Easy Turkey Burgers

I won't lie, I am the queen of bargain hunting. Zach, my dear husband, can definitely attest to this. And one area that my bargain hunting goes into overdrive is during meal planning and grocery shopping. I love a good deal, and I love seeing our money be able to stretch while still providing good, nutritious meals for us.

One fantastic recipe that I experimented with and loved that meets the standard of being nutritious and budget saavy are turkey burgers! I have absolutely nothing against beef, and I will admit I love a good hamburger. But sometimes, beef, especially the beef you want to eat (farm raised and extra lean) is pricier. So most of the time, we stick to options like chicken, turkey and fish. At our local Sam's, we can get a great deal on ground turkey, which is where this recipe starts!

Feel free to use this recipe as a base and build on with what you and your family love, and of course experiment with all those yummy toppings, too!

Easy Turkey Burgers

Ingredients
- 1lb ground turkey
- 1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
-2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt

Directions
1. Heat a griddle to 350 degrees, or use a heavy bottomed skillet heated over medium high heat
2. Place all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Mix gently with hands (don't overwork it), make sure everything is incorporated.
4. Form into 4 to 6 patties, depending on your size preference.
5. Flatten out with your hand into a patty shape, place on griddle or skillet.
6. Cook through, about 6 minutes per side, until juices are clear and it is no longer oink in the middle.
7. Place on a toasted whole wheat bun and top with things like sliced tomato, onion, avocado, crispy bacon, etc!
8. Enjoy!

What is your favorite thing to top a burger with? Do you love something on the inside of your burger too? 

Turkey and Veggie Soup

Summer is quickly approaching and that means soon warmer weather will be the normal. But, as we have experienced this past week in Atlanta, we can still have a few cold days left before the heat fully arrives.

What does that weather mean? One last chance for a hearty soup before the cool soups make their appearance on the dinner table.

This last week I experimented with the ingredients I had around the house to make our hearty turkey and veggie soup. The great thing about this recipe is that it can definitely be made to what YOU have in your kitchen and what YOU like.

But for a base recipe, here is what we used!

Ingredients

1lb ground turkey

2 tsp cooking oil or butter

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 sweet potato, cubed

4 cups raw kale, chopped

1 cup baby carrots

4 cups chicken broth

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tsp basil

1 basil leaf

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp paprika

Directions

1. In a large heavy bottomed pot (such as a dutch oven) over medium high heat, heat up your cooking oil or butter 

2. Add you chopped onions, sautee until soft and translucent. Add your garlic in and cook for one minute. 

3. Add in the chopped green peppers, and potatoes.

4. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. 

5. Add kale, bay leaf and diced tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low. Let cook for about 10 minutes, covered. 

6. As that cooks, brown your turkey with all of the seasonings mentioned above added in with it.

7. After turkey is browned, add to soup, mix and cover. 

8. Let cook over medium low, stirring occasionally for about 25 minutes. 

9. Garnish with cheese and plain Greek yogurt if desired! 

Enjoy these last few days of warm soup weather before the fall. This is an easy and yummy way to get veggies in! Experiment with what you have and make it fun. 

What's your favorite soup? 

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Y'all. Seriously, this was so good. I tweaked a recipe that I found a bit and made it our own, and absolutely loved it. This recipe is absolutely a keeper and one that we will be having again in the Cason house! Lasagna is such a comfort food, so I love finding ways to clean it up and add some more nutrients in any way that I can. This recipe is dynamite!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients
Half of a butternut squash, cubed and COOKED
2 cups ricotta cheese, divided
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 tsp salt, divided into two 1/4 tsp
1/4 tsp nutmeg
10 oz uncooked spinach
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cooking oil
10 oz whole wheat lasagna noodles
4 slices of provolone cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F

2. Prepare your lasagna noodles! Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and cook noodles until just tender. Drain and run cool water over them, set aside.

3. Prepare your butternut squash filling! Combine your butternut squash, 1 cup ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp nutmeg in a food processor, and process until creamy. Set aside.

4. Prepare the spinach filling. Heat cooking oil a medium skillet over medium high, add minced garlic and cook about one minute. Add spinach to skillet and cook until wilted. Remove from heat and add to bowl. Combine with 1 cup of ricotta cheese and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Add 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, and 2 tsp basil. Mix together and set aside.

5. Grease a 9x13 baking dish lightly. Divide your  butternut squash filling into thirds. Put 1/3 of the mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Cover with lasagna noodles.

6. Add 1/2 of your spinach mixture on top of the noodles, and follow with another layer of noodles. Add another layer of butternut squash, followed by noodles and then the rest of the spinach filling and noodles.

7. Finish with the last 1/3 of the butternut squash mixture, top with 1 cup of mozzarella. Cut each piece of provolone in half, and layer across the top.

8. Cover with foil, bake for 30 minutes, uncover and cook for another 10 minutes.

9. Serve and enjoy!! 

21 Day Fix Extreme Review

Today is my last day of my first official round of the 21 Day Fix Extreme! So, in celebration of that, I wanted to bring you my official review of the program! This is my fourth Beachbody program, and i must say, they set the bar high, and I love it. My other programs are T25, the original 21 Day Fix, and Les Mills Combat! The 21 Day Fix sets have been fantastic, so let's go ahead and dive into the review!

Here are some specifics about the program, in case you were curious.

21 Day Fix Extreme

Length of program: 21 days, but can be repeated as many times as you want.
How many days do you work out: 7 days a week, one of which is yoga (love it!)
How long are the workouts: 30 minutes
How many workouts are included in the program: 8 full 30 minute workouts, and a ten minute ab
Equipment needed: set of light and heavy free weights and a resistance band
Fitness level needed: You need to have a base level of fitness. If you have completed any other Beachbody program you should be good
Nutrition aspect: portion control containers and an extremely doable eating plan
Helps with: losing that last ten pounds, toning up, getting extreme, getting fit for an upcoming event, and getting healthier!

Alright, so now you have some of the bare basics of the 21DFX (21 Day Fix Extreme) program down. Let's get into the nitty gritty.

Pros: 
-I loved this program even more than the original 21 Day Fix. Specifically I loved the challenge that the workouts gave me.
-I really enjoyed using my weights in most every workout. I feel like it really gave me a lot of great strength training.
-I can do more push ups on my toes now than ever before! For reference, before I started my journey last year I couldn't do a single push up on my toes. After this program I got past 15!
-The eating plan is absolutely doable and sustainable. You do not go hungry with this!
-The principles of the eating plan really nourish your body and give you a good balanced diet. You aren't skipping out whole food categories, and you aren't depriving yourself.
-You have the option of doing the "countdown to competition" eating plan, which is a super clean eating plan to help give you maximum results! I didn't do it this round, but plan on it in the future!
- As with the last program, I love the 30 minute workout length, it's perfect for me.
- I like that they have a modifier on the screen and I could easily follow along if I needed to modify a move.
-I feel like I gained a lot of energy and more over all body strength doing this program!
- Planning ahead and using the eating plan really helps you to succeed with this program.
-I love that it is a 21 day program. It helps you establish a good healthy habit, and gives you a quick win, AND because it is NOT a crash diet, you can continue on with it!

Cons:
-You eat a lot of protein, (or red containers), especially if you do the countdown to competition. It's not bad, but I personally struggle with my red containers anyway, there's only so much chicken and fish I want to eat in a day. But, it is healthy!
-It's not so much a con, but a challenge that I worked through. There is a plyo workout that includes a lot of jumping. I definitely grew in strength but boy did it challenge me!
-It was an extremely comical "con" but I definitely had to get used to using a resistance band for the pilates workout. I wouldn't say it's a con, more something you have to get used to and be careful not to snap yourself in the face with the band while changing positions.
- Not personally a con for me, but I know for others it can be a challenge when you start out to meal plan. If it's something you are not used to doing, it can take time, BUT it is absolutely worth it, and I love helping people through that process.

Overall thoughts about my experience with 21DFX
As I stated before, I really enjoyed this program. If you haven't been doing a higher intensity program or working out at all in a while, I would suggest doing the 21 Day Fix as a god start up point. But people who have been working out can absolutely jump in on this. It is a fantastic program and has taught me so much about nutrition and how key and critical it is to overall health.

Nutrition brings about 80% of your results, so it really is that important. With the 21DFX (and the original) you are focusing on eating clean and nourishing your body with foods that fuel you. That in turn helps you gain more momentum on the fitness side of things and helps you just shred out your physique! I have become more and more aware of just how important nutrition is and I want to shout that from the rooftops.

Using the 21DFX helps you learn those principles and gives you a great foundation to continue that on past the 21 days, and also gives you great workouts that are doable and build your energy and strength. This program is a 10++ in my book!

Who wants to join in another round of the 21DFX with me and get some results of your own?? I have several groups starting soon, so if you are curious at all, or want more information, please don't hesitate to ask or reach out for more information! I would love to help any way I can.

Who is ready to get Extreme?? Stay tuned for my results too!

DIY Strawberry Ice Cream

Today is the first day of spring, and what better way to ring that in and the approaching warmer weather than with super easy and delicious strawberry ice cream? This was incredibly easy, and I loved it! I have made ice cream with frozen bananas before, which is also very good, but sometimes I want something with less of a banana-y flavor.

Enter strawberry ice cream.

It's like an ice cream meets a yogurt, meets a sorbet, meet a sherbet. All delicious. So be sure to give this recipe a try!

DIY Strawberry Ice Cream
(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients
4 cups frozen strawberries
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek, you could probably even use a vanilla greek yogurt if you like it a little sweeter!)
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor (or blender), blend until smooth.
2. Divide into 4 servings, or dip out yours and save the rest for later, and ENJOY!

So easy, so refreshing, and best of all, GUILT FREE! Who is going to try this delectable treat? 

Green Machine Pancakes

Pancakes, one of the classic American breakfast options. Unfortunately, I have never been their biggest fan. Mostly because I don't like eating sweet foods for breakfast. But, when I got married, I discovered that my husband loves pancakes.

So I end up making them quite a bit around here for him. I don't usually eat them myself, again, because I don't like sweet foods for breakfast. But when I found a clean recipe of panckes , I had to try them!

I have made several variations of these healthy pancakes for Zach and he definitely approves! The recipe is simple to vary based on your tastes, so I will include the base recipe as well as the green machine version.

Base Recipe - Clean Eating Pancakes (makes about 4-5 pancakes) 
Ingredients
1/3 cup rolled or steel cut oats, uncooked
2 eggs
1 banana

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor, blend until smooth.
2. Use a 1/4 cup to measure out pancake batter.
3. Cook over medium to medium high heat as regular pancakes

GREEN MACHINE PANCAKES
Ingredients
1/3 cup rolled or steel cut oats, uncooked
3 eggs
1 banana
1 loose scoop of Greenberry Shakeology

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor, blend until smooth.
2. Use a 1/4 cup to measure out pancake batter.
3. Cook over medium to medium high heat as regular pancakes

And there you have it! Clean eating pancakes that you don't have to feel guilty about eating. They will fill you up and leave you satisfied and nourished! You can also vary the vase recipe to include any fruits or other things you want to put in, or even top them with!  Have fun with the recipe!

What is your favorite pancake combo? 

Guilt Free Chocolate Pudding

Generally, I tend to not have a sweet tooth. I would take something salty over sweet most any day. But, there are days where I crave chocolate. That sweet tooth rears its ugly head, and all I want to do is whip up a batch of brownies and devour the whole thing. But that is not really conducive for good health to do that. So, I had to come up with a new solution!

The new solution? Finding healthy sweet replacements, and ways to "healthify" different recipes.

Thankfully, in my new 21 Day Fix Extreme book, they did that for me! There are actually a few recipes that I plan on trying over the course of my 21 day journey to help satisfy my sweet tooth in a healthy way, but I wanted to experiment with a few of the recipes sooner, and I chose chocolate pudding!

For some reason it was just calling my name, and I gave it a go. Surprisingly, the recipe is super simple, and takes just a few minutes to make, and then only an hour to chill and BAM! You have your healthy sweet treat ready to go.

Who's ready to get their healthy sweet treat on?

Guilt Free Chocolate Pudding 
(Makes 4 servings, 1/2 cup each)

Ingredients
1 1/2 scoops of Chocolate Shakeology
1 medium ripe avocado
1 medium banana
1 cup unsweetened almond milk (plus more if too thick)
Optional raspberries or sliced strawberries for the top

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Again, if it's too thick, you can add a little additional almond milk, just go slow!
2. Divide into 4 separate dessert bowls, and set in the fridge to chill for one hour so it can set.
3. Top with a few raspberries or sliced strawberries, if you so desire, and enjoy!

There you have it, a super simple, four ingredient way that you can easily satisfy your sweet tooth in a very healthy way! Finding simple replacements like this can be a key component to staying on track in your health and fitness journey as you find ways to enjoy the foods you love in a healthy way!

What's your favorite healthy sweet treat?

Portioning 21 Day Fix Recipes

For those of you who know about the 21 Day Fix and the 21 Day Fix Extreme programs, you probably know that sometimes meal prep can get tricky if you are making anything that is "mixed." Today I wanted to share some of my tips on how to navigate those tricky waters found in meal preparations and counting your containers!

(My tasty spaghetti squash burrito bowl is a "mixed" recipe with a lot of different containers present!)

Say for example, you want to make soup, or even healthy versions of lasagna, or jambalaya. Trying to portion them out, and make the recipe can be difficult, and you want to make sure that you are still counting your containers correctly so you can stay on track. Let me tell you, it's pretty simple and easy, and you can enjoy an even wider variety of recipes when you learn how to do it!

Let's take a healthy version of jambalaya for example!

To start, you want to first determine how many servings you are going to make for the entire recipe. For this jambalaya, let's say it's four servings.

To review: Step 1, determine how many servings you will have. 

For each recipe that you are looking at, you want to notice the key ingredients and what container they coordinate to in the 21 Day Fix. In our jambalaya (I haven't actually made this, it's just what is in my head, mind you) we will have brown rice (yellow container), onions, red bell peppers and green bell peppers, and tomatoes (green container), turkey sausage (red container), tomato sauce (purple) and your seasonings (no container, free food).

Step 2, figure out from the ingredients what containers are included. 

Next, convert your recipe to fit the containers, or figure out how many containers the recipe calls for. Let's say for this recipe, you are making it on your own, so you will create your own container count. Say we want one yellow container per serving. That means you will need four yellow containers of rice for the whole recipe. Green, because there are a lot of veggies, you could do two green containers per serving, which mean you need eight green containers of veggies total. Continue that with your other ingredients as well.

If you already have a recipe, you can follow that recipe and measure out the portions with your containers and take note of how many there are, and divide it by the total servings you have!

Step 3, Fit your recipe to the containers.

Your last step is to cook, enjoy and mark down your containers! It may seem a bit confusing at first to figure out the containers for "mixed" recipes. Sometimes it seems simpler to just eat a red container of baked chicken, a yellow of mashed sweet potatoes, and a green of broccoli. But then other times, you really crave a good recipe.

And the great thing about the 21 Day Fix and the 21 Day Fix Extreme is you can absolutely do that, and get creative with your cooking and recipes! They can be as simple or as elaborate as you want them. Give yourself time, you will get the hang out it.

Just take these steps and transfer them to any other recipe you want! Just make sure the ingredients you are using are included on your list of foods you can eat. Things like soup are fantastic, you measure out your proteins, veggies, and the like and eat up! Chili is another great recipe you can do with the 21 Day Fix and divide up in portions as well.

If you have any questions about how to divide up certain recipes, or clean them up, please do not hesitate to reach out and ask me! I would love to help you navigate those recipes and come up with a simple and helpful solution for you.

What's your favorite "mixed" 21 Day Fix recipe? Share below!

Here's one of my favorite...ground turkey enchiladas...21 Day Fix approved!

"Healthy Stuff" Bowl

Even after traveling all over the world, and having my fair share of rice and beans in Africa and Asia, I'm not sick of it. In fact, I love to dress it up!Last night I was running low on time to cook, and needed to use up some bell peppers we had left over in the fridge. So I decided to improvise and experiment.

Enter in the "healthy stuff" bowl. Like several of my other recipes, this can be very early customized to your personal tastes, as well as what you have on hand.

Healthy Stuff Bowl

Ingredients
(Makes 4-6 servings)
1 lb ground turkey
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cups rough chopped kale (just depends on how much green you want!)
2 tsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp onion powder
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce

Directions
1. Heat up your cooking oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add in your onions and chopped bell peppers, cook until tender.
3. Add in the ground turkey, and brown through, mixing with the vegetables.
4. Season with the garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, red pepper, cumin and chili powder.
5. Add in kale and 1/3 cup of water, cook and mix until it begins to wilt.
6. Add in the cooked rice and tomato sauce, stir and mix together until incorporated.
7. Cover and cook on medium low for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
8. Enjoy!

If you wanted, you could add in black or red beans. Or substitute the brown rice for quinoa! The possibilities are truly endless. Experiment and find out what you like, too! But if you are short on time, this is an easy one to throw together and have a balanced meal.

What about you, do you like rice and beans or do you have to spice it up a bit to eat them?

Kale and Tomato Salad

Kale was one of those foods that when I started getting healthy and looking to eat better that I really didn't care too much for in the beginning. It tasted bitter and sharp to me, and I wasn't sure what all to do with it.

I ended up using it in smoothies mostly, because you don't taste it as much when it's blended up with some delicious fruit. But the past few months I have been branching out even more and trying new recipes with kale. The conclusion, I love kale now!

This week I experimented and made a sauteed kale salad that I will definitely be doing again! It was a bowl of tasty goodness that is just exploding with nutrients. You could definitely tweak this recipe to fit your own tastes with other spices that you enjoy. This is the base recipe that I used, feel free to experiment!

Kale and Tomato Salad
(two servings)

Ingredients
1 tsp cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic (or more if you love garlic, I know I do!)
3 cups of kale (chopped or torn to medium to smaller sized pieces)
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you like it spicy!)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sesame seeds
A few splashes of soy sauce *optional*
Season according to your own tastes!

Directions
1. Heat your cooking oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat
2. Finely mince your 2 cloves of garlic and sautee in the skillet for about one minute
3. Add in your kale and tomatoes and stir around with your garlic. Cook until the kale begins to wilt slightly.
4. Season the kale with all of your seasons, correct to your own tastes.
5. Stir all together, cook until the kale is wilted and the tomatoes are heating through.
6. Top with your sesame seeds and enjoy!

Who's ready to try some kale and tomato salad?? Do you have a killer kale recipe? Please share it with me, I would love to try it!

Mashed Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that I had no idea about how delicious it was until this year. Sure I have had cauliflower before, but I never knew what all you could do with this amazing little vegetable! And, bonus, it’s PACKED with nutrients that help your body too!

(That's the mashed cauliflower in the bowl towards the front by the gravy!)

This year as I’m trying to stay on track with my health during the holidays, I decided to nix a carb from the menu. Now, I LOVE stuffing (dressing, or whatever you call it), so I knew that had to stay. Since my hubby wanted some sweet potato casserole as well, I knew mashed potatoes were the ones to go, even though I do enjoy them!

So instead of not having anything like that, I decided to try my hand at mashed cauliflower! And let me tell you, it’s delicious. Of course it tastes a little different than mashed potatoes, but I actually feel cauliflower has more flavor, so bonus! And, you’re getting a serving of veggies in.

How do you make mashed cauliflower, you ask? Well step on into my kitchen and I’ll tell you how! It’s super easy, and could even be a dish you bring to share at your Thanksgiving celebration this week!

Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 large head of cauliflower, cut into large chunks

Drizzle of olive oil (or whatever cooking oil you prefer)

1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup of chicken broth

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

½ of an onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.     In a large bowl, place cauliflower chunks, drizzle lightly with olive oil.

3.     Sprinkle paprika, and garlic powder, toss to coat.

4.     Spread across baking sheet, cook about 25-30 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender.

5.     Remove cauliflower from pan and place into a food processor with ¼ cup of chicken broth, the onion, and ¾ cup of cheese.

6.     Blend until smooth, check every few minutes and add chicken broth as necessary if you want it a bit smoother. Only do a little bit at a time.

7.     Salt and pepper to taste, transfer to a serving bowl, sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup of cheese and lightly stir.

8.     Serve hot and enjoy!

You can definitely play around with this mashed cauliflower recipe! I’ve seen people add roasted garlic (YUM!), you could treat it like you do regular mashed potatoes and even add in some chopped bacon and chives to go on top! You can be as creative as you want to be with this dish, and know that you’re getting a serving of veggies in as well!

Do you have a favorite cauliflower recipe? Be sure to share it below, I love trying new recipes, and I might even feature it on my blog!

Thanksgiving Swaps

Zach and I are sharing our very first married Thanksgiving this year! Since both of us love this time of year, and truly enjoy the season of Thanksgiving, we decided that we would have our own Thanksgiving dinner a week before the actual day to celebrate together!

And since I love cooking (especially Thanksgiving dishes), and Zach loves to eat Thanksgiving food, it was a win- win for us. And bonus, we got a killer deal on our turkey! Score!

Since we began eating healthy this year, I wanted to mix things up a bit with our Thanksgiving dinner and experiment with a few new recipes that were traditional Thanksgiving dishes “cleaned up” a bit. Of course we made the regular versions of some of our favorites, but added in a few news ones, and I must say, they turned out quite tasty!

Our Thanksgiving menu consisted of…

-Roast Turkey (seasoned with lots of yummy herbs and spices, with an onion and celery stalk into the cavity, then baked in an oven bag…seriously those things work GREAT to create a juicy bird!)

-Stuffing (or as the south calls it…dressing)

-Mashed Cauliflower

-Garlic Green Beans

-Cranberry sauce (made from fresh cranberries, not canned)

-Sweet potato casserole

-Pumpkin Pie

As you can see, we had quite the spread! I ended up cooking for the majority of the morning, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Cooking definitely is a stress reliever for me, and I absolutely adore cooking from scratch, which is what I did for all of these recipes!

The menu items that are in bold were recipes that I cleaned up a bit for our Thanksgiving dinner! Here’s a quick peak at what I did to each (full recipes to come later!)

-Stuffing (dressing, whatever you call it) Now this one I didn’t clean up  completely, it’s still a carb heavy dish, but what can I say, the stuff is my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal! Particularly how my mom cooked it, and how I cook it now. We always had a sausage dressing with onions and celery mixed in (so pork sausage, cubed stuffing, celery, onion, and chicken broth). For this recipe we switched out pork sausage for some fresh mild turkey sausage from our local farmers market. So good!

-Mashed Cauliflower – Because we were already having stuffing and sweet potatoes, I didn’t want to add another potato dish into the mix. Instead, I switched potatoes for cauliflower and made garlic mashed cauliflower. If you haven’t tried it, just wait for the recipe and make your own. SO good, and you get a serving of veggies!

-Garlic Green Beans – Traditionally I always had green bean casserole, which is very tasty indeed. But for our Thanksgiving meal I didn’t want to have to make and bake that, and it’s typically a heavier dish so I opted to cook fresh green beans with fresh sautéed garlic, seasoned with some spices. Very tasty!

-Sweet Potato Casserole – This dish isn’t something I had growing up, but Zach loves it! Usually it’s topped with corn flakes and marshmellows, but I wanted to lighten it up so I created my own topping with some “candied” nuts and coconut! Turned out pretty good, and was hubby approved!

As you can see, we did not go hungry on our Thanksgiving meal. We will be having leftovers for a while! But I don’t mind. That’s half the fun of Thanksgiving dinner, right?? My point is you can still enjoy your Thanksgiving meal. Pick the things you truly love and enjoy, and then find creative swaps for the rest!

Stay tuned for my mashed cauliflower and sweet potato casserole recipe later this week, and be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with recipes and tips!

My question for you is…what is YOUR favorite Thanksgiving dish?

Buffalo Cauliflower Tots

Cauliflower is one of my new vegetable favorites. I am seriously in love with this vegetable and have cooked with it more in the past six months than I ever have in my life. Who knew such a funny looking veggie could be so deliciously tasty?

From cauliflower mac and cheese, to a cauliflower “alfredo” sauce, to cauliflower pizza crust…the list goes on and on. But I have found a brand new favorite that I am drooling over still. And that’s buffalo cauli tots. You heard me. Veggie tots. But tangy, delicious and crisp.

Drooling yet? Here’s the recipe so you can try it out for yourself and see what I mean!

Buffalo Cauli Tots

Ingredients

4 cups of shredded cauliflower (about a whole head if it’s a smaller head of cauliflower, half if it’s a large head)

½ cup sharp cheddar cheese

½ cup hot sauce (think Frank’s Red Hot…any sort of “buffalo” hot sauce)

1 egg

½ cup cornmeal

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

*Tip if you don’t want to shred your cauliflower by hand, put it in the food processor for a couple of seconds and chop that bad boy up!*

Directions

1.     Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray a mini muffin tip with your choice of cooking spray.

2.     Squeeze out the excess moisture from the shredded cauliflower by placing it in a kitchen towel or several paper towels.

3.     Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly.

4.     Scoop the mixture into the mini muffin tins, pressing firmly into the cups.

5.     Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

6.     Enjoy with your favorite dipping sauce! (Try making a greek yogurt style ranch dip…yum!!)

There you have it, yet another tasty way to get a serving of veggies in with our delicious friend, the cauliflower! Who is going to try this recipe themselves?