Asian Turkey Meatballs and Veggie Fried Rice…a fan fave healthy meal!

One of the hardest things for me in my weight loss journey was finding foods that tasted great but were also great for me. I’m sure you are all nodding your heads right now…it’s nearly impossible!  I just wanted to give up and keep being an unhealthy, somewhat happy little foodie…

So, one of the reasons I decided to do this blog/website thingamajig is so that I can also share my recipes.  I get so many requests for what I post pictures of, that how could I not share the yummy goodness?

We LOVE Chinese food in our house.  But really- have you ever checked out the nutritional values of your favorite menu items…Crab Rangoon…General Tso’s…Sweet and Sour Chicken…Egg Rolls…AUUUGGHHHH!  If you were eating one meal all week long and it was Chinese- you’d be set because that stuff just ain’t good for you!!  You could spread out all that badness across the whole week and maybe not feel quite so bad about it.  See where I’m heading here?  Yep.  I’m gonna tell you how to make a fantastic Asian inspired meal that won’t ruin your diet or kill your points when you’re counting.  And you’re gonna LOVE it!!

It’s a meal you can enjoy for under 600 calories…who doesn’t love that?

This is really one of the easiest meals to make and once you’ve done it, you’ll go back to it again and again…

   

Trust me on this one.  Give it a whirl and tell me that it’s not delish and simple!! Head into the kitchen and have fun!!

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees; line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and get ready to rock!!

Asian Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

20 oz. pkg. Ground Turkey, 93% lean

1 egg, beaten

3 green onions, sliced thin, whites and greens

3 TBS. chopped cilantro leaves

2 tsp. Sesame Oil

2 TBS. Low Sodium Soy Sauce

3 TBS. minced Ginger (I use the stuff in the tube, refrigerated, found near the fresh herbs in the produce section)

2 tsp. minced garlic (also used the ready minced stuff in the squeezy jar)

1/4 cup PANKO breadcrumbs

Throw all ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Mix gently together with a fork. Don’t over mix or the turkey will not hold together as well.

Gently make golfball sized meatballs and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.

You can bake at 450 for about 12-15 minutes…I use a meat thermometer and when they reach 160 degrees internally, they are done…

Veggie Fried Rice

Ingredients:

3 eggs…whites of 2 scrambled and 1 whole egg scrambled

3 Cups cooked Brown Rice ( I use instant rice; it holds up quite well)

1 pouch frozen Birdseye Steamfresh Mixed Veggies (carrots, beans, corn, peas…cook only 3 minutes in microwave)

1 TBS Low Sodium Soy Sauce (or more to taste…depends what you like)

1tsp Sesame Oil

3 green table onions sliced thin

1/4 cup cilantro leaves julienned

Pre cook rice and set aside.

Microwave veggies for only 3 minutes, set aside.

In a LARGE skillet, scramble egg whites, set aside; scramble whole egg, set aside.

Put a bit of olive oil in skillet and add rice, soy sauce and sesame oil; mix well.  Taste and adjust.

Add eggs and veggies; mix well, heating through until hot.  Adjust soy/sesame if desired.

Add green onions and cilantro; mix well.

Use salt only if desired to bring up flavors.  Serve with Asian Meatballs.

Serving Size: 3/4 cup Veggie Fried Rice; 5 Asian Turkey Meatballs

The “Buddy Wave”…how I really got to be a Triathlete!

So remember how I said I was a Triathlete?  And how I became a Triathlete in my 51st year of life?  Well…I didn’t just wake up one morning with the title and the ability to be one!!  Okay, well it kinda happened that way…

Remember how I was telling you all about my journey to better health and how me and my bestie, Linda, walked millions of miles on our “get healthy” mission?  Well, I haven’t yet told you about a few years in the middle of all that when we became BOXERS…no, not like the shorts…I mean, like Mohammed Ali boxers…fighters…anyway, yeah…that’s a story for another day.  Stay tuned!

So back to business.  Somewhere in those middle years, during the time when we were boxers, we became friends with Julie.  She’s the blondie in these photos.  Julie is “bad-assery” at it’s finest!  In about February of 2014, Julie was at the gym with us and threw out this little ditty: “So, you gals wanna do a Triathlon with me?”  Of course, being bad-asses ourselves (we were boxers, remember), we barely hesitated and said YES!  I mean, really.  We knocked the crap out of each other in the ring, we whaled on the heavy bag with a vengeance, we could run pads like the best of them.  Triathlon-Schmiathlon!!  How hard could it be?!!!  And in our zest to bring our happiness of new found athleticism to others, we dragged “T”, the cutie in the sunglasses, into the fold!  “T”, whose real name is Teresa, is one of the baddest female boxers-E.V.E.R.  Of course she agreed to be along for the ride!

Ha ha ha.  Well, we jumped in; we started all kinds of new training…swimming at the YMCA a number of nights each week-with Julie learning how to swim for the first time in her life…JUST for this event…riding our bikes long distances, running (okay, wagging…a ladylike cross between running and jogging).  We were gonna be ready!  Visions of standing on the podium to receive all the glory danced in our heads!!  We even dubbed ourselves “BACB’s”…Bad Ass Crazy Bitches.  Umm. Yeah.  For real. And we made the pact that we would race in the “Buddy Wave”…we were gonna stick together and no matter what, cross that finish line on race day.

Pre-Race registration…we fondly referred to ourselves as “Babe-ing Beauties”…

So then it was June.  Like it popped up out of nowhere….wasn’t it just February a few days ago?  Gah.  One day before the race.  The 4 of us went to Registration with all the bravado and feistiness you can imagine.  Look at us in our lovely bathing caps!!  No one told us we had to wear “regulation” caps!  We were “all that and bags of chips”!!  Yeah.  Okay.  We got it together and registered like we were pros shortly after this photo was taken.  We got our official race bibs, bathing caps, arms and legs numbered…and we strutted around like award winning Triathletes.  Oh yeah.  We still needed to race.

And then- it was race morning.  After a night of not sleeping and not being able to eat breakfast because we were so nervous, here we were!!  We met outside the race venue and gathered our courage, high five-ing, and dancing and singing!  We had this!  We set up our gear in the designated Transition Area- who knew that racking a bike could be such a big deal?!  Okay.  So, sorry we nearly knocked the racks down.  No one said we had to know how to balance a bike by it’s seat on a tiny little bar…with millions, yes millions of other bikes.  We got our shoes and socks ready, we got our biking and running (yeah, yeah, yeah…wagging) stuff ready…and then we couldn’t avoid it any longer.  It was time to head down to the water.  This was it.  This is what we had worked so hard to prepare for.  We were sweating buckets.  We were near tears.  We wanted to throw up. We were terrified.  

Pre-race pseudo bravado!

And then just like that, 3-2-1…GO!!!  And we were off.  We ran into the water and as soon as it was deep enough, we all started swimming.  Okay.  Dog-paddling.  Side-stroking (picture Ethel Merman here…).  Wishing we could touch the bottom.  And suddenly, the swim was over!  We found our way out of the water and back to Transition.  We thoughtfully dried off.  We put some dry clothing on.  We cleaned our feet and put our socks and shoes on.  We protected our noggins with our helmets.  We gathered our “steel steeds” from their racks and rambled out of Transition.  Wait, what?  Transition is timed?  We took almost 20 minutes? So much to learn!  And we were off.  Furiously riding our happy little “old lady cruisers” with the wind in our faces.  Legs burning, sweating buckets, hearts racing…all at about 10 miles per hour!  We were catching on near the end of the ride that we had to move through Transition a little more quickly than we had earlier.  I mean, gosh…look at all those other racers running into Transition. What were they running from?!!  Finally…the last leg of this heinous endeavor.  We were nearly 2 hours in at this point.  We were dying.  Yes…dying.  We were cursing the day we heartily agreed to this foolishness.  We were glaring at racers who had already finished and were sporting their glorious medals and noshing on post race treats.  We were barely moving.  But, like I said…we were Bad Ass Crazy Bitches…let’s not forget that.  We soldiered on.  We cheered for one another, we cursed out loud, we huffed and puffed, we smiled and waved to the onlookers…and before we knew it (okay so almost an hour later…) I’m sure the heavens were shining a spectacular light down on us and choirs of angels were singing…

THE FINISH LINE!!!  We had made it!!  We grabbed one another’s hands, threw our arms into the air and ran across TOGETHER.  Tears of joy.  Hugs all around. Muscles shaking and the ground seeming unstable under our feet. Finisher’s Medals around our necks.  We had done this thing we set out to do!!  We were TRIATHLETES!!

Post Race Finishers…all kinds of bad-assery happening here!!

Our families and friends were there to congratulate us.  We took our Post Race pictures with pride.  We felt like heros.  WE DID IT!  And my bestie and I?  We immediately signed up for 4 more races that very afternoon.  Afterall, why not?

Really- the point of sharing this story is this:  YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO DO!!!  Anything.  Remember…I was happy once, being a Couch Potato.  And now, I am a Triathlete!!