Crock Pot Turkey Meatballs

Sometimes we just need to make our meals simple and satisfying, along with keeping it clean!  I made this new recipe just trying it out since I need more crock pot recipes for my challengers, and this hit the spot! Hope you all like!!

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 1 pound 99% lean ground turkey
• 1/3 cup Panko whole wheat breadcrumbs
• 2 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoons dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 large onion sweet onion, sliced
• 1 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes

Directions

1. Beat the egg in a large mixing bowl. Add the ground turkey, Panko, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, parmesan, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix everything up just so the ingredients are combined – avoid overmixing. Roll into desired size balls, about the size of a golfball works well. Place all rolled meatballs on a large baking sheet.

2. Place onion slices in the bottom of the crockpot, topped with 1 can of crushed tomatoes.

3. Coat a large skillet with remaining Tablespoon of olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Lightly brown the meatballs (only 6-8 meatballs at a time) for about 1 minute on each side. Layer the meatballs into the crockpot as you’re browning each batch. Once all browned meatballs have been added to the crockpot, pour remaining can of tomatoes on top.

4. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with whole wheat pasta or with whole wheat bread as a meatball sub and serve with a side salad. 

Would love your feedback once you try it!! Post how much you love it in the comments below!! 







If you are on your health and fitness journey and are looking for 1:1 support, motivation, help with meals and recipes, please fill out my application below for a spot in my next private fitness support group.  
*You will be required to workout 30 min day minimum (5-6 Days a week using a home fitness program from Team Beachbody) that we pick together based on your preference of workout and level of fitness, eat healthy, and check in daily to keep yourself accountable.

Turning Your Excuses Into Your Reasons!

"This isn't the right time, I have too much going on."

Does this phrase sound familiar to you?!?

I'm not going to lie, I have use this excuse as an outlet so many times but in the end, it did me no justice. In fact it held me back from what my fullest potential could be. It held me back from happiness, success, and confidence! Im talking about all areas of your life: Physical, Financial, Emotional, Spiritual, etc!

Part of me sharing my story and journey is to hopefully inspire just one person who truly needs it and has a desire for a great future ahead!

Now that I have shared about my situation with my divorce, I'm also going to share HOW I am going to get through it, along with WHY I needed to let go of my excuses.

3 years ago, I was not in a happy place in my life. I had no confidence, no strength, not much happiness or even hope..

How did I gain happiness, confidence and success? 
Two things:

1. God.
Over the past 2 years I have given myself to the lord. I decided to take my journey and build a relationship with him. It has been the best 2 years of my life. 

How could it be the best 2 years when I've been going through so much other struggle and damage in my life? 

Because I know God has given me strength, happiness, courage and the ability to believe that I am here for a purpose and that the struggles I am going through will only take me to something so much greater for my future!

I truly believe without God in my life, I would have given up, not thought twice about settling for less, but instead I gained strength to fight harder! 

2. My career as a fitness coach.

You may roll your eyes and say oh gosh she's talking about it again.. And that's ok!

I truly believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But hear me out at least before you roll your eyes or judge.

There are so many different ways that my life has changed since starting this career as a fitness coach 3 years ago.

From finding myself in my own physical transformation and financial freedom, I was also finding confidence and happiness with who I was.  I did this by reading and listening to personal growth and development that I never listen to before, because I just didn't think it was necessary. Here it has completely transformed my life with confidence, Learning to be completely satisfied with the person that I am, and just having such a positive outlook on everything in life.

Trust me I was not always this positive and full of belief! But it changed because of the journey I took. That decision I made for not only myself, but for my family as well. 

Physically, ok come on we all know exercise is a stress relief! Why don't we do it? Because we make excuses as I mentioned above that we just have too much going on or not enough time. Little did we know, we have time to watch TV, mope and lay in bed and complain about our problems, and have long conversations to our friends and family... OK I hope I just made you realize that you have enough time to exercise for 30 minutes LOL. 

I'm not saying you have to go to the gym, doing a quick 30 minute workout at home is definitely sufficient! It will relieve your stress, take away the anxiety, and help you become happier and healthier! I did NOT want to workout, but I knew that if I didn't, that stress and emotion would keep building up, and me sitting here crying about my problems was doing me NO justice!!! 

Financially, I was grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. As I had my nursing career, I did good for myself and family, but never had a savings. We didn't "struggle" per say, but could not just jump and go on a vacation if we wanted without worrying if we had enough money in our account.

Now that I am raising my boys as a single mother, I can say that I have made a career with doing what I love and am passionate about (health and fitness) to the point that I will be able to provide for my boys, and still give them the life I've always wanted to give them. I won't say it was easy, I mean it took time, sacrifice, and dedication, but the pay off has been such a blessing to us just after 1 year!

Today...Despite the struggles and obstacles that are in front of me, I've learned that making excuses will only keep me from more amazing opportunities. Making excuses only stop me from my fullest potential, happiness, and success! 

Instead of saying reasons why you can't, start making them your reasons why you should!

I'm leaving you with this... Do not base decisions or hold back because you feel "It's not YOUR time" or wait and do it at "your best convenience". There will never be a "good time" and honestly, this isn't about you, this is about doing it on God's timing! Believe His plan and I can promise and reassure you if you trust and have faith, it WILL all work out!! 

Hammer and Chisel Week 5 and Figure Competition Prep 15 weeks out!

So this Hammer and Chisel is definitely my FAVORITE home fitness program!! It gives me everything I need!! I get the heavier weight training, cardio, plyo all in 1 program!! Best of both worlds!! 

As Im training for my 3rd Figure Competition, I need that variety! I am really needing to build muscle in my quads, shoulders and back! Yes, all the areas that the judges look at most for figure competitors lol.. I need work!! 

Im doing something different this time... I have trained for both my shows previously working out at the gym AND home, but this time, I will soley focus on my workouts at home! I am moving and am getting my incline treadmill which will help with some of my morning cardio workouts or post leg workouts, getting my bowflex dumbbells of course, and bench with a leg extension .. I am also working on getting another piece of equipment so I can do arm, shoulder, and back workouts with cables.  Time to show people what can happen at home!! 

I love the gym, but for me, its more convenient with getting my workouts in the morning and doing another quick workout in between work.  I don't have to take my kids anywhere or wake them up! So for any mommas out there that feel the same way, trust me, you can make it happen and it doesn't have to take a gym membership!!

This past weekend, I was away and did manage to get my workouts in at the hotel gym which was fun because I was able to workout with my girls!!  It is so fun just being able to surround yourself around other positive and uplifting people with the same passion for health and fitness and exercise and just trying to better yourself and be a great role model!

OK we kinda rocked this one out!!

I wont say its easy every day, trust me, I struggle too and need my pre-workout drink to get my butt going in the morning, but I do work hard daily to make it happen!  Once I get that Pre-workout in, its on like donkey kong!!   I use Our Beachbody Performance Line (my new favorite) Energize! I ran out so kept with my Energy and Endurance...  they are the two pre workouts that don't give me jitters or make me itchy from the niacin!

NUTRITION:
Ok who agrees that nutrition is like the hardest thing with being healthy?!?! I meal prep and plan out what Im eating, but it doesn't always work out that way!
Hey, do I still get an A for Effort?!? 

I got lots of baked chicken, turkey meatballs, salads, green beans, cucumbers, buffalo cauliflower (yes its amazing), and fresh fruit!! 

Every day, I include my Shakeology to help give me the dense nutrition and superfoods to really fuel my body! 

For my show prep, I will be using it 2 times daily morning and second snack of the day as I did for my last 2 shows, and then about 4 weeks out, I will cut it out all together just to make sure I can lean out as much as possible since I can't even eat fruit then.
I literally cook up everything I need in 2 hours or less so its all done and I stress less during the week!!

Also, for my kids, yes, they do eat almost all of this too!! They love chicken, fruit, veggies (my 3 year old loves salad with greek yogurt ranch!) and some of my fancy recipes!!

So here you have it!! This is my week so far and despite a little off tracking with my nutrition (3 cheat meals over the weekend), Im back on and kicking butt this week!! Sunday I will be sharing my progress pics! STAY TUNED!!!

*If you would like to get daily support, motivation, and help with your fitness goals, please fill out the application below for a spot in my next private online group fitness challenge! 

There will be a requirement to use a home fitness program of your choice with Team Beachbody that I will help you pick based on your fitness level and preference of workout along with incorporating Shakeology into your regimen 1 meal a day with your other 4 meals a day to help with your nutrition!

Thai Shrimp and Rice Noodles

It doesn't get any better than this!! My 4 FAVORITE ingredients (and maybe yours too) all in 1 recipe!?!? Yes, its going to be that simple!!!

So I've had Thai Chicken before (another recipe on my blog here), but this was just awesome, and I even took away the 1 ingredient that I didn't want to use because its not "clean".  So I did a trial and error, and it turned out to be a success!!

Please comment below if you try it!! Would love to hear your thoughts!!!

THAI SHRIMP AND RICE NOODLES

Ingredients:

• Package of Rice Noodles (got in international section in grocery store)
• 12 oz Shrimp (peeled and cooked according to package)
• 1 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter
• 2 Tbsp Sriracha Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Chili Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic

Directions:

1. Cook Rice Noodles according to package on back, strain when cooked and placed back in pan on stove on low-medium
2. Cook shrimp according to directions on package
3. In separate bowl, add Peanut Butter and 1/2 tsp hot water and stir.
4. Add rest of ingredients (Sriracha, Chili, and garlic) to peanut butter mixture
5. Add mixture into noodles on stove
6. Add shrimp to mixture
7. Stir and serve.
8. ENJOY!!

Hope you love as much as I did!! This recipe is great with steamed broccoli!

If you are using the 21 Day Fix or Hammer and Chisel, here are the containers for this recipe:

1 RED

1 TSP

1 YELLOW

1 GREEN (if your adding broccoli) :)

For more clean eating tips, recipes, daily motivation and accountability to help you reach your ultimate health and fitness goals, please fill out my application below to have a spot in my next private fitness challenge/support group!

Hammer and Chisel Week 4 Fitness Plan

Good morning good morning its a new week and the first full week to a brand new Year 2016!!! 

Are you so excited about what is to come for your fitness journey? I know I am!! 

Every year, so many of us make New Year Resolutions and I will also say so many of us NEVER stick to them!! How long does it usually take for you to fall off with the same old healthy eating, "dieting", going to the gym, stop smoking, drinking, swearing (yup mine unfortunately :/), gambling, and more?? We just want the bad habits to go away and the good habits to come! But its almost seeming impossible to keep them up after just a few weeks!

Heres what I want to tell you.  Please do not think because I said these and you make the same resolution AGAIN, that Im telling you to let it go because it's not possible... IT IS POSSIBLE!! I want THIS year to be YOUR year!! I do not want you to have to keep going over this time and time again!! 

But the key to this whole New Years Resolution is to really focus and make "habits" out of this so you don't have to keep going back!! For instance "Im going to DIET".. GAH I hate that word!!!  If you are thinking you are just going to "DIET", then NO, you will NOT stick with it!! WHY?? Because you cannot live off of a diet, you cannot live off of never eating carbs or fats again!! Sorry if that was your plan, but I'm going to be real with you right now! Do NOT starve yourself from the nutrients your body needs just to be "skinny"... because you will end up back where you started, if not worse! I may be hitting home with some of you??? 

I'm not trying to push buttons or make you feel sad about what your doing, I am simply telling you this because again, I want this to be your year of lots of success and happiness and freedom, and I want to help YOU get there without putting stress on your body, ruining your body, and putting your body in jail.. The solution to this is simple:

Make it a LIFESTYLE!! YES!!!! That's it!! Its that easy!! Did you know if you follow the 80/20 rule, have a cheat meal 1 time a week and just eat HEALTHY the rest of the week, add 30 minute workouts (you can even do these at home and I can show you how- See application at bottom), you can get the results you want without feeling like your neglecting your body and health!!

I cannot tell you how much my life has changed by skipping the diets, starving myself, and just did the right things that may be hard to do at first, but afterwards will make you feel and look amazing!!

So now I am going to show you what I do!! Get ready!!

So when I said about working out at home, yes, that is exactly what I do!! Being a momma of 2 boys ages 3 and 4, it gets complicated making it to the gym for the 2 hours morning or afternoon that they are available, plus driving back and forth, plus the good old gym membership.. yea you get me right?? If I have the opportunity to roll out of bed while boys are still sleeping, I can get a 30 minute workout in which is the time it would take me to drive back and forth to the gym, and just get it done without hassle! 

The program I am doing right now is called Hammer and Chisel! It's possibly my FAVORITE home fitness program I have EVER done!!! I did love going to the gym, its just not always convenient, so I get the gym type environment in this program, along with:

•  A schedule to follow so I know exactly what Im doing
• A nutrition plan telling me how many containers of what I need to get all my nutrients in per day
• Color coded containers for each food group- You'd be surprised what you can fit in these bad boys!
• A month supply (30 day) of Shakeology which is our health shake meal replacement that will give you all the superfoods and dense nutrients your body isn't getting from your typical every day foods (unless you juice with a million veggies and vitamins which by that time your spending $600) :P
• And when you sign up with ME, you get ME as your coach (I have one too still)
• Access to an online support group/challenge group for daily tips, recipes, motivation, and surrounding yourself around others with similar goals! 

How cool is that???!?! Pretty awesome to me!! Again, I've started my journey doing this 3 years ago, and here I am today still doing it, rocking different programs, staying on top of my nutrition, and feeling amazing!

Here is what I have planned for this week! Now I will be traveling from Thursday until Sunday, so I will still pack my cooler with lots of healthy foods and snacks so I stay on track!!

How do you like that?? My recipes such as Spaghetti Squash Chicken Alfredo, and Greek Salad are here on my blog under clean eating recipes!!  
And I even added my grocery list for ya!! Trying to make it sweet and simple! Simple nutrition is sometimes best so your saving time prepping the food and money buying the food!

You will see I do drink my Shakeology more than once a day sometimes, and this is because I will be traveling, instead of my buying fast food, its just healthier and easier this way! Its also my sweet tooth craving! :)

My workout plan is as follows:
MONDAY- CHISEL BALANCE
TUESDAY- MAX HAMMER STRENGTH
WEDNESDAY- CHISEL CARDIO AND GLUTES
THURSDAY- OFF DAY (YAY)
FRIDAY- ISO SPEED HAMMER
SATURDAY- CHISEL AGILITY
SUNDAY- HAMMER POWER AND 10 MIN ABS

So there you have it!! The workouts again like I said, its like you at a gym, I use dumbbells, a bench or stability ball, a pull up bar or band with over the door extension (you can buy at walmart or target), and boom, your ready for amazing results!!!

If you would like more information on getting started in my 30 day fitness challenge/support group online (held in a private group on Facebook), please fill out the application below for a spot! I will contact you within 24 hours.

How To Use Pinterest to Gain Attraction To Your Social Media

I have been doing some good ol Training for my Pinterest account because I love Pinterest personally, have found amazing ideas, lots of motivation, and amazing challengers and coaches to join my team because of utilizing it!

So today, I just want to share with you all a few tips to help you expand your network through the use of Pinterest!!

First off, I am NOT a professional.. I have to give credit to Melanie Duncan and Natalie Jill for their amazing training and tips!!!

This is my top 5 tips from both of their trainings!! I will recommend you still doing their training, because just my 5 tips does not do justice for their knowledge and skill!!!!

1. Your Pinterest account should have your "pins" linking to YOUR other social media avenues... Ex. Blog, Youtube channel, etc.

If your "pins" are directed to another persons' social media, how are you going to gain traction?? You are basically giving away your potential clients and team mates to someone else by pinning and having it directed to someone else!!

I use my blog for all my detailed information because it is perfect for recipes for my challengers, friends, and family, information on what I have to offer fitness and nutrition wise for my challengers and coaches, and I love sharing my fitness journey for my audience on social media!! Instead of having to re-write everything every time I talk to someone, the use of my blog comes into perfect use!! Being able to PIN everything I post only give my audience the ability to see more, and hopefully reaches out to their friends and family also to help, motivate, and inspire them as well!!


2.  Make sure you have good solid topics for your "BOARDS" so its easy for people who are scrolling through your Pinterest account can see what you are all about! 

Your boards should ONLY have pins from that topic is!! Making them specific will help you gain new followers in that area!!

For example:
Gluten Free Meals- Be sure you only have gluten free meals and recipes on that board
Fitness Motivation- Add quotes, pictures, etc to this board
Healthy meal plans- Self explanatory



3. Make your images EYE-CATCHING!!

People look through pinterest and go further because they like what they see in the image!! So if you can make that image eye-catching, you have a golden opportunity to increase the number of "clickers" and followers!!

Just to go in depth a little more, here are a few things I learned to make the images more eye-catching:

• Use long images, rather than square or wide- you can do this by using the programs www.Canva.com or www.Picmonkey.com   (I used both, I just prefer Picmonkey).
• Add a link to your site for people to go for more information on your image- I put my blog site because thats where I turn all my traffic to on all my social media. I also use the transparency on picmonkey and minimize so it doesn't "pop" as much as the other writing that I am trying to grab peoples attention. 
• Add a "call to action" ex. "CLICK THE IMAGE fore more detail", "Click here to learn more", "Click to find out how"... and so on. I think you get it :)
• Make the images with good lighting and pretty to look at!!!  
• Use apps like photo editor to lighten your pics or use a good filter to change the color image to fit your personality (try to use the same one each time).
• Food pics close up look good where its focused more on a certain part
• Be sure its not blurry (as in your didn't focus good enough on taking the pic)
• Don't have too much clutter in your images.  If you have a collage of too many pics that are hard to see, people won't click.  Make sure all pics are a good size and visible on Pinterest when searching!

Here are some examples of images I used for Pinterest... I use bright colors to make them eye-catching, used filters on the pics that I took of myself, and close ups with the food pics.  

I put my blog link to every image at the bottom so people know where to go for more.

I have a call to action on every picture so my audience knows where to go for more of what they see that is sparking their interest!!

The images are long (not wide), but not too cluttered with just a few pictures in each image.

4. If you are using your Pinterest as a Business account, keep it MOSTLY your business boards! 

I keep my boys Birthday party ideas, etc private.. I do keep a couple public just to show my personality a little!! Fashion, house decorating ideas ... that is what I like to also post on other social media, so everyone gets the same type of content!!

5. Convert your Pinterest account to a Business account- 

Be sure you convert it to a business account by going to https://business.pinterest.com/en

When you have a business account, you can also promote pins for FREE so more people can see your content!! There is a wait list, so be sure you fill out the information to get on the wait list and when it asks you how much you would spend, be generous! Don't worry, they wont require you to spend that much that you put down!!

I hope these tips help you get your Pinterest started off right and you can build upon it on a regular basis!!! I use my Pinterest a good 3 times per week. The more you use it, the more Pinterest will recognize and bump you up on the wait list to promote pins!! :)

Now.. go get that Pinterest up and running!!