The Best Garden Salsa You'll Ever Make Recipe ~ Healthy, Delicious, Low-Cal, Vegetarian

The Best Garden Salsa You'll Ever Make Recipe

(Makes about 6 Cups)

When you live in Arizona, knowing how to make an excellent Salsa is a must! We are Mexican food lovers and eat delicious fresh and Baja style Mexican food many times per week! Our family calls this our "secret recipe", it's been in our family for years. (Although it's not much of a secret we are always sharing this recipe with friends whenever we get a chance! :) Try it!, I think you'll love it! We prepare it for nearly every family party or gathering we have. If you're looking for heat this wouldn't be the ideal recipe, but if you're looking for a seriously tasty tortilla topper or side, this is it! This delicious chunky Garden style salsa recipe is really fresh and is sure to please. It's very simple to make and won't disappoint!

Ingredients:

3 14.5oz Cans Hunt's Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic (Hunts brand is a must)
1 4 oz can diced/chopped green chilies, drained
1 4oz can diced/chopped jalapenos, drained (strain seeds for very mild salsa)
1/4 bunch Cilantro, chopped
1/2 bunch green onions chopped,
1 Medium white onion, diced
1 clove garlic minced
Large pinch of Cumin
Squeeze of Lime & Lemon juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large bowl, pour in all 3 cans of tomatoes. Add the garlic, chilies, jalapenos, onion, green onions, and cilantro and stir. Add dash of cumin, lemon or lime juice and salt and pepper to taste and stir. Enjoy immediately or cover and refrigerate.

Tip: Let the salsa refrigerate so the ingredients can marinate. It tastes even better the next day! Each half cup of Salsa only contains about 35 calories, plus you're getting a great serving of raw veggies, onions and garlic. So healthy! If you happen to make this recipe, I'd love to know what you think! :)

Read More

Homemade Banana "Ice Cream"! ~ So Easy, One Ingredient! Make This Treat for Under 200 Cals!

What's the perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth and use up some overly ripe Bananas? 

Homemade Banana "Ice Cream"! :) 

Did you know the longer a Banana ripens the more nutrient dense it becomes? Fortunately there are a lot of great things we can make with ripe bananas including smoothies, breads and this delicious ice cream. I make this ice cream often and wanted to share with you just how easy it is to prepare. The best part is, this great dessert is under 200 calories so you can feel good about indulging without over-indulging. A perfect treat just in time for Summer!

What You'll Need:

Ripe Bananas - about 1 per serving (100 Calories Each)

Freezer bags - to freeze slices

A good Blender - I used a Ninja

Optional:
My Favorite Chocolate Sauce Ever! 

Photo Courtesy of Jen's Zen FB

Toppings of your Choice

I used a Newman's Own Oreo Cookie as a topper (65 Calories)

2 tablespoons of Almond milk Blended with Bananas (10 calories)

(Milk isn't necessary to add, just optional)

Jen's Zen Chocolate Sauce for Decor (& for tasty :) (15 calories)

Making the Ice Cream: (4 Servings)

You'll need 4 Ripe Bananas, Some Freezer Bags, and a Plate & Knife for Slicing Bananas

Peel and Slice bananas into med-thin slices. Divide slices into two small freezer bags and freeze for atleast an hour until bananas are frozen.
(Seperating slices into 2 bags instead of one large bag, helps prevent slices from sticking to each other, making them blend smoother and slices freeze faster.)

Blend on High about 1 minute until texture is creamy and smooth.

You can even mix in your favorite ingredients during this process for an even yummier treat. Try Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Toffee Pieces, Candy, Cookie Pieces, Fresh Fruit like Strawberries, Pineapple, Mango. The possibilities are endless. :) 

Stir Ice Cream and Serve!
Kids love this Ice Cream! Serve in bowl or scoop a super cold mixture onto cones for Summer pefect Ice Cream cones!

This banana ice cream is rich and decadent, so a little bit goes a long way. Enjoy! :) 

Read More

Sunny Side Up Shamrocks! ~ Eggs Made With Green Bell Peppers! St. Patty's Day Breakfast

I seen these cute "Shamrock" eggs on Pinterest and made them on St. Patrick's Day. They were a little difficult to make without the proper non-stick spray but if you use something non-stick you'll have a cute breakfast presentation for St. Patrick's Day! 

To make 4 Shamrocks, all you'll need is 4 Eggs, Non-Stick Cooking Spray and 2 Green Bell Peppers. 

After washing the Green Peppers, turn them on their sides, and slice vertically near the top of the pepper. The bottom of the pepper has 3 sides but the top has 4. Interesting right? That's why you might need 2 peppers, so you can get 4 four-sided slices. When choosing Green Peppers, try to choose the most curviest four-sided tops for more Shamrock appeal!

Place Peppers on a nonstick pan and fry peppers on each side to heat them up and give them great flavor. When cracking egg into pepper, be sure to hold down the pepper cutout to prevent the egg from spilling into pan. (Mine spilled a little.) If your egg spills beneath and throughout the pan, it's okay too, they just won't be as clean cut when taking out. 

About two minutes later and a little Black Pepper...

After about 6 minutes remove from pan and discard the 'extra' spillage. Place on plate and 

Voila~!

Sunny Side Up Shamrocks!

They're super healthy and low in Carbs and Calories! The Green Pepper has a fajita like taste and tastes great with the eggs!

If you happen to make these, leave a comment below and let us know how it turned out! We'd love to hear from you! :)

Happy March Everyone! 

Read More

Tilapia & Lemon Kale Beet Salad ~ Delicious & Healthy Low Calorie Eating ~ Easy Meal Idea

It's Tuesday and that means I've been on my 'super healthy eating' diet plan for 5 Days! So how do I feel? One word; Amazing! I know, I know, people always say that right? But really how else would be feel after eating what nature intended our bodies to eat, live food bursting with nutrition and enzymes! I have so much energy! Seriously! It's definitely an awesome feeling. 

Earlier I was thinking to myself...why is it that I like to eat a bag of cookies or munch down on so much junk food or fast food when I can feel like THIS? And I thought to myself, maybe it's because I always forget how THIS feels. I never allow my body enough time to get to this point and to experience what a healthy body and a lot of energy and clarity can really feel like. And it's true that once your 'hooked' on junk food, alot like smoking, it's hard to stop, or want to stop. Now that I've 'detoxed' the yucky out and got over my migraines (from sugar I'm guessing?) I don't want to stop this eating plan. My boyfriend brought home a pizza yesterday and though normally I'd be on it like a vultures on a...well it just didn't seem very appetizing! Or edible for that matter. All that grease and all that bread. Bread is my favorite food so please oh please don't let me lose my will! My boyfriend is pretty sure something is wrong with me for not wanting anything to do with his Pizza. :) 

This month grocery stores around here were having great sales on Seafood because of Lent. I made sure to stock up on a lot of fish and put it in the freezer. One of them being Tilapia! Though it's a white fish and it's not quite as flavorful as Salmon, there's a lot you can do with it. Normally when I'd buy Tilapia I'd bread it and made a fish fry or my favorite, put the Tilapia in flour tortillas with slaw, homemade salsa, guacamole, tangy sauce and fresh cilantro for Fish Tacos! Yum! 

For lunch I baked Tilapia with pepper and fresh lemon and made a great salad from Kale and Beet! 

This salad turned out really delicious! It was very easy to make too. Normally I'd use the regular more foliage Kale as it's less tough to chew in salads but I had a veggie mishap at the grocery store and needed to find more uses for it. :)

I used:

♥ 3 leaves of Flat Leaf or Regular Kale, remove stems, hand tear into bit size bits

♥ 1 Beet, washed and grated with a cheese grater (the pigment can stain your skin, you might want to use some gloves)

♥ juice of a 1/2 lemon

The Lemon is important because it brings out the sweetness of the Beet and breaks down the toughness of the Flat Leaf Kale. :)

I also wanted to share a really great Tarter sauce from Whole Foods! 

It's from Whole Food's 365 brand. (My Mother works for Whole Foods so she tells me about their training on their brand and store policies) You can always trust the ingredients from the 365 brand and it's almost always just as affordable as say, Target brand, ect. Great ingredients in this Tarter sauce, unlike the High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated Oil Tarter Sauce I often find in stores. 

Full of Good Stuff

 I added a little on my Tilapia while eating and it tasted so good! The extra bit of calories the tarter adds is definitely worth it a little treat  ;)

Let me know if you try this salad, I'd love to know if you liked it :)

Read More

Strawberry Banana Greek Yogurt: Nutritious & Delicious Dessert Under 200 Calories!

After a dinner tonight of broiled Salmon, streamed broccoli and citrus romaine salad I was craving something super decadent for dessert! Feeling like I had been a good girl for dinner I was tempted to go out for ice cream with my boyfriend. He loves going to Baskin Robbins and whenever we go, I always get my favorite, a Mocha Blast Iced Coffee drink.... oh my god, so yum. We decided to take Miyagi for an after dinner walk and I was feeling so good after eating a light dinner that the entire walk I was already feeling the guilt of a Mocha Blast weigh on my conscience. That was when I decided that the Mocha Blast would have made me happy for a few minutes, but the 650 (yikes!) calories would have lasted a lot longer.

So when I came home I looked in the fridge for something sweet I could put together and like a light from the heavens or the Greek Gods (hehe) I seen oh so yummy Vanilla Greek yogurt, a pint of strawberries and a banana looking out to me from deep inside the fridge. Alas, Le Dessert!

I used a half banana, 2 strawberries and 6oz of yogurt accounting for about 190 calories. My boyfriend added extra yogurt and a squeeze of chocolate sauce on his. It was so enjoyable and I feel equally satisfied as I would have having Ice Cream and best of all there is no guilty girl. I had an amazing dinner and a lovely dessert for about 550 calories :)

I had Greek Gods Yogurt on hand (It's not truly Greek despite the name) but I highly recommend Chobani, Fage and Voskos brand as well. They're great for adding to smoothies and enjoying with fruit. When it's healthy and tastes so good, it's definitely a win/win! :) Let's choose Health ladies! ;)

Tell us! Which Greek Yogurt brand is your favorite?

Read More

Four New Year's Eve Drinks Under 200 Cals! Fancy, Fruity & Bubbly!

I have a few solid plans for tomorrow night (New Year's Eve) and they are to Eat, Drink & be Merry! Those would be most people's Holiday plans but I didn't get to celebrate Christmas so I'm making up for it on New Years Eve. It's still technically the Holidays anyway right? :)

I've also been making great progress on some weight loss that I don't want to blow so I did some digging to find some great drinks us ladies watching our calories can indulge in. Fancy, fruity and bubbly, a drink for every taste: 

Fancy:

Pomegranate Martini

A 4oz serving made with pomegranate vodka and pure pomegranate juice (about 50/50) only has 185 calories! Delicious and full of antioxidants. 

Red Wine

A glass of red wine boasts 120 delicious calories per 5 ounces. Remember a jumbo glass can hold 10 ounces or more so remember glass half full ;)

Fruity:

Strawberry Daiquiri

You can whip up your own low calorie daiquiri using frozen fruit with no added sugar. Strawberries make a perfect choice because they're naturally sweet. Mix three partially thawed berries in blender with ice, half oz lime juice and one and half shot of Rum. Add a little water to blend and you're set for 195 calories!

Bubbly:

Champagne

Pour Champagne into flutes and add a few raspberries. Pretty, delicious and only 100 calories per 5 ounce glass. Your best drink option! You can also make your own spritzer with club soda and ice added to white wine. 

4 Delicious drinks under 200! I'll toast to that!

Happy New Year Moxie Beauty Friends! :)

Read More

Craving Chinese Takeout? Eat This Instead! Lunch Under 200 Calories!

Today I had a huge craving for some Asian chow so I made myself an Asian inspired lunch that was wonderful and under 200 calories! Lunch consisted of Mandarin Orange Chick'n (meatless), Kale Salad with Cranberries and Pine Nuts (recipe to come soon!) and delicious Miso Soup! Mmm Mm yummy! 

Go ahead and have Seconds! 

Even though these portions look small we can eat all the Miso soup and Kale to our tummy's desire without packing on much calories. Make sure to buy Low Sodium Miso soup because the regular version is packed with Salt which can make you retain extra water!

The instant Miso soup I use can be found here, I recommend it for you Miso soup lovers out there and I will be doing a full review on it later!

I really loved this light lunch and it satisfied my crazy craving for Chinese takeout! I might have just saved myself thousands of calories! :)

Read More