Spinach and Cheese Tart Plus Banana PB Shakeology

I have a couple of things to share today. One, I made this awesome tart for dinner. It's a spinach and cheese tart. It has awesome flavor. It's another recipe I acquired out of my vegetarian cookbook. However, it wasn't the simplest thing to make. It took probably an hour of prep work. Still, it had a good taste. If you like spinach and cheese, that is, which I do.

However, my husband and daughter didn't care for it. They are picky eaters though, always have been and probably always will. Still, it's always nice to try healthy alternatives. I'm not exactly sure what the calories are on this dish, but I can already assume it's high in calories because of the cheese then the crust had cheese in it as well. Also, a stick of butter. So..yeah..definitely not the healthiest.

If anyone is interested in the recipe you can drop a reply here or message me at andrena28@beachbodycoach.com, and I will be happy to send the recipe to you.

The second thing I have to speak about is I am happy to say that the Shakeology drinks are going fabulously. I love the taste of them. For breakfast I like to add a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter to the shake. Sometimes I add strawberries to that. It's so good and so filling. Plus, you get all these vitamins and nutrients from it. It's totally worth dropping the daily coffee purchase for this.

Sunday's Are Always Busy

For breakfast this morning I decided on oatmeal. It was fast and easy. The reason I decided on this was because I was going to church, and I didn't want the meal to take forever to prepare. In it I added a sliced banana, which I covered with oatmeal. I like to put the hot oatmeal over it to warm the banana up. Then I add a teaspoon or two of honey. I used to add tons of sugar to my oatmeal, but I found honey is a healthy alternative to that. If you don't add too much, anyway. I don't like too much honey in it. It tastes like pure honey then. You just want enough to give it a little sweetness.

I haven't decided what I am going to make for lunch, but I promise to post a picture with it. I believe I might make something out of my vegetarian cookbook. It's a meal my daughter picked out. I let her go through my vegetarian cookbook one day and she picked out pictures of things she thought looked good, and she promised to try them all, which is good for me because she's a picky eater. I like it when we find things that she really enjoys.

Also, I will be doing Fire 45 EZ and Abs 10 class today from the TurboFire workout program. I'm going to try and squeeze it in before my daughter's cheerleading game, but if I don't then I plan on doing it after I get back home.

Quote of the day: "Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead." – Louisa May Alcott

Willpower - Do Not Fail Me Now

Today is my husband's birthday! Of course, his family wants to go to Chinese then come back to their place for cake. Oh, how I cringe!! Not am I going to have not one crutch placed in front of me, but two. The Chinese I can manage. I can stick with soup or find an all vegetable meal, but cake..*headdesk* Why can't people have a nice array of fruit for special occasions? That's what I'm going to tell them all I want for my birthday - a bowl of fruit!

Speaking of willpower, my husband went shopping Friday at Sam's Club. I can't send the man shopping. As I have said before he is a twig and eats anything he wants! Well, he returns with one of those big tubs of chocolate donuts. I could have killed him! Why did he need to buy that junk and set it on the counter for me to ogle over? So, I told him he is no longer allowed to buy that. It is far too tempting for me. I don't need someone helping me with my temptations. I need help alleviating them.

Well, that was my complaint for the day. It is his birthday, so I won't be too mad at him for bringing junk in the house, but next time it's going to be war!

Vegetarian Dish Tonight

For dinner tonight I went all vegetarian. I liked to do that on occasion and venture away from meat. I try to do it a couple nights a week, but I'm sure a lot of us know how hard that can be for meat lovers. I don't need meat, but my husband loves it. I actually went almost a year without consuming it, and I found many different alternatives. Sadly, I've never gone into trying tofu. It's not that I'm afraid of trying it. I'm afraid of cooking it. I've heard so many stories about if you don't know how to cook tofu it won't taste very good. I'm going to go over that bridge soon and give tofu a try. Especially now that I have a huge vegetarian cookbook that my mother-in-law bought me for Christmas.

Onto tonight's dinner - I'd like to tell you all that two of the items on my plate were bought from Sam's Club. One was stuffed shells. These shells are kind of large, so I only eat one, which is the recommended serving size. One shell is 260 calories, which isn't bad. Now, the other item I purchased from Sam's Club is freshly diced butternut squash. The squash is diced and packaged in the refrigerator section - it is not a frozen item. It's completely fresh. I tossed the squash into a dish with a tablespoon or two of water and put it in the microwave for the time it said on the package. After it was done I tossed it into my Ninja blender and voila. I didn't add anything to it. It tastes wonderful! The last item on my plate was just some romaine lettuce and cucumbers. My husband is a very picky eater and loved all of it, so it was a huge success in my household.



There's a little picture of my nice dinner combination.

I'd like to add that I've been reading Chalene Johnson's book called PUSH. She speaks about organizing your refrigerator and cupboards. I'm slowly getting myself into this. The cucumber I bought was rather huge, so I diced up the whole thing and tossed it into a clear plastic container then refrigerated it. It was a quick and easy. It's one last step I have to take to make the next salad.

Breaking the Food Seduction

It's been about three weeks since I've started doing as Neal D. Barnard suggested in his book called Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally. He speaks about how the American people have become addicted to meats, cheeses, and sweets while the government banks off of that.

I'm happy to announce that I have stopped eating meats and cheeses (still working on the sweets) for about three weeks now. I'm gradually knocking each from my diet. I didn't start off dropping everything cold turkey. I thought that might be too much shock for my system. He instills how much better vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains are for your body.

My breakfast now consists of old fashioned oat meal with a combination of fruits. This morning it was apples and raisins. Yesterday I added strawberries. Bananas add a nice flavor to oatmeal as well. You get your grains and fruits in one sitting. It's a nice balance.

Now I just need to get my husband and daughter to see what a huge difference this could be on them. They both stare at the vegetables like I've just set a plate full of worms in front of them. I guess getting the family eating healthy with me will be the next part of my challenge.

I'm, also, happy to announce that I've noticed a big difference in how my clothes have been hanging off of my body. I feel more positive too. I've noticed that I stand a little prouder than I did before. It's a positive change, and I would recommend anyone looking to improve their health.

Birthday Celebrations - Plus, Bonus Recipe!

Well, it was my birthday today and no..I'm not going to start telling everyone my age.

I did pretty good considering. There was no cake, which I had requested. It helped that Friday's you can't eat meat for Lent, so I kept it to vegetables, beans, and pastas. I had stuffed eggplant with angel hair pasta and a marinara sauce. For lunch we had some leftover Crushed Lentil soup that I had made a few days ago. That is the surprise recipe for the day. I had this soup for the first time at a Middle Eastern restaurant and loved it. After having it and raving over how delicious it was, my sister-in-law informs me that her mother makes it all the time, and they actually use it to lose weight.

So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I plan to prepare this dish often.


Crushed Lentil Soup

1 Small package of lentils
2 Large carrots, cleaned and sliced
1 Large vidalia onion
4 Chicken bouillon cubes
Lemon juice

Prepare the lentils as package directions. I let my lentils boil for longer though, until they were fairly tender. Steam the carrots and grill the onions. After the lentils are finished add them with the carrots and onions into a blender, blend until smooth. Put ingredients back into the pot then add the chicken bouillon cubes. The lemon juice I used about 4 freshly squeezed lemons from, but it depends on lemon size how much to add. I would suggest going by taste. You do not want the mixture being too sour. Let it cook about ten more minutes.

Enjoy!

Too Many Diet Restrictions...

Is it just me or are there too many diet restrictions out there? I just read an article today that stated "High Protein, Low Carb Diet Causes Colon Cancer". Lovely. Another problem to add to my list of diet problems.. Or is it that the media finds something out and rips it apart? I believe the government might have a hand in some diets as well.

Currently I am reading a book called Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally by Neal D. Barnard, M.D. He works out of D.C. He said you would be surprised the products added into fast food meals and sweets. It's all about making the consumer return. He's all about eating alternative foods to meat. He believes the best option is cutting meat out all together because of all the additives.

It's a real interesting book. I'm still reading through it, but Neal is real intelligent. He talks about studies and research done on food to break down what is added in our food. You would be surprised that some studies of the brain show that certain foods act as a drug, much like some illegal drugs taken for pleasure, which has us returning for more. I first saw him on public television while on vacationing in Florida, so I decided to give his book a try. If I could eat healthier not just for me, but for my family as well that would be a huge step for me. It's the reason I decided to read this book and hope to gain some knowledge from it.