Clean Up Your Kitchen...Eat Clean Egg Strata

I love this 'clean' version of one of my favorite breakfasts! You can't even tell it's healthy for you...it tastes SO good! Perfect for those special occasions when you want a big breakfast. This is was we ate on Easter morning this year!

Eat Clean Egg Strata

Recipe from Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook

1 lb. lean ground turkey

1 Tbs. EVOO

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

Pinch roasted garlic powder

1 tsp. sea salt, divided

9 egg whites + 3 whole eggs

Dash Tabasco sauce

2 cups skim milk

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. black pepper

1 loaf sourdough bread, at least 16 slices, crusts removed

1 cup grated low-fat Monterey Jack cheese

1 small onion, chopped

The night before:

1. Coat a lasagna baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Prepare ground turkey. Heat olive oil in medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add lean ground turkey and cook until no longer pink. Break up any big clumps as the meat cooks. Season with poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Once meat has cooked, remove it from the heat and pour it into a strainer to drain fat and liquid away. Let sit while you prepare the rest.

3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix eggs, 1/2 tsp. salt, Tabasco, milk, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and pepper. Using a wire wisk, beat egg mixture well until frothy. Set aside.

4. Begin to assemble strata. Arrange one layer of bread slices on the bottom of the lasagna pan. Make sure to cover any bare spots in the pan with a piece of bread. Place half the crumbled meat mixture on the bread. Top with one half of the grated cheese and half of the chopped onion. Repeat layer, again starting with bread. There will be only two complete layers and you should end with grated cheese and onion.

5. When you have created two layers, slowly pour egg mixture over contents of lasagna pan. You may have to give the bread some time to soak up some of the mixture as you go. Cover loosely with tin foil and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning:

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove tin foil from strata. Place in pre-heated oven on center rack and bake for 60 minutes. The dish will come out of the oven very puffy and light. Let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Eat Clean Comfort Food

Eat Clean Recipe, "Build It Yourself Lasagna'

Food Journal

The dirty truth is that if you're not keeping track of what you're eating, you're most likely OVER EATING! That's how it is for me, at least.

Today's a different day. I've got my cheap, 30 cent notebook, and I've committed to start writing down EVERYTHING I put in my mouth. If I don't, I make excuses to eat anything I want and I don't want to live that way.

When I eat clean, I feel great. When I don't, I feel like crap! It's a simple equation, really. I have to favorite quotes when it comes to eating:

"If you want the last 20 yrs of your life to be a living hell, keep eating crap." ~ Tony Horton, 2010 Beachbody Summit

"Everything you put in your mouth shapes what you look like." ~Tosca Reno, Eat Clean Diet Cookbook

Today is a new day. I'm going to plan my week of healthy, clean eating meals and commit to YOU and MYSELF that I'm going to DO MORE for myself this week.

Eating Right is Essential

So many of us have busy lives and fitting in a workout is hard enough, let alone eating right too. Did you know that 80% of what we look like is because of what we eat? 80%!!!! That's crazy! That just goes to show that we need to be watching what we eat, (and no, I don't mean looking-at-it-as-it-goes-into-our-mouths, type of "watching") but keeping track of what we put into our bodies, every single day. Here are a few pointers that I have for doing this:

*When grocery shopping, go shopping with a purpose. Plan healthy, realistic meals for your family before you go to the grocery store. This helps on spending less as well as helping you eat better because it's planned out.

*Have a plan of what you're going to eat for the whole day. For some people, planning this the night before works, some like to do it first thing in the morning. I plan every meal, as well as my snacks. If I know what I'm eating and around what time, I'll know what to reach for instead of roaming my fridge or pantry when I'm hungry. PLAN IT!

*Write down every thing you eat. This includes portion sizes and measurements of the amount you're eating. If you can, it's helpful to learn of the calorie content for these things too. That way you know how many calories you're consuming in a day and can monitor that more closely. If you want to lose weight, this is KEY! Even if you're trying to gain or maintain your weight, knowing how much you're actually consuming is very important!

*Some of my favorite websites for healthy eating are, of course, the Team Beachbody site (www.amymusgrove.com), www.eatcleandiet.com and www.sparkpeople.com. There are so many free resources out there to help with meal planning and keeping track of calories! If you want more advice, I'm just an email away!

"Everything you put in your mouth shapes what you look like." -Tosca Reno