Eat More Veggies: Holiday Edition!!!

This recipe is incredible. There's not much more to say about it.  Make it and you'll thank you me.  I promise.

Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients
3 Cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 Cup chicken broth (fat free, low sodium)
1 1/2 Cup Milk (non-fat, if you have it on hand)
2 Cloves garlic
1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs dijon mustard
3/4 Cup sharp cheddar
2 Tbs yogurt (plain, non-fat)
1 1/4 Cup domestic swiss cheese, shredded (or gruyere, if your wealthier than me...)
1 Cup Romano cheese, grated
1/4 Cup parmesan cheese, finely grated (or parmigiano-reggiano cheese...)
1 Pound pasta (corkscrew, or elbow, or shells, or whatever)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 Cup panko breadcrumbs

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375.  Combine cubed squash, broth, milk, and garlic in a saucepan, bring to a slight boil and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes.  It should look like this....

Remove it from the heat after 25 minutes, and let it cool a bit.  While you're letting it cool, start to cook the pasta.

Put the squash mixture (with all the liquid too) in a blender, add salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, dijon, and the yogurt, and blend until smooth.  Note: If it's still hot, take the middle part of the blender lid off and cover it with a towel to let the steam escape... 

Pour the squash puree in a large bowl.  Stir in all the cheeses and whisk to combine.  It should look like this...

Once the pasta is done cooking, drain it and add it to the cheese/squash mixture, and stir it together.  Spread it into a 9x13 casserole dish.

Then, add the tsp of olive oil to a small skillet over medium heat.  Add the panko, and cook until the crumbs have turned golden brown.  Add some more parmesan cheese to the panko if you're feeling sassy, and sprinkle it over the pasta.  Bake for 25 minutes or until bubbly.  

Another Note:  This is also a wonderful dish to freeze to have for later.  Freeze before baking.

Here's the actual recipe I followed

Month Two: Portion Control!

So I have 11 months until The Big Day, and roughly 20 pounds to lose.  That means 2 pounds a month, which means 1/2 a pound a week.... which means cutting about 250 calories from my day (just trust me, I did the math... 3500 calories in a pound; if I have half a pound a week to lose, thats 1750 calories a week; 1750/7 is 250.  See 250 calories a day. I told you to trust me.) Sounds easy... not when you're a Graeper who enjoys her food.  That's why we have Sheddin for the Weddin Month Two: Portion Control!  Very simple changes to my daily routines has already made this month super easy.

Change #1:  Use a smaller plate Instead of eating from huge dinner plates, I use a salad plate; it's a mind game.  I like my plate to be full of food, and I'm a founding member of the clean plate club (as are most Graeper's).  So if I use a salad plate instead, I get the satisfaction of both a filling a full plate, and eating a full plate!  
Change #2: Don't go back for seconds This one kind of speaks for itself...  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not eating my last meal; there will be more food later.  There's no need to eat like I'll never eat again.
Change #3:  Find recipes with fewer calories  This is where last months mission comes in handy.  Veggies have less calories... duh.  So if I continue to Eat More Veggies, I'll cut calories without even thinking!


If you know of recipes that are super low in calories, super delicious, and super filling, please send them my way.  I'm desperate.  This month isn't going to be an easy one, but when it's all in the name of Sheddin for the Weddin, anything is possible!

The Eggplant Saga

I've never eaten eggplant before.  If I have, it was snuck in somewhere.  But I don't think my mother liked it, therefore, I didn't get to eat it when I was growing up.  I had absolutely no idea how to prepare an eggplant, cook it, or eat it.  Skin on, seeds in?  I had no idea.  So it was time to hit the interweb and do some serious research.  I've watched enough Food Network to know something about it being bitter, and needing to salt it to take the bitterness out, but that just seemed like too much work.  I wanted something easy, fairly fast, and with enough other stuff to disguise the taste- at least for the first go round with this beast. Maybe next time I'll explore taste; this time I just needed to get past texture.  baby steps...

After much research, I found that the skin doesn't necessarily cook down.  So, to ensure I wouldn't gag, I removed the skin.

Now what?  Here she is, in all her goodness, and I still had no idea what to do.  More research.  I found a recipe on food.com that was adapted from Cooking Light.  Perfect!  It was an Eggplant Parmesan Recipe.  My only concern was that it instructed you to dip the eggplant slices in mayo before coating in breadcrumbs...  not very "light" in my book.  So I used a beaten egg instead.  I do have to say, however, that after this recipe, I am officially a fan of eggplant.  Preston even tried it! He said it tasted just like a pasta dish.  Great!  The only problem with that is that he hates pasta dishes...  agh.

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

1 Eggplant, sliced into 1/4in coins, skin removed

1 Egg, beaten

1 TBS mayo

Dash of garlic and onion powder

1 Cup panko breadcrumbs

1/2 Cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 tea dry Italian Seasoning

1 tea salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel the skin off the eggplant with a potato peeler.  Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch coins.  Whisk together the beaten egg, mayo, garlic, and onion powders in a small shallow dish.  Combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, Italian Seasoning, salt and pepper in another shallow dish.  Dip one of the eggplant coins in the egg mixture on both sides, then into the breadcrumb mixture on both sides, then lay flat on silpat lined baking sheet (I'm sure you don't need to use the silpat, I just read in a lot of recipes that said the silpat helps crisp the breadcrumbs).  Continue dipping the eggplant until the baking sheet is full.  Bake for 12 minutes on one side, flip the eggplant, and continue baking for another 10 minutes. 

Once all the coins were baked, I put it in a casserole dish, layered it like a gratin and covered it with a tiny bit of homemade marinara sauce, and topped it with a little bit of mozzarella cheese.  I broiled it for just a few minutes until the cheese was melted.  So yummy! I'm an eggplant believer now!

The actual recipe I sort of followed...

Summer on a Plate

There's not much to say about the simplicity of a Caprese Salad. When I've just finished a hard workout, and I hate making a huge dinner.  When it's too hot outside to turn on the over, stove, or stand next to the grill.  Caprese Salad is perfect for so many different reasons.  It's my favorite summer dinner.  It's one of those meals that makes me feel better for having eaten it.  It's like doing yoga, it centers you.  I wish there was more to say, but Caprese Salad is my food yoga.  period.

More Fun with Cucumbers...

whoa, that was dirty...sorry.  Here is one of the simplest, most delicious, fresh tasting recipes I've ever made.  If you're wondering what to do with this sauce, marinade chicken in some and toss it on the grill. Use it in place of ranch dressing for a seriously better for you dip/dressing.  Dip pita bread into it.  Drizzle it over grilled chicken.  Make a pasta salad by combining chopped cucumbers, chopped kalamata olives, thinly sliced red onion, chopped tomato, crumbled feta cheese, and rotini pasta; pour some tzatziki over the salad and nom...

Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups Greek yogurt (I used one of the regular sized containers of Fage)

1 cucumber, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove

2 Tbs fresh mint

1 Tbs lemon juice

Instructions

Dump the yogurt into a bowl.  In a magic bullet (or food processor if you're dignified...), throw in the cucumber, garlic clove, fresh mint, and lemon juice.  If you're feeling extra fancy, add a bit of dill; I didn't have any.  Process the cucumber mixture until everything is finely minced.  Pour the cucumber mixture into the yogurt and whisk to combine.

It's a Tomato & Cucumber kind of day!

 One of the upsides of running a non-profit for kids is that the kids get served meals from the local food bank! Let's be honest though, this isn't an upside. There are too many times I serve something that even I can't recognize.  When the kids ask me what it is, I have to tell them,
"It's a Sloppy Joe??"  Yesterday, however, some local farmers donated a bunch of fresh vegetables to the food bank, which means we got to serve it to the kids, which means I got to take home the left overs!  Which means I have a TON of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers!

I actually have two pans of the cucumbers... fresh pickles anyone?

So now my conundrum is what exactly to do with all these?! 

First, I made some fresh Pico de Gallo, which is one of the recipes in a cookbook I just read cover to cover like a novel.  In case you're in need of a good read, check out her website www.pioneerwoman.com.  She's become my new hero.  Here's the recipe...

Pico de Gallo

Pioneer Woman's Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

1 Red Onion, chopped

Tomatoes (to equal the amount of chopped onion)

Cilantro, a whole bunch - about 1 1/2 cups

1 Jalapeno, chopped

Juice from 1/2 a lime

Salt to taste

Instructions

Chop the red onion as finely as you're comfortable eating raw, and dump into a big bowl.  Chop an equal amount of tomatoes, and dump into the bowl.  Roughly chop a bunch of cilantro.  ...not a bunch as in a ton, a bunch as in one of the bundles the grocery store packages.  Dump that into the bowl as well.  Chop the jalapeno finely, but first get rid of the ribs and seeds.  If you like it really really hot, chop two jalapenos.  Squeeze the juice from half a lime into the bowl with all the other ingredients and stir it all together.  Add salt to taste.  Pioneer Woman suggested tasting with a tortilla chip to get the correct amount of salt... so I did. Pioneer Woman did not fail me! It's delicious!

Problem was, though, that I still had two pans of cucumbers left and two thirds of a pan of tomatoes.  Gazpacho it is!

Gazpacho

Disclaimer: I pretty much made this one up, with the help of a ton of different foodnetwork.com recipes to help me get a basis.  I'd never made gazpacho before this...

Ingredients

2 cups Cucumber (or one whole cucumber)

2 cups Tomatoes (or two whole tomatoes, I don't know what kind....)

1 Sweet Red Pepper

1/2 Red Onion

2 cloves garlic

3 Cups V8 Juice

Juice from 1/2 a lime

1/4 cup Vinegar (any kind, I used apple cider vinegar)

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 Tbl Kosher Salt and as much cracked black pepper as you like

Instructions

Slice the cucumber and put it in a food processor.  I used my Magic Bullet, since I don't have a food processor.  Process it until it's chopped finely and looks soupy.  Like this....

Pour the cucumbers into a large bowl.  Quarter the tomatoes and process them to the same consistency and pour them into the same bowl.  Repeat the process with the red onion and red pepper.  Press the garlic, or mince on a microplane and add it to the soup mixture.  Pour the V8, vinegar, and olive oil into the bowl, and stir everything together.  Add the salt and pepper to taste.  According to all the Food Network recipes, it's best to let it refrigerate for 24 hours before serving, to let all the flavors meld.  But I had to taste anyways since I've never made or eaten gazpacho before.  Bad News: I hated it.  So I did the  best thing my father taught me... Doctor the Shit out of it.  I actually put it on the stove and brought it to a slow boil, added some sugar (about 2 tea), Penzey's Greek seasoning, and thyme.  WAY better.  I'll cool it down and eat it cold, like a gazpacho, but now it's got much more of a tomato soup flavor as opposed to rabbit food flavored.

Let me know if you make either one!  And if you have any ideas for an extreme over-abundance of cucumbers!

Month One: Day 3!

Although it's been way too hot here to even think about turning my oven on and try the Cauliflower Poppers, I did go out and buy a head of cauliflower yesterday.  I am promising myself that it wont just sit in the crisper...

However, I got a beautiful little email this morning from one of my favorite e-newsletters (gotta love Martha Stewart) that was entitled Zucchini Bonanza!  It has over 65 zucchini recipes for all different seasons.  A ton of grilled zucchini recipes and baked/gratin recipes!

The problem with zucchini is that it just doesn't have any taste.  In order to make it palatable, you have to saute it in butter, coat it in cheese and bake it in a crust.  Which reminds me- I'll post the most amazing zucchini pie recipe here in a bit :-)

There is one zucchini recipe that I've loved for quite a while.  It has eggs and cheese in it, but only feta, so it's fairly low in fat and calories.  Since they have eggs in them, I love to eat them in the morning for breakfast.  It makes me feel like I'm blowing one of my daily veggie servings out of the way without even trying!

Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients

2 medium zucchini

1 tsp salt

8 oz feta cheese

2 scallions, minced

2 Tbs fresh dill (or 2 tsp dried)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Olive Oil for cooking

Instructions

Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater (or in the food processor).  Toss the zucchini with the salt and let it sit for a few minutes (about 5).  Put the shredded zucchini in a tea towel and squeeze until all excess liquid from the zucchini has been drained.  Think of this step the same way as you drain the water from spinach.

In a bowl, stir together the drained zucchini, feta, scallions, dill, eggs, garlic, and pepper.  Once combined, sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir until the flour is incorporated.  Heat some olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Drop 2-tablespoon-sized portions (about the size of a cookie dough ball) into the hot skillet and flatten out into the shape of a pancake with a spatula.  Fry until golden brown on both sides, 2-3 minutes per side.  

Note: If you don't drain the zucchini in the first step, the fritters will fall apart in the skillet and will become very wet and sloppy.

Will keep in the fridge for quite a few days.  Like I said, I like to save them, and eat them for a savory breakfast.  They also work very well as a side dish to grilled chicken or fish!

Cauliflower Poppers

I haven't tried this recipe, but Myssa has.  She told me that I could put just about any seasoning on them and they'll be good.  A definite tried and true recipe for her no matter the seasoning.  Preston and I buy a TON of Penzey's seasonings everytime we're in Portland (more on that later...) so she suggested I try some of his favorite seasonings on it, and perhaps he'll be inclined to try them!  I think I may just have to stop at Sprouts on my way home tomorrow night and pick up some cauliflower.  There's absolutely no way I'm going out tonight to get some, season finale of The Bachelorette is on and I can't be bothered....

Ingredients

Cooking Spray
1 Medium Head of Cauliflower
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder, or more to taste
pinch of salt and peper

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.  Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Cut cauliflower florets into bite sized pieces.  Dump cauliflower into a large bowl and add remaining ingredients.  Toss well to coat.

Spread cauliflower into a single layer on the baking sheet and bake until florets are tender, but not mushy, stirring halfway through, about 10 minutes.

The Actual Cauliflower Popper Recipe (c/o Weight Watchers)

Month One: Eat More Veggies

Soy Glazed & Grilled Chicken Wings, Steamed Broccoli, and Mixed Green Salad

It's August.  In Colorado.  It shouldn't be hard to eat more veggies!  Veggies are fresh, abundant, and thanks to Sprouts being two blocks from my apartment, awesomely cheap.  So I suppose I should start with a little background on why this first months goal to eat more veggies is going to be especially hard to accomplish.  Preston (the fiance), doesn't eat veggies.  Excuse me, I'll get in trouble if he reads that. He eats vegetables.  But his veggies include potatoes... usually cooked at a very high temperature with a lot of oil, broccoli, green beans, and that's it.  No matter how much I love to get down on some broccoli, a girl can only eat so much.

Steamed Broccoli (my veggies) 

Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes (his veggies)

I'm the kind that goes to the grocery store, full of ambition, to pick up new and exciting veggies, only to let them sit in my crisper drawer, and un...crisp.  Because I'm the only one in the house that eats weird veggies, if I don't eat them immediately, I forget that they're there.

So this is my solemn vow that I will do everything in my power this month to be more creative than Chicken & Broccoli.  No matter how versatile and sometimes delicious that combo may be; quite frankly, I'm sick of it.  Unfortunately, tonight's dinner was no different.

Preston actually laughed at me that my first night of "this whole thing", as he called it, consisted of Chicken & Broccoli for dinner.  I reminded him that this adventure starts tomorrow...

The Countdown Begins!

Here I am, one year from "the big day", and undeniably out of shape.  Now, that's not to say that I don't eat well or exercise.  I do all of that.  But I'm nowhere near "wedding dress shape".  After 20 years of learning how to embrace the body God gave me, I'm not looking for a transformation, I don't need a transformation.  I'm just looking for simple ways to help shed a few lbs, tone the well loved areas, and eat better than I've ever eaten before.  I've continually told myself, "I wont eat that when I start sheddin the for the weddin, but who cares now."  Or, "I'll start that exercise when I start sheddin for the weddin, but I don't need to yet."  And now that time has come, and now I need to hold myself accountable.  For one year.  Thats all.  After that, I'm a newly wed and I can let myself go....