FIXATE cookbook recipe reviews!

The following recipe reviews are from the Fixate cookbook by Autumn Calabrese.  These reviews are my initial reactions from my first time making each item listed.  I will add new items as I try them so feel free to check back for additional reviews!  I hope to continue to do this for non-Fixate recipes as well!  See the links on my blog or feel free to leave a comment/message me for more information!

Background:

The recipes are based on the 21 Day Fix diet plan which comes with the Beachbody 21 day fix program.  The diet is based on eating a certain number of color-coded containers a day.  Each color stands for something, for example, red= proteins.  You calculate the # of each color of containers you can have a day based on your weight and caloric requirement.  Then you base your meals and snacks throughout the day to fit these container requirements.  Sometimes things get complicated when you want to eat meals that combine carbs, veggies, proteins so that's why this cookbook is so great.  It takes the guesswork out of figuring out how many containers are in things like a chocolate chip cookie or a pasta dish, for example.  I'm not at all excited about eating meat with a side of veggies every night so this allows me to eat my favorite things or find alternatives! My mom and I were so excited to try these.  Thanks mom for your cooking expertise!  I give her credit for making most of these! Most of them have been delish!  

I wanted to review them because healthy eating does not have to boring or taste bad! This is such a common misperception and I'm out to change it!  ;)

At the top of each recipe within the book, it's listed how many of each color containers EACH SERVING fulfills.  I've found and heard some of these may be incorrect and I'll try to update them here as I find out these corrections. The nutrition information is also listed at the bottom of the page.   

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DancingGator Rating Key:

DOUBLE Jazz Hands:  Wait a minute...THIS is healthy?!?

Jazz hands: Loved it!

Call Back: Might try it again, probably with modifications...

Curtain call: Probably not trying that again!

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DRESSINGS
Raspberry Vinaigrette (1 orange)- pg 77

Pictured with additional recipes: Steak from Steak Fajitas & Spicy Cauliflower Bites (see below)
RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!!

This one was so good!  It is sweet, but I think thats inferred by the name.  You make with fresh raspberries so it's much more berry-tasting than the store-bought raspberry dressings I'm familiar with...maybe they just use the juice?  You use 1/2 cup so keep that in mind when planning to make this!  :)  It's made with greek yogurt to create the creaminess.  What a great idea!  I feel like this adding greek yogurt to salad dressing fills my "but I love creamy salad dressings!" void! We paired this with the steak salad (also from the cookbook- see salad section)  I wasn't sure about this because I usually pair fruity dressings with fruity salads, but it worked nicely with the steak seasoning.

*Insider tip: Greek Yogurt- like whoa!*
As an aside, have you all discovered how great plain greek yogurt is?  It tastes terrible if I eat it alone as yogurt (I think this is because I go in thinking it's going to taste sweet like the fruity ones), but using it in place of sour cream for mexican inspired dishes or in recipes when you would normally use mayo!  Tastes the same and so much less fat, plus added protein!  Genius!

I've also found it to be tolerable with honey and/or fruit mixed in as yogurt alone.  I realized you get less overall sugar if you buy the plain greek yogurt versus the ones that have fruits already mixed in. Plus it has more protein!  An extra step, but if you meal prep anyways you don't really notice it and the fresh fruit so much better!!!  My favorite is the Fage (pronounced "Fa-yeh"- ) total 0% fat and I buy 1/2 with the honey "sidekick" to make it easy!

Sorry for the diversion, but I myself was so anti- plain greek yogurt I had to let you all in on that secret!  ;)

Lemon Dijon Salad Dressing (1 orange)- pg 75

RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!!
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This one was great as well.  VERY DIJON-y!  Only make this if you really like your dijon mustard!

Caesar Salad Dressing (1 orange)- pg 79

RATING: Can I do a DOUBLE JAZZ HANDS!?!?

Ok, this one had me eating it out of the bowl with a spoon.  (Hint: It's no longer healthy if eaten this way!  Take your orange container and hide the rest of this one from yourself!!!)  Now if I can just find a ranch dressing made with greek yogurt I'll be set.  Oh I will find this!


SALADS
Steak salad (3 green, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 orange)- pg 67

Pictured with: Steak from Steak Fajitas, Raspberry Vinaigrette & Spicy Cauliflower Bites (see above & below)
RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!!

What a great salad!  I'm always a fan of a good steak salad.  We did not make this exactly as the recipe called for.  Used the larger tomatoes- definitely prefer these since they're in season right now!  Skipped the avocado.  Love avocado, but unfortunately not on hand.  I'm thinking this would add a blue container too, but this was not listed in the cookbook!  Does that mean what I think it means?!?  Free BLUE!  Haha.  Always up for justifying extra blues!  ;)  As I mentioned for the raspberry vinaigrette review, this dressing pairing was unexpectedly awesome!

BREAKFAST
Vegetable Egg Cups (1 red)- pg 119

RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/Aa6WvyTjMzsehXbM7KrGBpiU40RS--mznOkvm3mMg4x8jlluNLsTj5M/

Ok, I'll admit, I thought these were the best idea ever!  I love egg sandwiches, but I don't want use up my yellow (carb) containers 1st thing in the am.  I also don't have a lot of time in the am to be making eggs before work.  Now I haven't tried this yet, but my idea with these is that I'll make them ahead of time, freeze them so I can have eggs any time!  I usually have greek yogurt for breakfast so this will be nice if I want to change things up.  We made these as directed and they were good, but kind of plain alone.  We paired them with some salsa though and they were great!  Obviously this would not keep them portable so I would recommend adding your favorite seasoning or additional salt and pepper to make them more flavorful.  Also, if you're going to transport them, using muffin cups may make this easier, but you definitely don't need them.  BEST PART: you get to eat two cups!!!  You can also create different variations and there's tons of these andother breakfast foods on pinterest!  ;)

https://www.pinterest.com/gatormeggs/21-day-fix-breakfasts/

LUNCH
Steak Fajitas (1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 teaspoon)- pg165

RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!
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Just like the steak salad, these were great.  In fact, we used the steak leftover from the fajitas to make the steak salad.  (She recommends this in the book as well).  And guess what?!?  In place of sour cream, we're using plain greek yogurt!  The seasoning for steak is light and easy consisting of rubbing the steak (Mom made on the grill!) with cumin, chili powder, red pepper flakes, and garlic.  The recipe in the cookbook is with a nonstick skillet and is served with a homeade salsa found on pg 85, but mom made her own!  We also used whole wheat tortillas instead of corn.  Just personal preference!

Sweet Potato Ricotta Gnudi in Pumpkin Sauce 
(2 yellow, 1 orange)- pg 167

RATING:  DOUBLE JAZZ HANDS!!!
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This one was one of my favorites!  A taste of fall!  Mom expected it to be sweeter.  You do add a drizzle of honey, cinnamon, nutmeg to the plate so to make the dish sweeter, she added some honey and this did help.  Another reason this was awesome..SO MUCH FOOD!!!  The recipe makes 18 "gnudi" (pronounced "nu-dee"). This is a type of gnocchi made with ricotta cheese.  Nope I didn't know what this was either!  So get this though, the serving size is 6 each.  This doesn't sound like a lot, but these were about the size of golf balls so it ends up being a lot of food! The whole recipe serves 3 if everyone eats 6.  We each had 3 as a side and froze the rest for later.  Shhh...mom made with greek yogurt in place of ricotta!  I haven't made with ricotta yet so I can't speak for differences, but like I said it was great!  A good substitution if you don't have ricotta on hand! 

SIDES
Spicy Cauliflower Bites (2 green, 1/2 yellow- phew!)-pg 181

RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!!
Pictured with: Steak from Steak Fajitas, Raspberry Vinaigrette & Spicy Cauliflower Bites (see above & below)

Always looking for more greens that don't taste like greens!  ;)  These were a great side!  Mom made with a buffalo sauce as the "pepper sauce" giving them a buffalo wing-like flavor.  Autumn doesn't specify the pepper sauce (probably on purpose) so if you really like spicy you can go for it!  Unfortunate that this counts towards the yellow containers, but at least it's only a half!!!!  Autumn pairs this with a lemon garlic sauce found on page 87 (a hidden orange container!!!) and celery sticks.  She suggests it as a great party dish. I agree!  Healthy alternative to buffalo wings!  We had as a side to our steak salad instead.  Still great!

Zoodles aka Zucchini Pasta (1 1/2 green, 1/2 purple)- pg 183

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RATING: DOUBLE JAZZ HANDS!!!

I give this a double jazz hands because it has so much potential!  We made ours with my mom's own marinara sauce recipe, but Autumn has her own called Grandma's Tomato Sauce on page 81.  I'm sure I'll make this eventually so stay tuned!  My biggest fear in making zoodles is I don't have the "spiralizer" kitchen tool....but it's on the wishlist after this recipe!  

http://thenourishinghome.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Zucchini-Noodles-Thin.jpg
Spiralizer!

My mom made the zoodles with a mandolin.  

http://beijinghaochi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/carrots4.jpg

A similar theory here.  It slices veggies into strips (or slices things like cucumbers- seems easier than with a knife! I'm learning so much about cooking!!!  So we had straight zoodles instead of curly ones and perhaps they were a little thicker.  With the zucchini, it's a very light-tasting veggie so it easily takes on the taste of whatever sauce you put on it. This is why I say this has great potential!  The sauce is the best part anyways right?!?  So exciting to not have to say no pasta dishes!!!
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SNACKS
Pumpkin muffins with Maple Cream Cheese (1 purple, 1 orange)- pg 195

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RATING: CURTAIN CALL (Ok maybe call back..I'll try one more time)

These were O.K. They're one of those things that tasted healthy. Perhaps drizzling some honey on top might make these more appetizing.  Not sweet like I expected at all!  I'm not even sure what to compare them with. Even cornbread is sweeter. I guess I just expected a muffin taste! They also came out kind of flat. Not fluffy. I'll probably try one more time because I WANTED to like them so much!

Zucchini Chips (1 green, 1/2 teaspoon)- pg 203

http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2012/9/tiny-jazz-hands.jpg

RATING: JAZZ HANDS!!!

These are great! Taste kind of like veggie chips if you've ever had those!  I bet sweet potato ones would be awesome too! So easy to make...EXCEPT they shrink A LOT. If you want more that 1-2 servings get large zucchini and a few of um!  I cut up 2 medium zucchini and these things were gone in 2 servings!  Great though if you need to use up a zucchini/squash/ sweet potatoes and are craving chips!
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DESSERTS
Chocolate chip cookies (1 1/2 yellow per cookie!  Who eats just one cookie?!?)- pg 211

RATING: CURTAIN CALL!!! (ok maybe call back, but just one more time!)

One word: gross! Ok that was my first thought with my first cookie. It had the consistency of foam or a sponge and didn't taste much better... Until you got  to the chocolate chips. Of course those were good.  And that's why I continued to finish them off haha. A "guilt free" way to eat chocolate!  But you may just want to stick with just eating chocolate chips alone if that's why you're eating these.  We made with almond flour. Perhaps another type would be more tasty or maybe this was a bad batch.  I probably will try these once more since chocolate chip cookies are my vice, but I'm definitely on the lookout for a replacement Chocolate chip cookie recipe!

Chunky Monkey Ice Cream (1 purple)- pg 213

RATING: CALL BACK
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Ok I made this without the chocolate chips because I have this weird thing where I don't like chunks of chocolate in ice cream. So mine tasted more like banana slush.  Not really ice cream. So I'd go in expecting slush and you won't be disappointed.  ;)  There's also a strawberry one that may be better OR I bet there's a way to make this chocolate flavored...maybe with shakeology.

Peanutty Peanut Butter Squares (1 yellow)- pg 217

RATING:  DOUBLE JAZZ HANDS!!!!

PUT THESE IN SINGLE SERVING LOCK BOXES!  ...BThese are amazing!!! How is this ok???  We added chocolate chips to the top because I really only like to waste calories on chocolate desserts. ;). Moist, fluffy with crisp edges. Betcha can't eat just one! 

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COCKTAILS!
Skinny Pina Colada (1 yellow- save your yellows for this drink, you'll want more than one!)- pg 237

RATING: DOUBLE JAZZ HANDS!!!!

If you love piña coladas this is even better than the mix in my opinion! So fresh and still sweet, but not too sweet.  It does make a small serving so I do recommend saving up your yellow containers for seconds!