Meal Plan Mondays (late)

This week my husband and I decided we were getting back on track. Back to Advocare. Back to healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners... you get the point. 

The big change, though, is that Spens has agreed that we will not have carbs with dinner. We'll still use mayo and I'm sure I'll make a balsamic reduction eventually, but no bread type forms. It's already really hard. Really really hard. 

Breakfasts:

Spark + Emergen-C

Meal Replacement Shakes - Mint Chocolate Brownie and Chocolate Peanut Butter (omg) + banana

Lunches:

Leftovers

Gumbo (here) + rice & salad

Dinners:

Chicken salad + veggie

Skirt Steak fajitas 

I'm so excited! I already feel better properly fueling my body with Advocare products. We'll even be placing an order early courtesy of the Cyber Monday week long special!! (White Chocolate Peppermint Shakes, come to mama!)

If you're interested, you better hurry! Catalyst has already SOLD OUT of the event pricing :(((

Annnnd I beat my mile time today! First time under 9 minutes in at least a couple years! 

(I just find this hilarious)

HEB Noodles

For quite awhile we have been trying different noodles to see which are good and which are crap...but mostly which actually taste like real noodles. It's no secret that as soon as someone asks what my favorite brand is, I immediately say "HEB". With ZERO hesitation. 

So I thought, why not explain what I do with them? 

This is my local HEB in College Station. Can I just say how awkward it was to take this photo? A woman to my right gave me weird looks, a guy walking across stopped for me to take the photo but realized what I was doing and probably got confused as to why, aaaand the couple that was to the left of me still wasn't sure why I propped the bags. But I did it anyways because I'm excited. 

For the first time (that I've found) HEB has their own gluten free lasagna noodles!! My HEB also has fusilli (the cork screw looking one), penne, and spaghetti noodles. So awesome!!

To help out a gluten free part of our family we made a couple casseroles for them to have as freezer meals. I naturally thought of King Ranch Chicken, and Lasagna. Duh. Hence this post. 

I have a lasagna recipe that Spens and I have used for a couple years now, it's pretty great. But you could honestly use any recipe you'd like. 

Couple tips: 1) check your sauce ingredients unless you're making it from scratch, like we do. 2) blanch the lasagna noodles! For some reason, even though it says no boil, we have found that they bake and reheat better if you blanch them first. Maybe 7-10seconds in boiling water, then layer as you normally would. 3) when you reheat the leftover lasagna, do it in the conventional oven! The microwave just doesn't get it right. Trust me. 

I use the penne or fusilli for Alfredo or other pasta dishes. Spaghetti for spaghetti, so on and so on. Sometimes I get real fancy and make Mac and cheese. 

Do you have a favorite lasagna recipe? Should I post mine? Happy baking to you!

Bacon Breakfast Sushi

I'm not sure how I didn't post this before, so here we go...

Bacon Breakfast Sushi

Preheat oven to 400'F

1. Lay your bacon in rows across your non-stick sprayed baking sheet vertically. Starting with the second piece, flip it on its self so only an inch is laying like the other pieces. Continue to do so for every other piece. 

Then take a piece of bacon and lay it horizontally, stretched across the vertical pieces. 

(The best example picture I could get because I forgot...)

Put the flipped bacons back in their normal position. 

Now flip the odd slices, and follow the same steps. Continue alternating odds and evens until all bacon is layed out and you have a beautiful bacon lattice. 

2. In a bowl, mix 1 egg, 1 cup of shredded cheese (dealer's choice), and about 2 cups mashed tater tots. *optional chopped chives and onions to be mixed in, about 1/4 cup each

3. Spread mixture across the finished bacon lattice as evenly as possible. 

4. Roll bacon in a sushi like fashion, wrapping as tight as you can. Once rolled, pin with toothpicks to hold in place. 

5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until bacon at desired crispness!

Hope you enjoy!!

Udi's Gluten Free Whole Grain Hamburger Buns

These are the best buns I've had yet. It also helps that I added a new trick...

1) Melt some butter in microwave safe bowl. 

2) Place buns flat side down onto melted butter. 

3) Let said buns soak up said butter. 

4) GRILL!

5) Devour. With or without burger/chicken/bacon/vegetable additions. Your choice. 

You can see the buttery goodness ..

Find them in your local grocery store, possibly in a special gluten free freezer section!

What's your favorite burger combo?

Hey! Gluten Free: June Review

Looking to try truly gluten free products? Hunt no more! hey! gluten free is now providing a monthly subscription service full of gluten free products!! The box comes straight to your door! How awesome is that?!

I received mine a couple weeks ago, and I have not been disappointed! Even the kale energy bar was yummy!!

c/o hey! gluten free

I'm always a fan of green so the box itself won me over. Inside I had a very nice variety of products to try! My favorite so far has been the chapstick/moisturizer... It's chocolate, for reals. 

I've also liked the granola and protein bar. They've been perfect for quick snacks at the hospital!

I'm excited to try the cocobacon. Yeah, it sounds awesome. Update: It was better than awesome..it was like bbq bacon. My mouth is watering again just thinking about it. It'll be so hard to keep myself to the serving size...

It's a little warm out for soup, but I think it'll be nice one day when I don't have a meal packed. *cough cough tonight* Quick & easy!

There was a juice and granola that I'm excited about, too!

I love baking, so the Muffin mix sounds fun, too! I may even try to mix a blueberry lemon concoction out of them. 

Most of the products in my June Box were paleo/vegan friendly. But definitely all of them were gluten free! 

Sign up today!

I know you'll find something you love! and when you do, signing up allows you to get discounts on the products by ordering them yourself! It's a no brainer! 

Beef Enchiladas

I think the first thing Spens ever cooked for me was enchiladas. It was the first time I hung out at his house, he made enchiladas and I made a cobbler. The in between consisted of football...shocker. 

For the last few months, I've been trying really hard to truly be gluten free. Something I crave pretty often is Tex-Mex, specifically enchiladas. But for one reason or another, many places add flour to their different sauces. I'm sure it has to do with thickening them or whatever. Regardless, it sucks. 

So Spens has edited his original enchilada recipe in order for them to be Kayteeyumms approved, aka gluten free. 

First, cook your ground meat. We have venison for days, so that's our go to. (#paleo. #welovetohunt) Follow your seasoning directions - ours this time was Pioneer Brand Gluten Free Taco Seasoning. It was around $1, found at our local HEB. Find them, seriously. 

Pour some enchilada sauce in the bottom of your baking dish. Heat oven to 350*F.

We now use corn tortillas. He kind of swirls both sides in a plate of sauce. We used Mild Green Chile Enchilada Sauce. I'm pretty sure it was El Paso brand (I forgot a picture of the can). 

Please excuse the iPhone photos. 

If you can get fresh corn tortillas, that would be ideal. Bagged ones will work, but they don't roll as well, and of course are missing some of the great flavor. 

After both sides of a tortilla are sauced, scoop some of your taco meat onto the tortilla and sprinkle some cheese. About half a palm of meat and a solid pinch of Mexican blend cheese. 

You don't want to completely fill the tortilla because you need room to roll. 

...so now you roll the tortilla. I've seen some people use toothpicks to hold the enchiladas together. We aren't really worried about them unraveling because we tag team them so we've gotten pretty quick together. I'm not bragging or anything, we're just pros. 

Continue this process until your dish is filled. Then sprinkle on the remaining taco meat, enchilada sauce, and cheeeese. 

I go a little overboard (according to some) in the cheese department. I think it's the perfect amount. And Spens doesn't complain, so I'm good. 

Bake for about 15 minutes. Basically until the cheese melts. And then you're ready to eat!

Makes about 3 American servings.  

Let me know if you try it!!

Chēbē Original Cheese Rolls

In the last month, I have had my engagement ring for 5 days. FIVE DAYS. I got it back, I'm wearing it again and it's like it's brand new all over again.  It feels heavy, and it's super shiny and I looove it.  all. over. again.

Now, it's pouring outside, there's flooding all over Corpus, and Spens can't get home.
SO. I'm on my break between semesters and I thought I would try to get a blog post out...


I've seen these rolls a few times in the freezer section at my local HEB.  I'm pretty sure that I even have their breadsticks in the back of the freezer somewhere. I always seem to remember them after everything is all done and eaten.

source

The directions are pretty basic - heat the oven, place on baking sheet, blah blah blah.

I'm not sure if it's our oven or Corpus or what but I had to bake for longer than the recommended time.  Still, they were worth it.

They were a little pale at first, hence why I kept baking.  That being said, they came out more like biscuits, not rolls.

They were cheesy, soft, and delicious.

I think they priced at around $0.50 per roll...there was 12 in the pack.  They paired nicely with an alfredo I made.

They will definitely become a staple to our pasta dishes! What are some gluten free rolls you've enjoyed?