Veggie Tales

I have exciting news! Well maybe not to you, but it is for me! I've been going to Zumba for two nights in a row! I REALLY REALLY like it. Its 1 buck, and I get an hour workout, its different every time and I am covered with sweat and feel happy after it. Who knew Ruston Louisiana would have Zumba classes... I usually go to the First Baptist Church (yeah I know, I think its funny too) for the class. But they dont have one on Wednesdays, so tonight I'll be going to the Intramural center. I havent been there yet, and I was told that the Zumba classes were really crowded, but maybe they wont be tonight because its Wednesday. Its at 6 instead of 7, so I'll get an earlier dinner which will be nice.

So because this week was going to be crazy, and to be honest I think every week this quarter will be crazy, I'm going to have to plan out every day to make sure that I get all the stuff done that I need to get done. Because of that I made some more food. I think I made too much, but I can freeze most of it, so thats a good thing. Monday night I ran to the store and made a cabbage casserole and vegan sweet potato and lentil soup because I was almost out of the lentil chili. I got the recipe for the casserole on runsforcookies.com, and I like it a lot. Yes, I realize it has meat but to be honest, its hard not to eat meat when you are busy. There arent a lot of things that are meat free that are fast to fix. I used ground turkey because I just like it better, and I want to try to stay away from beef.

Sweet Potato and Lintel Soup

The vegan sweet potato and lintel soup from Eat Yourself Skinny! is okay, but kinda sweet, I think next time if I do this that I will leave out the cinnamon. There are load of good spices in it, but not wild about the one that brings out the sweet. I have two quarts of it in the freezer that are going to my mom (you're welcome mom!).

I also want to say that I steamed a bunch of carrots and broccoli on Monday and threw them into ziplock baggies so I can just dump them on a plate and heat them up with lunch or dinner. I REALLY wanted to try to eat more veggies this week. I can say that I love them. It was such a good idea! On top of eating more veggies, I feel full longer and more satisfied when I eat lunch. I bought a spaghetti squash when I was at the store too, I'm cooking it tonight to see how it is.

Oh before I forget I just wanted to say about the cabbage casserole, when I make it again, I'm going to do some things different. She says to use a can of condensed tomato soup and pour over the top of the casserole once you cook the meat and layer it with the cabbage, well I think when I do it next time I'm just going to cook the tomato soup with the meat, I think it would be a better flavor. I hesitate to put this as a recipe on the blog before I try it out.. so the next time I make it I'll try the changes and if its good I'll post the recipe. Until then, just use the link above to get the original!

Also regarding food, which I suppose this whole post is about, I just want to say that I bought some Ezekiel bread, another thing that I was surprised to find in Ruston, and I had it with eggs last night and my soup and it was wonderful. Did you know that the bread has 4 grams of protein? You also have to keep it cold, but I dont mind toasting my bread! I keep seeing some of my health nut people on facebook post about this bread, and its great. They have a cinnamon raisin that I wanted to get, but I figured I would try the original before I started on any of the other kinds. I dont eat much bread to be honest, so its nice to be able to keep this in the freezer and not have to worry about it going bad.

So I do have to say that eating all these veggies makes it so that I feel full when I eat lunch and I'm actually eating LESS calories now because before I was filling up on more of the main dish. I dont know about you, but I always think that veggies are such a hassle. I mean I dont have time to steam vegetables every night to go with my dinner and mushy vegetables are disgusting, and sometimes even though I try to include it in the dishes I make, it just doesnt happen. But being able to just pull a little baggie of veggies (the kinds I like) out of the fridge and pop them in the microwave and eat... its awesome and priceless and makes vegetable eating 100% easier.

Also, just one little tip that I have to say is amazing and I found out about a while ago and mean to post. I used to always get bags of spinach out of the bagged salad area, and it would be good for maybe a week at most, and I would try to eat it up, but there is only so much stuff I like spinach in. Well a while back I got some fresh spinach that comes in a bundle out of the fresh lettuce area for a recipe and it came with stems (which I had to chop off, its easier if you do this while its still in the bundle) and I had to wash it, but I put it in a ziplock bag (it was still a little wet too) with some paper towels on the side and it kept for 2-3 weeks. Yeah you read that right 2-3 weeks. So now I can put it in my shakes, my every day meals (like the vegan sweet potato soup!) and my favorite- egg whites (with a little reduced fat feta... perfection!) and I dont have to worry about it going bad in two or three days.

I hope the Zumba class tonight is as fun as the others I've been to! One more thing that I thought of while I was rereading the post... I read the other day on another blog that when she eats dinner she has a variety of things that she eats, like the soup, eggs and the veggies, or whatever she wants. I usually would just eat a bigger bowl of soup and call it done, but she said that having the other food out on her plate makes her feel like she is eating more, which I guess she is, but she says its a mental thing and feels more satisfied because of this. That was another goal this week to eat more than just a bowl of whatever it is I'm having for lunch or dinner, so maybe I can be mentally satisfied too.