Ratatouille

One veggie dish that we LOVE and have been making for years is Ratatouille.  For those of you that know my girls, here's Cadence when she was 5 making a batch...

Recipe is here on my blog:

Make some up together & watch the movie!  Instant family fun night!

Zuchinni mini Pizzas

Looks like I'll need to create a budget or redo my grocery budget to support healthy eating! I realized that we'd already used all our grocery money and had only carrots. oops.

Here's an idea I want to try that I think even Greg would like. Maybe I'll repeat this Veggie goal next week as my personal cuz I bombed it this week.

vegies or bust

hello ladies! Here I am for my weekly check in. I have loved the group challenge this week. I have really focused on more veggies throughout the day, not just at dinner. Last night my family was having pasta and meatballs (I had none) but the sauce smelled SO good! I measured out a 1/2 cup of the sauce and poured it over my huge plate of lettuce. It was great. Not what you would think for a salad, huh? But, I got the sauce and none of the pasta calories and fat!

I do not have a recipe to share this week. HOWEVER I am going to share about my efforts.

My staple for lunch (lately) has been one egg with three egg whites in a big omelet. I pile on the bell peppers, onion and (if I have some) lean turkey meat with 1/3 cup cheese. It has been so satisfying and within my allotted calories for lunch. (I tend to eat more at lunch than dinner.) This week since I wanted to stick to the veggie goal I decided to try my tried and true omelet a little differently!! There was a bunch of diced up broccoli that was steamed and used for dinner the previous night so I thought, what the heck? I and threw it on my omelet.

I have to admit, it wasn't that good. HOWEVER, I did eat it and I still felt satisfied and happy with the meal overall. I didn't put in my normal cheese (that might have helped) and bell peppers. But I had a bunch of greens with my lunch and I felt good about myself for doing so!!!

So, that was my experiment for the week. Other than that I have been just piling high the steamed and raw veggies every opportunity I have. I also did a fun stir-fry. I had some left over chicken breast from the dinner night before (there is a theme here!) so I diced it, put it in my skillet and threw in a ton of mixed frozen veggies. No rice. Just warm veggies and meat. It tasted great.

I hope everyone is having a great week. I have company in town and we are going out to eat tonight. I have been on the restaurant's website scouring the nutritional info. I will decide what I'm having before I get there - and I will stick to it. I really want a great weigh in on Friday!!!

Keep up the GREAT work girls!!!!

ps. Thank you Sariah for that awesome post. I love the pictures!!! Ha!!

Easy Peasy

This week I decided to be gentle on myself and make this week as simple as possible.  With all of the Christmas celebrations and goodies going around I didn't want to add to my stress.  So.  For this week's group challenge I simply bought some prepackaged salads and veggies so I could dump them on my plate next to my dinner.  Lazy, yes.  Effective?  Yes. 

One of my favorite ways to eat veggies is a tomato and cucumber salad.  Slice your tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion, layer on a plate, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.  Tah-duh!  In the summer I add basil from my garden (nothing like fresh basil leaves) and sometimes I add fresh mozzarella to the mix.  MY FAV.

Also, for my own personal goal (which I now believe I neglected to send to Heather!!) was to stay within my calorie allotment....and that was all.  In the weeks past I put restrictions on when I could eat certain things (no sweets after lunch!) and things I could not have at all (no soda!!!).  But because I knew friends would bring by Christmas treats I didn't want to do that to myself.  Someone brought by some delicious looking sugar cookies/toffee/chocolates?  Why yes, you can have some, as long as you can stay within your calorie goal!  Invited to a Christmas get together and a diet coke is staring you in the face?  Well, have just one!  Basically I allowed myself to indulge without straight up pigging out.  I do realize the scale might not be as kind for me this week, but it is a sacrifice I decided I was okay with.  Go through the Christmas season without any fudge?  Are you crazy??  BAH!  HUMBUG!

                                               (This is Sariah when she gets no fudge)

This week I also had the opportunity to take a few kickboxing classes in addition to my regular workouts.  I have taken these particular kickboxing classes before, and they are KILLER.  But when I participated this time I didn't want to fall over and die a half hour in.  The class was still challenging and I was plenty worn out and sweaty by the time it was over, of course.  But all of the exercising I've been doing in the weeks leading up to it made a difference!  It felt so good to be able to (almost) keep up with the energetic and super tough instructor.  I haven't noticed much of a physical difference in myself (and neither has the scale, honestly) since starting this challenge, but the proof was in the pudding in this instance, and it bolstered my enthusiasm for sure.

I hope everyone has had a successful and PLEASANT week!

Cranberry Vinaigrette

 Remember that part of the challenge I gave you, to try a new vegetable or a favorite vegetable in a new way?  Well here's my offering for the week. I love salad! I really do! But it's easy to get in a dressing rut. Here's a new dressing to try; it's festive too! It packs a punch with those tart cranberries, so you don't need a lot, so for 83 calories per tablespoon, it will dress up your dinner salad in a fancy delicious way.

1/3 c. olive oil

1/4 c. cranberries

2 T. water

1 T. dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/green-salad-with-cranberry-vinaigrette/

 Let's see some yummy new veggie recipes Girls!!!