Veggie Lasagna (Healthy Recipe)

So-- last night I had a craving for GOOD Italian food. Something with cheese, LOTS of sauce and of course-- carbs. But sticking to my vegetarian routine-- I went out on a search for HEALTHY but delicious lasagna recipe.

What about artichokes?? Feta cheese?? Sound good with pasta?? Try out my (modified) spinach and artichoke lasagna recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

Give yourself a good hour and a half to whip this bad boy up!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Artichoke-Spinach-Lasagna/Detail.aspx?p34=View%20Recipe%20Page

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium-high. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes, or until onion is tender-crisp. Stir in broth and rosemary; bring to a boil. Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in pasta sauce.
4. Spread 1/4 of the artichoke mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish; top with 3 cooked noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese over noodles. Repeat layers 2 more times, ending with artichoke mixture and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle crumbled feta on top.
5. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 minutes more, or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Ingredients--

• cooking spray
• 9 uncooked WHOLE WHEAT lasagna noodles
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable broth

• 1 (14 ounce) can marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
• 1 (28 ounce) jar tomato pasta sauce
• 3 cups shredded REDUCED FAT mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 (4 ounce) package feta, crumbled. 

Day 1: Chocolate Gone.

Greek lent starts today. Instead of giving up meat (which I don't consume for the most part, anyway)- I have decided to give up something I eat absolutely EVERY SINGLE DAY: Chocolate.

I am not saying chocolate is bad by any means. It can be beneficial for your health- your heart, happiness, reducing stress. But, the bad news is-- I eat it a lot. And depend on it after almost every single meal.. when you are dependent on a single kind of food or eat it at 3AM in the morning when you get up? Not good.

Today is the first day. Instead of grabbing my chocolate protein luna bar for breakfast, I bought Special K Protein shakes in the vanilla flavor. (which are actually pretty yummy.) I almost cheated at the supermarket forgetting that chocolate covered jelly beans count.

This is a 48 day stretch (Exactly until Easter) . Let's bet on how many days I can do it. Comment below :-)

Crazy for CUPCAKES

I often don't like to brag but when it comes to skills, I am a natural Betty Crocker. On a given day off, you can find me in the kitchen whipping up something sugary and delicious.

BUT with my commitment to also eating healthy I've tried to find ways to bake healthy. I know you're saying: "impossible!" or "how can anything sweet and HEALTHY be good to eat?"

Well I've learned you can have your Cake and Eat it too. That is- if the frosting isn't like most brands.. eating a spoonful of sugart. It's by far the best part of a cupcake- but the worst.

SO- why not change it up and make your own frosting?? I made Strawberry Cheesecake cupcakes.. used regular cake mix but made my own frosting with low-fat cream cheese.

You can make ANY flavor frosting with three simple ingredients: 1/4 cup cool whip, 2 tbsp fat-free cream cheese and as much sugar-free jello pudding mix as you want. (I made cheesecake).

Also-- to make it look more natural, add food coloring like I did here to make the frosting pink. It tastes yummy, and I promise no one will even suspect the frosting is HEALTHY.

Or-- add a tsp of peanut butter and mashed banana to cupcake mix to make-- yup-- peanut butter and banana cupcakes.

My final tip?? To get really creative use extract to give cupcakes the ULTIMATE flavor. You can use egg substitute and skim milk for lower calorie/ fat cupcakes and then add in pinapple extract (for pina colada), mint or other fun flavors. The possibilities are endless.

Bon appetit!!

Bar Breakdown

Breakfast is the MOST IMPORTANT meal of the day.. this is probably nothing new to hear. But what do you chow down on when you wake up so early in the morning?? I have experimented with oatmeal cups and frozen breakfast sandwiches-- but by far my most successful snack is throwing an energy bar in my bag.

Why, you ask? It is easy to eat on the run.. delicious and satisfies the sweet tooth.. and they also give you some of the nutrients/ protein you need for the day (especially if you are like me and don't eat meat). Most importantly-- many of them are FILLING and I don't hear my stomach grumbling on camera. 

Here are my rave reviews on some popular energy bar brands:

LARABAR: The most disappointing. Looking online, I saw a lot of rave reviews on this popular brand.. but it didn't make me feel full and actually had the most calories-- most bars being over 200. HOWEVER-- 1 bar = 1/4 of a cup of fruit and many of them are gluten-free and some of them are vegan. 

LUNA PROTEIN BARS: 

http://www.lunabar.com/products/luna-protein

These are a winner.. especially if you are a CHOCOLATE fanatic like me. The bars are coated in chocolate and are ALL GOOD and filling in my opinion- averaging at 180 calories.. my personal favorite?? COOKIE DOUGH. 

Zone Bars: Most affordable.. some delicious flavors with a rice- crisp center. My personal favorite again is the chocolate chip cookie dough-- but there are plenty of yummy flavors. Personally, I don't like the nut-trail mix type of bars but they have a lot of those: http://zoneperfect.com/

So do you agree/ disagree with these reviews?? Or have a suggestion for a better bar? Dish it out :-) 

Dining Out: Vegetarian Restaurant Experience

I completely get it... When you eat out at a restaurant you want something greasy, cheesy, and SUPER FILLING. Like this:

This is the Cali Melt at It's Only Natural in Middletown, CT. http://www.ionrestaurant.com/ When a friend and I decided to meet there for lunch, I was well aware that it was a Vegetarian restaurant and anxious to see if the food would be any good at all.

But I was happily impressed. I could only eat half of this sandwich with melted havarti cheese, avocado and portabello mushrooms.The sweet potato fries were AMAZING. And it is 100 percent organic.

Plus the place was pretty unique-- tables you could write on and a funky atmosphere.

Now, I definitely can't promise every vegetarian place would be this good to eat at-- but this one is a WINNER. If you're ever in the area.. stop by or just save room for dessert!

VEGAN tangerine coconut cupcakes. Yum. Next experiment: going to try to cook some healthy homemade goodies of my own. Stay tuned--

You Eat No Meat??

This quote is taken from one of my ALL TIME favorite movies-- My Big Fat Greek Wedding. When Tula's family learns that Ian is a vegetarian, her aunt says "That's ok- I make lamb."

Eating meat is a lifestyle, it is the way many of us are brought up. So-- what makes someone decide to ditch the beef and eat a veggie burger??

Every vegetarian has a different reason. I still eat chicken and just gave up red meat about a year and a half ago. I gave it up and haven't looked back.

But most importantly- studies show giving up meat helps your heart, shrinks cancer risk, clears up your skin and helps the environment. PLUS- with the right eating routine- it can shrink your belly fat too.
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/meatless-meals

Maybe you are giving up meat for lent?? I'm not preaching that you give up meat all together completely. But  just consider limiting it once in a while.

P.S. I LOVE vegetarian food. There are a couple frozen foods that make my mouth water. And I feel BETTER and full when I eat them.

One of my favorites? Morningstar makes GREAT, YUMMY brands that don't taste icky. Their buffalo wings taste like buffalo chicken nuggets. Their lasagna is also a big winner.

Are you willing to try? Just take ONE DAY out of the week and make it a "Meatless Monday." It is a good trial course.

And that's today's dish :-)

Battle of the Pizzas

There is NOTHING more satisfying when you are stuck in the middle of a snowstorm (for three days) than eating delicious mouth-watering slices of pizza.

HOWEVER-- pizza as we know it, isn't always the healthiest. SO, I am on a mission to find a delicious and HEALTHY pizza that doesn't taste like garbage. I found two contenders. 

In the first corner, vitalicious pizza. I got SO EXCITED when I found this because I absolutely love their muffins- http://www.vitalicious.com/. But this was an extremely little pizza with hardly any taste. Yes, it was 190 calories for the whole thing, but I was still famished after eating it. My point rating? 2 stars out of 5.

Opposing-- the new American Flatbread pizza. About the normal size of a pizza and it fed me for two nights. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. And the most shocking, surprising twist? It is VEGAN. YUM-
http://www.americanflatbreadproducts.com/frozen-flatbread/varieties/

And-- that's today's dish.

Here's the dish...

Food is the best THING on earth.I love to eat and sometimes can't stop thinking about what my next meal will be. BUT after a eat a whole lot of junk.. well I don't feel so hot anymore.

I have always TRIED to be healthy with what I eat. It's just important to me.. and with my profession working on the news I want to stay fit.

BUT eating something delicious is important too. You may feel there is no balance and you can't do both. In this blog, I will show you wrong. I live off Italian food, sweets and cheese.. and I am always experimenting on what is good, what tastes fake and what is PLAIN AWFUL. 

Walking through the organic section or "natural foods" section of a supermarket excites me because there are always a million things you have never heard of before. Chick'n? Edamamame? Tobuli? I will let you know if something is disgusting so that you will never even TOUCH IT. 

My weekly posts are ideas I have how you can stay on track and truly ENJOY your food. ALSO-- here are some of my favorite food websites that I love: 
 - http://www.gardein.com/index.php 
- http://hungrygirl.com/ 
- http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/recipes  I am going to conduct my own research and then bring you the results. Follow me as I try new recipes and divulge in food finds. All comments/ suggestions are always welcome!