Low Carb Swedish Meatballs – Another Recipe Made to Fit a Healthy Lifestyle

When you think of getting lean and trim you’re probably not thinking of Swedish Meatballs for dinner.  However, thanks to me you CAN!  🙂   Of course, not every night, but every so often YES!  And if you have followed me on Facebook or Instagram (@FitnessElements4Life) for a while you know that I LOVE food!  I especially hold a special place in my heart for comfort foods.  Although that usually means fatty foods combined with carbs.  However, as I teach my clients, its ok to eat fatty healthy foods… just not at the SAME TIME as carbs.

Carbs, like oats and veggies, ARE our friends!!  The carbs that are NOT our friends are the cupcakes, ice cream and the junk food alike!   The key to eating carbs is the TIMING.  You don’t eat oatmeal before bed, you eat it in the morning when you WANT your blood sugar to ‘wake’ up.  Same thing with lunch and dinner.  Take for example:  Pot Roast or Beef Stew which is usually cooked with cornstarch or flour for a thickening agent and is usually served with potatoes or noodles .   But to make these great recipes high protein/low carb you just exclude those things.  ***Or you can eat dinner early and only serve it with a few red potatoes (skin-on so the fiber content is higher)***.   You don’t ever want to eat carbs with fat because it spikes your blood sugar causing your body to store the fat (in this case the red meat), and burn the carbs (potatoes).

So what I do, is take my favorite recipes like pot roast, beef stew, meatloaf, chili, etc and I exclude the carbs.   I am constantly trying new recipes, tweaking them to accommodate a healthy lifestyle  especially the likes of comfort foods, and making them healthy so that you can enjoy them and still lose weight!  You don’t always have to eat just grilled chicken and steamed vegetables!

You’re welcome.

 

Meatballs:

• 1 small onion, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Add the onion, garlic, egg, parsley, salt and pepper to a large bowl and blend. Mix in the turkey. Shape the turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs.

Heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Transfer the meatballs to a plate. Pour off any excess oil and pat dry the meatballs so there’s no unnecessary grease.

Transfer the meatballs to your slow cooker.

Sauce:

• 1 TBL butter
• minced garlic
• diced onion (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken)
• 1 can beef broth
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• dash of nutmeg
• parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Loganberry or red currant jam (optional)
• Dreamfields Low Carb Rotini pasta (optional)

In a small skillet, sauté onions in butter and garlic.  Once caramelized, pour over meatballs.   Add the remaining ingredients and stir.  Let simmer in the slow cooker for at least 2 hours.  Serve alone or on top of low carb rotini.

For more of my low carb recipes click here.

 

Tired of Eggs for Breakfast?

I love eggs for breakfast… but there’s mornings where I don’t have enough time and just want to grab something fast.

These are healthy, delicious and simple to make.  I made a batch this morning and I wish you could taste them!   Oh wait-  YOU CAN!   Here you go:

 

Ingredients:

• ½ cup oat flour (can be made by grinding whole oats in a blender or food processor)
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 medium banana (mashed)
• ¼ cup dried cranberries (optional)
• 1 tbsp unsalted walnuts or almonds (optional)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a non-stick cookie sheet with zero-calorie cooking spray (i.e. Pam).  Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and fold mixture together until well combined (**important to mix by hand and not in a blender**).  Scoop batter onto cookie sheet into ¼” balls.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

The 21 Day Fix | Autumn Calabrese

It takes 21 days to change your habits right?  Well that’s exactly what this program is designed to do!

Here is the program!   Read over and you will see how simple it is and if you believe this could benefit you, the link to get it for yourself is at the bottom of this post.

Shrink your stomach, lose inches, all while learning to eat correctly! 

 

The 21 Day Fix Workout Program

The 21 Day Fix exercise program consists of 2 DVDs that have 3 workouts out (6 in total). Each workout is crafted to deliver a “massive calorie burn” in just 30 minutes. Every workout is different and increases in difficulty from the previous workout and comes with a modifier so you scale the intensity level of the workout up or down to meet your personal comfort.
The first 15 days consists of doing 1 workout/day, then on the last week you can do the double : one workout in the morning and another in the evening. The workouts are:

• Total Body Cardio Fix. Rises your heart rate, boost your metabolism into overdrive for long-lasting weight loss benefits.
• Upper Fix. Specifically works the back, shoulders, arms, chest and abs for a great swimsuit body.
• Lower Fix. Works the thighs, calves and butt for the rest of your beach-ready body.
• Pilates Fix. Uses core strength moves to tone and elongate the torso and tighten up your thighs, butt and hips.
• Cardio Fix. Insanity cardio workout that kicks the first workout into overdrive.
• Yoga Fix. Boosts flexibility and relaxes your muscles to keep them in perfect tone.

From yoga to pilates to cardio, the workouts are well crafted, inspiring, simple and exciting!

The 21 Day Fix Eating Plan

To be clear, there really is no “diet” here in the program. The eating program uses a color coded system of containers and a Shakeology Shaker Cup to give you perfect portion control every time with zero mistakes. NO MORE MEASURING and COUNTING! If it fits in the container, you can eat it, and you’ll lose weight.

1. Green Container: For vegetables
2. Purple Container: For fruits
3. Red Container: For proteins
4. Yellow Container: For carbohydrates
5. Blue Container: For healthy fats and cheeses
6. 2 Orange Containers: seeds and dressings
7. Shakeology Cup: For mixing drinks

Diet plan Details:

• First, the diet plan will show you how to calculate your caloric intake based on your current weight. Your caloric intake is the amount of calories you have to eat daily during the 21 Day Fix

 

• The caloric intake will lead you to know the exact number of each container and teaspoons (oils, nut butters or seed butters) a day. The eating plan comes with 4 caloric levels, as you can see in the picture :

 

• If your target is less than 1200 calories then round it up to 1200, when it’s over 2300, round it down to 2300.
• What I love about this program is its simplicity: fill up the containers with the food that goes with each one’s color and enjoy! You don’t have to count calories. Just choose the foods from the list that comes with the program. It’s all about portions. Portion control is what makes this workout so special and revolutionary, it teaches you how to make healthy choices without restrictions or obsessions.
• It is up to you how you spread the containers over the day, just know your daily allowance from the chart above and do it your own way. It is therefore recommended to spread your meals/containers across 3 main meals and 2 or 3 snacks each day, or you can do 6 small meals a day with 2 hours interval.
• You are allowed to drink almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, fruit juice and coconut water 3 times a week, however each time you do this you will need to forego a yellow container.
• The program recommends drinking a lot of water and also allows coffee and tea.
• Autumn also recommends taking an extra green container when you are hungry because it’s hard to overeat veggies.

The Simple Conclusion

The simplicity involved in the 21 day fix is ingenious: with Portion control, healthy eating and simple 30 minute workouts, you really don’t have to look elsewhere, this program will be a life-changer for you and had already been for so many people in the last few months (See below). It’s more of an enjoyable experience than a simple diet/workout.

 

 

Okay, so our final criteria here is whether you can try it for free or not. The answer to that is YES! There is a 100% 30 day money back guarantee so if it doesn’t work, get a full refund, no questions asked.

 

So we’ve hit every point on the checklist and the bottom line is that the 21 Day Fix is worth a try. Click the link below right now to benefit from a special promotion going on the Official Website of the 21 Day Fix where you can get Autumn calabrese’s 21 Day Fix Eating Plan (inluding a Restaurant guide), Post-FIX Maintenance Guide (to keep your achieved results), Dirty 30 Workout, 3 Day Quick Fix and 24/7 Online Support for free!

==> Click Here to Go to the Official 21 Day Fix Website <==

 

Send me a Request on Facebook to join my 21 Day Fix group!  We are all doing the program together and help each other along the way!!