Healthy Choices Add Up: New Goals & Veggie Packed Recipes

I am kicking off the school year with a renewed healthy focus for myself.  Life got busy in the Summer with the kids home and I let some things slide.  I found myself feeling sluggish.  It's hard enough to get back into the early morning routine of school so I knew I needed to make some other changes to be the best me.

New school year = new healthy goals for myself!

Anyone else feeling like they need a mid year restart?!?!  Here are my goals:

1. Drink water all day
I don't drink any carbonated drinks.  Never have.  So my focus is really just paying attention to my water intake and picking water first as my beverage choice.

2. Eat real food
Buy less processed foods and focus on eating more veggies as snacks and with meals.

3. Exercise daily
Bike, walk, run, swim, play with my kids, etc.  Something every day.

4. Be more mindful of when/what I'm eating
I say this because I am definitely a late night snacker.  I stay up until 12:30ish most nights and it's so easy to mindlessly snack away the hours after the kids go to bed.

What healthy goals are you working on right now?

I thought it would be fun to see some recipe ideas for adding more veggies into my daily foods.  None of them are complicated and they're all delicious.

Egg + Veggie Frittata 
This is my favorite thing to meal prep for easy lunches all week long.  Chop, roast and bake one day and then you've got 4-5 easy meal options.  I usually eat a hearty slice of it for lunch.

I change this recipe up every time I make it.  I just add in whatever veggies I have on hand that week.  I'll give you the recipe I made this time in a 9x9 pan.  I've also used loaf pans.  I think the loaf pan version is my favorite, but this square pan worked, too.

14 scrambled eggs
yellow and purple onion
sweet peppers
2 big handfuls of spinach
1/2 an avocado
2 sweet potatoes
turkey sausage crumbles
olive oil
feta cheese
Montreal Steak Seasoning

Roast veggies first with olive oil and seasoning at 400 for 20 minutes.  I put all veggies on the pan together.  The onions and peppers will be done first at around 20 minutes.  The sweet potatoes take more like 30 minutes and do best when you stir them around a time or two.  

Chop up spinach and avocado.

Start layering in a greased dish.  I usually just do one layer of each veggie, but I had a ton of spinach.  I did two layers of spinach and one layer of most other things.

Add scrambled eggs on top last.  I started out with 8 scrambled eggs, but had to go up to 14 to cover all the veggies!

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and check.  It looked pretty good, but the center was still liquidy.

I bumped the temp down to 325 and continued to bake for another 15 minutes until everything was set.

I let it cool and refrigerated it for the week.  I sliced 4-5 large pieces for lunch.  It's so good!

Veggie Packed Salads:
I try to keep baby spinach on hand because it lasts so much longer than mixed greens.  I buy a big tub at Aldi or Sams.  If I have leftover spinach, I'll freeze it for smoothies before it goes bad.

Veggie Packed Stir Fry:
I made this for a super quick dinner one night.  Ramen noodles, TONS of veggies with a little stir fry sauce on it and then added in some shredded chicken.  I kept everything separate so we could build our own bowls based on our preferences.  We all liked this meal.

Crunchy Veggies:
My whole family loves crunchy veggies so I work them into our lunches and dinners as sides.

Taco Veggie Bake:
We all love Mexican food.  It's so easy to make and my whole crew likes it.  I made this stuffed pepper bake for the adults and the kids enjoyed soft tacos.  Same meat and toppings for both.  But giving them options for how things were combined made it work for everyone.

I quartered sweet peppers, topped them with seasoned taco meat and then all the veggies - onions, more peppers, tomatoes, olives, avocados, cheese, etc.  We added sour cream, lettuce and salsa to our plates as toppings.  I ate a few chips which worked out better than a whole plate of nacho chips that I might have eaten before.

Now I'm starving!!  Haha

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!

It's time to link up with my favorite blogging buddies for High Five for Friday.  Join us with a few different blog posts and be sure to look around to find some new blog friends

Becky @  By BMG Blog
Della @ Della Devoted
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Whitney P @ Come Home for Comfort
 

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