Protein Bites

My version of a treat when I am craving chocolate.  This helps keep my hand out of the chocolate chip bag. 

  
4 scoops of chocolate protein powder (I use Orgain from Costco)
2 tbsp Honey
1/2 cup Sunflower Seed butter or almond butter or even peanut butter
1/2 cups Oats
1/2 cup  Coconut flakes
1/2 cup Milk (can use Almond milk)
1/4 to 1/2 cup Chocolate chips

Mix into balls and refrigerate.  Eat when you crave chocolate.

Kabobs

This is one of our favorite recipes!!!  We got this from the Crawford's during optometry school. 

Kabob Marinade
 1 1/2 cups  Oil
1/4 cup   Worcestershire sauce
2 1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp  Pepper
1 garlic clove crushed
3/4 cup  Soy Sauce
2 tbsp  Dry Mustard
1 1/2 tsp  parsley
1/2 cup  lemon juice
1/2 cup  white wine vinegar

Kabobs
Pearl Onions
Peppers
Pineapple Chunks
Beef - stew meat cubed works well
Chicken cubed

Mix marinade.  Prep all the veggies and meat.  Put the meats in one container and the veggies in another. You don't want to get the raw meat with the veggies.  Put marinade over each container.  Refrigerate over night.  We have found that the pineapple will take on the marinade flavor so strongly that it's to much so don't marinade the pineapple.
 When we grill these we don't alternate the meat and veggies on the skewer anymore.   This is because they all cook at such different times. Fill a skewer with just chicken or just onions or just pineapple.   To serve, just slid everything off the skewer into a pretty dish and serve it all together.

The marinade on the veggies I will save.  Dump it into a ziplock bag and freeze it.  We'll use it again one more time.   We throw out the meat marinade. 

Chia Seed Pudding

I LOVE Mama Chia.  I can't seem to keep them stocked in the pantry.  Turns out my kids love them too.

I have been making this every single day.  We eat them as a meal or I will drink half of it to stop myself from eating M&M's and popcorn with the kids.   Take it with you in the car so when you're hungry you'll stop yourself from going to the drive-in for a quick pop, cookie, or burger. 

 It makes you stay full for a long time.  Why would it make you stay full, well, it's because it has a fiber, healthy fat, veggies, and protein.

Chia Seed Pudding

1 cup of Water
2 Tablespoons of Chia Seeds
2 Teaspoons of MCT Oil
1 scoop of your favorite Protien Powder, I have been using Shakeology

Mix everything together, let sit for an hour.  That's it!  I put everything into a shaker cup, shake, and put it in the fridge.  One hour later it's ready to go.

Egg Rolls

This recipe is from my Friend Erin.  She is an amazing cook who I have always aspired to be like.  I have a little red recipe book she made called, Holiday Baking.  It makes me happy just looking at it. 

These egg rolls felt time consuming the first time I made them.  But now I feel like it goes so quickly and I LOVE cooking up a double batch and freezing them for my kids lunches.  When my children were toddlers they would not eat chicken nuggets but they LOVED egg rolls from Jack-in-the-box.  How did we ever figure that out????   It is a because they loved this recipe so we thought why not try em.  Nothing beats a homemade egg roll.

Egg Rolls
16-20 egg rolls

½ lb ground pork

½ tsp salt

1 tsp corn starch

4 cups of shredded Chinese cabbage  (I buy the bag of angel hair cabbage)

½ cup chopped mushrooms (canned or fresh mushrooms work)

½ cup chopped green onions

½ cup chopped onion

1 tsp salt

½ tsp accent

1 Tbsp Sugar

¼ tsp pepper

16-20 egg roll wrappers

Combine and cook pork, salt, and corn starch.  Cool

Combine cabbage, mushrooms, and both types of onions.  Blanch in boiling water for 1 minute.  Immediately plunge into cold water.  Mix all ingredients together, added seasonings.  Toss to mix well.

Moisten edges of wrappers with paste mixture of 2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons of water.  I often get lazy and just use water.  Most wrappers will stick together with just water.  The package the wrappers come in will tell you.  Place 1/3 of mixture into center of wrapper and fold edges in, sealing well.  You can double wrap if they see fragile or thin.  The wrappers I usually buy are not that thin.

Carefully place each egg roll into hot oil and cook for about 4 minutes, turning halfway through.  They may stick to the bottom, so use care when turning and removing from oil. 

Place them on a paper towel to drain the oil off. 

To keep them warm place in a warm oven while you finish cooking them.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes and eat.

To freeze, place them on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer.  Once they are frozen  put them in a Ziploc bag.  The kids wrap them in a paper towel and microwave for 1 minute to warm them for lunch.