Meal Prep: Salmon Salad

The cold weather can stop any time. I am not one to generally complain but this cold weather has been really really cold. Props to anyone from Boston or Maine I would have fled for California a long time ago. I tolerate snow but when its frigidly cold out not even my lupus medicine can stop the aching in my hands. Which is precisely why I plan on moving somewhere warm someday. 

I have been doing a decent amount of cooking and meal prepping recently. With a zillion things going on at the same time it can make healthy eating hard. Meal prep makes it a lot easier. Over the weekend I baked a few salmon fillets to have throughout the week. I have been loving having salmon in my salads recently. Not only does it pack a protein punch it also contains omega-3's which are great for your brain. 

This salad is my go to and definitely one of my favorites. All it is is 2 cups organic spring mix lettuce, a few slices of roma tomato, 2 red onion slices- separated, 1 4oz salmon fillet baked and seasoned with lemon and herb season and fish seasoning and topped with 1 tablespoon of feta cheese. Sometimes I will throw sliced almonds or walnuts in and dried cranberries are really good too. 

To keep the salad part from getting soggy I keep the prepared salmon in one container and the prepped salads in different containers. In the morning before I head out the door or if I am home for lunch I just take one salmon fillet chop it up, usually heat it up (if I can) and then throw it in the salad container. Add an apple or greek yogurt and you have a great healthy lunch that will prevent the 2pm crash! 

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

Happy Crockpot Monday once again! This freezing cold weather is way too cold for my liking, but it makes good crockpot weather. On the bright side of all this arctic weather is that once spring finally comes it will look like we all lost 40 pounds because we ditched all the layers! But really spring any time you want to show up would be great and the sooner the better!

I had a hankering for spaghetti last week so this week I made it in the crockpot. I know, I know crockpot spaghetti sounds weird and you'll probably think I am crazy by the end of this, but that is ok because it is yummy! I don't eat beef so I made it with ground chicken, you can definitely use ground beef or ground turkey, and since noodles are not an option I served it over spiralized zucchini noodles. For leftovers I cooked up spaghetti squash to have with it. 

This is not as thick as a traditional spaghetti sauce- I'm not a giant fan of super thick sauce. It's a super easy meal that is great for busy week nights and it's healthy! 

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

• 1 lb ground chicken 
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 28 oz organic petite diced tomatoes
• 6 oz organic no salt added tomato paste
• 1.5 teaspoon minced garlic, or more to taste
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
• pepper to taste
• dried basil to taste

Place all ingredients in the crockpot. It does not what order they go in or how you layer them.

Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Stir everything in the crockpot very well before serving. Serve over noodles of choice- I served mine over zucchini noodles and topped it with parmesan cheese. 

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Nutrition per serving (serves 6, 1 serving= 1 cup):
MACROS: 13C/6F/18P

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 178
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 6 g	9 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	7 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 57 mg	19 %
Sodium 216 mg	9 %
Potassium 167 mg	5 %
Total Carbohydrate 13 g	4 %
Dietary Fiber 2 g	9 %
Sugars 4 g
Protein 18 g	37 %
Vitamin A	18 %
Vitamin C	18 %
Calcium	4 %
Iron	12 %

Apple Chip Salad

When did my life get so crazy? I feel like face planting into my bed and staying there for the next week or so. I am slightly OCD and normally everything in the apartment is very neat and organized. Right now it looks like a bomb exploded. I'm half tempted to tell the landlord to bring in a bulldozer when I am at class, except I don't think the neighbors would appreciate that. 

There are piles of textbooks, notebooks, papers and lists everywhere. The apartment seriously needs a good scrubbing, but life has been so crazy I just haven't had time. Not to mention the back log of posts I have is rather extensive. The ability to pause time would be seriously amazing right now. I'll get off my soapbox now though.

Awhile back I shared a recipe for one of my favorite snacks, cinnamon apple chips. Apple chips are a good anytime snack in my opinion, but I love using them as salad toppers. Confession: the last batch of apple chips I made lasted less than 3 hours. Whoops. In that three hours this salad was made and quickly devoured. 

The salad is made of 2 cups organic baby lettuce, 1/2 vine ripe tomato cut into chunks, 1/8 cup avocado chunks, 1 hard boiled egg, 1/2 tablespoon crumbled feta cheese, 1/2 tablespoon organic dried cranberries, heaping 1/2 tablespoon coarsely chopped walnuts and 3 cinnamon apple chips. There may have been four, but in the process of assembling the salad one (or ten) may have been eaten... 

I do not like salad dressing so I did not use any. The natural sweetness of the apple chips was enough for me and I thought was a perfect addition to the salad. I am all stocked up on apples and will be making more apple chips this weekend!