Meatless Monday Update

I've had great success with Meatless Monday the past few weeks. At first, I was just eating seafood instead of beef, pork, or chicken; but the last few weeks I've had no meat at all on Mondays. The nice side effect is that I often end up having at least a meatless lunch the next day (and breakfast because I never have meat for breakfast). So here is what I ate instead.

6/9 Food Log:

breakfast: banana, oatmeal to go bar
lunch: morningstar basil and tomato pizza burger, raw yellow squash
dinner: pesto tomato pasta w/morning star Grillers Recipe Crumbles
snacks: teddy grahams, quaker granola bar, ice cream with teddy grahams

6/2 Food Log:

breakfast: banana
lunch: pita pizza
dinner: tofu and veggie stir fry, white rice
snacks: goldfish, chocolate covered almonds

True Meatless Monday

I have been trying really hard these past few days to eat more fruit and veggies. I have had great success, but today was the jackpot because it snuck up on me. Without even trying, I ended up eating no meat today -- not even seafood!

I had planned to make a tofu stir fry for dinner, but after the run I didn't feel like cooking. This was fine because we had leftovers and all the fixings for a salad. Jason chopped some onions and carrots for the salad, and I warmed up some chicken and rice. While the leftovers were heating up, I spruce up my salad with some green olives, feta cheese, and cashews (instead of croutons). I found the salad so tasty that I didn't even want the chicken. Then I remembered it was Meatless Monday and I hadn't yet eaten any meat so I thought I'd keep it up. I feel so great after my run and that salad.

Here is what I had today:

breakfast: 1/3c egg beaters & 1 morning star veggie sausage patty
lunch: Pita Pizza (had to introduce Jason to it, and I am still in love with it)
dinner: salad (lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, green olives, red onions, cashews, greek dressing)
snacks:
- chips ahoy crisps
- special K granola bites
- strawberry shortcake
- banana

We also went to the movies today and that is when I had the chips ahoy crisps and granola bites that I brought with me and a bottle of water. I was going to buy some cookie dough bites, because they were $1 with a coupon they gave me, but Jason tore it up so I wouldn't. *lol* I was kinda ticked because I wanted a taste and was going to save the rest, but he is right I didn't need them.

Roasted Zucchini & Carrots

Another easy one.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 c carrots, cut into them strips (23 cal)
- 1/2 c zucchini, cut into thick slices (9 cal)
- 1 tsp olive oil (40 cal)
- 1 clove garlic, minced (4 cal)
- 5-10 sprays of Ken's Lite Accents Balsamic Vinaigrette (1 cal per spray)

Total: 86 calories

Instructions:

1) Since carrots take longer to cook than zucchini, cut them into thin strips and I cut the zucchini into thick slices.
2) Toss them in a bowl with a little olive oil and minced garlic
3) Seasoned them to taste with the onion powder and garlic powder (You can also add salt and pepper).
4) Add a few sprays of Ken's Lite Accents Balsamic Vinaigrette and toss to coat evenly.
5) Broil for about 5 minutes, flip the zucchini and broil another 5 minutes, or until carrots are tender.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries are on sale at Publix this week and they had these short cake shells next to them, so I bought some. I didn't follow the recipe in the package exactly (it said something about crushing the strawberries, adding sugar, and refrigerating for a few hours. Forget all that!).

I simply cut one large strawberry into small pieces, mixed it with some cool whip, then scooped that on top of the short cake. I added another strawberry cut in half on top to make it look prettier :) All this for only about 140 calories (the short cake was 100, 25 for 2 tbsp of cool whip, and the strawberries are about 12-15 depending on size).

Easy Pesto Salmon

I love that Publix puts recipes in the packages of meat and fish. Sometimes they are just general cooking instructions, but other times it is a full easy and delicious recipe, such as this one. I used the bake option because it somehow seemed wrong to microwave this (and it seemed like wrapping it would get messy--plus baking it gave me time to clean the dishes I used and the counter before sitting down to eat).

Ingredients:
- 1 lb salmon fillet, skin removed
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 package of prepared refrigerated pesto sauce

Instructions:
1) Rinse salmon fillet under cold water and pat dry.

2) Place in a glass pie plate and baste with olive oil and minced garlic. (Although fresh garlic is always best, I think the pesto sauce was flavorful and oily enough that you probably do not need this step. I may just season it with some garlic powder next time before adding the sauce.)

3) Spread an even amount of pesto sauce until the fillet is well coated with approximately 1/4 inch layer of sauce (I don't think I used this much and it was plenty rich and tasty).

4a) Cover in plastic wrap and place in microwave for 3 - 3 1/2 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

OR

4b) Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Do not cover or turn if baking.

5) Serve hot. I served it with the leftover veggies from last night, which where skillet potatoes and green beans.

Pita Pizza (revisited)

I just can't get enough of this pita pizza and I love how this picture came out. I've made it 3 times now; and it's never the same pizza twice. After the race, I went to the farmer's market and stocked up on fresh produce then made a veggie filled pita pizza.

Here is the variations used in this incarnation:

- base sauce: pesto sauce, tomato paste, chopped garlic, chopped green onions, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, black olives, oregano

- toppings (chopped): mushrooms, orange bell peppers, red onions, fresh basil, grape tomatoes, feta cheese

Tomato Chicken

This is a super quick and easy recipe I got from Mel.

Ingredients
- skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 1 can diced tomatoes (or you can use fresh and dice them yourself)
- salt & pepper (to taste)
- other spices (to taste)

Instructions:
- Season the chicken with salt & pepper or your favorite spices.
- In a big pot, combine the chicken and tomatoes and throw in any other spices you want (I used fresh basil and thyme).
- Cover and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Turn chicken at least once to ensure even cooking.
- Serve with rice and your favorite veggies (I satee the snap peas in a little olive oil and garlic.

Mediterranean Pita Pizza

Someone posted this recipe in one of my communities and I just had to try it. It was absolutely delicious and super easy to make.

Ingredients:
- Pita bread (I used Toufayan whole wheat)
- black olives
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- basil leaves
- spinach (I omited this)
- feta cheese
- mozzarella/parmesan cheese (forgot about this)
-tomatoes (omited this, the paste was enough for me)
- crushed red pepper (omited this--didnt have it and don't like spicy)
- oregano
- garlic clove
- tomato paste
- anything else you'd like to top your pizza with (I added onions)

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.

- Spray the pita with olive oil cooking spray and place in oven for about 5 minutes.

- While its heating, in a seperate bowl, mix sliced olives, balsamic vinegar (2 tsps), oregano (to taste), crushed red pepper (to taste), and one minced garlic clove (or more if you're into garlicky), and one teaspoon olive oil (you can skip that too if wanted), and lastly tomato paste (about as much as you'd like it to be tomatoey).

- Smear this mix on the pita.

- Now top with spinach, cut tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, and whatever else, about as much as each will take. Sprinkle some feta cheese on each and some mozzarella cheese if you want.

- Put it back in the oven for 5-8 minutes, or until cheese is all melted.

foodsel

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This is a great site to get nutritional information about the foods you eat and what it will take to burn them off with some really nice visuals. Instead of just telling you how many calories and other nutrients a food contains, it also shows a nice graph of the breakdown of the nutrients. In addition, it uses pictures of batteries, sugar cubes, and sticks of butter to visually show you how many calories, sugar, and fat the food contains. Lastly, you can enter your weight and it will tell you how much of any given physical activity you need to do to burn it off. It also has a visual BMI calculator and you can search for foods by group, manufacturer or nutrient.

Meatless Monday - Day 2

I had another successful Meatless Monday:

• Breakfast: quaker oatmeal bar, banana
• Lunch: white rice, tuna and pesto sauce
• Dinner: Steamed Snow Crab and veggy salad

I snacked an awful lot during the day, but I don't feel like listing them all. They were all meatless though.

One advantage of meatless Monday is that it usually leads to at least one meatless meal the next day from leftovers. So maybe there is something to this starting the week off right thing. Not to mention, it is going to force me to try new things so I don't get bored with Tilapia and tuna every week :)

Pork Burger & Veggy Salad

Pork burgers are one my favorite things to eat lately. Ever since I discovered ground pork, which is cheaper, healthier, and tastier to me than ground beef, I've been eating a lot more burgers. Accompanying this is a veggy salad inspired by a recipe from GreenWise Magazine (Marinated Zucchini & Mushrooms).

(all the quantities listed are for reference. You can use more or less to taste)

Pork Burgers
- mince 1-2 cloves of garlic
- mince 1 thick slice of onion (any kind will do, but I prefer red)
- add the minced garlic and onions to the ground pork
- add seasoning of your choice (salt & pepper or everglades seasoning works great)
- add some Worcestershire sauce (you can also use A1 or any other steak sauce you like)
- put gloves on and massage the meat to mix in all the ingredients evenly
- make into patties and grill (1 lb makes about 4 patties)

Veggy Salad
- mince 1-2 cloves of garlic
- mince 1 thick slice of onion (I prefer red)
- chop any leftover vegetables you have into bite size pieces (I usually use a combination of peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumber, mushrooms, radish, tomatoes--anything really that you don't mind eating raw)
- combine all ingredients in a bowl
- season the veggies to taste (salt & pepper is usually enough since the minced garlic and onions sever as seasoning too--I gotta remember to add some fresh basil =P)
- add extra virgin olive oil and vinegar (white or red wine works well) to taste
- serve; this keeps well refrigerated for a few days. If you put too much oil/vinegar it may get soggy though.

Meatless Monday dinner

This was my dinner today. Asides from the stuffed mushroom, it was very easy to make--and the mushrooms where not hard to make, just time consuming because of all the chopping. It was very tasty.

baked breaded tilapia - I just followed the package instructions I got from Publix, but basically just bread the fish and bake at 450 for 5 minutes on each side.

stuffed mushrooms (hidden mickey)
I followed this recipe with some variations: orange peppers instead of green, minced garlic/onions instead of salt, olive oil instead of butter, bread crumbs instead of toasted bread and I forgot about the pepper and parm cheese.

Saute zucchini & orange peppers
Just cut and saute in olive oil for a few minutes with your favorite seasoning. I also added some minced garlic and onions. I chose these veggies because I had already cut part of the pepper for the mushrooms and wanted to make the zucchini before it went bad.

Meatless Monday lunch

I love how colorful this plate of food is. I read about Meatless Monday in GreenWise magazine and thought I'd give it a try this week since I want to reduce my red meat intake.

***

From their site, www.meatlessmonday.com/, where you can read more details, tips and recipes.

Meatless Monday is a national public health campaign to help prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer -- four of the leading causes of death in America. A simple way to prevent these diseases is to eat [...] [food] lower in saturated fat, found mainly in meat and high-fat dairy products. If Americans cut out meat and high-fat dairy just one day a week, they would meet the government's dietary guidelines.

Based on their nutritional guidelines, "meatless" means no red meat, pork or poultry. Seafood -- which is high in nutritional value and "good fats" our bodies need -- is encouraged [...]

So, why Mondays? [...] Monday is a great time to start the week on a lighter note, especially for those of us who tend to overindulge over the weekend.

***

My meatless meals today:

- Breakfast: scrambled egg beaters and veggie sausage (which I accidentally purchased, but are quite tasty).
- Morning Snacks: banana; Quaker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Lunch: Smart Taste Pasta (with 3x the fiber and calcium equal to an 8oz glass of milk) with, shrimp saute in extra virgin olive oil and the leftover veggies from last night.
- Afternoon Snacks: homemade popcorn
- Dinner: Tilapia with stuffed mushrooms and zucchini or some other veggie

Marinated Zucchini & Mushrooms

This recipes is from Publix GreenWise Market Magazine, which you can subscribe to and receive for free in the mail every month, pick it up at the store, or view it online.

This is another favorite from a different issue that requires no cooking, just lots of chopping. You can use any veggies you like really, not just the ones mentioned. I usually just throw in every leftover veggies I have before they go bad, some minced garlic and onions, and season to taste with salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. Jason didn't like how marinating it overnight made the veggies soggy, so I usually chop everything, put it in a bowl, refrigerate it, then mix in the olive oil and vinegar before serving and add salt/pepper to taste if still needed.

PREP: 30 MINUTES MARINATE: 8 TO 24 HOURS

This tempting meld of Mediterranean flavors also boasts valuable antioxidants that promote eye health.

2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon organic extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or ¼ teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small organic zucchini
1 small organic yellow summer squash
1½ cups fresh whole small Publix GreenWise Market Organic Mushrooms (4 ounces)
½ of a small red organic sweet pepper, cut into square pieces (½ cup)

ONE For marinade, in a small bowl whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, shallot, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper; set aside.

TWO Using a vegetable peeler, shave off long, thin strips of zucchini and yellow summer squash. Set a resealable plastic bag in a large bowl and place zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms and sweet pepper in the bag. Pour marinade over vegetables; seal bag. Marinate vegetables in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally.

THREE To serve, drain vegetables, reserving marinade. Arrange vegetables on serving plates or a serving platter; drizzle with reserved marinade. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Nutrition Facts per serving: 38 cal., 3 g total fat (0 g sat. fat), 0 mg chol., 85 mg sodium, 3 g carbo., 1 g dietary fiber, 1 g protein.

Two-Potato Skillet

This recipes is from Publix GreenWise Market Magazine, which you can subscribe to and receive for free in the mail every month, pick it up at the store, or view it online.

This is my current favorite side dish to make. I've had it twice for dinner, and once for lunch this week. I have leftovers for this weekend also. It is super easy to make and very tasty. I tend to mix it up a bit and throw some squash or zucchini into the mix towards the end of the cooking time to get even more veggies in my meal. I imagine you can throw any other veggies you want in there too, such as carrots. The potatoes take the longest to cook, and I like to use red onions for flavor while they cook, so I just throw sliced squash in the last few minutes to warm it up and take the flavors since I don't like them to get soggy.

PREP: 20 MINUTES COOK: 20 MINUTES

Sweet potatoes add more than an unexpected taste twist to the mix. Just one serving also provides 150% of the Daily Value for vitamin A.

1 tablespoon organic olive oil
12 ounces organic sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (about 2 small)
8 ounces organic red potatoes, thinly sliced (about 5 small)
4 ¼-inch-thick slices onion
1 teaspoon snipped fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

ONE Heat oil in a very large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion slices, rosemary (if using), salt and pepper. Cover and cook 10 minutes, gently turning potatoes 2 or 3 times during cooking.

TWO Uncover and cook 10 to 15 minutes more or until potatoes and onion are tender and lightly browned, gently turning once. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and basil (if using). Remove from heat. Makes 4 to 6 side-dish servings.

Nutrition Facts per serving: 149 cal., 4 g total fat (1 g sat. fat), 2 mg chol., 149 mg sodium, 25 g carbo., 4 g dietary fiber, 3 g protein.