7 - 21 Day Fix On the Go Lunch Ideas

As the warm weather comes, our lives only seem to get busier!  For those of us who are following a clean eating program, for me the 21 Day Fix, it is essential to keep your body fueled.  When on the go, it is easy to just skip a meal or pick up not so healthy food!  You either wind up irritable due to not eating or sluggish due to poor food choices.

If you plan ahead and bring your food with you, you will be satisfied and stay on plan!  Here are 7 ideas that you might want to prep on the weekends to bring with you throughout the week!  I've given my best estimates of the fix containers, which will depend on the actual brands you buy and how you prepare things!

*Tortilla with peanut butter, banana and berries and greek yogurt -

1 Yellow, 1 tsp, 1 Purple and 1 Red

*2 Hard boiled eggs, sliced peppers and carrots with hummus - 

1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue

*Nitrate free, low sodium ham, cheese and lettuce rollups - 

1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue

*Mixed greens with grilled chicken, strawberries and blue cheese with balsamic vinaigrette - 

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Orange

*Taco Salad - mixed greens with seasoned ground meat, salsa, shredded cheese, and tomatoes - 

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue, 1 Purple

*Turkey and Veggie Pasta Salad (whole wheat pasta, cubed turkey, cheese, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, onions and vinaigrette dressing)

1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Orange

*Honey mustard chicken pita (sliced chicken, mustard mixed with honey and greek yogurt, lettuce, veggies of your choice)

1 Red, 1 tsp, 1 Yellow, 1 Green

Southwest Chicken Wraps

Yesterday was a crazy evening in our house!  My husband's truck was in the shop for a few days.  It was finally ready to be picked up, and luckily, it wasn't too expense to repair!  I am also thankful to not have to take him to work in the morning anymore.  It made my busy mornings even harder!  Any way, we had to drive into town to pick up the truck from the repair shop, and I had to make a run to Walmart.  My son's 100th day project was an epic fail.  I needed glue fast!

Since we live pretty far out of town, this took awhile.  I knew we would never be able to eat dinner at a decent time if I made what was planned.  I contemplated doing drive thru or grabbing a pizza, but that wasn't going to get me to my health and fitness goals.  I decided that while searching for a better glue in Walmart, I'd grab something for dinner.  It needed to be fast and it needed to be healthy!



Finally, some inspiration hit!  I found some whole wheat tortillas and grabbed a rotisserie chicken.  I had shredded cheese at home, but I needed veggies!  I went to the frozen food aisle.  I found a blend of sliced red and green peppers and onions.  Perfect!  I can sauté them in no time, and the bonus was that I didn't have to chop anything.  I wanted something else too.  Two freezers down, I found a Southwestern quinoa blend with mango, black beans, peppers and corn.  It looked delicious and cooked in 4 minutes!  I had some salsa verde at home.  Dinner solved!

Final score -
Take out - 0  Brie - 1

And, as a bonus, the new glue worked much better for those pesky eyeballs!

Southwestern Chicken Wraps

Whole Wheat or Corn Tortillas
Shredded Chicken
Shredded Cheese (I had sharp on hand)
Peppers and onions sautéed in olive oil
Path of life Southwest Quinoa
Salsa Verde

Combine ingredients on your wrap.  Fold and enjoy!  It couldn't be easier!

21 Day Fix containers - 1.5 yellow for wrap and quinoa, 1 red for chicken, 1 green for veggies and salsa verde, 1 blue for cheese, 1 tsp for olive oil

Overnight Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Oatmeal

Watch the video here:
https://www.facebook.com/Fit-With-Brie-2044139009058407/

My family LOVES oatmeal!  My kids have a pretty serious obsession with chocolate oatmeal.  I thought it might make mornings easier if I could make breakfast ahead of time.  I started experimenting with cooking it in my slow cooker.  It turned out great!  Then, I decided that I needed a flavor combination that the kids would enjoy.  What goes together better than chocolate and peanut butter?  It was a winner!

My problem came when I wanted to boost the protein content.  When I make the refrigerator oats (recipe coming soon!), I use greek yogurt.  I know cooking with dairy in the crock pot is very tricky, so yogurt probably wouldn't be the best choice.  I decided to give Shakeology a try.  I know it isn't best for the vitamin content to cook it, but I knew it would still give it the protein boost I needed.  To temper the chocolate flavor, I tried 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology and 1 scoop of Chocolate Shakeology.  We all liked this combination best!  

Be careful to not cook this over 7 hours.  The oats will become very mushy!  Also, it will look too runny when you first take the lid off.  I turned my slow cooker to warm and opened the lid.  After about 5 or 6 minutes, it was the perfect consistency!  For the peanut butter swirl, I use an all natural, no salt or sugar added brand.  I usually keep it in the refrigerator to help it firm up.  I took it out the night before so it would be soft.  It was the perfect consistency to drizzle over the top!  

This makes 3-4 servings.  It made more for us, since my little ones don't eat quite a full serving.  I would count this as 1 Yellow, 1/2 Red and 1 tsp.  

Let me know what you think!  

Overnight Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Oatmeal

1 Cup Steel Cut Oats

1 tsp Honey

1 tsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 

1/4 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt

2 scoops Shakeology (chocolate or vanilla will work just fine)

4 cups Water

1 tsp per serving Peanut Butter

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker, except for the peanut butter.  Cook for 6-7 hours on low.  Don't over cook!  It will be too mushy.  Once it is done, remove lid and let it thicken for 5-10 minutes.  Serve and swirl peanut butter over the top.  You can add chocolate chips, if you like! 

Calling All Crock Pot Cooks!

Starting on 2/19, I will be hosting a free 7 day Clean Eating Slow Cooker Recipe group on Facebook.  If you are interested in joining, please click the link below and let me know you want to attend!  I will post the link to the closed group next week.  I have the menu all planned.  I will be featuring 6 of my delicious, healthy slow cooker recipes!

Here's the link!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1683315545242929/

Clean Eating Muffins

My kids LOVE muffins!  This is terrible for me and my clean eating habits.  I still adore sweets, and I try not to keep temptations in the house that I want to eat.  I also hate being that mom that always says no, because I can't have it!  We decided to come up with a compromise!  I created this Clean Eating Muffin recipe to solve this struggle.

It's funny, because my kids don't mind when I tweak recipes and make them healthier.  Most of the time, they never comment that they are different.  I guess I am very lucky in that regard.  After baking the muffins, both kids had one for dessert.  They each wanted more, so I'd say we have success!  

This batter for this recipe will be crumbly!  You did not miss any ingredients or do something wrong. They firm up once they are cooled.  For the recipe, I chose to combine coconut flour and almond flour.  The texture of the almond flour alone is a bit too course for me, but the coconut won't allow things to come together if used in isolation.  I combined the two, and we enjoyed the result.  I found the coconut flour in a local health food store.  We live outside of a pretty small town.  If I can find it, I'm sure almost anyone can!  If you can't or don't want to track it down, you can use just almond flour.  I would probably add a bit more yogurt or a tablespoon of almond or regular milk to loosen it up a bit.  I found my almond flour at Walmart, so that should be easily located.  I hope you enjoy it!

I did some scouring of the internet to figure out how to categorize this.  I do the best I can with composed recipes, because it is hard to know exactly how to count it!  I found from Autumn Calabrese that the flour is counted as 1/2 blue and 1/2 yellow.  I would also count it as a tsp and if you go to the quarter container - 1/4 purple and 1/4 red.  If you use chocolate chips, don't forget to add them in too!

Clean Eating Muffins

3/4 cup Almond Flour

3/4 cup Coconut Flour

1 Tbsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt

3 Ripe Bananans

1 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1 Tbsp Melted Coconut Oil

2 Eggs

1/4 cup Greek Yogurt

1 tsp Cinnamon

Mix-ins of your choice (dark chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, apples, nuts, etc.)

1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 - Combine flours, baking soda and salt.  Stir and set aside.

3 - Mash bananas.

4 - Add vanilla, coconut oil, eggs, yogurt and cinnamon and mix well.

5 - Add dry ingredients and mix.  

6 - Batter will be crumbly.  

7 - Spoon batter into lined cupcake pan.  Fill 3/4 full.

8 - Add you mix-ins and push them into the muffins.

9 - Bake on 350 for 12-15 minutes.  

Weekly Meal Plan and Template

I am a little late posting my weekly menu this week!  I completely forgot to do it on Sunday, and yesterday just didn't happen!  I am really trying to learn how to juggle my coaching business, being a stay at home mom, volunteering at my son's school and teaching my online course.  For some reason, I was better able to do it in the fall.  Maybe it has something to do with my 2 and a half year old not napping on a consistent schedule.  It has become a catch 22!  If she naps well during the day, she doesn't sleep through the night.  If she only takes a 30 minute cat nap, we get a well rested night.  I have selfishly been choosing to sleep through the night.  Maybe that isn't the best strategy, but meh!

I also had a few people ask for the template I use for meal planning.  It really isn't anything special.  I will upload as a PDF, a pages document and a word document.  I can't guarantee the formatting of the word document.  I will go back and upload it from a pc in the near future!

Happy Eating!
~Brie

Here is the link to the template!  Weekly Meal Planner Template

Calling all Pinterest Lovers!

I am in the process of putting together Pinterest boards for clean eating/ 21 Day Fix recipe ideas.  I have them set up for Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner and Planning Tools.  The boards are small for now, but I'm going to work this week to add lots of ideas.  I have a general 21 Day Fix board now, but it is getting a little hard to use.  If you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, you can check out the boards there!

You can find me here:
https://www.pinterest.com/brie259/

Happy Pinning!