Eggplant Zucchini Pasta

Happy Tuesday! J I have made some incredible dinners this week and just cannot keep it to myself anymore! This post is going to be a 2 parter, because I have a couple of different recipes that I want to share with you. I’m going to do this a little backwards and share tonight’s first (Because I just ate it and my tummy says “SHARE THIS!”) and then later this week I will post Sunday’s deliciousness.  This week has been oddly full of “pasta” for my household. It started off with an out of this world eggplant lasagna, then we had some spaghetti, zucchini, and meat sauce Monday, and tonight we topped it off with eggplant zucchini parmesan.  I’m not complaining though, I’d eat pasta everyday if it were up to me!

                Tonight’s dinner started out with trying to figure out what to do with the left over eggplant that we didn’t use for the lasagna Sunday. I instantly thought of frying it up and making eggplant parmesan, but I try to stay away from real pasta as best as I can. We already had real pasta this week, and I didn’t have a spaghetti squash (my typical go-to) handy so I had to get creative. I saw a post on Pintrest a while back about using zucchini as pasta and thought I’d give it a-go.   

                I put the boyfriend in charge of peeling, cutting, and frying the eggplant, while I took a veggie peeler and turned my zucchini into pasta.  Once I had my zucchini pastafied I tossed it into a skillet with a tiny bit of chopped garlic and let it heat it. Since we had some leftover meat sauce from last night we didn’t have to make anything new. The sauce was a simple mixture of ground deer and an off-brand spaghetti sauce.

                This meal was so simple and easy to make, and have I mentioned it was delicious?  I darn near just inhaled mine.    Another perk of this recipe? It’s very cost efficient as well, while still being so very good for you!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ingredients:

2 zucchini

1 Eggplant

2 Eggs

1 Garlic clove

1 Cup Bread crumbs

Sauce of choice

EVOO

Directions:

Peel and slice eggplant. I suggest tossing with a bit of salt, it helps get some of the water out and keeps your eggplant from being soggy.

Heat some EVOO (Extra virgin Olive Oil) on a skillet until hot.

Dip your eggplant slices into the egg, then into the bread crumbs, drop onto the hot skillet. Cook these until they are golden brown on each side.

Slice very thin strips of the Zucchini and place in a skillet on medium heat, along with finely chopped garlic.

Cook the zucchini until it is soft and warm.

The sauce can be warmed and served or you can brown some hamburger or ground turkey if you want. Like I said we just used some that we had left over in the fridge. 

Combine all ingredients on a plate and dig in!

I may have over sauced mine, but man it was good!

Super Snacker

Let me start this off by saying I love snacks. A lot. I am and always have been a serial snacker.  There is no doubt this probably contributed to my former size, because unfortunately I was not being a smart snacker.   Snacking is not bad, in fact it actually helps with maintaining and losing weight, the key is to be smart about how and what you snack on.  Snacking between meals allows for you to continue to feel satisfied, which prevents you from being famished at meal time and over eating.  I personally eat about 2-3 snacks a day. I aim for a snack  between 100-200 calories,  and try to eat it at about the half way point between my meals. Today I am going to share with you some of my favorite snacks to take to work, which is where I do the majority of my snacking.

                One of my favorite snacks to bring to work  is a veggie bag. At the beginning of the week I fill a few sandwich bags with my favorite veggies, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, and anything else I may have in the fridge. This  makes it super convenient to just grab a bag in the morning and go. I also buy the individual ranch cups to go along with these. Buying the individual cups may be a bit more pricey than just buying a bottle but it insures that I am not over-ranching. You can be even better and avoid the ranch all-together! I am not that strong yet!

My fruit bowl is a bit bare right
now, time to restock!

                Fruit is another one of my go-to snacks for work. Normally I keep a bowl full of assorted fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, pears, etc) on my kitchen counter. This makes it so easy to  grab one and toss it in my purse on my way out. My favorite is pineapple so I almost always have a container of freshly cut pineapple In the fridge, as well as watermelon in the summer.  If you don’t think fruit will fill you try adding something with it, like yogurt or cottage cheese. Both are healthy and add just enough substance to help keep you full and satisfied, plus the fruit is going to please that sweet tooth!

My most recent delivery!
 

                Fruit and veggies sound boring? Want to try something new? Well I saved my favorite, and most exciting snack pick for last.  For my birthday my boyfriend signed me up for Naturebox.com, which is a company that sends you 5 assorted healthy snacks a month for 19.99.  You have the option to choose what you want or let them surprise you. I personally let them surprise me every month and have yet to receive something I don’t like . I love Nature box because it’s convenient, healthy and introduces me to new things.  Each of the bags comes with about 4-5 servings,  so  really the price is fairly reasonable considering you would pay the same or more for a less healthy option at the grocery store. Some of my favorite that I’ve received are cinnamon and sugar covered corn nuts, honey glazed sesame chips, garlic plantain chips, pop-pops (these are the best, they are half popped popcorn kernels, which sounds weird but is crazy delicious), and cocoa covered almonds. Really I could just keep going and list off everything I’ve received from them in the last 5 months but I think I’ve made my point.

                I’m not sure if you noticed or not but my snacking follows a bit of a trend. Quick, easy and convenient. Snacks shouldn’t take long to prepare, and you are more likely to grab a snack on the go that is quick. This will help divert you from hitting the vending machine and getting a quick bag of chips (which can equal over 360 useless calories a bag! That’s basically lunch!) . As with anything  knowing the serving size and sticking to it makes a huge difference!

A Letter from a "Fat" Kid

Dear Mean Kids,
        I know you probably don’t remember me, and the words you said mean nothing to you now. However, I remember you and I remember everything you ever said to put me down. The numerous times you mocked me and called me fat? I remember that. When you thought it was so hilarious to throw balls at my stomach and watch them bounce? I remember that too. Your words have sat burning inside of me and now it’s my turn to give you a piece of my mind.
 
When I was 10 I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My immune system attacked my thyroid and it stopped working. If you are not familiar with human anatomy, your thyroid controls literally everything about you, especially your weight. I rapidly gained weight at a young age, while we tried to find the right dosage of medication to get this under control. I wasn’t lazy. I wasn’t eating buffet style every night. Yet you never questioned why I was the way I was. Instead you assumed since I was “fat” I must clearly by lazy and overeat.
 
  I’m telling you this not because I think you care, or that I owe you an explanation for why I am the way that I am. I am telling you this because I feel I deserve a moment to defend myself. As a child I would never imagine standing up for myself against you, because at that point in time for all I knew you were right. I was nothing but a worthless fat pig. You ripped me apart and tore me down. I became so wrapped up in the identity you had given me that every effort I made to change myself failed. I was what I was and I just needed to accept that.
 

It took a long time and a lot of hard work to realize that I did in fact have the ability to change my body and that I could be strong. I want you to know now that I will not let your words define me. I have realized that I can be whatever I want, and that I do have the power to make myself better. Although the majority of my motivation for getting fit, and engaging on my lifestyle journey is myself, there is a tiny bit that is motivated by your words and actions. There are moments where I want to quit, or give up because I’m exhausted but then I imagine your face when you see a picture of me on your newsfeed or run into me in passing at the store. I want you to see my face and swallow all of those harsh words. I have seen some of you since childhood, and even though there is a small part of me that wants to feel satisfied when I see that life has not been the best on your physique, please know I will never judge you nor humiliate you because of this. At the end of the day, I don’t know your story, but no you know part of mine.
 
Yours truly,
That little "fat" girl.

Love Yourself- Podcast

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To Indulge or Avoid the Holiday Feast?

                Enjoy the holiday feast a little more than you think you should have? Don’t sweat it. Well actually do sweat it, but in the gym. I love holidays, and one of my favorite parts of holidays is the food. I pile my plate high with potatoes, rolls, turkey, gravy, pie, and whatever else may be on the menu. I can already hear your gasps of disapproval. “Won’t this throw you off track?”. No it won’t. And the reason why is because this is  one (well 3 in total if you count Christmas and Thanksgiving) meal out of 1095 meals that I will eat throughout the year. It’s okay to indulge every once in a while, as long as you don’t make this a daily habit. If I ate like it were a holiday every day we would have a problem.  I thoroughly enjoyed my feast yesterday, and am not going to deny myself of that celebration. However, today I go back to my normal routine. Granola cereal and a Banana for breakfast. Cabbage salad and a sandwich for lunch. Gym session. And chicken with rice and veggies for dinner.  Don’t torture yourself and prevent yourself from enjoying a good fulfilling meal with family, just know that when the holiday is over, so is your splurge.