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!