Egg White Breakfast Sandwich

Egg White Breakfast Sandwich

My (sappy) Back Story

My husband and I are very much equals when it comes to pretty much everything. There are chores he enjoys, there are other chores that I enjoy. And when it comes to our kids we put in equal amounts of time and effort. We have a great relationship, and one important hinge of that relationship is being appreciative of each other, especially when the other makes our day easier. Whether it's something they always do or something they're going out of their way to do, we take notice with appreciation just the same.

Anyways, our toddler and 2 month old woke up insanely early the other day, and while I was getting ready to start my day (get dressed, etc) he had put the baby back to sleep by the time I went to go get her and then let me go back sleep while he got up with our son. Right now, I'm on maternity leave, and his job can run for 12hrs at a time, sometimes longer, and is physically demanding. Him giving up the precious extra moments of sleep he needed was such a nice gesture. I wanted to make the next morning special for him. I let him "sleep in" (a WHOLE extra 30min) and when he got up and rushed to get ready for work, I had a coffee to go and this sandwich wrapped, both ready and waiting for him. We're not huge breakfast eaters because we're always in a rush, so I thought it would be a nice surprise.

Here's my sandwich. It's pretty basic, and I've done variations of it on here before, but it's extremely delicious.

Eggs:

1 cup finely chopped spinach

1/2 cup cheddar cheese (extra fo' my man)

8 Egg Whites

1/4 cup Lactaid Milk (my son has lactose allergies)

Pinches: salt & pepper

Mix and cook on the stove top with heated extra virgin olive oil. 

I cut a mini loaf of bread in half, and split them in two. Toasted then topped with the egg and tomato.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 5/5

Comment: I'm not a huge fan of breakfast sandwiches, so when I make it again, I'll probably leave off the bread on mine. Otherwise, amazing. 

Toddler Note: He LOVED it. He ate a whole huge bowl full (just the eggs) and kept going "Mmmm" with each bite.

Spinach Greek Yogurt Chicken

Spinach Greek Yogurt Chicken

Parmesan Greek Yogurt Chicken

Caprese Chicken

I decided to merge these two recipes! I couldn't wait to give it a try. It was delicious! Unfortunately, every component (aside from the tomato) was severely overcooked. But I can't be too upset at the cause. I'd overcook all my meals to stare at this face a little longer!

Chicken was tough and I over-reduced the balsamic sauce (AGAIN) and steamed the green beans so long that I ran out of water and burned my pot. AHHH!! And so the green beans tasted burnt. Yuck. But what are ya gonna do. When the baby needs you, you gotta be mom first, chef second! 

You may be wondering why I have that tiny measly slice of tomato on my chicken. I usually split my chicken with my son, and he is not a fan of tomato. I usually do 3/4 the chicken for me, 1/4 for my son and an extra veggie for him in addition to the sides my husband and I eat. I love meat, so I tend to over-indulge. And this is a good way for me to curb my intake. 

This reminded me of Chicken Florentine, but I've never read the recipe for that before, so I'm claiming this as it came directly out of my mind!

 Anyways - Here's my dets!

Mixed together:

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1/4 Parmesan

1/2 finely chopped spinach

Pinches to taste: Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder

Spread over chicken breasts, bake at 350 until cooked thoroughly (aka NOT 50mins to an hour for 1 lb total weight for two chicken breasts)

While baking, I made the balsamic sauce. 

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 tbsp light brown sugar

A couple splashes organic chicken stock (and then a couple more splashes to deglaze the pot when I over-reduced)

 Pull out the chicken, place slice of tomato on top, broil a few minutes, then top with the sauce. 

Alana's Review:

Ease: 4/5

Taste: 4/5 (would be 5/5 if I had cooked the chicken correctly)

Comments: Don't overcook the food. =)

Clean Bruschetta

Clean Bruschetta

We had left over spaghetti from last night, so I threw together a classic at our home. I have made this many times, and it's always been unintentionally clean. So I thought I'd share! I like my bruschetta fresh and simple. I ran out of dried basil and dried oregano (AHHH!). So I had to make due with what I had, but typically I would use both of those items.

3-4 chopped Roma Tomatoes (love these)

Fresh Mozzarella, cubed

3/4 cup chopped spinach

Pinch: Salt, Pepper

(Again - I try to use the left over ingredients from previous meals, I had a couple loaves of delicious bread that my husband picked. I used this as my toasted bread)

Brush Olive Oil over sliced bread. 

Sprinkle: Garlic Powder, Thyme, & Rosemary over them

With the oven still hot from reheating my spaghetti, I turned it off and turned on the broiler. 

They did come out a little more burnt than I would have liked, but honestly it was still amazing. This is one of my favorite things to make. So fresh and easy.

Once plated, we dusted with Parmesan.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 5/5

Comments: Put Oregano and Basil on my grocery list.

Spinach and Tomato Spaghetti

Spinach and Tomato Spaghetti

So, I need to use recipes more to spice up our meals, but in general I love to just wing it and come up with my own recipes. This is my first attempt at clean spaghetti. 

Just like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I cannot stand whole grain pasta... I know, it's kind of hard to eat healthy without liking such major healthy staples. But, in effort to make it clean and healthier, I used veggie pasta. It said it was made with carrot and tomatoes. I'll take it! 

This turned out much sweeter than I expected.I think the pasta played a role, but all in all, pretty good! 

Sauce:

Heated olive oil in a pan

Sautéed minced garlic (removed once cooked)

Sautéed approx 2cups chopped fresh organic spinach

2 1/2 tomatoes

3/4 cup organic chicken broth

Dried 1tsp: basil, oregano, thyme

Pinch: salt, pepper, cilantro

Cook until tomatoes are cooked.

Toss in cooked spaghetti, mix in Parmesan to taste. 

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 4/5

Comments: When I first tasted it, I liked it, but it seemed kind of boring. All the tastes in the dish were pretty much the same so nothing stood out. I attempted to put some balsamic vinegar in it, of course it'd be much better cooked in the first place still... but that wasn't quite it either. So I put more parmesan on it and that did the trick. Next time, I will put more cheese in the pasta and maybe a little vinegar while sautéing vegetables. 

Breakfast Repeat

Many times when we don't post, we're either remaking a simple meal or we are eating leftovers that are exactly the same with no add-ons.  This morning that is the case for me. I made the eggs described in this post: http://sofresheatclean.blogspot.com/2016/02/cinnamon-fried-bananas-with-almonds.html?m=1

In the previously posted recipe I only used olive oil,  spinach, egg whites, and salsa (no milk, no butter). Today I did the same thing, but this time I knew I'd be sharing with my son so I did 7 eggs, 2 of which the yolks were used also, my son likes the yolks. Anyways it looked exactly the same as the one in the old post (old pic also posted below), but you could definitely taste the yolk. My son LOVED it. Me, not so much. I much prefer only the egg white, but seeing as how he loves breakfast time and I don't really care for breakfast (don't ask me why!) I'd rather make something he'd enjoy! 

Anyways, that was my morning meal! Now I need an embarrassing amount of coffee. Being the mom of two kids under the age of 2.5yrs (one who is under 2 months old!), there's no hope of sleeping past 6:30am. Today, they decided 6am was better, but boy does that extra 30 min make a difference! *yawn!* I think mana will be joining in on naptime today!

Alana's Review

Ease:5/5

Taste: 3.5/5 // toddler's review: 5/5

Comments: egg whites only please! 

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs

So, while scrolling through Twitter last night, I scrolled past a picture of Swedish Meatballs. I scrolled past but couldn't get them out of my head, so I tried to find the tweet to give credit today but I couldn't find it. I had never made swedish meatballs before so I did a bunch of research, threw out my other dinner plan, and put together my own recipe, I also tried to make it clean.  So, here you go! 

Meatballs (measurements are approx.)

1lb Extra Lean Ground Turkey

1 Cup Plain panko bread crumbs with crushed saltine crackers (1. Bc I like to use them & 2. I ran out of panko)

3/4 cup Chopped spinach

1 Tsp Garlic powder

Pinch Salt&pepper

1 tsp Dried rosemary

1 tsp Dried basil 

One small chopped finely onion (I usually use the use the mini chopper, but the babies were sleeping in the other room)

2 Splashes of Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs

Make them into meatballs, and spread them out on a non stick sprayed baking dish

Baked @ 350 for 35 minutes

Sauce

3 cups organic free range chicken broth

1 cup water

1/2 cup soy milk

1&1/2 Tsp rosemary

2 dashes of soy sauce

1&1/2 tsp honey

Salt&pepper

3 heaping tablespoons (the kind you eat with) flour

Mix it up

Put the baked meatballs into a pot, pour the sauce over it. I simmered it for about an hour and a half, but you can adjust to your preference and needs. 

The side was nothing crazy, baked potatoes and green beans coated in olive oil topped with salt, pepper,  and Parmesan

Alana's Review

Ease: 2.5/5

Taste: 4/5

Comment: Use wheat flour instead of white for the sauce, I didn't have any on hand (I know... shame on me) just to make it more clean. Also, while I think the honey did add something special,  I kind of want to try maple syrup, worse case scenario I have to redo the sauce. But I think it turned it really well considering I've never made it before  (and actually only have eaten it once, maybe twice? But for some reason I just HAD to have it). It was a great first attempt and my toddler kept asking for more, so it must have been pretty good!