Skinnylicious Lasagna Roll Ups

Oh hey everyone! Don't worry I didn't forget about you! There has been SO MUCH going on. All good things, of course. I have an exciting announcement (not food or blog related) that I will be able to share tomorrow! As most of you know, I have been busy planning a wedding and training to be a future house betch. In addition to planning a wedding I thought it would be a fantastical idea to get certified to be a personal trainer. I'm really enjoying it, but JEEZ it is a lot of work. But like I said, this is all part of my plan to not only be a House Betch, but to be a SUCCESSFUL BALLER House Betch.

Anyway, I've been trying to eat healthy since I am at the less than two month countdown for the wedding and I had my dress fitting a couple of weeks ago. So to help curb my crazy cravings of chiptole or anything else unnecessary during lunch, I made a yummy vegetarian dish. I came up with a super original name...Skinnylicious Lasagna Roll Ups. I'm amazing. I know. Please everyone, hold your applause. Here goes the recipe!

Skinnylicious Lasgna Roll Ups

What you will need:
8-10 Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
10 oz (or whatever size) bag of Frozen Spinach (thawed)
15 oz part-skin ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
24 oz jar of Italian Pasta sauce
1/2 cup low moisture, part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While that is preheating begin boiling a pot of water for your lasagna noodles. I recommend using a larger pot since they are long. 
2. Begin defrosting your Spinach, or if you are a proactive patty take it out earlier in the day and let it defrost in the sink. After the spinach is defrosted, use a strainer to get rid of all the excess water and place into a medium sized bowl
3. Once the water is boiling, cook your lasagna noodles until they are al dente. I recommend putting them in 3 at a time because as I said they are long and thick so they don't soften as easy as regular noodles. I would keep them in boiling water for about 12 minutes. You want them to be al dente, not soggy.
4. After the lasagna noodles are cooked, lay them on wax paper and carefully pat them dry.
5.  Moving back to the spinach in the medium sized bowl, add your ricotta, Parmesan cheese, egg, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Mix well until everything is combined!
6. In a 10 x 7 inch baking dish, pour in half of your pasta sauce to coat the bottom.
7. Returning back to the lasagna noodles, I recommend keeping a paper towel handy as this can get messy. Spread about 1/4 a cup of the spinach mixture evenly over each noodle. CAREFULLY roll the noodles and place them seam side down in the baking dish.
8. Repeat step 7 until you run out of mixture or noodles. 
9. Once all of the noodles are rolled up, pour the remaining sauce over the noodles. The sauce helps to keep the noodles hydrated during the baking process. Top each roll up with a pinch of Mozzarella cheese.
10. Cover the top of the baking dish with foil and back for 40 minutes.

Serve right away or put in the refrigerator for a yummy lunch throughout the week! 

Also, for all of you calorie counters out there, each roll up comes out to approx 200 calories. And coming from a girl with a bottomless pit for a stomach, one roll for lunch will leave you very satisfied! Not full but definitely not hungry!

Healthy Chicken Salad

Yes, you read that right. HEALTHY. CHICKEN. SALAD. I know what you are thinking, "I can't eat chicken salad without the globs of mayo appearing on my ass and thighs." Well unfortunately, with this chicken salad, I can't make any promises, but it's mayo-less, so that is a start.

As I'm sure you are well aware, we are all going through this crazy flu season right now. But not this girl. Thank goodness corporate america gives us those free flu vaccines in the fall so we don't get sick and ever miss work. *remind me to make out with a flu infested person so I can have an excuse to lay in bed and binge watch the walking dead.* But really, do you ever think about it? The fact your company gives you those free flu shots is so you don't get sick and miss work. What if I'm trying to get a little under the weather and snuggle with my dogs all day? But truthfully, I am very thankful, because I don't want that! Maybe just a stomach virus so I can get to my goal weight for the wedding. JK...kinda. But anyway, back to the purpose of this post, before my internal dialogue went all nuts...With it being flu season and unbearably cold, now is a great time to make soup! Specifically chicken soup. Do you know what the best part of chicken soup is? THE SOUP CHICKEN! I know, everyone, please contain your excitement. There is SO much you can do with soup chicken.

In comes the next character I'd like to introduce you to in my life story, he is pretty important and sexy, my future hubby, Scott. We will refer to him as Mr. Wonderful (he picked his own nickname). I would have preferred Chicken Man, but whatever. (here is a picture of my chicken man, I mean, Mr. Wonderful)

He was annoyed because I kept making him pose to take pictures while he was sleeping. GOSH I'M SO ANNOYING!

RELATIONSHIP ADVICE #1: Pick and choose your battles.

Mr. Wonderful has this amazing recipe for chicken soup, but sadly, he isn't ready to reveal his genius to you yet as he is still fine tuning. I told him I expect nothing but perfection for this House Betch In Training Blog so I have him locked in the basement perfecting the recipe. Just kidding. Not really. Or am I??? ANYWHO, last week we had chicken soup for dinner and I decided I wanted to make chicken salad with the left over soup chicken that wasn't being used to go in the soup. Here goes:

Shopping List:
Non-fat plain Greek Yogurt (whatever brand you want)
Apple - green or red
Grapes
Slivered Almonds
Salt and Pepper
Rye Bread - if you want to make a sammy

Directions:
I basically eye ball this recipe and leave this up to your own discretion.  It all depends on how you like your chicken salad.

1. Take your shredded chicken and put it in a mixing bowl (however much you want to eat) I use about a handful, plus a little more because I have infant hands.
2. Using a big spoon, spoon out some of the greek yogurt into the mixing bowl with the chicken. Mix it around until the chicken is coated. Keep adding more chicken or more greek yogurt depending on how you like your chicken salad.
3. Slice up some apple slivers into smaller chopped pieces and cut your grapes in half. Again, use your judgement of however much you want to use. I use my apple slicer and end up using about 1 1/2 spears and about a handful of grapes.
4. After you have chopped your apple and cut your grapes in half, combine it with the chicken and yogurt mixture. Make sure everything is evenly coated.
5. Add some slivered almonds to your liking.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Mix it all together! and BABAM! CHICKEN SALAD!

Really simple! I also recommend making this ahead of time and letting it sit in the refrigerator for some time to soak up all the yummy ingredients. Toast some rye bread, put it in a whole wheat wrap, or just eat it with a fork! ENJOY your non-cellulite inducing chicken salad!

Vitamix = LIFE

Hello to all my party people. I am about to whisper the secret of house betch success in your ear. Are you ready for it???

GET A VITAMIX

GET A VITAMIX

GET A VITAMIX

GET A VITAMIX

You will be thanking your betchy gods, me, for telling you this now. Your life will never be the same. You will be able to blend soups, smoothies, sauces, (I'm running out of "S" words) hummus, ANYTHING! You can even pulse your ground beef for all I care. Your life will be changed.

Now for all of you that don't know, I'm getting married in April - GAHHHHHH! So excited! And if you don't know, now you know. If there are any brides out there, or grooms, you MUST and I mean MUST put this on your registry. Like if you are reading this and are at this point of the post and haven't logged into your Bed Bath and Beyond or Williams Sonoma registry yet, you are truly missing out. SO DO IT! Here, I'll make it easy, here are the sites:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/page/Registry

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/pages/registry-landing-page.html?cm_type=gnav

If you want my honest opinion, you should really get it from BBB. They always have coupons, deals, and as I mentioned in a post before, take back ANYTHING. Even without the box. So if it breaks or you just want to upgrade, you can take it back there! You can also register yours online and I believe it is covered for life. Like FOR-EV-ERRRR.

Whenever I have the time and feel like going to work and putting on pants and I'm not eating Muesili for breakfast, I mix up a green smoothie. Check out Pinterest. Specifically, my board that has anything and everything you need for a Vitamix original green smoothie: http://www.pinterest.com/lindsaysgordon/vitamixin/

To build off of my greek feast post yesterday, here is a recipe for some homemade Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.

Shopping List:

2 cloves of garlic

1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans aka chickpeas, drained

1/3 cup of tahini (this can be found in the Mediterranean aisle)

1/3 cup of lemon juice

1/2 cup of roasted red peppers

1/4 tsp dried basil

taste it and add some salt as you wish

In your vitamix, combine your garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini and lemon juice. Process this until the mixture is smooth. Then add in your roasted red pepper, basil, and salt (as needed). Process this until the peppers are finely chopped and you will get a nice light red color. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer your hummus to a small bowl and chill until you are ready to use.

I served mine with Naan, whole wheat pita and veggies!

Enjoy this easy recipe! And most importantly, GO OUT AND BY THAT VITAMIX, NOW, BETCH!

Hot Muesli with Sliced Bananas

Hot Muesli with Sliced Bananas

Do you ever go to sleep at night thinking tomorrow is the day I will wake up early to go to the gym and leave enough time to come home and make a healthy breakfast before I go to work? That is me basically every night, and ya know what happens? The second my alarm goes off, I can't hit snooze fast enough. So rather than the scene of me padding around my kitchen making a yummy healthy breakfast in my work out clothes, in reality is me running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find my pants...I hate pants. One day, when I become a full time house betch, I plan on outlawing them. On day's like this, my breakfast normally consists of a banana or a peice of cheese. Did I ever mention to you that I LOVE CHEESE??

But, one day, everything changed when I discovered muesli. For those that don't know what muesli is, it's basically oatmeal, but in my opinion better for you. It is loaded with whole grains, seeds, raisins and slivered almonds. Here is a picture of the label from the brand that I buy:

For 1/4 a cup: 110 calories, 21g of Carbs (carbs are your friend! Stop dissing them! 4g of Fiber)

So now instead of my unhealthy and unbalanced breakfast, I make muesli every morning. The fiber in this also works wonders...if ya know what I mean!

This stuff is good whether you are eating it cold or hot. It's a pretty complicated recipe so hold on betches, here it comes:

1. 1/2 cup muesli
2. 1/2 cup milk (if you are eating it cold) or 1/2 cup of water (if you are eating it hot - or you can use milk for this)
3. Put it in the microwave for 4 minutes - stir after 2 minutes
4. Take out of the microwave and top with berries or nanners
• For a little extra POW add some ground cinnamon 
5. Thank this house betch in training for your new favorite breakfast

See! I told you that was pretty complicated! If I'm on the run, which is everyday, I just put it in a to-go cup with a plastic spoon and eat while I'm driving (I'm so talented). If you are eating it cold, which is what I do most mornings, just add milk and skip the microwave part...DUH!

Here is mine from this morning - I'm off today so I took advantage of making the presentation look a little better than being thrown in a plastic to-go cup.

Let me know what you betches think?!