. Cook until no pink remains.

5. While the sausage is cooking, flip over the tortillas. If they are getting too brown, remove them from the oven.

6. When the sausage is done cooking, add the garlic, salsa, pineapple, tomatoes. Cook together for a few minutes.

7. Take the tortillas out of the oven (if you haven't already). Place the meat mixture on the 1 large or 2 small tortillas and top with cheese. If I am using 1 large tortilla, I just use 1/4 cup. If I am using 2 small tortillas, I use closer to a 1/2 cup.

8. Place pizzas back in the oven until the cheese melts, about 5 minutes or so.

9. I use a pizza cutter to cut the pizzas into quarters. Enjoy!

Yes, I eat both when I use 2 small tortillas! And I usually eat the other half of the can of pineapple on the side. I've also made this with sun dried tomato pesto instead of salsa.

Using 2 small tortillas, 4 cherry tomatoes, and 1/2 cup cheese, this has approximately:

515 calories

44g protein

26g fat

45g carbs

16g fiber

Using 1 large tortilla, and 1/4 cup cheese, this has approximately:

418 calories
33g protein
19g fat
42g carbs
14g fiber

You could further reduce the calories by making it with 2 small tortillas, and then eating only one of the pizzas. Just make a salad to go with it and you'd have a nice healthy meal. And then the pizza would only have about 257 calories, 22g protein, 23 carbs, and 8g fiber.

The Flash Diet

A new study from the University of Wisconsin....Sing! Varsity.....Varsity....U-RAH-RAH Wisconsin...ahem, as I was saying, a new study now has shown that those who take photographs of their meals stick to their diet better than others.

Keeping a visible record may help to curb calories and/or increase the quality of your diet by allowing you to see and think more about what you are putting into your mouth. You can read more about the study by clicking HERE.

And on that note, here is a back log of photos I have on my camera! ;)

Tonight's Dinner



Turkey mignon (a little too well done), barley risotto from Gourmet Nutrition, grapes and an apple (not pictured)


Last Night's Dinner



Baked stuffing-coated pork chop, stuffing, cauliflower, applesauce


Tuesday Night's Dinner


Fancy Fish Sticks from Making the Cut, quinoa, broccoli

Today tip: go forth and photograph everything you eat! :)

New Tunes, Pull Ups and Daily Diet (Served in Bonus Watermelon Bowl)

I tried to be cool the other night and make a watermelon bowl to impress my son. He's 4 years old. I thought surely I could impress him. Here's a picture of of the bowl:

I showed it to my son, all excited because I thought it turned out pretty good. He says to me, "That's great, Mom".

Isn't he a little young for sarcasm?

Anyway...I've had a lot of people ask me about my diet during my transformation. I decided I would just post a typical day of what I eat. This is a workout day (all times are approximate):

5:20am (pre-workout): 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

6:30am (post-workout): 1 scoop GNC Wheybolic Extreme 60 in about 4oz water

8:45am: oatmeal made with 1 packet plain instant oatmeal, 2 oz blueberries, 4oz skim milk, 1T walnuts, 1/2t ground flax, 1 packet Splenda; additional 4oz skim milk to drink

11:45am: homemade cream of cauliflower and turkey sausage soup; salad made with 2 cups spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, a couple croutons, 2T homemade sugar-free French dressing

This is usually when I take my pills: 1 GNC women's ultra mega active multivitamin, 1 ProCaps Omega 3 Fish Oil, 1 ProCaps Healthy Hair, Skin and Nails

2:00pm: plain nonfat yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, 1 packet Splenda, 1/2t ground flax, 1T walnuts (or I'll just have 1 oz cheese with an apple/plum/peach)

5:15pm: My version of Texas Thin Crust Pizza from Gourmet Nutrition with turkey sausage and salsa instead of ground sirloin and bbq sauce (Often I just have a protein like chicken or beef, a vegetable like broccoli or cauliflower, and a fruit like pears, applesauce, or strawberries.)

8:00pm: GNC Lean Muscle Meal in about 12oz water (running out of this soon and then will finish off my Muscle Milk)

In other news...I attempted pull ups this morning! Last time I tried, which was several months ago, I just hung there like an idiot. Today I was able to do 2 and a half! (They weren't pretty.) I was very surprised, but very happy.

I added a few new tunes to the player in the side bar. My new favorite is "Forever Can Be" by Ashes Divide. It's Billy Howerdel's (A Perfect Circle) solo project. If you like A Perfect Circle, you'll probably like Ashes Divide.

Today's Tip: Make a List

I give you...my cookbook cupboard. They actually all fit in here at the moment since I lent a couple to a friend. There's a nice variety - good old Better Homes and Gardens, Gourmet Nutrition, Eating for Life, Extreme Lo Carb Cuisine, Cake Doctor Cookbook {record scratches} Wait, back that up, Cake Doctor Cookbook? That can't be right. {Sounds of shuffling, books falling, scissors cutting, tape dispenser...uh.. dispensing}

There! That's more like it!

Seriously, though, Today's Tip is go to the grocery store with a plan! Plan your meals for the week and bring a list. There are so many temptations at the grocery store. (Yeah, I'm looking at you Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries.) Ooh, a funny side note about Captain Crunch. When I was in high school, I threw up after eating Captain Crunch for breakfast. It comes out shockingly bright pink. And since I had eaten it less than an hour before, it still tasted like good old Captain Crunch. I know most of you just said, "ewww" but I see a couple of you nodding your head. Wait, you're not nodding your head? You're watching dogs on pogo sticks? Huh. Well, I suppose that would be fun to watch.

Say Yes to Carbs!

Found a blurb in Fitness magazine about a study done at Pennsylvania State University saying people who ate five servings of whole grains a day as part of a low calorie diet lost more abdominal fat than those who only cut calories. So go eat some carbs already!

Speaking of carbs, I just remembered I took photos of the granola I made last week and forgot to put here on the blog. I added golden raisins but dried cherries or cranberries would have been good as well. It was quite yummy and I will be making it again very soon!

In other news, TT for Amazing Abs is kicking my butt! On Saturday it hurt to sneeze/cough/laugh. This morning I raised the weight on 2 exercises and I really feel it now. I'm in my 3rd week of this particular program so it's nice to still be progressing and not plateau-ing.

Eat Stop Eat Part 3

Today is my third Eat Stop Eat fasting day. I had been fasting on Thursdays, but this Thursday the boss wanted to take us out for lunch for Administrative Professional's Day. So I decided to fast today, and then the lunch got rescheduled for another day. But I'm sticking with my plan. Even if that means giving up the chocolate peanut butter pie that was brought in today. Yummm...Let me wipe the drool off the picture....OK, here it is:

Last night I combined two different recipes into one yummy meal. I used the Garlic Barley Risotto recipe from Gourmet Nutrition and paired it with the Spicy Chicken recipe from Jillian Michaels' Making the Cut. I haven't actually gotten a chance to try her workout yet. I've been very happy with my Turbulence Training workouts. But the recipes in her book are fantastic. Everything I have made has been delicious. All in all, it was a very tasty dinner. I'm counting all the tomatoes as my vegetable serving.

Eat Stop Now Eat

Yesterday went pretty well. I went home after work and made supper. (Classy Chicken from Gourmet Nutrition - see picture - yum yum yum) I didn't binge and go crazy with food. This morning I was down 2 pounds - which I know is not fat loss and is most likely water weight, but it's still good to see the scale going in the right direction. I will continue my Eat Stop Eat experiment for another couple weeks. I have 2 weeks remaining in my current 4-week TT program so I will fast 2 more times at minimum. Stay tuned!

Mushrooms and Chocolate Muffins

Last Friday night I made the Portabella Mushroom Pizza from Gourmet Nutrition. I've never eaten a portabella mushroom in my life. So at least I'm trying new things! It looked really good, and it tasted pretty good. But the texture of the mushroom got to me. I ate about 2/3 of it before I had to give up. But if you like mushrooms, you'll probably like the recipe. I paired it with the Baked Chicken recipe. That was really good. And the kids liked it. We'll be having that again.

On Sunday, I made the Gooey Chocolate Chip Muffins. They were dense, like other protein muffins I have had. Even though I'm not a big chocolate cake fan, these were not too chocolatey. I did leave out the extra tablespoon of cocoa powder, though. I ate another one today - but first I popped it in the microwave for a few seconds. The chocolate chips melted and they were just as advertised - Gooey!

Roping cattle?

I made the Rancher's Omelet from Gourmet Nutrition last night. (Yes, for dinner. We often eat breakfast for dinner.) The book says it takes 5 minutes prep, and 10 minutes cooking time. I put the sausage in the pan at 4:56pm and was sitting down to eat at 5:08pm. Now, having said that, I did change the recipe a little bit. They say to cook the sausage and then dice it and then you add it back in later. Not sure if they use breakfast links or what, but I used the sausage that comes in a casing. I opened the casing and crumbled the sausage in the pan. Then I added the veggies, then the egg, and finally the cheese. I didn't use all the veggies they suggest so if I had it probably would have added about 2-4 minutes of chopping time. It was tasty! I think of cooking as a method. I don't always follow recipes exactly, but they give me great ideas. Oh, here's a picture of my omelet. I made the "small" serving. To keep with the breakfast theme, I added the grapefruit half.

Gourmet Nutrition

I received my big, beautiful Gourmet Nutrition cookbook last week and made some of the recipes this weekend. There were so many I wanted to make. I narrowed it down to the Texas Thin Crust Pizza, the Pumpkin Pie Bars, and the Peanut Butter Crunch Bars. I spent all of yesterday afternoon cooking. We had the pizza for dinner last night. It was delicious! The pumpkin pie bars taste just like pumpkin pie. And the Peanut Butter Crunch Bars are chewy and crunchy and peanut buttery. Wait, isn't that a Butterfinger? Well, they were pretty darn tasty! The pictures here are of the "small" servings!