Sloppy Joe Bowls

These were sooooo good! Especially if you are craving some comfort food. It may seem super weird to put sloppy joe meat over zoodles, but I promise you it's a perfect match. Now hubby does not eat zoodles, so I put his on a whole wheat bun. Regardless, its delish both ways. Plus you aren't getting all those weird ingredients like you would with the stuff from the can. 

Sloppy Joe Bowls

adapted from Jay's Baking Me Crazy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

2 lbs lean ground beef (grass-fed if Whole30 or Paleo)

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1.5 tsp onion powder

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup coconut aminos 

1.5 cups homemade ketchup

2 TBS tomato paste

Before you get started, make up your homemade ketchup!

Put your ground beef in a medium sized dutch oven over medium-high heat. (I love my Le Creuset!) Once the meat is mostly browned, toss in your garlic and turn the heat down to medium. Toss in the onion powder, salt and pepper. Cook for about 1-2 more minutes. Add coconut aminos, ketchup and tomato paste. Stir to combine and turn the heat to low. Allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes. 

While your sloppy joe meat is simmering, make up your zoodles. I use a Paderno vegetable spiralizer to make my zoodles. It's amazing. It has several different blades. I've used it on other veggies too, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips. 

Once your zoodles are ready, top them with the sloppy joe meat and eat!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Pork Carnitas

I won't lie. I googled the word "carnitas". I took French in high school and college so shoot me. I just didn't want to look like an idiot by titling this "pork carnitas" if carnitas meant pork. You feel me? Good. Now that that is out of the way, I did learn that carnitas actually means "little meats" and it's meat that's been braised in oil or lard. I did nothing of the sort here. So I guess I can't technically call these carnitas, but whatever. They are darn good. You are also welcome for the Spanish lesson. 

PS - You can see from the pic below that I used this in Pork Carnitas Bowls with Cilantro Lime Caulirice!

Crockpot Pork Carnitas

adapted from The Recipe Critic

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 8-9 hours

Servings: 10+

Ingredients

4 pound pork shoulder roast

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1.5 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 oranges, juiced

2 limes, juiced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

In the bottom of your crockpot, put the last 4 ingredients. Place your roast down in the crockpot. 

In a small bowl, combine your dry spices. Sprinkle these over the roast. Set the crockpot for 8 hours on low. 

Once it's done, I shred mine right in the crockpot and left it sitting in the juices for another 30-45 minutes on low. 

Now if you really want to be fancy, take the meat out of the crockpot after it's been bathing in those juices in the crockpot for the last 30 minutes and place it on a sheet pan. Put it in the oven under the broiler for about 5 minutes. This will make some of the bits a little crispier. 

Enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Caulirice

I have to say that this is such a great substitute for rice if you are Whole30, 24 Day Challenge or just trying to clean up your diet. Now I made my own cauliflower rice, but if you are short for time or don't have the right tools, I have seen "cauliflower crumbles" or "riced cauliflower" at Trader Joe's and Target. Anything you can do with rice I'm pretty sure you could do with caulirice. The only thing I will say is that it's pretty stinky while it cooks!

Cilantro Lime Caulirice

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

A head of cauliflower
Bunch of cilantro, chopped
4-6 limes, juiced
Kosher salt, to taste

Directions

Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower. Chop the florets into uniform pieces about the size of a tangerine. Toss into the food processor and pulse until evenly chopped. It should have a "rice like" consistency to it. Put your riced cauliflower into a sauté pan over medium heat. You could drizzle a little olive oil in the pan if you aren't using a non-stick pan. Sauté for about 10-15 minutes depending on how soft you want it to be.

Dump your caulirice in a bowl. Now I like mine pretty limey so I would put the juice of all 6 limes in there. It's really to taste. Toss the cilantro in there too. Lastly, sprinkle a little kosher salt over it to help bring out the flavors. 

Enjoy!

Weekly Menu: January 11-16

It's nice to be back blogging about weekly recipes! I'm finally working day shift which makes a huge difference in my time. I'm awake during the day as opposed to sleeping all day because I worked the night before. I'm not too tired to make dinner or go to the grocery. It's awesome!

As I posted last week, we started the Advocare 24 Day Challenge today. So our meals for the next 24 days will be in line with the plan. It's definitely not as "strict" as Whole30. It's more about making healthy, clean choices. Can't wait for the yummy food we have on the menu this week!

Crockpot Pork Carnitas

Cilantro Lime Caulirice

Sloppy Joe Bowls

Thai Chicken Stir Fry

Overnight Oats

24 Day Challenge

So I've been an distributor for Advocare for probably 9 months now. I really just joined so that I could get the discount on the Spark (which is amazing) and other products that we were using like Rehydrate. This will be our first 24 Day Challenge with them! I attempted one probably about 3 years ago when we first moved here, but I just wasn't committed. Now hubby is on board and we are very excited about doing our first 24 Day Challenge together. I will be posting some really awesome new recipes. Some are Whole30 and/or paleo friendly which is perfect for those of you out there still maintaining that lifestyle. 

If you are wanting to view the products or see what this is all about, please feel free to visit my Advocare page!