This marinade became a fast favorite in my home. Apple Cider Dijon Pork Tenderloin is a weekly staple in our healthy repertoire. We’ve expanded the marinade for use with chicken and turkey tenderloins as well. It’s delicious on grilled or baked proteins. It’s also incredibly easy to put together in a time pinch. I usually marinade the pork for about an hour before we cook it.
Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins trimmed and silver skin removed
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP sugar free syrup
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
3-5 cloves chopped garlic
2 tsp each fresh or dried herbs – pick 2 each time, I’ve tried all the combos and they are all delish (Thyme, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano)
Combine all ingredients in a large sealable bag. Shake and move around until the pork is well coated with the marinade. Let sit at room temperature for 30 min – 1 hour before grilling or baking to desired degree of doneness.
Part of shifting our eating to “partially plant-based” is redoing some of our favorite meals to utilize less (or no) animal proteins and more plant based proteins. My husband, Justin, has a few favorites that needed to be adjusted. First things first, BREAKFAST, the very most important meal of the day. In our regular egg and rice bake there is 3 whole eggs and 1 1/4 cups of egg whites. There’s also cheesy goodness too. In general there is a lot of animal proteins and fats. A quick redo and our plant-based sausage, egg & rice bake is not only healthier and more sustainable for the environment but it also TASTES better!
Here’s how to put it together. You’ll need the following ingredients:
1 cup of cooked white or brown rice
2 TBSP rice flour (or regular white flour)
2 whole egg
1/3 cup liquid egg whites
2 plant based sausage links (see pictures – Aldi brand) ** These are the best plant-based sausage links! If you can’t find them, try to find an alternative with similar numbers on the nutrition panel! **
1 tsp hot sauce
Stir together cooked rice, rice flour, and 2 whole eggs. Spread into the bottom of a loaf pan. Cut up your frozen sausage (lightly cooked in the microwave first) and place on top of the rice crust. Whisk together egg whites and hot sauce and evenly pour on top of the crust and sausage. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes depending on your oven. There should be no jiggle left when you shake the pan!
Each egg bake should be 1-2 meals depending on your macronutrient needs. *The exact portions will vary per person. Contact us for more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day! There is no need to guess at how much or how often you should eat – let us help you eat right for your body type and goals!
I first discovered Cabbage Steaks when I was making a delicious St. Patty’s day dinner for hubby and me. I needed a nice side dish to compliment my corned beef hash. The recipe I found for cabbage steaks brushed both sides with oil, topped with salt, pepper and garlic and roasted in the oven. They were delicious and an immediate hit in our house.
Since macro-based meal planning is what we do and how we eat, I decided to remove the oil from the cooking process and hoped the cabbage steaks would still be delicious. Spoiler alert – they were! So now we make the cabbage steaks sans the oil, just a little cooking spray on the pan. The rest of the process is similar and the cabbage is a staple a few nights a week.
Here’s how to roast up your very own meal plan approved cabbage steaks:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Pick a nice medium head of cabbage from the store. Remove the outer layers of loose leaves (usually one to two layers should do it).
Slice the cabbage into 3/4 – 1 inch “steaks”.
Spray cooking spray on foil or parchment lined baking sheet. Then place cabbage steaks on the sheet.
Generously add seasoning. We’ve tried many different combinations. Simple salt, pepper and garlic is perfect, or pictured here is “everything but the bagel” seasoning. You really can’t go wrong – be creative and let me know of any winning combinations!
Add cabbage steaks to the oven and set your timer for 25-30 minutes. Use tongs to flip the cabbage steaks over and lightly re-season the new side of the steaks. They may lose a little of their “steak shape” once flipped. That’s okay – they will still taste incredible!
Return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes. You may want to broil the cabbage steaks at the very end to get a little color on them.
The cabbage steaks have a buttery taste to them and are so amazing with turkey meatballs. We hope you’ll like this recipe as much as we do.
There are two main reasons to avoid cooking with oil:
The composition of oil changes when its heated up and toxins can be released depending on the boiling point of the oil
It’s hard to know how much oil is in your portion of food once the dish is finished. Keeping close watch on your fats, carbs, and proteins is very important in macro-based meal planning.
I get asked often how to saute vegetables without adding oil. It’s simple really, add other things that aremeal plan approved. In this dish – Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms – I use soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. That’s it – no salt, no pepper – nothing else! These veggies are an amazing topper to steak, ground beef, grilled chicken, salad, etc. The flavor is rich and delicious, you won’t miss the oil one bit!
Here’s how I prepare the Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms. First chop your large onion into medium size wedges then separate each layer. Next slice your mushrooms or buy the pre-sliced mushrooms and simply open the pack! Place onions and mushrooms in the saute pan and add your liquids. I add approximately 1 TBSP each of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and about 1/2 TBSP of the Worcestershire sauce (for one large onion and one regular size pack of sliced Portabello mushrooms). Then turn your pan on to high heat. You’ll saute until the liquid is pretty much gone and the mushrooms and onions have a nice golden brown color to them. It should take about 6-8 minutes total on high heat.
The Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms are so easy to make and truly delicious. Add them to your healthy cooking this week!
We create our recipes and fine tune them for macro-based eating that tastes great too! For additional Healthy EATS, click here!
*The exact portions will vary per person. Contact us for more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day!
I’m getting more and more dependent on meals I can prepare in advance so my husband can just pop in the oven if I’m still at work or busy with the kids! I love when the whole meal can be in one tinfoil pan too. This means easy to cook and easy to clean up…for a working mom it doesn’t get much better than that! I usually spend one day each week prepping a few pre-made pans of food for the nights I work late. Turkey meatballs and cabbage has become one of our very favorites for flavor and ease of preparation!
In my recipe for EASY Stuffed Peppers I explain that ground meat loses about 25% of its weight when cooked. So if you’re measuring your meat raw you need to account for this decrease. For the Meatballs & Cabbage recipe I measure 4 oz +/- for each meatball. So if you have a package of 40 oz of ground turkey (Sam’s and Costco sized packages) then you should get 10 meatballs.
Again, super easy to assemble. I take a head of cabbage and remove the outer 1-2 leaves. Then slice into thin “steaks” and place in the bottom of tinfoil pans. Usually 1 head of cabbage will make two pans for me. Then I thinly slice a sweet onion and spread around the two pans as well. I season the vegetables with salt, garlic powder and pepper. Before I portion out the meatballs I season with Italian seasoning or a mixture of whatever spices I have on hand. I’m a big fan of the Penzey’s salt free blends! Place the meatballs on top of the cabbage and onions. Add 1-2 TBSP of low sugar tomato sauce to the top of the meatballs and bake uncovered at 400-425 degrees (depends on your oven) for 55 min-1 hour.
Some helpful notes:
5 meatballs per pan seems to be the max to not have too much liquid cook out and saturate the cabbage. Add your fat portion after the meatballs are cooked. We love feta or Parmesan on the meatballs & cabbage meal but you could also drizzle a good quality olive oil!
So there’s stuffed peppersthen there’s EASY stuffed peppers. If you’re looking for the easy way to make this meal, then you’re in the right place! In my regular recipe, I first cook the ground turkey. It’s something I thought was necessary for portion control. Turns out, after some research, there is consistency that ground turkey/beef in general loses 25% of its weight when cooked. So, if you measure each raw portion of meat to be 4 oz, then cooked it will be 3 oz which just happens to be a perfect fit in a small to medium pepper.
How to Prepare:
For the EASY stuffed peppers, all you do is clean the peppers and remove the top and inside membranes and seeds. Season your ground lean meat with Italian seasoning. I also like to add fennel seeds as it makes the meat taste and smell like sausage when its cooked! Measure your raw meat to be 4oz give or take a little and stuff it into the pepper. Top with a few tablespoons of low sugar tomato sauce and 1-2 oz of cheese of your choice. You can also wait and add the cheese after the EASY stuffed peppers are cooked. Feta is one of my favorite cheeses to top with!
Bake the peppers at 400 degrees uncovered for approximately one hour. Let cool slightly before serving. Make a few pans up ahead of time with chopped vegetables and you’ll have easy weeknight healthy cooking ready to go for your family!
In terms of veggies, usually green means good and Kale is KING! Kale is one of the most nutrient rich vegetables and is chocked full of vitamins and antioxidants. Kale only has 33 calories per cup. There are many ways to prepare this leafy wonder but perhaps my favorite way is to bake it into crispy Kale chips.
To make Kale chips, buy (or grow) Kale stalks or the chopped kale in a bag. Wash the stalks thoroughly then remove the fibrous large center stem. Tear the Kale into small leafy pieces and place on a tinfoil lined baking sheet. If you did buy the chopped Kale, still go through it and remove any of the big stems. Spritz the Kale with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake the Kale on 350 degrees for 20 minutes (give or take a few minutes depending on your oven). The Kale should shrink dramatically in size. You’ll be left with crispy, salty, healthy chips. It doesn’t matter if you can’t stop after just one…eat the whole tray if you’d like!
*The exact portions will vary per person.Contact usfor more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day! There is no need to guess at how you should eat – let us help you eat right for your body type and goals!
What do people miss most when they diet? Good tasting food of course! Make your healthy eats taste great with simple ingredients that don’t add many calories to your meal. Our Sweet & Spicy Pork Tenderloin combines soy sauce, calorie free syrup and spicy garlic chili sauce to make a delectable marinade.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started: trimmed Pork Tenderloin – or trimmed chicken breasts or flank steak. Place your meat in a large resealable plastic bag. Combine equal parts of the three ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined. Pour the marinade over the meat and seal the bag. Toss the meat around in the marinade until it is well coated. Keep refrigerated until an hour before cook time.
For my recipe I used 1/4 cup of each of the marinade ingredients and two pork tenderloins. You could make a little extra marinade to place on the side and drizzle over the meat once it is cooked. You can broil, grill or bake your pork tenderloin, chicken or steak. The finished meat pairs nicely with broiled asparagus and avocado.
I was so excited to find out we were expecting baby number two. Our first born, Liv, is such a special part of our lives that doubling our love only made sense. Like any expecting mom, I juggled work, house work, caring for my daughter, preparing for baby #2 to come, and keeping my body healthy for 39 weeks. I experienced challenges with this baby that I didn’t have with my daughter — I was nauseous and sick more, I had insomnia yet extreme fatigue, and my lower back ached most of the third trimester. On the plus side, I had more excitement and anticipation because I was able to share the joy with my two year old who couldn’t wait to have a baby at home. So the good with the bad, my second pregnancy was as much of a blessing as my first, it was fun yet difficult at times and it was also filled with as much love as I could imagine. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to have the end result, a beautiful and healthy baby boy, Mack Joseph Check.
Sharing My Journey – The Workouts & Milestones
I enjoy telling my friends, family and clients about my FIT pregnancy and resulting easy delivery. The two are definitely related, that I’m sure! I’ve done it twice now, two pregnancies filled with mostly healthy eating and working out & two deliveries that were uneventful and some may even say “easy” (especially the second one which I’ll tell you all about next). For those of you who followed my first journey, My Fit Pregnancy, Delivery and Recovery, you’ll recall an overarching theme, I ate healthy meals consisting of proper carb, protein and fat ratios and I worked out throughout the entire pregnancy – listening to my body and its limitations. For a breakdown of a typical day of eating, visit my first fit pregnancy article to help you plan your meals.
My second fit pregnancy was much of the same as my first with a few changes. I did more planking and more stationary biking, two largely safe exercises for pregnant women. On average, I’d say I planked about 10-15 minutes each week and because I am a group cycle instructor, I was able to bike 3-5 5o minute classes each week. Planking can be modified as necessary but in general most variations of regular planks, side planking and reverse planking are acceptable. Next to swimming, stationary biking/group cycling is one of the best cardio exercises you can do while pregnant as it is low impact and the risks to injury are minimal. In addition to healthy eating and biking, I maintained a regular strength and resistance training regimen and stretched daily. Again, modifying exercises becomes applicable in the second trimester so knowing how to make safer adjustments is important.
In my first fit pregnancy blog, I posted progress pictures and detailed the three trimesters. As much of this pregnancy was a repeat of the first, I’ll just post some new pictures of the trimester milestones and discuss weight gain. Different from my first pregnancy, I barely gained any weight the first trimester. I was sick several times and just didn’t seem to put weight on. I started my pregnancy at 119 lbs and was around 123 at the end of the first trimester. The second trimester is where the big gains took place; I weighed in at 137 lbs at week 27; this leveled out with my first pregnancy as I was a similar size at this point. Then the last lag I gained about 8 more lbs and delivered our baby weighing 145 lbs. I ended up gaining about 26 lbs during this pregnancy. I started out smaller than I did with our first born but I ended up about 5 lbs heavier in the end. With Mack I had an appetite all the way to the day I delivered, whereas with Liv, I ran out of room and just couldn’t eat anymore so I actually lost weight the last few weeks of pregnancy.
Day 1 of Pregnancy
End of 1st Trimester
End of 2nd Trimester
End of 3rd Trimester
The Delivery
I spent nine months convincing myself that the delivery part isn’t that bad, but no matter how easy it was the first time it was still hard. Delivering Liv was the hardest thing I ever did but it was also my greatest accomplishment so no matter what, I was excited to do it all over again. Delivering baby # 2, Mack Attack, really was a surprisingly easy endeavor (as far as labor is concerned). Ladies, don’t throw tomatoes at me, I don’t mean to say I didn’t work hard and it didn’t hurt, it’s just that it was not that bad and again I attribute this to the fact that I was STRONG, FIT and ready to push!
With Mack, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions around week 17, that’s 12 weeks earlier than I had them with Liv. Right around the end of my 38th week they were noticeably more intense and because I was 4 cm dilated, I went to the hospital to see if I was in labor. While the contractions certainly didn’t take my breath away or stop me in my tracks, they were different than my first pregnancy and I wasn’t sure if they were just more Braxton Hicks or real contractions. When the hospital released me with false labor I went home and got back to normal living – walking outside for about an hour a day and doing light strength training and stretching.
The evening of June 16, 2018, my husband, Justin Check, our daughter and I sat down to a nice dinner. We also binge watched several episodes of Shameless then turned in for an early night around 9:30pm. Around this time I decided to start timing my contractions as they did seem a bit more painful than what I had become accustomed to. They were around 3 minutes apart when I felt a weird snap in my stomach. Then with each contraction I “peed a little”; later realizing that “snap” was my water breaking. When my legs started shaking we decided this must be real labor so we headed to the hospital.
By the time we were driving the pain and intensity had skyrocketed and the contractions were definitely the real deal. We arrived at Cape Coral Hospital at 10:26 pm. For those of you following along, at this point I had been in labor for less than an hour. The nurses were quick to get me checked out – I was already 10 cm, water broken, and holding back the urge push. The nurses were hoping I could hold baby Mack in long enough for a doctor to arrive but only three big pushes later out came little Mack! The nurses did a great job delivering our sweet baby boy and we felt so lucky to be in their capable hands. The doctor showed up to assess and deliver the placenta. There was no noticeable tearing and no stitches needed. Weighing 7 lbs and 6 oz & 20 inches tall, Mack came into this world at 10:48 pm – just over an hour after I first started having painful contractions. His fast and furious entrance was a blessing and we were so excited to meet him, be done with the hard part, and start the love fest!
The Aftermath
With time on my hands in the hospital, I mostly kissed all over my sweet boy, shared the joy with family and thought about the whirlwind of a delivery I had just experienced. The whole event kept circling in my mind and I kept thinking how easy it was and how awesome that I was only in pain for an hour. I had used my strong core (thanks planks!), strong legs, and my muscle awareness to push baby number two out in a hurry. It is no coincidence that Mack made his entrance in record time and with minimal damage to my body thanks to fitness!
Within a week of delivering I largely felt back to normal. I started some light cardio, stretching and upper body band work. Then 3 weeks after delivering, I added some body weight exercises to my routine – squats, lunges, planks. I couldn’t believe how quickly I felt back to myself. I’m not suggesting everyone should be able to workout shortly after having a baby, or risk your body healing properly, but for me, I could tell my body was ready to move. I listened to how I felt and took it easy until I was 100% sure I could handle lifting weights and stepping up the cardio! Again, my theory is the stronger you go into delivery, the easier it will be, the faster you will heal, and the quicker you can get back to being you!
Fast forward to me writing this article and I am nearly in all of my pre-pregnancy clothes. At almost 6 weeks postpartum, I’ve lost about 20 lbs of the weight I gained. I have about 5 more pounds to lose but I have more work to do on my composition. During pregnancy I was not able to keep the muscle mass that I normally have so now that I’ve taken most of the weight off, it’s time to work on changing my composition to increase muscle and decrease fat. Ladies, it’s a work in progress! But, I feel so much more like me and I’m so proud of the baby I gave birth to, my journey to get there, and the aftermath!
Should you have any questions on what I did before, during or after my pregnancy to stay healthy and fit, I’d be happy to answer them. Seeking professional help to ensure proper nutrition and safe fitness during and after pregnancy is smart. Email me if you’d like help you with your journey!
Basil, balsamic vinegar, and tomatoes are the basis for a delicious bruschetta. There’s no crispy bread or rich cheese in this recipe but I promise you won’t even miss them when you try our Bruschetta Quinoa. Quinoa is one of the superfoods that everyone has been buzzing about. It’s gluten-free, high in protein and one of the few plant foods that contain all nine essential amino acids. Quinoa also has a nutty flavor and provides satiety that is long lasting!
Here’s how to make my Bruschetta Quinoa. You’ll need 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes, a handful of chopped fresh basil (or 2 TBSP dried if its all you have), 1/2 cup chopped onion (green, red or sweet white will all work), and 1/4 cup finely chopped spicy green peppers (we grow these in our garden so I have an abundance; you could certainly leave out or add a jalapeno or some bell pepper instead). Add the above ingredients to 3-4 cups of cooked quinoa (follow package instructions to cook). We also make this same salad with couscous and it is also delicious. Fold in 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar until it nicely coats the whole salad. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
This amazing recipe and all of the Check Total Health “Healthy Eats” are created and tested by us! Try our other recipes here.
*The exact portions will vary per person.Contact usfor more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day! There is no need to guess at how you should eat – let us help you eat right for your body type and goals!
For my recipe I used 1/4 cup of each of the marinade ingredients and two pork tenderloins. You could make a little extra marinade to place on the side and drizzle over the meat once it is cooked. You can broil, grill or bake your pork tenderloin, chicken or steak. The finished meat pairs nicely with broiled asparagus and avocado.
