Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts (3)
Spinach (1 bunch)
Mushrooms (1 package)
Onion (1 large)
Gouda cheese (8 oz)
Eggs (2)
Bread crumbs ( 2-3 tbls)
Tomato Puree (1 can)
Butter (1 tbls)
Garlic powder
Oregano (dried)
Salt & Pepper
Foil wrap

Directions:
Heat your oven to 400 degrees F and grease an 8X11 cake pan.

Cut one long slice along each chicken breast`s side deep enough to create a pocket inside the chicken. Rub the chicken down with garlic powder, oregano, salt & pepper and then set the breasts aside.

Dice the onion and cheese. Slice the mushrooms and spinach.

Satee the spinach and half the mushrooms with the butter for about 2-3 minutes until greens becomes wilted. Drain any excess liquid from the spinach and mushrooms. In a bowl mix the eggs, cheese, bread crumbs, oregano (1-2 tsp), salt & pepper (to taste) with the spinach and mushrooms. Stuff the chickens with the stuffing and set aside.

In a pan, satee the onions and the rest of the mushrooms with oil. Add the tomato puree and season with garlic powder, oregano, salt & pepper. Make the sauce extra strong with seasonings. (flavors will weaken in the oven).

Pour half the tomatoe sauce in the bottom of the baking pan, place the chickens in the pan and cover with the remaining stuffing and sauce. Cover the baking pan in foil and bake for 40 minutes or until chicken breasts are fully cooked.

Enjoy!

Note: You can eat over a bead of pasta or rice. Makes 3 large servings. You may also cut the chicken breast in half before you prepare them or after they come out of the oven to make 6 servings (as shown in picture).

Red Lentil Soup (Middle Eastern Style)

Ingredients:
Red Lentils (3.5 cups)
Water (10 cups)
Onion (1 med)
Carrot (1 med)
Parsley (dried 2 tsp)
Garlic (3 cloves)
Chicken Bouillon (5 cubes)
Turmeric (2 tsp)
Cumin (2 tsp)
Salt & Pepper
Lemon Juice (2 tsp)

Directions:
Dice the onion and carrot and garlic into small pieces.

Rinse the lentils and remove any debris.

Put the lentils, bouillon, onion, carrot, turmeric, cumin, parsley, and garlic in the pot with the 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 35 to 40 minutes. Add the lemon juice and salt/ pepper to taste and continue cooking until lentils have fallen apart. You may put soup into a blender to get a smoother consistency or serve as is.

Enjoy!

Note: This makes a lot of soup so use a large soup pot or reduce the amounts by half.

Pressed Black Bean and Avocado Sandwich

Ingredients:
Black beans (1 can)
Avocado (1)
Tomato (1 med)
Cheese (gouda/swiss-sliced)
Roasted Onions (1/2)
Roasted Bell peppers (1 red & yellow)
Mayo/Mustard (equal parts of each)
Whole grain bread

Directions:
First you will need to roast your bell peppers and onion. You can buy roasted peppers from a can however if you already have to roast your onion might as well have freshly roasted bell peppers too!

To roast bell peppers/onion-please see vanashing veggies recipe! Follow directions from recipe using only peppers and onions (no broccoli).

To make sauce: All you need is equal parts mayo to mustard and mix. How much of each depends on how many sandwiches you plan on making at one time.

Slice the tomato into sandwich slices and mash the avocado so that its easy to spread onto the sandwich.

Place all the ingredients (avocado, roasted peppers & onion, cheese, tomato, sauce, black beans) on toast in any order that you desire. Place toast in a sandwich presser and cook until cheese melts and the bread has a nice brown color. (If you don`t have a sandwich presser then squish the sandwich nice and tight so that nothing will fall out and place in a toaster oven until cheese has melted and bread is evenly brown).

Enjoy!

Note: If the cheese doesn`t melt completely after the toaster oven you can zap it in the microwave for 20-30seconds. This recipe makes several sandwiches (maybe 3-4) but you can always preserve the ingredients and eat again for another meal!

Black Bean Tomato Toast

Ingredients:
Black beans (1 can)
Tomato (1 small)
Bread (whole grain)

Directions:
Toast the bread. Slice the tomato like you would for a sandwich or hamburger. Heat the beans in the microwave or on the stove.

Serve the beans on top of the toast and place the tomatoes on top of the beans.

Enjoy!

Note: You can include additional toppings (but remember to keep them healthy toppings! No cheese!) like avocado and/or roasted veggies! Be creative!

The `THOUGHT`

I grew up from a tex-mex background and the most my family new about eating healthy or eating veggies was to take it out of a can and add butter or boil fresh broccoli and then put cheese and butter on it. Now maybe some of you are asking `what`s wrong with that? Broccoli and cheese is what I do too!`

Well unfortunately these cheesy buttery debuts were scarce and never twice in the same week. It`s bad enough that veggies were rare but the fact that when they did show up on our dinner table they were loaded with fat and then some more fat.

I bring this topic up because most American households don`t have the time to eat the 8-10 servings of fruits and veggetables. When the few that do try to eat a little healthy, they either lack the energy to be creative or they just don`t know where to start, and make lots of unhealthy mistakes.

Just looking around at the people in my life; I see so many of my friends and family members who are starting house holds of their own repeating the same habbits my family did when I was growing up. In fact many of them are taking the extra step and eating crazy harmful foods because it taste good and have absolutely no regard for health. You just can`t eat something like a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and hashbrowns then deep fried and covered in a pool of sausage gravy and think its ok.

Don`t get me wrong I am all about food for the soul, that is why I started this blog in the first place. But if it`s doing a lot of harm to your body then it can`t possibly be good for the soul. The example above and many like its kind (fried mac n` cheese bites) are a ticking time bomb for diebetes, high cholesteral, high blood pressure, or worse!

The truth is we as a generation have to start eating for health, not for weight, not for anyone else, not even for our own bad impulses or insecurities. We have to start loving ourselves by loving our bodies in the right way. Eating the nutrition you need on a regular basis is giving yourself the best present your body could ever ask for.

I support self pampering but before you do a soap sud bath or go out and get an aromatherapy massage give yourself something better. Give your body what it NEEDS before you do all the extra pampering. Give it the fuel it needs, a healthy nutritious diet.

When I decided to start this blog I didn`t do it just for myself. Even though I wanted to keep track of the recipes and ideas I`ve been learning along the way of my lifestyle realtering. I wanted others to have access to it as well so that it can help them along their process. Eating right and being healthy takes a lot of work and commitment. Unfortunately even if you do want to be healthy and eat right, it`s hard to decide where to even start. Therefore along with writing recipes I decided to include knowledge in the form of `Food for Thought` section of this blog.

Please take the time to read and evaluate your own self value and give feed back!

Enjoy!

Planning for Success!

When trying to tackle the seemingly large goal of changing your lifestyle it will become obvious early on that this is a big endeavour and will have many obstacles.

The first biggest obstacle for many people is time. We are all extremely busy trying to balance a career, education, a family, friends, organizations, etc. and there just seems to be no time to squeeze in health. I understand this is a huge challange and it`s something I`m still working out for myself. It`s definately not easy but I can say that it gets easier as you turn everything into habbits and really make it into a lifestyle change. When eating healthy and being fit becomes your lifestyle you no longer stress over what to do because it becomes automatic for you. You become more efficient as it becomes your `go to` in your daily life. It becomes how you function.

Don`t get me wrong it takes a long time before something becomes a true lifestyle change but it will have huge impacts and benefits in all areas of your life. And being healthy is the best way to teach your kids and everyone around you that you care about how to be healthy, by example. It will put them in a better place for living a long healthy happy life for their kids and loved ones and beyond.


Oops! Back to the topic.....time.

How do we manage our time to eat nutritiously and not drop something else in the process? The key to this is time management. You have to first learn how to be an efficient time manager. In order to do this you have to plan and map everything out ahead of time.

I am sure you can find extra tips along the way that will help you personally with this obstacle however here are the 3 top most important tips in planning for success!

1. Meal Plan: You will need to make a meal plan for yourself and/or your family (weekly/bi-weekly). This includes every meal and every snack. EVERYTHING YOU WILL PUT IN YOUR MOUTH.



2. Schedule: You must schedule your time for cooking, grocery shopping, meal planning, etc. Once you have a meal plan for the week/bi-week you can create a shopping list and go once to the supermarket for everything you need. Doing #1 properly will help you tackle #2 efficiently. If you know you are going to be too busy on Tuesday to cook a healthy meal then prepare a meal on Monday that will last for two days (i.e. make it bigger). If you are busy multiple days in a row then you can always prepare one to two large meals on the free day prior (i.e. Sunday) and freeze it/refrigerate it so that all you have to do is warm it up and enjoy!



3. CHEAT: Make life easier for yourself when possible. If it`s easier to just suck it up and buy the pre-cut veggies/frozen veggies then do it! Your health and your body is worth the extra dollar or two. It will save lots of time in preparing meals and ultimately give you time to accomiplish other things on your to do list. Find shortcuts that can tackle the same thing in less time. If you think about it long term...doing all three will help you eat healthy hearty meals on a daily basis which will cut down or eliminate take out eating all together, which ultimately saves you the most money!
   

Maybe you have other personal challenges keeping you from being healthy but like my mom always says `when there is a will, there is a way`. As long as you have the will to make your health and body a priority (along with help like my blog) you will have no excuse not to succeed.

Veggie Scramble

Ingredients:
Eggs (2-6)
Onion (1 med)
Bell peppers (1-2 all/any colors)
Spinach (1-2 bundle)
tomato (1-2 med)
Potato (2-3 med)
Garlic powder
Lawry`s seasoned salt
Pepper

Directions:
Cut all the veggies into desired size/shape.

Cook the onions, potatoes, and bell peppers in a pan until almost done.

Add tomato and spinach (i.e. softer veggies). Season with Lawry`s salt, garlic, and pepper until desired flavor. Cook until veggies are all done and any extra moisture (from tomatoes) has evaporated. Add eggs and cook until eggs are scrambled.

Enjoy!

Note: Feel free to add to the veggie scramble with additional veggies or fixings. You can eat this like a breakfast taco or on top of a whole wheat toast. Also add salsa on top for additional flavor if desired.