21 Day Fix Easy Buffalo Chicken Pockets

I did a little creating in the kitchen today while I was home with a sick boy!  Fraser has had an annoying cough for the last few days but last night he slept terribly and the cough kept him from napping this afternoon too.  Sooo..... bedtime is either going to be a breeze or a nightmare!!!  Eeks!  

It's been an exhausting day but I had Buffalo chicken prepped and in the fridge, which I make in the crock pot and shredded in the stand mixer earlier this week, so I decided to use some of it up and change up my lunch for today since I was home.  

I had planned to have a Chicken Parmesan Pocket today but instead I threw together this delicious Buffalo Chicken pocket with ranch dip!  I feel like ranch should always go with buffalo sauce so I used my Homemade Ranch Dressing Spice mixture with a little greek yogurt to make a dipping sauce for it. 

The goat cheese crumbles in the wrap made it so creamy and delicious and the ranch dip made the whole thing really come together!  I'm in love!!!  

This might be my new favourite lunch for work!!  These little pockets are super easy to make and then take to the office and reheat at lunch time. 

21 Day Fix Easy Buffalo Chicken Pockets

Yield: Four wraps
Container Counts:  (1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue)

Ingredients

3 cups roughly shredded, cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 Cup Franks Buffalo Sauce
4 Whole wheat tortilla wraps
1 cup Goat Cheese Crumbles
1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt 
1 Tbsp Ranch Dressing Spice Mix 

Directions

Place shredded chicken in a medium bowl. Add Buffalo sauce and stir to combine. 

Lay 1 Tortilla wrap on work surface, and sprinkle ¼ cup (1 blue container) of goat cheese down the center, leaving a large border all around the cheese. Spread ¼ of the chicken mixture (1 red container) on top of the goat cheese. Drizzle a small amount of buffalo sauce on top if desired. 

Fold short ends of wrap inward toward middle, and then fold long sides of wrap inward toward middle, making a closed wrap.

Repeat with the remaining 3 wraps, dividing the remaining goat cheese cheese and the remaining buffalo chicken mixture evenly among them.

Preheat a dry nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once preheated, add the wraps and cook on the first side until golden brown, about 1 ½ - 2 minutes. Flip wraps and cook on second side until golden, about another 1½ minutes.

While wraps are cooking combine greek yogurt and Ranch Dressing Spice Mix  together.  Serve wraps with Ranch Dressing Dip for dipping.  Enjoy!

February 20th 21 Day Fix Meal Plan for 1200-1499 Calorie Range

We are getting into a good routine now where our meal planning just seems to be the norm on Sunday morning and doesn't take nearly as much thought or effort.  This morning I made a Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal for our week day breakfasts and a batch of banana chocolate chips for the boys breakfasts during the week too. 

Later in the day, after grocery shopping, I prepped the chicken to shred for the week and cut up the rest for other dinners we have planned during the week to make it easy. 

Meal planning literally makes it so that we are able to get it ALL done in the week.  With Taekwondo, kickboxing, working out, packing lunches, reading homework, and running a business in the evenings it gets pretty rushed around here, so it really helps to know exactly what we are cooking and just get to it. 

I've decided to take a step back from my kickboxing classes to take the pressure off myself from going 2-3 times a week to going 1-2 times.  While I love it and have fun when I go, my team is growing and I need more time in the evenings to be able to support them too and that's the priority at this time. 

We have some pretty big and exciting goals for my team this and I've gotta learn that it's ok to say no to some things at certain times in life.  I take so much joy in helping other moms like me change their lives both physically and financially and that part of my job is SO rewarding. 

I don't know about you but I tend to say YES to everyone and everything even when I know I just don't have the time.  When we started kickboxing and TKD I said I probably wont have the time but my need to keep up and get my belts has kept me going consistently and I do enjoy the classes.  BUT I always do my home workouts on top of those classes each week so cutting out that extra little bit of time in the week will free up some time for me in the evenings just like cutting back on TV time or scrolling facebook made a huge difference for me when I first started my business.  I always thought I was so busy but then I realized how much time I spend watching TV in the evenings after the kids were in bed.  It's funny how habits are what we do on auto pilot but when we live with more intention each day we can become our best selves. 

Well anyways here is our meal plan for this week for you in case you are in need of some inspiration or motivation to eat a little cleaner this week!  I hope you have a stress free and productive week ahead!

21 Day Fix Meal Plan for 1200- 1499 Calorie Range

Monday

Breakfast: Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal and Greek Yogurt (1 Yellow, 1 red)

Snack: Café Latte Shakeology (1 Red)

Lunch: Greek salad with Greek chicken (2 Green 1 red)

Snack: 1/2 Banana (1 Purple)

Dinner: Chicken Parmesan Pocket (1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue and 1/2 green)

Snack: Apple and Peanut Butter (1 Purple 2 Spoons)

Tuesday

Breakfast:  Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal and Greek Yogurt (1 Yellow, 1 red)

Snack: Tropical Strawberry Shakeology with 1/2 Banana (1 Red, 1 Purple)

Lunch: Chicken Parmesan Pocket (1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue and 1/2 green)

Snack: Veggies and homemade ranch dip (1 Green ¼ red)

Dinner: Cheddar Broccoli Stuffed Chicken (1 Red, 1 Green, 1 Blue)

Snack: Apple slices and peanut butter (1 Purple 2 tsp)

Wednesday

Breakfast:  Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal and Greek Yogurt (1 Yellow, 1 red)

Snack: Tropical Strawberry Shakeology with 1/2 Banana (1 Red, 1 Purple)

Lunch: Greek salad with Greek chicken (2 Green 1 red)

Snack: Sliced peppers (1 Green)

Dinner: Chicken Fried Rice  (1 Red, 1 green, 1 yellow)Snack: Apple Slices and Peanut Butter (1 Purple 2 tsp)

Thursday

Breakfast:  Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal and Greek Yogurt (1 Yellow, 1 red)

Snack: Chocolate Shakeology with 1/2 Banana (1 Red, 1 Purple)

Lunch: Chicken Fried Rice (left overs) (1 Red, 1 green, 1 yellow)

Snack: Sliced cucumber and cherry tomatoes (1 Green)

Dinner: Taco Salad (2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue)
Snack:  Apple Slices and Peanut Butter (1 Purple 2 tsp)

Friday

Breakfast: Over night oats (1 Yellow)

Snack: Café Latte Shakeology (1 Red)

Lunch: Taco Salad (1 Red, 2 Green)

Snack: Banana (2 Purple)

Dinner: Homemade Pizza (1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Red)
Snack: Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt (1 Red, 2 tsp)

Sunday Prep

Prepare Shredded Chicken

Make Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal

Prep Greek salad with Greek chicken 

Make Chicken Parmesan Pocket

Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal

This weekend I modified by Blueberry Baked Oatmeal recipe slightly to use the berries we had in the freezer since our blueberry stock has run out *sad face*.  So I decided to use raspberries instead.  I swapped out for raspberries a few weeks ago except Gord found the oats a bit too tart with raspberries so this time I added a touch more maple syrup and it's absolute perfection! 

I personally love the raspberry almond combo so I'm looking forward to our breakfasts this week.

With that done it's time to move onto meal planning for the week!  Be sure to check out this weeks meal plan and all the others here!

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Raspberry Almond Baked Oatmeal

Serves 9

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups old fashioned oats

2 TBSP Chia Seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder 

¼ cup slivered almonds (plus more for topping)

½ cup plain greek yogurt

1 1/4 cups Milk of your choice

1 large egg 

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 TBSP melted coconut oil or apple sauce

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/4 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 square baking dish and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, baking powder, salt, almonds and chia seeds. Set aside.

3. In another small bowl, whisk together the greek yogurt, milk, egg, maple syrup, applesauce or coconut oil, and almond extract.

4. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Add the raspberries and stir again. Pour mixture into prepared pan.   Top with sliced almonds and blueberries.

5. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is golden and oatmeal is set. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

Note: You can divvy up the leftovers and reheat for breakfast all week long.  

Greek Chicken and Greek Salad Meal Prep

Lately I'm all about the meal prep.  Life is too busy to be thinking of and making lunch every night before work, so I've been trying to prep lunch and breakfast in advance so I can just grab and go. 

I prepared 5 mason jars for a weeks worth of lunches filled with greek salad over the weekend, threw together some greek salad dressing to top them with and half my lunches for the week were done in less than 5 minutes!  Not to shabby!  

Then I found a tasty looking Greek Lemon Chicken Recipe over on the Cooking Classy blog that I decided to try to add some protein to my lunches to go with all my veggies.  

Lunches complete.  

All my meals appear to be in Mason jars for the week, what with my blueberry baked oatmeal portioned out and stored in mason jars and now the salad too!  BUT I think I will have to use a different container for the chicken as my fridge can only take so many jars.  

Grilled Greek Lemon Chicken

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 small or 2 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for brushing grill
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (1 1/2 Tbsp)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Directions

• Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound thicker parts of chicken to even thickness. In a small mixing bowl whisk together olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and season with salt and pepper (about 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper).
• Place chicken in a gallon size resealable bag, pour in olive oil mixture. Seal bag while pressing air out. Rub marinade over chicken. Transfer to refrigerator and allow to marinate 2 - 5 hours (rotate bag and move chicken around halfway through if possible). Preheat grill over medium-high heat (to about 425 - 450). Or preheat oven to 350.  
• Brush grill grates lightly with olive oil. Place chicken on grill, close lid, and grill about 4 minutes per side, or until chicken registers 160 - 165 degrees in center of chicken on an instant read thermometer. Let chicken rest 5 minutes, garnish with fresh parsley then serve immediately. 
• I baked my chicken as it was an easier clean up and it's snowing here so I wasn't using the BBQ.  I baked the chicken breasts for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  
• Original Recipe source: Cooking Classy

Greek Salad Jars

Ingredients

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 orange pepper

4 mini cucumbers

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1/2 purple onion chopped

Directions

Chop all veggies into bite sized pieces. Toss together in a medium sized bowl and portion into 5-6 Mason Jars.  

When ready to eat, pour 1-2 Tbsp Greek Salad Dressing Recipe over top and shake to coat.  

Greek Salad Dressing Recipe

Yields: ½ cup

Ingredients

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, smashed with side of your knife then peeled*
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves
3 pinches of salt
10-15 grinds black pepper

Directions 

Add all ingredients to a mason jar or any type of container with a top. Cover and shake vigorously until combined. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Cover and store in the refrigerator up to 1 week. Stir before serving.

Recipe Source: Little Broken

21 Day Fix Easy Chicken Parmesan Pockets

I made these super easy Chicken Parmesan Pockets last week and they were a hit. I love how easy they were to put together for an easy week night dinner or prepped ahead for lunches at work!  

This recipe calls for Marinara sauce and I personally make my own (recipe below) but if you are purchasing some just get one that has nothing but tomatoes and no added sugar or salt in it!  

This recipe also uses Italian Seasoning as well so if you don't have a spice jar of pre-made Italian seasoning then you can make your own with just a few spices you might already have on hand.  

For picky kids you can always use plain chicken and cheese for their pockets which is exactly what we did for Fraser.  Both kids quite enjoyed having "Pizza Pockets" for dinner and I made a few extra for our lunches the next day as well!  They are easy to warm up in the toaster oven or mirco for a hearty and hot lunch.  

I can think of so many yummy things you would pop into these pockets to change things up! What would you put in them?

The Method to make these is incredibly easy, just mix the sauce, spices, basil and chicken together.

Once mixed you will sprinkle cheese onto the center of the wrap and then top it with a thick layer of the chicken mixture.  I used my 21 day fix blue container to measure the cheese and my red container to measure the chicken mixture so I had the container counts done.  

Then just fold in the ends of it and fold over the long sides to make it into a nice pocket.  I wasn't sure if it would all hold together but the cheese on the inside must have done a good job because these little pockets held together perfectly!

I used my Cast Iron griddle to cook 5 at the same time which was a great way to get them all cooked at one time.  I made one with just cheese and plain chicken for Fraser which was gobbled up and I was happy that Asher liked the one with tomato and basil too! 

These pockets are back on the menu again this week (stay tuned for that meal plan) and I'm seriously looking forward to them.  I prepped the shredded chicken this morning by cooking the chicken and shredding it in the stand mixer (which is the best thing ever).  Check out the video below I made a few weeks back.  

Now you can either do the chicken breasts in the crock pot with some sort of sauce or you can boil or poach the chicken to make it tender enough to shred easily.  This is an ideal quick method for cooking chicken breasts.  You can either boil them in water or chicken stock, whichever you prefer. 

All you have to do is place the chicken in a saucepan large enough to hold the chicken pieces comfortably. Add enough cooking liquid to cover the chicken. If desired, add any other ingredients for flavoring the liquid and chicken. Bring to boiling on medium-high heat; reduce the heat. Cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is no longer pink. Skinless, boneless chicken breast halves take about 15 to 20 minutes to cook. 

21 Day Fix Easy Chicken Parmesan Pockets

Yield: Four wraps
Container Counts:  (1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue and 1/2 green)

Ingredients

3 cups roughly shredded, cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning (Make you own using Parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, thyme, black pepper, rosemary, basil and red pepper flakes)
½ teaspoon sea salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup your favorite marinara sauce (I use the Grandmas tomato sauce recipe below)
¼ cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 Whole wheat tortilla wraps
1 cup shredded, white cheddar cheese
Additional marinara sauce, warmed for dipping, if desired

Directions

Place shredded chicken in a medium bowl. Add Italian seasoning, sea salt, and black pepper, and stir well to combine.

Add marinara sauce and basil to chicken mixture, and stir to combine again.

Lay 1 Tortilla wrap on work surface, and sprinkle ¼ cup (1 blue container) of cheese down the center, leaving a large border all around the cheese. Spread ¼ of the chicken mixture (1 red container) on top of the cheese.

Fold short ends of wrap inward toward middle, and then fold long sides of wrap inward toward middle, making a closed wrap.

Repeat with the remaining 3 wraps, dividing the remaining cheese and the remaining chicken mixture evenly among them.

Preheat a dry nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once preheated, add the wraps and cook on the first side until golden brown, about 1 ½ - 2 minutes. Flip wraps and cook on second side until golden, about another 1½ minutes.

Serve with additional tomato sauce for dipping.

Grandma's Tomato Sauce Recipe

I made a bunch of big batches of this tomato sauce this summer and canned it to preserve and use over the winter.  So I just opened up a Jar to use for my Parm Pockets.  Here is the Recipe.  21 Day Fix Servings:  12 (1/2 cup each)      Container Count:   3 greens  1/2 tsp Prep Time: 40 min Cooking Time: 1 hr  15 min Ingredients 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 med onion, chopped 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 (6 oz can) tomato paste, no salt added 1/4 cup red wine 2 cans (28 oz each) whole peeled tomatoes [like San Marzano or Cento} crushed or pureed in a blender 2 Tbsp agave nectar or Honey 1 tsp sea salt 1/4  tsp ground black pepper 1 (3 oz) Parmesan (or parmigiano) cheese rind 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil  Directions

1.  Heat oil in large saucepan over me-high heat
2.  Add onion; cook, stirring frequently, for 5-6 min or until onion is translucent
3.  Add garlic and tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 min.  Do not let tomato paste burn. 
4.  Add wine;  stirring constantly for 2-3 min. 
5.  Add tomatoes, agave, salt, and pepper.  Bring to boil,  stirring frequently.  Reduce heat to low; gently boil, stirring occasionally, for 3 min.
6.  Add cheese rind; cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
7.  add basil, mix well. 

*The parmigiano rind is not totally necessary, but it is a great way to add depth to the sauce without much by way of extra calories.