Taco chicken/Quinoa Mini Meatloafs

Hi friends! I'm back today with a quick recipe. I've been dabbling in the "meal prep" club lately because it makes it much easier to pack lunches and keep me away from the Whole Foods hot/cold bar. It's healthier and more cost effective, so win-win! On Sunday night, I posted a quick snap of my mini taco meatloafs and received a few texts offline asking for the recipe so I'm bringing it to you today! Be warned, the photos aren't pretty because I wasn't sure that I'd post it. I'm glad I took a few though because they honestly came out SO GOOD and are super-duper healthy.

These mini meatloafs were inspired by two meals I've been making often lately. SarahFit recently posted about buffalo chicken meatloafs that I've now made  twice. They are so good and a great lunch option. The other meal I've made consistently is the "Protein Stuffed Peppers". That recipe calls for mixing ground chicken and quinoa together. I like this idea because it bulks up the recipe a bit to make more mini loafs. It also adds more protein, fiber, Iron, and Magnesium with the quinoa.

So, let's get to it, shall we?

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Taco Quinoa/Chicken Mini Meatloafs
Makes 12 mini meatloafs (6 servings)

Need:
- 1Lb of organic ground chicken or turkey
- 1/2 cup of dry quinoa
- Half pint of cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion
- Packet of taco seasoning
- 1 egg + 1 egg white
- 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs
 

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Chop up the red onion and organic cherry tomatoes then set aside.

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Cook up both the ground chicken/onion and the quinoa, separately. Then, add the tomatoes, taco seasoning, and cooked quinoa to the meat mixture. Mix, set aside, and let cool (I put it in the fridge for a little bit).

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Once it's cooled a bit, add the egg, bread crumbs, and tomatoes and mix evenly. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Set aside and let cool!

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For this week, I also washed, dried, and cut up two heads of romaine lettuce to have in a bag for salads during the week.

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Here's how I ate my muffins on Monday... Romaine, squeeze of lime, two loafs (re-heated) and topped on salad. 

Delish and so easy! Enjoy!

xo

15 Minute Meals: Buffalo Chickpea Roll-Ups

Happy Friday! No Friday Favs today but, I have a recipe. That cool? I'm back with another edition of "15 Minute Meals". What I like about this one in particular is it's perfect for when there's nothing in the kitchen besides a can of chickpeas and some veggies. Also, this one will make my vegetarian friends happy! 

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First, rinse a can of chickpeas, throw them on a sheet pan with evoo and salt and put in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes (you could cook them longer for crispier chickpeas). While they cook - chop veggies. Last week, I went with red pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, and iceberg lettuce.

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Toss a couple of corn tortillas on the stove to heat them up. If you want a little cheese... add it right on top to get it melty. We had some extra sharp pepperjack lying around from the weekend. It just made sense to add it, amiright? 

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Toss the toasted chickpeas in buffalo sauce. Then, mix all of the ingredients togther (and some feta) and place on the heated tortillas. A convenient tip: use iceberg lettuce and cut into cups so that all of the ingreients stay together. Or, you could simply do lettuce wraps instead of roll-ups. My recipes are flexible, you know?

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That's about it! Easy, tasty, and healthy. Have THE BEST weekend! xo

Meals of the Week Part 2: Pesto/Avo/Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Continuing meals of the week, I put together another recipe tonight that contains this week's staples: pesto & chickpeas.  Lettuce wraps always feel a little more substantial than a salad, maybe because you can eat them with your hands...?

Anyway, between the lettuce wraps I made tonight and the two dishes I've already shared - I hope you find some inspiration for your next pesto meal or can of chickpeas! 

Need:

- 1/2 Avocado

- Chicken tenderloins (At the beginning of the week, I marinate chicken in extra virgin o/o, lemon juice, salt, garlic, crushed red pepper, & rosemary from my garden) 

- Tomatoes (used twice this week)

- Toasted Chickpeas (used in all 3 meals this week)

- Pesto (used in all 3 meals this week)

- Feta (used twice this week) 

- Large lettuce leafs (I used romaine from my deck garden) Bibb lettuce and Romaine are also good options

Start arranging! Avocado, Feta, Tomatoes.

Grill up the chicken & toast the chickpeas. I have some extra chicken that I can bring to work tomorrow for lunch!

Dollop with pesto. Shred the chicken with a fork and knife. Dollop with pesto again. Done!

These were really yummy! Each meal I had this week was completely different so I never got sick of eating pesto or chickpeas. Here are the health stats: Protein from the chicken & chickpeas, omega's, fiber, potassium, & the B vitamins from the avocado, lycopene & vitamin c from tomatoes, fiber & too many vitamins to name from the romaine. 

If you want to see a 15 second video on how to make this - I shared it to my instagram account... here. Check it out. 

And hey,  it's almost Thursday! Have a great day!  xo