Quick Veggie Packed Meals

Today begins the official start of my Christmas vacation and I’m thrilled of course. How could I not be? I have my whole immediate family coming in to town. That in itself is the best Christmas present on earth. I am so anxious to see everyone and to celebrate this very special holiday with the ones I love so dear.

A look ahead:

  • Tonight: Holiday party with friends
  • Tomorrow: Christmas party with family
  • Monday: Wrapping gifts at a local hospital and then heading to my parent’s house for gifts, dinner, and 10 pm church service.
  • Tuesday: A Christmas run in the morning followed by celebrating Christmas at Dana’s parent’s house

There is so much fun to be had and so much celebrating to be done and I.CAN’T.WAIT.

With all of the celebrating and festivities, I find it challenging (to say the least), to stay on top of my 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies a day. I decided it might be a good idea to put together a little recipe round-up of some quick and veggie-loaded meals to help keep me motivated throughout these next few days.

  1. Pear Salad: mixed dark greens, pears, walnuts, dried cranberries, feta cheese, turkey bacon with poppy-seed dressing

pear salad

2. Sweet and Creamy Salad

sweet and creamy salad

3. Veggie packed scrambled eggs or omelets

eggs with spinach

4. Sautéed onions and bell peppers with corn, black beans, tomato, and an over-easy egg

egg

5. Cook yourself up a Morningstar Veggie Patty and top it on a big ol’ pile of greens.

morningstar

6. Kitchen sink hash

hash

7. BBQ pulled chicken on top of a big salad

pulled chicken

I find it easiest to get a big serving of veggies in when I make a salad which is why most of the meals I just showed you involve just that. Besides getting an incredible amount of the nutritionally dense veggies, salads are just SO quick which is always a plus if you ask me.

Throughout this holiday season I will do my best to hold true to my fruit and veggie intentions: 5-9 servings a day. Who’s with me?

Alright, I’ve had my morning cup of coffee and my pre-run breakfast, now it’s time to gear up for a frigid 6.5 mile run outside with the hubby. The official temperature outside right now is………9ºF. This will be perfect prep for the actual run on January 1st because the weather will most likely be similar to today’s. This will be fun. Unfortunately we will have to leave the pooch at home. He has an ear infection and it was advised he chill out for a few days.

Moose

Off I go! Have an incredible day. Enjoy the season however you chose to celebrate. May your days be merry and bright.

Love,

M

Continue Reading Quick Veggie Packed Meals

Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing

Hello there! How’s everyone’s week kicking off so far? I have really been feeling the effects of daylight savings and have been feeling extraordinarily tired lately. This whole getting dark at 4 something bit isn’t working well for me. I need to fight through it or this is going to be one looooonnnng winter.

I will continue to get enough sleep, exercise, and eat well…which brings me to my lunch yesterday: mixed greens, blackberries, half of an orange, feta cheese, walnuts, and Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette.

In the afternoon I plunked myself on the treadmill downstairs and walked for nearly an hour while watching Ellen. I get so into that show when I watch it!

I am debating whether or not to put a hold on my gym membership because lately I have hardly been going. This is because I have been 1. running outside 2. walking on the treadmill in our basement or 3. yoga in the living room. I’m thinking more along the lines of keeping it, but I don’t know. I like having the option of other activities at the gym, PLUS I really really want to get back into strength training. However, I wouldn’t mind focusing on weight-bearing exercises versus hand weights. Hmm..such a dilemma. 🙂

Yesterday I started preparing the remains of our turkey to be made into soup. More to come on that once the soup is actually made but I think it should be very nummy.The little time I spent in the kitchen yesterday working on the soup wore me out enough so that I didn’t feel like making dinner. Again, it’s got to be the weather and the darkness so early in the day. It’s so not like me to not want to make something for dinner.

We went the easy route and cooked up two Morningstar Garden Veggie Patties with melted Fontina cheese along with roasted asparagus. Simple but tasty.

*****************

Cornbread Stuffing

It’s about time for me to share the cornbread stuffing recipe I made for Thanksgiving. I put myself in charge of the dish because I wanted to make it gluten-free and love to experiment with this kind of stuff. With a few tweaks, I was able to make what I thought turned out to be a great tasting stuffing to accompany our turkey dinner on Thanksgiving.

Step One: Bake the cornbread (recipe below).

Step two: Bake the stuffing!


Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing
Print
Ingredients
  • For Cornbread:
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1½ cups corn meal
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • black pepper
  • ¼ cup non-fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup water
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 Tbsp. sage
  • For stuffing:
  • 1 cup onion, diced
  • 1 cup carrots, diced
  • 1 cup celery, diced
  • ½ cup chicken stock reduced-sodium (or more if too dry)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup non-fat half and half
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat 2- 9 x 9 baking pans with cooking spray; set aside.
  2. In large bowl, combine all cornbread ingredients (flour through sage); beat with mixer until combined.
  3. Pour into prepared baking dishes and bake for 28-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean.
  4. Remove from oven and let cool. Turn oven down to 350 degrees F. Prepare a large casserole dish by lightly coating with cooking spray. Set aside.
  5. In a medium pan, lightly saute onion, carrot, and celery for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
  6. Cut cooled cornbread into ½ inch cubes and place gently into large bowl. Add in sauteed vegetables.
  7. In a small bowl combine stock, eggs and half and half. Mix well then add into cornbread cubes.
  8. Use hands to gently toss mixture so that liquid evenly covers the bread. Pour cornbread mixture into prepared casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges begin to turn lightly golden. Serve warm.

I promise the directions look more complex than they really are. There’s just a couple of steps which may make it look a little daunting. If you don’t want to make it gluten-free, you could skip baking your own cornbread and buy some already made from the store or make your own at home using regular flour.

You don’t need to wait until the next holiday to bake this dish, although I will admit that I really enjoyed mixing the stuffing with the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. Give it a whirl!

Alright I’m off to try and conjure up some energy for a run. I’m going to give my new kicks a whirl. Wish me luck!

Continue Reading Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing

A Nutty Makeover

Hi there my friends!

Notice any changes to the blog? I have been working with the wonderful Maren at Maren’s Blog Designs on developing a brand new header for Beautifully Nutty. I can’t say enough great things about Maren. I am one of the  most indecisive people on this planet, but she worked with me to help dig and find what I truly wanted and what was appealing to my eye. She was incredibly patient. I HIGHLY recommend her work.

Besides the new banner, I have also switched from a blog hosted by WordPress.com to a self-hosted site through WordPress.org. I had been pre-warned that this process can be quite grueling, and the warning was found to be true. This has been quite the process. I am just beginning to learn all of the ins-and-outs of being self-hosted, but I promise you all, it will be worth it.

When making this switch, I lost all of my followers. This includes all of my friends that had signed up to receive emails when a new post is up. Could you all do me a favor? Could you re-subscribe to my emails? I don’t want to lose you! Just go into the right side bar and re-enter your email and it should set up just like that. I’m so sorry about that.

Like I said, I am learning a whole lot about this self-hosting bit. If there are details about my blog that you miss from the old site or that are driving you nuts about the new site, please let me know. There will be a lot of changes being made still. Thank you for your patience!

********************

Monday Breakfast

I have a treat to share with you all. While at the Healthy Living Summit, I received some wonderful coupons for Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze product. I have bought their products in the past and love them, and was super stoked to be able to go try out some new stuff using their coupons.

I was at the store and stumbled upon this gem of an almond milk: Almond Milk and Coconut Blend. I HAD to try it! I poured the unsweetened milk over fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and chopped almonds. I then drizzled a bit of honey over this masterpiece.

DSCN5440DSCN5439

Oh my goodness, my belly was so happy. It doesn’t taste super coconutty which is good for me, but it does have a subtle coconut flavor. If you see this at your local grocery store, I suggest you give it a try.

After breakfast I took Moose out for a 3 mile walk through the neighborhood. Then I got to hang out with my beautiful cousin Betsy for a few hours.

Lunch

Lunch was light. I ate a banana with peanut butter and an apple. Then I headed to the gym to crank out 20 minutes on the elliptical followed by push-ups and core work.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent working on the ol’ blog. There were some errands sprinkled in the mix as well as some relaxation with the hubby.

Dinner

Dinner was so simple but it tasted extra good to me for some reason. We grilled up corn on the cob, garden green beans with teriyaki sauce, and a Morningstar Garden Veggie Burger.

DSCN5442

Quick, easy, and super tasty!

Alright, I am off for the day. Enjoy your Tuesday friends. Muah!

Continue Reading A Nutty Makeover