bacon-wrapped stuffed mini peppers

I said it in my last post, but in case you are wondering my status - SURPRISE! Still in a food rut!

We have been keto-ing for awhile (can I use that as a verb?), and while I've been feeling great, I am SO. TIRED. OF. CHICKEN.
At the beginning, I was all ambitious with our meals.  Super motivated, going all out, making all kinds of complex dinners.
Naturally, that tapered out #becauselife. Working, mothering, doing laundry, keeping life together in general - all of these things took over my motivation, and somewhere along the way we started having a protein + roasted veg every night.
And I mean every night.
A girl can only eat so much chicken, ya'll.

Help!
What are your favorite low carb meals? And/or snacks?
I am still on the workout train (love you Pure Barre Cumming 💓), but food-wise I need a major re-haul.

Full disclosure: I made waffles over the weekend, and I don't regret one bite of those.  Not one.
They were the Kodiak Cakes protein waffles (buttermilk flavor), and if you haven't had them, run don't walk to get them now!
They are so versatile! They're great plain but can easily be dressed up, which I love.
I added chocolate chips for Tuck's birthday breakfast, and Saturday morning we had them with strawberries and syrup!
The greatest part is that, depending on how you make them, they can have up to 21g of protein!

Also, can we talk about how great waffle makers are?  I honestly think that's my most-used wedding gift.

*steps off the waffle soap box*

By Sunday, I was ready to get back to the grind.
So, in an effort to pull myself out of this rut, I took a quick survey of all the groceries we had left in the house and decided to spend a little time making a fun snack.

You guys, these were delicious!
IMO, this would be even better with a jalapeno in place of the pepper (I love stuffed jalapenos so much), but we had a bag of mini sweet bell peppers on hand, so I went with it.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 mini bell peppers
• 4-5 strips of bacon
• your favorite pimento cheese (feel free to make your own! I used Palmetto Cheese w/ Jalapenos to spice it up a little)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash and dry the mini peppers. Slice in half and clean out any seeds.
3. Put a spoonful of pimento cheese in each pepper. Make sure to smooth it throughout the whole pepper half!
4. Cut all of the bacon strips in half.  Wrap half a strip of bacon around each pepper.
5. Put a baking rack on top of a sheet pan, and line the peppers up (seam down) on the rack.
6. Bake for 20 minutes (or until bacon is at desired level of crispiness) and enjoy!

I sort of wish I brushed these with a smidge of BBQ sauce at the end and tossed them back into the oven to let it caramelize for a few minutes...

However, they were delicious as-is!

And just what I needed to spice up my currently boring dinner routine.

I served these as a side to BBQ chicken cutlets, but they would be great as a pre-dinner appetizer as well!

What fun snacks are you making these days?

cheesy chicken and broccoli

This is a lazy recipe.
I'm just gonna go ahead and throw that out there.
But it's lazy in a good way, and it's delicious, and easy, and you should make it because we all have chicken and broccoli and cheese on hand (even when all we want is takeout).

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of chicken breast, diced into cubes
• 1-2 tbsp of your oil of choice (I used avocado oil this time, EVOO is perfect too!)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb broccoli florets
• handful of shredded cheddar cheese (maybe a cup? Make it as cheesy as you like!)

Directions:

1. Cut chicken breast into cubes, and season with salt & pepper to your liking.
2. Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat, and saute chicken with minced garlic for 2-3 minutes.
3. Before the chicken is done cooking, add the broccoli.  Continue to saute until the chicken is cooked through and broccoli is tender.  (This would be a great time to add cauliflower rice too, if you wanted some extra veg!)
4. Drain any extra liquid that has accumulated.  Add cheese and stir for a few moments, until melted and delicious.  Enjoy!

We are still trying to eat mostly low carb meals, but this would be great served over white or brown rice.

I really wanted to add cauliflower rice to ours, but somehow we were out.  Isn't that how it always happens?  I feel like I'm always missing one ingredient if I don't actually meal plan.

We had this for lunch one weekend when I was refusing to grocery shop, but it turned out great and was super quick (which means it would also make a great weeknight meal).

Lord knows I've been looking for easy weeknight meals lately.

Do you have a meal you are loving?

Please share if you do.  I am in the biggest of food ruts.

Especially for breakfast.  I cannot eat one more egg!!!!

#sendhelp

This is an exciting week in the D household.

Tuck is turning 3 tomorrow (HOW?! WHY?! MAKE IT STOP!), and I started my part-time schedule at work to get more time with the kiddos.

Moms in the Atlanta area, what do you do with your kids?

I have all this extra time that I didn't have before, and I want to do all the things!