Spicy Burrito Bowls

I posted this on Instagram and Facebook last week and now I've been instructed to share the Turkey Chorizo recipe that I used for this dish. 

First of all, the dish (that you can see step by step below) is an amazing meal. I used the recipe from Lauren at Eating Whole for inspiration - the Burrito Bowl. I tweaked my version slightly.

Spicy Burrito Bowl

2 cups cooked Quinoa 

2 cups Homemade Turkey Chorizo

1 Can Black Beans

2 Cups Cubed Sweet Potatoes 

2 Poached Eggs

Sour Cream to Taste

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese to Taste

Garlic

Italian Seasonings 

Chili Powder

Cumin

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Avocado

From my meal prep made last Monday, I scooped two scoops of cooked Quinoa into a saucepan. I set it to low and drizzled some EVOO, one clove of minced garlic, about 1 tsp of Italian Seasonings and salt and pepper to taste. I let this slowly heat up as I make everything else, stirring often.

I place my cubed sweet potatoes in the microwave for about 5 minutes to soften. Then, I place them in a skillet with some EVOO, about 2 tsp of chili powder, a clove of minced garlic, 1 tsp of cumin,  and salt and pepper to taste. I let those cook on medium for about 15 minutes making sure to move them around a lot.

I heat up my black beans in a small sauce pan, covered, on low for about 20 minutes.

To make my poached eggs I fill a medium sauce pan with about 2 inches of water and a splash of white vinegar and bring to a boil. Once boiling I crack my two eggs in the water, being careful not to break the yolk. I let them boil for 2-3 minutes only. Then scoop them out with a slotted spoon.

Once everything is ready I just pile everything on top of one another as you can see in the video. Delicious.

Now how to make the Turkey Chorizo. It's really easy.

Turkey Chorizo

Ground Turkey

Cumin

Chili Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Salt and Pepper

Minced Garlic

I went ahead a made up an entire pound of ground turkey, but vary your spices with how much you are making. I like to make a lot ahead of time so we can eat on it all week. 

Take your ground turkey and break it up and ball it into small pieces (like the size of a half dollar). Heat up a large skillet with some EVOO. Combine your spices in a small bowl. Roll your turkey ground balls in the spices and then place them into the hot skillet. 

Cook them on medium - high until done (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly. 

Now chorizo is spicy by nature (it's originally done with sausage), so expect that, but you can definitely vary it by using less spices. But combined with everything else in this bowl the spice isn't overwhelming. 

Cilantro Lime Chicken Soup

Hands down my favorite thing about cool weather is soup. So last week when it was unseasonably freezing I took it as, what could be, my last opportunity to eat a nice bowl of warmth before we hit 117°.  I've made variations of this recipe before, but never with whole ingredients. So here we go. 

Ingredients

1-2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1-2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

2 tbs Onion Powder

3 Garlic Cloves minced

Handful of Cilantro

A couple sprigs of Lemon Thyme

4 Leaves of Sage

4 Cups Vegetable Stock

1 Can Organic Corn

1 Can Organic Black Beans

4 Organic Carrots Chopped

1 Organic Zucchini Chopped

2 Free Range/No Hormones Added Chicken Breasts

1-2 Avocado Sliced

Egg Noodles (optional)

So gather your spices. I really just eyeball these since I know how strong we like it. I would take a boat load of cayenne, but my husband would probably melt right then and there.

 

Chop up your herbs. Of course use cilantro to get that flavor for the chicken, but really use whatever herbs you have handy if they work together. I could eat cilantro on everything so I have it in my herb pot right on the porch. 

To get the flavors out of the sage leaves, I like to use my molcajete to grind them.

Chop up all them veggies - OH! - sorry I also added two jalepenos. Hahaha, chop those puppies up and discard seeds if you don't like spicy.

Okay, now there are no pictures for the next steps! Sorry, but they were boring and raw chicken looks sick nasty in photo form. So from here you can toss all of your ingredients (even your raw chicken, but not your avocado) in either a crock pot or dutch oven. I use a crock pot because I leave it on low while I'm gone from the house. A dutch oven would of course be on your oven so you should probably be home for that.

I start the crock pot around 10 am and leave it on low for about 8 hours. I take the chicken out right before I'm going to serve so I can shred it. It falls off really easily with the tug of fork prongs. For B, I put on a pot of egg noodles to cook because I'm still getting him used to the idea of eating avocado. For me, I just scooped out a bowl and put some slices of avocado on top.
 

Spicy Kale Chips

Read that as spicy as in seasoned, not spicy like whoa, my mouth is on fire. I've been tempted to buy seasoned kale chips packaged at my grocery store, but the $6.99 price tag for a tiny bag has deterred me. Especially since Kale was only .99 a bunch this week and I have a buttload of seasonings in my pantry. So I decided to make my own with some inspiration. These are my new favorite thing. In all seriousness. Even B liked them. As in, he ate more than my required 3, he actually kept reaching for the bowl. 

And they're super easier and really can be seasoned with whatever you have on hand. The key is to massage them. Really. 

So get your kale ready by washing it and drying it really well. For three people I used 3 kale leaves and it was more than enough. 

Peal the kale from the rib in large chunks and lay out on a baking sheet. Mix your seasonings. 

Ingredients for Spicy Kale

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

2-3 tablespoons of almond butter

1-2 teaspoons of cumin

1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1-2 teaspoons of chili powder

1-2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

The amounts vary truly based on taste and the fact that I didn't actually measure anything so I don't really know. If I don't have to clean out my measure spoons I won't. So I just poured some olive oil and almond butter in a bowl added some seasonings and stirred together. Then I smelled it and if it smelled good then it was ready. Hahahaha. Hey, it works.

So after you make your seasoning concoction drizzle it over your kale. Now is where the trick comes in. If you don't do this well enough this is what will effect your kale from being crunchy or burnt. So take your time. You need to massage each leaf front and back with the sauce. The leaves need to be covered where there are no dry spots but not pooling in sauce at all. But seriously it only takes like 3 minutes.
 

Then bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes. You should be able to take your pan and shake the kale around loosely. Toss in a bowl and devour. They are crunchy and thin and so very good.

Clean Eating: Breakfast, Snack, Snack

Apparently I'm a snack person. I think because I like so many things and I can never decide the one thing I want so I want to eat all the things. And snacks let me do that. As with my post on juicing, where I talked about introducing healthier things into my diet but not really 'dieting', I am here again to start talking about phase two of this 'not - a - diet - diet'. 

Let me tell you this story that will probably make you want to hate 20 year old me. Heck, I hate 20 year old me because of this. When I was 18 and started college I lost the freshman fifteen. When I was 19, 20 even 21 I could eat whatever I wanted. When I would start to notice that my skinny jeans weren't buttoning I would go to the gym. I would workout for about 2 weeks just doing about 30 minutes on the elliptical. Two weeks later I could slide right back in to my skinny jeans and I had a 6-pack that was Jillian Michaels' approved. I would eat and repeat about every 3 months or so. Yes, I only went to the gym 4 times a year. Worked like a charm. And then I turned 23.

Like a switch, my body changed. After I gained back the weight I lost stressing about my wedding I kept gaining. So I went to the gym and did the elliptical. Nothing changed. I added in some crunches. Nothing changed. So I finally had to start looking at what I was eating and what other workouts I could be doing. Since I already covered giving up most meats in this post, I will share where I am with all that now. I have started introducing Turkey and Chicken, but only at home. I will only buy hormone - free meats from local farmers. I buy it all fresh and freeze it on my own. I will not eat meat outside of our home cooked meats for various reasons. Outside of introducing those meats I have kept a very close eye on my portions. I've got my husband to mostly stop going back for seconds if I give him a little extra initially. But just because his plate has extra doesn't mean mine has to. Every single person burns calories differently. 

So all of that being said I have started following a couple of whole food/clean eating instagramers (@cinsarah and @eating_whole). They post amazing recipes and progress shots and general motivation. I have stocked up on groceries for the coming week and this Sunday I will meal prep for the entire week. Now, like Lauren from @eating_whole I know generally what we will probably eat for the week, but since I'm such as "what am I in the mood for?" type of meal maker then I only prep things that I can add to any recipe, not the actual meals themselves. I will probably write up a separate post for all that business. 

And now, if you've made it through all that nonsense above then you get some recipes! This is what I had for breakfast today: 

Open Faced Breakfast Pita

1 small pita round toasted

1 slice of Dill Havarti Cheese melted

6 Cherry Tomatoes sliced

5 Slices of Mushrooms

6 Arugula Leaves

2 Stripes of Veggie Bacon

1 Poached Egg

Red Pepper Flakes to taste

Coconut Oil 

White Vinegar

Microwave or heat your veggie bacon in a skillet. Crumble then set aside. Slice your cherry tomatoes and mushrooms and mix with the veggie bacon and arugula (or whatever lettuce you have on hand) then sauté with a smidge of coconut oil. Set aside. Rinse out the sauté pan and fill with 1 inch of water and a splash of white vinegar and bring to a boil. While that is boiling go ahead and pop in your pita in the toaster oven. Once the water is boiling carefully crack your egg into the water trying not to break the yolk. Let that boil for 2-3 minutes only. About 2.5 minutes gets you a cooked white but runny yolk and 3 minutes gets you an almost solid yolk. When your pita is just about toasted you can turn off the toaster oven and place the cheese on top of the pita just so it melts to it.

Layer your veggie blend on top of your cheesy pita then, using a slotted spoon, scoop out your egg and place on top. Then sprinkle with red pepper flakes for taste. Delish.

Between breakfast and lunch I get super hungry. So I made this to take with me today.

Strawberry + Banana + Honey Vanilla Smoothie

6 Strawberries without the tops
1 medium Banana chunked
5 Ice Cubes
Spoon of Honey
Spoon of Vanilla Bean Paste
Splash of Almond Milk

Mix all ingredients in blender and blend until there are no ice chunks. Yum-o.

Then when I got home this afternoon I could use a little pick me up to get through some editing.

Mocha Almond Iced Coffee

4 ounces of Cold - Brew Mocha Coffee
4 - 6 ounces of Almond Milk

Stir and enjoy.

That is all for now. I feel like I've left so many starter conversations unaddressed. Oh, well there were just too many words.