Meal made in Minutes: Turkey and Tomato Salsa (over brown rice and / or zoodles)

Sunday Funday this week consisted of catching up on laundry, fitting in a quick HIIT cardio session, and then spending the rest of the day working on Clinical assignments and meal prepping for the week. While Clinical Module assignments are NOT my favorite, preparing this week's Meal Made in Minutes brightened up my day and made my house smell delicious! 

The best part of meal prep today was that it only took me 15 minutes to make everything and I will have healthy options for lunch and dinner for the next 2-3 days! Now, that's a win-win situation! 

This week's Meal made in Minutes: Turkey and Tomato Salsa over brown rice and / or zoodles

Turkey and Tomato Salsa over Zoodles! It's what's for dinner!

Ingredients:

* Turkey and Tomato Salsa (serves 6)

• 1.25 lb extra lean ground turkey
• 1 16-oz jar of salsa
• 1 28-oz can of No Salt Added Diced Tomatoes
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional topping)
• Red Chili flakes (optional topping)

* Brown Rice (serves 4-6)

• 2 cups dry Minute Instant Whole Grain Brown rice

* Zoodles (serves 4-6)

• 4-6 small zucchinis

Turkey and Tomato Salsa ingredients (minus the spices and toppings)

Instructions:

1. In a medium-sized pot, bring water to a boil and cook the Minute rice per package instructions. 
2. While rice is cooking, cook the ground turkey in a large sauce pan (cook thoroughly until no pink is present, about 8-10 minutes).
3. While the turkey is cooking, pour the salsa and diced tomatoes into a large pot and heat on medium heat.
4. When the rice is done, remove the pot from the heat and fluff with a fork. When the turkey is done, turn off the heat and add in the cumin and chili powder (mix spices in well) and then add the cooked turkey to the large pot with the salsa and tomatoes (mix well and continue to heat on medium). 
5. Clean and spiralize the zucchini.
6. Remove the Turkey and Tomato Salsa from the heat and let cool.

Cooking in progress!

Prepared single-serve portion of Zoodles for lunch tomorrow! Made possible by my amazing Kitchen Supreme Spiralizer!

And that's a wrap! A perfect assortment of nutrients in one complete meal made in under 15 minutes! I know I cannot wait to eat my Turkey and Tomato Salsa over brown rice AND zoodles tomorrow for lunch.... and then come home to leftovers for a quick on-the-spot dinner after a long day. 

Enjoy, my friends! Have a Happy Sunday and great week ahead!

Meal Makeover: Eggplant Turkey Boats

The realization that my summer vacation is coming to an end has officially sent in and I find myself daydreaming about my trip home last week. My favorite part of being home was spending time with my family and cooking in the kitchen with my mom. My mother has become quite the cook these days and, with the help of my creative healthy twists on recipes, she and I made the perfect team. We invited my grandparents, my aunt, and my younger cousin over for dinner the night before I flew back to Tampa and we had quite the task of feeding seven people with seven different "particular tastes".... so I figured that would be a perfect night to try out a new recipe!

This week's Meal Makeover: Eggplant Turkey Boats

Eggplant plated

The best part is that the main ingredients were as "farm-to-table" as we could get - we used the vegetables straight from mother's garden and she felt quite proud of herself!

Ingredients: Serves 6-8 

• 2 lbs extra-lean ground turkey
• 4 medium eggplants
• 6-8 medium zucchini / yellow squash (1 per person)
• 2 16-oz jars of low-sodium marinara / pasta sauce
• 1.5 - 2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese (shredded) (1/4th cup per eggplant half)
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• Black pepper (to taste)

Tools needed:

1. Large skillet / sauce pan
2. Spiralizer / Veggetti

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. F.
2. Wash the eggplant and zucchini / squash. Cut the ends off each vegetable and set aside the zucchini / squash. Cut the eggplant in half (length wise) and carve out the seeds / flesh with a spoon, leaving 1/2 the flesh remaining in the shell for the "boat" - Note: be careful not to carve too deep / crack the shell of the eggplant! Set the seeds / flesh aside.
3. Spray 2-3 baking dishes with olive oil spray (to prevent sticking) and place each eggplant half on the baking sheet, flesh side up. Spray the flesh of the eggplant with olive oil spray to prevent burning when baking. Bake eggplant in the oven for 10-15 minutes - Note: be sure to watch the flesh of the eggplant and remove them from the oven if they start to burn!
4. While the eggplants are baking, cook the ground turkey in a large sauce pan (no pink remaining) and add in the cumin, chili powder, and black pepper. Turn the heat down to simmer / low and add in the eggplant seeds / flesh and one jar of the marina sauce. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes (just to soften the eggplant and heat the sauce). Stir as needed.
5. When the eggplants are done, remove from the oven and carefully fill each eggplant shell half with the ground turkey mix and top each with 1/4th cup shredded cheese.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 350 deg. F and place the eggplants back into the oven for 5-10 minutes (just until the cheese has melted).
7. While the cheese is melting, spiralize each zucchini / squash onto a serving dish (1 per person).
8. Pour the remaining jar of sauce into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1-2 minutes (stopping the time and stirring the sauce at the 1-minute mark) and spoon some sauce on top of the spiralized zucchini / squash.
9. Remove the eggplants from the oven and place one eggplant "boat" on top of the zucchini / squash noodles and serve! Note: use tongs to transfer the eggplant to each plate!

Eggplant prep

(Eggplant "boats" carved out and ready to bake!)

Eggplant Turkey Filling

(Cooked ground turkey with spices and sauce)

Eggplant filled

(Eggplant "boats" stuffed with turkey & eggplant mix and topped with cheese)

Eggplant done

(Eggplant "boats" baked and ready to eat!)

Zoodles

(All the zucchini and yellow squash spiralized into "noodles")

Eggplant plated

(One plated Eggplant Turkey Boat over a bed of zoodles!)

Now doesn't that look delicious!? The good news is that this dish was as delicious as it looks and my whole family was impressed - even my 21-year-old male cousin in college loved it!

The whole meal was prepared and served within 45 minutes (and consumed within 15 minutes!!) and kept us happy and full all night! Do yourself a favor and serve this meal at your next family dinner - trust me, you won't regret it :-)

Meal Makeover: Zucchini Pizza Boats

I had a lot of "me time" this past weekend (since my sweet husband was busy working at the office Saturday and Sunday) so I took advantage of my free time and tested out some new recipes! Not only did I have a blast making a mess of my kitchen, but I was able to play around with three new recipes and could not wait to share this week's meal makeover recipe with you all! If you are like me (and human) you may crave pizza nearly 365 days a year, but you may not want the high-carbohydrate and high-calorie content of the traditional pizza! Have no fear, the Zucchini Pizza Boat has come to your rescue!

This week's Meal Makeover: Zucchini Pizza Boat

Zucchini pizza complete

Zucchini pizza nutrition

This low-carb, high protein "pizza" is super easy to make and surprisingly delicious and filling (thanks to the water and fiber content of the almighty zucchini)! One serving (1 zucchini boat) provides you with nearly 36g of lean protein and a mere 13g carbohydrates and 6g total fat at only 245 calories.

The best part is that you can modify the ingredients to make this meal for yourself or for the whole family to enjoy and you can use any type of lean protein that you prefer (extra-lean ground turkey, chopped chicken breast, shrimp, tofu...)! I made this meal for my neighbor and myself with extra-lean ground turkey and used the leftover turkey in my meals for the next two days. (Meal-prepping at its finest!)

Ingredients: 2 servings (2 Zucchini Boats)

• 6 oz cooked extra-lean ground turkey (divided) (I cooked 1.25 lbs of Jennie-O Extra-lean Turkey and saved the rest for leftovers).
• 1 large zucchini (divided) (I found a very large, wide diameter zucchini that weighed about 12 oz)
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce (divided) (look for low-sodium, all-natural varieties or make your own)
• 1/2 cup 2% milk shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic salt

Intructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. F. Wash the zucchini well and dry with a paper towel before cutting the vegetable in half (length wise). Cut the ends off as well. Carefully scoop out the zucchini flesh and seeds with a mini ice cream scoop or spoon, but be careful not to press too hard and break the core of the zucchini. You want to leave about 1/4th of the zucchini flesh intact to make the "boat" shape for the turkey filling. Discard the zucchini flesh and seeds or save for later use in another recipe.
2. In a large sauce pan, cook the turkey completely (no pink pieces left) and then add in the spices (cumin, chili powder, and garlic salt), remove from heat and stir in spices well.
3. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place the zucchini halves on top of the foil (flesh side up). Fill each boat with 2 tbsp pizza sauce, then 2 tbsp shredded cheese, then 3 oz of cooked turkey, followed by remaining 2 tbsp pizza sauce.
4. Bake the zucchini boats at 400 deg. F for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven and top each boat with the remaining 2 tbsp shredded cheese.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 deg. F and return the cookie sheet back to the oven and bake for an addition 5-10 minutes (or until cheese is completely melted). Keep a close eye on the cheese so that it does not burn (like mine did in the picture above)! ...ooops....

Zucchini pizza prep

(Cooked turkey with spices and hollowed-out zucchini boats)

Zucchini pizza filling

(Filled boats with pizza sauce and shredded cheese)

Zucchini pizza full

(Filled boats with ground turkey and shredded cheese)

And that's it! We paired our zucchini boats with a mixed greens salad for a well-balanced and nutritious meal. I enjoyed every last bite of my zucchini pizza boat and the great company of my sweet neighbor, Margie :-)

I hope you will try out this meal makeover recipe and share it with your family or friends. Let me know what you think!