Grain Free Lamb Meatballs (with Greek Yogurt Tzatziki Sauce)

I kind of have a Greek food obsession. If I was going to move overseas I would want to head to Greece and just eat olives and feta and stuffed grape leaves all day long. I also look forward to all the summer food festivals that include gyro stands and the especially the festivals put on by the local Greek churches. I could go crazy. So this little gem of a recipe also helps fill that I need some Greek food now and can't possibly wait until summer craving. It is seriously handy in January.

So this is what I did:

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

1 1/2 lbs ground meat (I used a mix of grass fed beef and lamb feel free to use all lamb)
Juice of half a lemon
1 1/2 TBS coconut oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 1/2 tsp fresh)
1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 1 1/2 tsp fresh)
1 tsp salt (I used Himalayan Salt)
1/4 tsp black pepper

For the tzatziki sauce:

3/4 cup greek yogurt*
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
Juice of 1/4 of a lemon (about 1 TBS)
1/2 tsp dried dill (or 1 1/2 tsp fresh)
1/3 tsp dried mint (or 1 tsp fresh)
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt


Grab a large bowl and mix together all of the meatball ingredients. (I use my hands. It works the best even if it does have an ewww factor.) You can let this marinade at room temp for 20-30 minutes or skip it if you don't have time. The flavor is better if you let it marinade but it's not a make it or break it factor for me.

Roll the meat into small meatballs (about 2"). Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until no longer pink in the middle.

While baking, make the sauce by placing all ingredients in a bowl and whisking together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

I always serve this over Zoodle Salad.


*when I am avoiding dairy I sub with coconut milk yogurt



21 Day Fix Container Breakdown:

1 red (1/2 for sauce and 1/2 3 meatballs*)
2 green** (if adding zoodle pasta)

*varies based on what size you make your meatballs
** you can also measure out one green container here instead of two. I went for two because green is what I always tend to have left.

For more info on zoodles and why I am obsessed check this out.

The BEST Zoodle Salad (that you can top with just about anything!)

This is another one of my go to make a whole big batch to eat all week recipes. Why? Because it is super easy, has very few ingredients and tastes awesome alone or with pretty much anything on top of it. Shrimp, chicken, quinoa, lamb meatballs and tzatziki sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic drizzle. You name it and it will probably work. Sometimes I switch up the herbs based on what I have (hello fresh cilantro or basil) and it still works.

AND I get to bust out my favorite kitchen tool to make it.

I have not been shy about the fact that I am in LOVE with my spiralizer and use it for everything from zucchini and summer squash to sweet potatoes and parsnips but I will tell you that this recipe may be my absolute FAVORITE from now on.

I have been following Danielle Walker on social media and  reading her cookbooks, Against All Grain and  Meals Made Simple (both of which are awesome by the way) and have been really just trying to cut back on the amount of grain that is in our diets. It's one of those things (like dairy) that until you really start to think about it you don't notice how much of it is everywhere. And too much of anything is not a good thing, so if I can make a yummy sub for noodles in a recipe with a veggie that offers way more nutrition, it's a win for everyone. Even my four year old gobbles them up and loves to help me turn the crank. She thinks watching the zucchini go from a whole zucchini to noodles is the coolest. And she likes feeding my puppies the "core" that gets left behind.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

2 large zucchini
2 medium/large yellow summer squash
1 TBS cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 1 1/2 tsp fresh)*
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 red onion sliced **

Using a spiralizer or julienne peeler, make noodles from the zucchini and summer squash. Toss with lemon juice, olive oil, oregano and salt. Allow to marinade for 15-20 minutes.

If I have tomatoes on hand I toss those in sometimes too.

And that's it. Super easy.

*I have also subbed in fresh cilantro, fresh basil or any other herb I have on hand depending on what I am serving the salad with and the direction I want to go. The oregano works well with lamb meatballs and tzatziki sauce, the cilantro works well with shrimp and chicken. And I like to add basil, tomato and fresh mozzarella for a different spin on a caprese salad.

** I have used almost any kind of onion in this salad (sweet, red, green, basically whatever I have on hand) and it is always amazing.


21 Day Fix:

2 green
1 spoon

(plus measure containers for any extras like quinoa, shrimp, chicken, cheese, etc)

Dinner in Fifteen Minutes - Shrimp Quinoa Bowl with White Wine Butter Sauce

I am a big big fan of easy, especially when it comes to the kitchen. Yes I love healthy. Yes I love trying new things. BUT if there are a million steps or it takes me three hours odds are I am never going to try making it ever again. There are many other things I want to be doing (or need to be--like vacuuming.)

I have really really tried to put way more effort in when it comes to meal prep. I am at home all day with my kids so I don't need to prep the way someone who works a million hours a week needs to prep...but it never fails that when it comes to dinner time there is one disaster after another. Pretty soon we are all eating cereal or eggs (or I am frantically calling my husband telling him it's his turn to cook...which is code for pick up a pizza.) 

I have been adding in little meal prep ways here and there to make my week run more smoothly and it works. I will shout it from the rooftops that over the past two weeks making a few small changes has saved me what feels like hours in the kitchen. 

So far this is what I've done: 

1. Washed and cut fruit and veggies as soon as I get them from the store or the farm. 

2. Cooked a big batch of chicken instead of enough for one night. We have been tossing it on top of salads all week for easy lunches. 

3. Hard boiled a dozen and a half of eggs at a time. This is about what my largish sized pot holds (without having to bust out the giant soup pot that doesn't fit in the dishwasher!) We grab these all week for snacks or for a quick breakfast. 

4. Double or triple the amount of quinoa I need for a recipe. I love using this cold on my salads for extra protein (and to fill my yellow containers) but I usually have enough handy to toss into those recipes where having an already cooked grain saves loads of time. (This goes for rice or any other grain we are eating for the week.)

That's it. Four simple steps that helped me throw this together for dinner in under fifteen minutes. 

So here is what I did: 

Ingredients: 

1 16 ounce bag of frozen shrimp- thawed

1 cup of quinoa - cooked (I used truRoots Organic Quinoa )

1 bunch of asparagus (or whatever veggie you have on hand)

1 bunch of rainbow chard (or any type of green)

1 small bunch of garlic scapes - minced

3 small spring onions-minced

6 TBS dry white wine

4 TBS grass fed butter - divided**
salt and pepper to taste

Melt 1 TBS of butter in the bottom of a large pot or skillet. Add thawed shrimp, minced scapes and onion. Cook until shrimp is almost cooked through, stirring occasionally.

Add white wine, 2 TBS butter asparagus and chard stems. Cook a few more minutes.

Add cooked quinoa, stir.

Once almost all the liquid is absorbed (a minute or two) add chard leaves and last TBS of butter. Cook until slightly wilted* (about another minute.)

And dinner is done.

Yes. It was that easy and it tasted awesome.

*I prefer my greens barely cooked and a little bit crunchy. I think it helps keep them from becoming too bitter. Cook however you prefer your greens to taste.

21 Day Fix: 

I counted a cup and a half as a serving

1 yellow
1 green
1 red
3 spoons**

** I use grass fed butter once a week or so even on the Fix. You can sub with coconut oil or another healthy fat

Fixate - Another 21 Day Fix Tool for Success

One of the biggest challenges many of my clients come to me with when doing the 21 Day Fix or the Fix Extreme is recipes. And I know I have struggled with this as well. I have clocked many hours in the kitchen trying to fit my standby recipes into those Fix containers. Many times they end up being a big old failure but sometimes they totally rock. Either way it still adds up to lots of time in the kitchen. Now that I am juggling two kiddos my time to devote to such activities has been cut way
way down.

I was super pleased to wake up this morning to an announcement that will really change the game when it comes to the 21 Day Fix (and take A LOT of the work out of meal planning.) Autumn is coming out with a cookbook to work with the 21 Day Fix. She has taken 101 of her family recipes and made them container friendly. AND there are recipes in there that are vegan, vegetarian, paleo, and gluten free. 

"This book is for everybody," says Autumn. "You don't have to be graduates of 21 Day Fix or 21 Day Fix EXTREME^®. You also don't have to be a chef or great in the kitchen. It's for anyone who wants to make healthier versions of the foods they love."  In addition to all of the recipes, Autumn also included a detailed checklist for her must-have kitchen and pantry staples, as well as the basic utensils and tools that every cook needs. So if you aren't familiar with cooking at home, this is a great tool to add to your healthy eats arsenal. 

Fixate will include sections for breakfast lunch and dinner, as well as snacks, desserts and even some Shakeology recipes. For a free sneak peek at some of the recipes click here.

Can't wait to get your hands on it? Fixate is going to be available mid-July.

Can it get any better?

Of course it can! Purchase one of the following from me this month and I will send you a FREE copy of Autumn's cookbook once it is released.

• 21 Day Fix Challenge Pack
• 21 Day Fix Kickstart Challenge Pack
• 21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge Pack
• 21 Day Fix Extreme Kickstart Challenge Pack

• OR sign up as a coach with ANY challenge pack

To join my June 21 Day Fix accountability group fill out the application below. 

Preseason begins begins June 22st with our official kick off date on June 29. I will be providing accountability, meal prep tips and tricks, recipes and MY 21 Day Fix and Fix Extreme meal plans including a 7 day Countdown to Competition plan.

I am so excited to help you achieve your goals! 

Fill out my online form.

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Clean Crock Pot Pork Roast with Pineapple Slaw

I like to make a lot of barbeque stuff in my crock pot and I am always drawn to recipes that include liquid smoke as an ingredient. This is something I never really heard of so I figured I would throw it on my list and check it out in the store. When I did, I decided that it was not something I was comfortable feeding to my kiddos. It was full of corn syrup, caramel color and a bunch of other stuff I try to avoid as much as possible. I figured I would just make do without it. Because I never really used it, I never really missed it.

But lo and behold another thing I was dying to make and there it was again. Liquid smoke. Ugh. So I decided to first figure out if it was possible to get liquid smoke that wasn't just chemicals made to add smoke flavor to your food. I stumbled upon this little clip (skip ahead to 9:07 for the bit about liquid smoke) showing how Alton Brown actually made his own. So if it can be made....it can be made without chemicals and gross stuff right? In theory. So since I didn't have a smoker to collect smoke drippings from, I set out to try and find a liquid smoke that didn't make me gag reading the label. The stores here really only carried one or two options so to the internet I went. After some searching I ended up ordering some Cedarhouse liquid smoke from Amazon. It only had three ingredients: water, mesquite smoke and hickory smoke.

It turned out pretty awesome. The smokey flavor was really subtle and didn't overwhelm the flavors of the dry rub.


Here's what I did:

For the pork--

1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups stock (I used homemade chicken stock)
1/2 of my pork dry rub mix recipe (or your favorite dry rub)
Pork Roast (I used a 2 lb roast)

For the slaw--

3 cups of shredded cabbage
1 cup of broccoli slaw mix
1/2 cup of homemade mayo (or a clean mayonnaise)
1 1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar
2 cups finely chopped pineapple
salt and pepper to taste

Rub the pork roast down with the dry rub. Place in slow cooker. Add stock, vinegar and liquid smoke. Cover and let cook 8 hours on low or 4 1/2 hours on high or until pork is cooked through.

Combine cabbage,slaw mix and pineapple in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix apple cider vinegar and mayonnaise.  Add to cabbage mix until it is evenly coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served the pork alongside the slaw but it really and truly would make a really awesome sandwich.

21 Day Fix Containers used:

1 red
1 blue
1 green
1 purple

My Very Favorite Pork Rub

Before I started reading and learning about food and where it comes from, my spice cabinet was pretty basic. Salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, basil maybe some paprika or rosemary. In the summertime, maybe some cilantro. I didn't branch out too much and I rarely used enough of a spice before it was brown and sad looking in its little jar.

Since then I have discovered things like that I love turmeric, cumin and coriander and that I would much rather have fresh herbs then dried. BUT those dried herbs do have an awesome place (other than being super handy when I can't find fresh ones or am feeling too lazy to mess with chopping them.) They can all come together to make a killer dry rub.

I have typically use this dry rub on pork but have used it on everything from pork tenderloin on the grill to a pork roast in the slow cooker. It is killer and totally my favorite.


Plus if I am following the 21 Day Fix I just cut the salt way back.

Here's what I did:


1 TBS coriander
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS ground fennel
1 TBS ground mustard
1 TBS garlic powder
1 TBS dried oregano
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS salt (I use pink himalayan salt)
2 TBS paprika
1/2 TBS black pepper

Mix all spices together in a small bowl. Rub all over the meat.

This blend usually makes enough that I can halve it and store the rest in an airtight container for next time.

Being My Own Inspiration (or how I am getting my postpartum sh*t together)

Four Five Six weeks.

Of newborn stuff. Sleep deprivation. Middle of the night feedings. Night and day confusion.

Four weeks  Five weeks Six weeks of postpartum recovery.

For me that meant c-section recovery. Which was lot of sitting terrified that everything that can go wrong with my incision would. Again. Because last time that happened. All of it. I don't think I felt "normal" again for at least 3 months. So suffice to say I am babying this recovery as much as I can.

And four weeks five weeks six weeks of not really worrying (or caring) about what I was eating.

Some Easter candy here. A pizza or two there. Whatever was easy and available that was what I ate. To be totally truthful, I did balance this a little bit more than I thought I could. Shakeology is super easy so at least I was getting that in every day. AND thanks to some amazing and wonderful ladies we had some dinners dropped off too. Otherwise I am pretty sure we would have had takeout EVERY night for the last month. Because newborns are hard. And recovering from a c-section is hard too. I spent a lot of my time sitting. Not allowed to go up and down steps multiple times a day. Not getting up and down from my comfy chair too many times a day. More worried about making sure everyone was getting what they needed in terms of much more basic needs (like food, water and bathing although the bathing was sometimes overlooked) than making sure I had a very balanced, color coded happy Fix meal plan on the fridge. AND considering it has taken me an additional two weeks to even start to finish this little blog post I started, it is suffice to say that I have been more than overwhelmed.

In the last three months we bought a house, moved, had a second child, attempted to unpack and live in the new house, dealt with the stomach flu, newborn night confusion, constipation and general fussiness on top of normal crazy springtime stuff (and when your husband works in the construction industry springtime is FULL of crazy stuff. Crazy stuff we call normal.)

I am in fact sitting at my dining room table, looking at my neighbor's gorgeous flowering trees and wondering where in the world did the snow go? Because through the bleary eyes, midnight feedings and projectile vomiting springtime officially sprung. I made it through the requisite "recovery period" and am trying to come up with a plan to get myself and two small children to my 6 week postpartum appointment. While I sit in the midst of my half unpacked boxes, the weather has changed, preschool is wrapping up and I am waiting for inspiration to hit me.

Except it won't.

I know it won't. Because it didn't hit me last time.

Truthfully, I don't know that I had a good night's sleep in the first year of my daughter's life. With two I am guessing that is an ever rarer occurrence than seeing a unicorn prance down my sidewalk. Waiting for me not to be tired, to have the TIME and the ENERGY, waiting for someone else to inspire me to get my postpartum shit together is NEVER going to happen.

Because the only person who can make it happen is me.

I was trying to remember the last time I felt good. Felt great. Felt super awesome like I could do anything and I came up with two instances.

This past November between 20-25 weeks prego. Working out like crazy. Eating well. All the first
trimester yuck had been gone for long enough and the third trimester of aches and pains and nothing fits hadn't yet started. I was proud of how much I was able to do in this pregnancy compared to my first pregnancy. I had awesome energy and felt pretty damn amazing.

And

A little less than a year ago from today. The day we went outlet shopping and I bought some bright obnoxious hot pink workout pants that I absolutely loved. And I could pull them off. The day I really came to terms with accepting what non scale victories were and how important they were.

I know without a doubt I want to get back there and the only person who is going to get me there is me.

Six weeks until I know I am ready to start the well traveled road back to where I was with a little extra baggage. (Because now I have two girls and we don't pack light!) I know I will have to start slow. I know I will be frustrated because things won't move as fast as I want them to. I know I will have to keep myself from pushing through until I am really and truly recovered from this surgery.  I know that I will struggle to look at this as a recovery, doing a little more each day than jumping in headfirst.

So I am starting now. This week with a brand new 21 Day Fix approved meal plan and whatever the doctor clears me for after my appointment later this week.

And accountability is something that has to happen. So along with my super awesome, Insanity certified, now expecting and due in October sister, I am co-running a 21 Day Fix accountability group. 21 Day fix veterans, beginners, 21 Day Fix extremers or even 21 Day Fix dropouts (and we both fall into that category!)

Not only will we be there for accountability but you will have access to all of my Fix meal planning tools including my 3 weeks of meal plans and recipes.

We are kicking off on Monday May 11th!


To join us fill out the application below:

Fill out my online form.

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