Veggie Bake

I decided to throw together a little veggie bake when I had a few different kinds of vegetables on hand and a jar of pasta sauce open.

Veggie Bake

Ingredients:
- Roasted eggplant
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced zucchini
- Spices like basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, smoked paprika
- Pasta sauce
- Nutritional yeast

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil a casserole dish - I used a small one since I wasn't using that many vegetables.  First add the eggplant.

Then the tomatoes.

Then the zucchini.

Woops, blurry picture.

Then sprinkle on each of the spices.

And then pour pasta sauce over the top.

Followed by a very liberal topping of nutritional yeast.  You could definitely use cheese here instead, if you prefer.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the sauce looks set around the edges and the vegetables are tender.

I enjoyed a portion with some delicious figs on the side.

I think it would also be great served with some noodles or rice, or with some crusty bread to soak up any extra sauce!

It reheats well, too.  This recipe is extremely adaptable - just use whatever vegetables you have on hand and as many or as few spices as you prefer.

I hope you're having a good weekend!  Here's some pictures from mine.

On Friday I had a rare day with no set obligations, so I decided to spend some time at the mall.  I had a coupon for free underwear (gotta love Victoria's Secret) and a coupon for a free tea from Teavana.  Other than that I just browsed and got in some mall cardio.  Oh and I treated myself to my favorite lunch - a chicken pesto crepe and some Perrier!  So good.

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends to a great place called Happy Dog.  It's pretty incredible - you choose whether you want a beef or vegan hot dog, and then you can choose AS MANY toppings as you want, and it all costs $5.  And you can also get French fries or tater tots with unlimited sauces for $3.  Um, yes please.  I got a beef hot dog with marinated cremini mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun dried tomato tapenade, and applewood smoked bacon.  I also got an order of delicious tots with homemade ketchup.  And an extremely delicious beer per my friend Laura's enthusiastic recommendation - Willoughby Brewing Co. peanut butter cup coffee porter.  Yes, you read that right - peanut butter cup coffee!!  Tasty.

In addition to delicious and affordable food, Happy Dog has live music, so it's basically my idea of a perfect hangout spot.

I got to hang out with some great friends, too - pretty good weekend in my book.

And here's a sunset picture because I can't resist.  Especially these days when anything other than a gray sky is a rarity!

Song of the day:

"Heartbeat" by Kopecky Family Band.  I'm going to see their concert next week and I'm so excited!

Cheezy

It's a miracle.  I'm actually writing a blog post...  my first one since the beginning of January.  Woops.

So for those of you who don't know, I am a pretty picky eater.  I don't like quite a few things, like seafood (I've tried!), mustard, cheese, etc.  Actually, I do like a couple kinds of cheese:  Kraft macaroni and cheese (but only the shapes - not the normal elbow noodles - it's all about the cheese to noodle ratio), and cheese on pizza.  But I think we all know that Kraft mac and cheese has less than stellar nutrition stats and ingredients.  (But the shapes are fun, you have to admit - who doesn't want to hang out with Spiderman or Spongebob at dinner?)  Also, I've been avoiding dairy as much as possible for the last few months - I was getting a lot of upset stomachs, and my skin was going kind of haywire, and I think avoiding dairy has really helped.

Anyways... when I saw Angela's recipe for Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheeze, I knew I had to try it.  And I'm so glad that I did.  Finally, a homemade mac and cheese that I can enjoy!  And this one definitely does have some stellar nutrition stats.

I used a fresh butternut squash, extra virgin olive oil, Earth Balance, almond milk, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard (even though I don't like mustard, I couldn't taste this specifically), garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice, kosher salt, pepper, whole wheat shell pasta (not as fun as shapes, but close!), spinach, and broccoli.

Even though it wasn't quite as good warmed up as it was freshly-made, it was still really tasty and I got 4 or 5 meals out of it!  I heart leftovers.  I know, I'm weird.

So if you're like me and don't like cheese (please tell me there's someone else out there like me!), or if you're avoiding dairy, or if you love butternut squash, or if you just like good, healthy food - try this recipe!  You'll like it.

I'm really going to try to post more regularly.  I haven't been doing a great job of balancing school stuff with healthy eating and exercise, so I need to hold myself more accountable.

Song of the day:

I can't stop listening to "Emmylou" by First Aid Kit.  It's heartbreakingly beautiful.

Is That a Cookie on Your Salad?

When I got my first CSA haul a few weeks ago, it included some beets.  I've actually never cooked with beets before, so I was unsure of what to do with them.

Luckily, I had already bookmarked a few recipes that call for beets, including the Fitnessista's carrot beet and bean burgers.   And as luck would have it, the CSA share also came with carrots, and I had some cannellini beans in the cupboard.  It's pretty much magical when I already have all of the ingredients for a recipe on hand.  Is this what it feels like to be Martha Stewart?!

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but I used ground oats instead of chickpea flour, and I omitted the mustard powder because I didn't have any.  Okay, so I guess I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.  There go my illusions of being like Martha Stewart.

But that's okay, they turned out really, really well.  I was actually surprised by how much I liked them.  I wasn't sure if I'd be a huge fan of the beet flavor, but they were delicious.  However, I cannot recommend trying to dehydrate beets.  I thought I could make some veggie "chips" with some of the leftover beets - BAD idea.  Ick, I still shudder to think of that raw beet taste.  Blech.

I actually ate one of the beet burgers on top of a bed of acorn squash.

Pretty darn tasty.  And colorful!  Just think of all the antioxidants.

I also put one of the beet burgers on top of my salad and took it to school one day.  When I got my lunch out, one of my friends asked if I had a cookie on my salad, haha.  Not quite... :)

Are you guys getting ready for Halloween?  I didn't dress up the past two years (tragic, I know) but this year I've got two costumes planned out - a southern belle and "bad" Sandy from Grease.  I've actually worn both of these costumes before, but I think it was 8th grade when I was the southern belle, so that barely counts, right?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Song of the day:

"If I Didn't Know Better" by Sam Palladio & Clare Bowen.  This song if from the new show Nashville - has anyone been watching it?  I'm a big fan of Connie Britton (from Friday Night Lights - pretty much the best show ever), and so far I'm liking Nashville a lot.  I pretty much can't resist a show that incorporates a lot of great music!  This song is so pretty, and how about that crazy chemistry between the actors??  Sigh.

Oh My Chard

Awhile back, some of my family came in from out of town and brought me a super thoughtful gift - tons of homegrown rainbow chard!

Isn't it pretty?!

I washed it all and then cut out the thickest parts of the stems before putting the leaves into Ziploc bags with damp paper towels and storing it in the fridge.  In my experience, this helps greens to stay fresh and crisp longer.  I'm also much more likely to eat greens if they're already washed and ready to go.

Check out the size of that leaf!  Bigger than my head - crazy.

I had so much chard, so I had to come up with different ways to use it.  I used some in a smoothie, and I made an (unpictured) wrap with a chard leaf, turkey lunch meat, and tomato slices to take with me on a car trip.  And an obvious use is to put it in a salad.  I mixed chard with spinach, beets, tomatoes, lentils, green bell pepper, artichoke hearts, salsa, and homemade guacamole for a Mexican-ish salad.

A lot of my salad fixin's were from Trader Joe's - the prepared lentils, marinated artichoke hearts, salsa, and a new-to-me item:  pre-steamed baby beets.  I just love the convenience, and they're actually reasonably priced.

I also tried sauteing some chard for dinner and added it to a grain bowl.  I put a little bit of olive oil in a pan and heated it up, then threw in a couple of chopped garlic cloves and sliced raw almonds.  Once the garlic and almonds had browned a bit, I added some torn up chard to the pan.

Meanwhile, I put some prepared quinoa and lentils in a bowl for the base of my dish.

I stirred the chard around in the pan periodically until it wilted.  I love the smell of garlic and almonds browning in the olive oil!

I added all of the chard mixture on top of the quinoa and lentil mixture.

I also roasted a sweet potato and some zucchini (tossed in olive oil and dried rosemary, baked at 375* for 30 minutes, turned after 15 minutes).

I added some of the roasted veggies to my dish and voila, dinner was ready!  The leftover roasted veggies were a welcome addition to the salad I made for lunch the next day.

I tried another new-to-me kombucha recently - Reed's lemon ginger raspberry.  I liked the flavor, but I still prefer Synergy kombucha.

I also finally tried one of the new Larabar ubers- I really liked the roasted nut roll flavor.  I also had the cherry cobbler flavor, but I didn't like it quite as much.  Overall I still prefer the original Larabars due to their extremely short ingredients list.

Aaaaand I finally tried Magnum ice cream bars.  Super delicious.  I'm a sucker for good marketing, and those commercials with Rachel Bilson walking over cars in a traffic jam to get to a Magnum ice cream truck definitely made me want to try these.  I just got the original vanilla bean flavor, but I want to try more/ all of them :)  Oh and they were on sale, so it was pretty much meant to be, right?  I thought so.

I mentioned how many of my salad ingredients I get from Trader Joe's, but I love shopping for lots of things there - this big bouquet of flowers was only $10!  I got them for my great aunt for her 90th birthday.  And I found a new use for my cup holder.

I spotted a baby fawn and its mom!  So cute.

I've been a bad blogger lately, but I've got lots more to share so I should be posting again soon.  Hope you're all enjoying your summer - I seriously cannot believe it's August.  I'm not ready to go back to school yet!

Song of the day:

Please allow me to indulge my inner teeny bopper with this song selection - "Some Days" by The Maine.  I was slightly obsessed with this band in a fan-girl way for a little while, but they kind of fell off my radar until recently.  I just got their latest album, Pioneer, and listened to it about 10 times while I was driving to and from DC this past weekend.  It made me nostalgic for the music I used to listen to during the summer when I was in high school.

I was never into boy bands like 'NSYNC or Backstreet Boys, but I did love Hanson and some other kind of cheesy bands.  I just read that Taylor Hanson (my favorite brother, now 29 years old) is expecting his FIFTH child with his wife.  Um, whoa.

Dark Green Thumb

Hello friends!  

In an effort to change up my lunch routine, I tried out a new recipe today:  smashed chickpea and avocado sandwich.  It's simple but delicious.  

The recipe calls for chickpeas, avocado, fresh cilantro (I subbed in basil), green onion, lime juice (I used 1 T bottled instead of fresh), salt and pepper.

Woops, forgot the green onion in this picture.  

I opted not to rub the skins off the chickpeas (I didn't want to take the time).  You just smash everything together and mix it up, and voila:

I put plastic wrap right on top of the leftover mixture before I put the lid on the container and stored it in the fridge - this should somewhat help to prevent the avocado from oxidizing and turning brown.  

That's it!  Pretty easy and straightforward, but a good way to switch up lunch.  I've never liked mayonnaise so I kind of felt left out of the egg salad-type options for lunch.  But I think this is a great alternative, and I also plan to try making egg salad with Greek yogurt.  

I spread some of the avocado-chickpea mixture on whole grain oat bread and added some lettuce for a delicious sandwich.  Baby carrots and hummus on the side.


So remember when I started growing some herbs?

I planted basil, lavender, rosemary, strawberry, chives, and forget-me-nots.

Well, I used some of the basil that I grew in my chickpea and avocado spread!  

You can probably tell there aren't quite as many pots in the "after" picture as the "before" pictures.  My BFF said I have a dark green thumb - not quite black, but not green :)  I have two pots of rosemary, two pots of basil, two pots of chives, and a pot of forget-me-nots growing.  The lavender petered out, and the strawberries never grew.   But that's okay!  I especially hope that my rosemary keeps growing - between rosemary and basil, I'd pretty much be set.

This morning I took one of my recent favorite exercise classes with my mom - TurboKick!

It's basically kickboxing, as far as I can tell.  I think it's a lot of fun, and very challenging - it's great cardio.

After the class, I tried out coconut water for the first time.

I picked it up the other day, but unfortunately I'm not a fan.  I've read so many things about how hydrating coconut water is because of all of the natural electrolytes, but I don't like coconut... so I think that has something to do with it :)

In other news...

Yep, that happened.  And it was glorious.  Two dollar bills up.

I stopped at the grocery store before the movie to pick up movie snacks.  I tried out this new drink:

It was pretty good, but I prefer Synergy kombucha.  And I had some unpictured Reese's Pieces :)

Lastly, I had to share this audio clip (discovered via Mama Pea).

So hilarious and adorable.  

And on that note, have a great night!

Song of the day:

"Even If It Breaks Your Heart" by Eli Young Band.