I think this might be the first time that I've posted my MOTW the day that I did all the food prep! Yay for progress! I kept myself on task by rocking out to some tunes, and simultaneously having a Harry Potter marathon in the background!

Well today I'm particularly excited because I decided to make some actual 21 day fix-approved meals, instead of just piecing together meals from what I have in my refrigerator on the-day.

So here are my 21 day fix-approved recipes for the week:

I started off my prepping my carbs and proteins seperately. That was probably the more time-consuming part of today's activities. I rapid soaked some black beans, and simmered some lentils. I came to the realization that I could have simmered the lentils in something more flavorful, like low-sodium chicken stock, or better yet have added some lemon to the water just to give the lentils a punch of flavor.
Then I tackled the protein. Today, it is chicken and ground turkey. I wanted to mix it up, since I've mostly been eating chicken the last few weeks. Ground turkey is such a great option, relatively cheap, and very easy to mix into things!

Then came the really fun part of the process - assembling my recipes!

I decided to start off with something that I had seen God knows how many times on Pinterest and always wanted to try - stuffed Portobello mushroom caps!

Lentil, Chicken, & Veggie Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Caps
**Now, since these are 21 day fix approved recipes at this point, I'm going to use the colored containers as my measuring tools**
-1 green of halved cherry tomatoes
-2 greens of spinach
-4 yellow of lentils (already cooked)
-4 red of chicken tenders (already cooked)
-1/2 blue of mozzarella cheese per filled cap

Now, the best part about this recipe is that you can really put whatever you want in it--or just whatever you have! Because my goal today was to go recipe-less (another first for me!), I rummaged through my refrigerator and found some really delicious ingredients - spinach, tomatoes, chicken, and lentils!

I started by sauteeing up the spinach and the tomatoes. The lentils and chicken were already cooked, and I didn't want to over cook them. So once, the spinach and tomatoes were properly cooked down, I threw the lentils and chicken into the pan and tossed everything together. I also threw in some onion powder and garlic, since I didn't have any fresh onions/garlic on hand.  I then filled my portobello caps with the filling.

Now, I made the mistake of adding the mozzarella on at this point. I wouldn't do that. I would wait until about 10 minutes left in your cook time to add the mozzarella cheese on.

Once you've assembled everything, cook for 30-40 minutes at 375F.

Then - enjoy!

Each cap counts for 2 greens, 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1/2 a blue




Next, on the list for the day is Black Bean and Turkey Stuffed Peppers
-3 red peppers
-3 yellows of black beans (soaked and drained)
-3 reds of ground turkey
-1/2 blue of cheddar per pepper

Since everything was already cooked up, this was really easy to assemble!  First, I cut the tops off of my red peppers and cleaned out the seeds from inside.  Then, I mixed my black beans and ground turkey in a small bowl and tossed them with a couple shakes of cumin and chili powder.  Then, I evenly filled all of my peppers with the filling. I then put them in my slow cooker for 2-3 hrs on high. You can also do this for longer (6-8 hours) on low if you want.  About 20 minutes before they were done, I sprinkled each pepper with 1/2 a blue of cheddar cheese! Let the cheese melt a little and then voila! You're done!

Each pepper is worth 1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1/2 a blue!

**Note: Use smaller peppers if you can! It might be tempting to use larger peppers, but the larger peppers I used actually fell apart when I tried to move it from the crock pot! Hence there only being a picture of 2 of my 3 peppers! Oops!**

Last, but definitely not least I decided to make myself a little, healthy treat!

I found this recipe ages ago on my favorite bloggers website - Simply Taralynn! So, here goes nothing:

Simply Taralynn's Healthy Whole Wheat Avocado Brownie Bites

These may not have been 21 day fix approved, per se. But, just check out the recipe and you'll see that they're totally a great, healthy cheat option, and you do get cheats or Zing's (as Autumn calls them) in the 21 day fix program! So, this is fantastic for that!

I'm not going to re-hash the recipe here, because Taralynn does a great job with that on her website (see link above), and even walks you through with pictures, step-by-step. But I will tell you that you do need:

This worked out so great for me because amazingly enough I had all the ingredients I needed at my house! No emergency shopping trip needed!

**And, okay, I'll admit that these aren't exactly 21 day fix-approved. There's lots of chocolate! But, I cut my pan into 25 bite-sized pieces. And when I had one, I counted that as 1/2 a blue (for the avocado). You gotta have some cheats in your meals!**

Well, that's all for today! I know I only made about 7 meals here, but these will serve as my dinners this week. I can very easily build the leftover carbs and protein into other meals throughout the week! Not too mention my Shakeology, which has become my absolute favorite breakfast meal! I don't even need coffee anymore in the morning! I love my Shakeology! 

Okay, so this was a lot for the day, but I'm so excited to actually be on top of posting my MOTW on the day for the first time ever! I hope to stay more on top of sharing my meal prep with you guys, especially because in a week or two my friend and fellow Beachbody coach, Jacki and I will be doing a 21 day fix Challenge Group! So excited!!

Until next time, I hope you all enjoy the meal ideas and recipes! Let me know what you think! :-)