Grilled Chicken Fajitas

I love to grill out and I love Mexican food, put them together and that's my happy place. Grilling out is one of the best ways to add awesome flavor to your food without adding any calories.

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:

• 3-6 {organic} chicken breast
• 1 Tbps extra virgin olive oil
• 3 Tbps water
• juice of one lime
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1)  Place chicken breast in a bowl that has a lid (or you could use plastic wrap)

2)  Mix all other ingredients together and pour over chicken breast, making sure to coat all sides of the chicken.

3) Marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour. 

4) Grill.

NOTE: Feel free to add a little more olive oil or water to make more marinating mixture.  Also, I make the same marinate on the peppers. I use orange, red, yellow, green peppers, and sweet onions. I put them in a separate container and marinate for a hour as well(or longer).
I love having extra peppers and onions leftovers so I can eat them as snack or part of my lunch the next day.

{clean} mixed nuts

My husband used to love Monster Mix. The salty nut mix with candy coated chocolates and raisins. He probably still would enjoy eating it but this {clean} mix satisfies him just the same and is MUCH better for us.

This can be altered to whichever nuts you love. I do encourage you to be open minded to all nuts. Prior to eating clean I didn't care for pecans or walnuts and now I love them both. If you haven't had a pistachio I highly recommend it as it's my favorite nut right now! YUM!

The first important thing to think about when making your own raw nut mix is the amount of sodium. Many, many nuts are LOADED with sodium. It's best you use VERY little sodium to make it a truly healthy {clean} snack.  Make sure you read labels. Pick nuts with NO added oils in them. Raw peanuts should read in the ingredients: PEANUTS. I use ONE type of nut with a little salt. For this mix I decided to use roasted (50% less salt) almonds. Roasted does strip the nut of some of it's nutritional value but since it's a small amount I went with it this time. 

Next up, the sweets...I use {all natural 60% or greater} dark chocolate chips and raisins. The raisins I use are AWESOME! I am so glad I talk to complete strangers at Trader Joe's because this is how I found out about these little nuggets of sweetness.  The woman that recommended them was from out of town and stocking up on them like her life depended on them. Ok, maybe just her life for a month or so. They are called TJ Jumbo Raisin Medley.

There are MANY benefits to eating raw nuts. The RAW types can help lower cholesterol and lower high blood pressure. If you are trying to tell yourself that the same is true for salted and sweetened nuts you are sadly misleading yourself from the whole truth. Many nuts are high in Omega 3 fatty acids which helps protect your heart among other things. ALL nuts contain fiber which aids in digestion and protein that helps you feeling fuller longer. 

Please don't let the fact that nuts are high in fat steer you away from this healthy crunchy snack. Trust my results that eating a healthy, full {good} fat lifestyle pays with positive rewarding results. There are also studies that show that going "nuts" for nuts can help with weight loss! 

{clean} mixed nuts

Here's what's in the recipe in the picture...

Ingredients:

Approx 16 oz of all nuts listed. You want a lot more nuts than sweets.

• raw walnuts
• raw pecans
• raw peanuts
• raw sunflower seeds
• raw pistachios
• roasted {50% less sodium} almonds
• approx half a bag of {all natural 60% or greater} dark chocolate chips
• approx half a bag of TJ jumbo raisin medley

Dump all ingredients into a large airtight container, shake and you are ready to go.  I measure out 1/2 cup servings in a bowl at home OR in plastic container for on the go. Even my daughter enjoys this mix but she isn't a huge fan of walnuts and pecans....YET :)

UPDATE 2013: I now leave out the raisins in my mix.

{marinated} Grilled Peppers and Onions

I love grilling out! It makes me (and my taste buds) happy!

This recipe is super simple and something I make often. It's packed full of flavor and has hardly any fat! I love this for leftover lunches or snack time too!

{marinated} Grilled Peppers & Onions

Ingredients:

• 2-3 peppers (red, yellow, orange, or green), chopped in large bite size pieces
• 1 sweet onion, chopped in large bite size pieces
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2-3 Tbps water
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (I got mine at Kroger)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• juice of half a lime
• pinch of sea salt

Directions:

1) Add peppers and onions to bowl (with lid)

2) Mix all other ingredients in a small bowl, stir to combine.

3) Pour mixture over veggies and toss. (or put on lid and shake)

4) Marinate for at least a hour.

5) Add to grill pan and grill on outdoor grill until tender.

{Wanna Be} Spaghetti

My family loves spaghetti. I, on the other hand, don't LOVE it. With swimsuit season right around the corner I am always looking for ways to eat more fruits and veggies and less processed carbohydrates. It's not the pasta that makes us fat, it's the improper portion control that really jeopardizes our diet. 

I was running short on time lacked the motivation to cook a {clean} meal so I decided to grab a jar of the {all natural} spaghetti sauce that I have on hand in my pantry and box of spaghetti and a meal was born.  So simple! I wish it were that simple in my brain but I really didn't want the pasta. So, I made a trip to the store for a spaghetti squash to have in place of the pasta everyone else would have and the recipe started to unfold.

With that said, there are no measurements in this recipe as I was just adding stuff I needed to use up from the fridge/pantry.

{Wanna Be} Spaghetti

Ingredients:

• spaghetti squash, roasted
• {all natural} marinara sauce
• garlic cloves, minced
• approx 1 tsp olive oil
• fresh spinach, chopped
• fresh basil, chopped
• fresh Parmesan/Romano cheese (small amount)
• pinch sea salt

Directions:

1) Add olive oil to pan with garlic, spinach, basil and saute until wilted. 

2) Add in cooked spaghetti squash and sauce, stir.

3) Add a small amount of cheese and salt, stir.

NOTE: For this I used the Parmesan/Romano cheese blend from TJ. Fill free to add {no salt added} diced tomatoes or fresh tomatoes too. The sauce I used had chunks of tomato in it. I also added this mixture to my husband's spaghetti and it he really liked it. It added a lot more nutrition to the meal. I felt completely satisfied and had no pasta. Next time I will puree some of it into the sauce for the kids.

Verde Pulled Pork Tacos

Here's a simple crock pot meal for you Mexican food lovers out there! This one is super simple to make and will fill your house with the smell of awesomeness! 

Many of my recipes are made mild so my kids will at least attempt to like them.  This was a win for my daughter but, I have a long way to go to win my 3 year old with just about anything with true flavor. His taste buds are currently set to BLAND!

Verde Pulled Pork Tacos

Ingredients:

• pork tenderloin {lean}
• 1 jar {all natural} verde salsa
• 1 sweet onion, sliced
• 4-8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbps cumin
• guacamole 
• lettuce
• tomatoes, diced
• tortillas

Directions:

1) Add all ingredients to a crock pot/slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours. Or on high for approximately 5 hours or until the meat is tender.

2) Shredded pork with fork.

3) Take tortilla and add guacamole, pork, lettuce, and tomatoes, fold & gobble up!

NOTE:  I LOVE prepackaged guacamole. It saves me a lot of time! My favorite is the Trader Joe's brand. For those you that don't have a TJ near you try the Wholly Guacamole brand. By all means make your own if you have the time. 

I used San Antonio Farms Verde Salsa from Costco for this recipe. Make sure you READ LABELS because not all salsa is {clean}.

I also tried the refrigerated tortillas from Costco, but I can't remember the brand. They were 140 calories per tortilla which is rather high but they were WORTH IT! They come uncooked and you cook them for about 60 seconds in a skillet. YUM!  Since I limit my bread intake most days I don't mind splurging for a good tasting white tortilla for this recipe. I will have to update on the ingredients later since I am blogging about this after the fact. But there were less than 4 ingredients in them. This would be where portion control is key!

If you want this recipe spicy I suggest adding fresh jalapenos, red pepper flakes. or chipotle chili pepper powder to give it a "kick". We always have {all natural} pepper sauce on hand as well. Currently, we have the Chili Pepper sauce from TJ, but I LOVE the Tabasco's chipotle sauce.