Eggplant with Yogurt Tahini and Molasses

 

I couldn't be more proud of the way this dish turned out. I made this delicious  eggplant with yogurt tahini, molasses and mint recipe from Gwenyth Paltrow's cookbook It's All Good. I highly recommend this recipe WOW! 

Here I was such a scaredy cat over trying eggplant again and I have to admit that I have been missing out. If you need to give this purple monster another try, check out this cookbook! There are tons of eggplant recipes in this book.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Choco-Chip Chet-Spheres

Camping weekend was deemed very successful! Please be sure to click over to my other blog http://czesialives.blogspot.com to read all about it! My friend, and camping co-captain Ashleigh over at www.funkybeets.wordpress.com  will be creating some posts as well, so be sure to check it out!

 

This post is more about a yummy camping snack I made! They are a riff off of the very famous, delicious and nutritious larabars, but less expensive and I made them myself! At first we called them chet-bars, then since they look like rounded balls = chet balls, and then since that could sound weird to most people they are now called chet spheres!

 

 

Half of our camping site, my back is to the lake. Chet-sphere in hand.

 

Turn a 180 and now I'm at our beach! I can't wait to go back, this camping site was absolutely AMAZING!

 

Life is better with a the sun on your face and a Chet-sphere at the ready!

 

 

Choco Chip Chet-spheres

(makes 1 dozen Czesia sized palm spheres)

 

8 ounces pitted dates (check the dates, I wound up with a pit)

1 to 1 1/2 cups raw almonds

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

dash of kosher salt

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

 

In a food processor mix the dates with the almonds and sunflower seeds until everything is mixed well and a dough ball forms.

 

With a spatula, scrape down the sides of the processor and dump the dough on a piece of plastic wrap.

 

With your hands: press dough together and flatten out after everything is well mixed. Sprinkle salt and chocolate chips and mix with hands again. Caution the dough is sticky but fun!

 

Make palm sized balls and eat!

 

 

 

 

 

Lentil Tacos

Whoa! I stumbled upon a delicious recipe for Lentil Tacos today!

I pretty much followed the recipe- I just doubled it, added much more garlic and didn't use salsa.

It was so good and so ECONOMICAL! Oh yeah, and meatless monday yay! If you like tacos, I bet you will like these! Marc devoured them and I have leftovers for work salads.

 

 

 

Yesterday my in-laws cam home from Poland! They got us all Souveniers (so sweet!) I am so happy about my shirt they got me! (Poland's colors are red and white). I felt "fit" and so happy to know that a size Medium shirt will absolutely fit!

 

Happy camper over here!! Speaking of camping, my best friend Ashleigh (catch her blog over here at funky beets, you can thank me later!) her husband, Marc and I are going camping this weekend! I'm so excited! I can't wait to do a twin blog post about all of our camping eats! T minus 3 days and COUNTING!

Peanut-y Breakfast

Dealing with stupid government run around today, I'm sure you've all been transferred a billion times and hung up on before. If so, you know my pain. Overnight oats made me feel a little better though!

In the mix: oats, milk, whole milk plain yogurt, chia seeds, strawberries and the best part PEANUT BUTTER LEAVINS' yum.

In case you missed my last post from czesialives I put up a couple pictures of weight loss and here is one for your viewing pleasure.

Tonight I'm going out with friends to a TIm Mcgraw concert so I should probably start listening (and learning) some tim mcgraw HA!

Pizza and Panic

Dinner last night was zucchini boat pizzas! This is such a delicous dinner idea. I found it on facebook and believe me you wont be dissapointed. Take the insides out of the squash and fill with pizza sauce, or in my case I used chopped tomatoes since my jar of prego in the back of my fridge was growning black death.

On top of the tomatoes I sprinkled italian shredded cheese, mini pepperonis, oregano and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes at 350, or also in my case, prebake before dinner for 20 minutes and allow to sit in fridge before coming home at 8 from volunteering and then go running before you can even think about eating dinner!

Can you tell the time difference now? Much later, flash is on..It was DELICIOUS! I can't wait to make this again. I'm actually glad I used chopped tomatoes instead, it really helped ramp up the fresh factor, and made me feel a little less terrible for using mini pepperonis that could probably survive a nuclear attack.

Forgive mid chew but right when I started to think about falling asleep I started having panic attacks. I've been getting them for the past four days. I've had panic in my life since about 9th grade, I researched it and found out that my low carb eating could trigger panic attacks. Basically, my serotonin levels are already lower than people without the pre-disposition for anxiety, and low carb eating has been known to reduce serotonin levels as well. That's messed up!  So I've been trying to eat my carbs in the form of fruits, veggies, the occasional slice of ezekial bread..but yesterday it didn't work. I layed down to sleep and got that awful feeling where I can't remember how to take another breath, and the fear of death runs rampant. So I got up, (freshly showered as you can tell LOL!) and made myself some cereal.

I think it helped since I was able to sleep but it took me a long time to go to bed because I kept having reoccuring attacks. Marc had to rub my back to let me know everything was okay. Panic is terrible, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I'm sharing this because I want to let others know that this could happen and I believe it to be a true side effect of low carb eating.

Have you ever had a panic attack?

Salad Rolls

I changed up my lunch routine with some delicious salad rolls! Cilantro, orange pepper, carrot, green onion,a chicken thigh, and green leaf lettuce rolled in a rice wrapper!

All rolled up with a yummy peanut sauce on the side! Peanut sauce is very easy to make. For this one, add together : peanut butter (I'll like smuckers natural creamy), sunflower seeds, sushi ginger and some of the pickling liquid, sriracha sauce, garlic, and water. EASY!

What a great and FILLING lunch!

Hodge Podge

As the title describes, this post is the first in what will more than likely become a series. I decided that instead of showing a post every day I might try one once a week or so. This way I don't overwhelm with posts and you can still see what's going on in my kitchen.


Todays breakfast was a great mix of strawberries (whoa so SWEET this pint was) ezekial bread, smart balance, ham and a over easy egg.  What a great breakfast to wake up to!

 

Lunch wasn't too shabby either. I concocted a "hot wing salad" with a boneless skinless chicken thigh, baby spinach, baby carrots, feta, franks red hot and a drizzle of blue cheese dressing. I finally figured out that I like blue cheese dressing BUT only at the smallest tiniest drizzle or else it gets too overpowering.

 

 

I cheated a little and put some hazelnut creamer in my iced coffee.

 

Which made me HAPPY!

 

 

This was a couple breakfasts ago. We ran out of groceries so I had to figure out what the hell to feed my man for breakfast. Marc is a man of habit which means he has either eggs or cereal for breakfast. I made him toast with neufchatel cheese, stevia, and cinnamon mixed together and raisins on top. Strawbs on the side!  SO GOOD!

 

Look at my cute strawberry! It has a cutie pie STEM! It made my morning.

 

Marc loved his breakfast and Bean wanted some too. (I'm sure Marc loves that I put hs bare chest all over the internet. Back off ladies, that's my man! ;)

 

Last but not least, I forgot about smoothies. I love smoothies!  This mix is plain yogurt, wheat germ, blueberries, strawberries, and water..no judging we were out of milk!

 

It was especially beautiful!

 

Ok guys I'm off to work, I'll see you next week with hopefully some more dinner ideas and a recipe or two?!? Depends on if you read and comment..be a good minion now!

 

Muah XoXo

Nibbles

Sometimes I just feel like nibbling!

Today was one of those days, so I took my crunchy and savory "cravings" (I think the proper word would be appetite) and transformed them into a lunch plate of veggies, red pepper hummus, and leftover summer squash gratin. YUM!

 

And this is my lonely picture for the day. Hope you guys enjoyed your day and I'll see you tomorrow?!

A Cherry Splurge

Cherries are so expensive this year! A couple of weeks ago they were $8.99 a pound at my work!! A lot less expensive now at about $3.49 a pound, so of course I had to splurge. They are so sweet and delicious, cherries are one of my favorite fruits.

It's not yet lunch time today, but I'll share a lunch I had a couple days ago. We had badly needed some groceries so I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. It ended up really delicious though! Here I have a rye cracker with Neufchatel cheese that I mixed with oregano, garlic powder, pepper, parsley, and chopped red pepper. Some spicy brown on top and snow peas with more red pepper on the side.

I made a watermelon relish yesterday, I'll be back to share it with you later on today. Stay tuned!

Can you guess what the ingredients are by this picture?

Bodacious Broiled Breakfast

I didn't know that I had a broiler in this apartment until about two weeks ago! HAHA! Needless to say, I've been Broiling a lot more now that I've discovered this treasure. Take breakfast for example, I broiled spinach hormel natural choice (non-nitrate YAY) chicken, and deer creek white cheddar on a peice of sprouted grain bread. On top I placed an egg and framed the whole deal with orange slices.

So good. The cheese made it spectacular, and who doesn't like runny yolk? Actually, I know quite a few but I'm glad I'm not one of them.

Coffee on the side. I love these metal straws, on one hand I feel like a gerbil on the other hand I feel like a waste reducing gerbil. WIN! I have to work most of the day away, so I may not post again until tomorrow. I hope you guys have an amazing day!

Panera and a Fish Dish

Lunch was actually long overdue. I got crabby as all hell before realizing I was mostly hungry. Panera to the rescue! I live right next to Panera so it's convienent and a bit scary. I found that they have a "hidden menu" that's lower carb so I hit that up!

I got the "Power Hummus Chicken Bowl".   Which was really good. I loved the lemon and underneath all the deliciousness you see there is a big handful of baby spinach. Very good lunch! (Come on Panera, now it's your turn to send me some coupons LOL!)

Dinner was okay. Not the best in my opinion. We had some Cod in the freezer, so I made parmesan cod. On the side theres an arugula romaine salad with a dressing of franks red hot and plain yogurt, and roasted green beans and carrots. That was my favorite part. I feel satisfied though and like I made some very good decisions today.

I think watermelon is calling my name! See you guys tomorrow :)

What was you dinner? Do you like fish, any good Cod recipes?

Chocolate Espresso Yogurt

I love breakfast! Today's breakfast was watermelon, sprouted grain bread with natural peanut butter and strawberries and last but not least Chcolate Espresso Yogurt yum!

This yogurt mix I thought would be yummy because I didn't feel like drinking my coffee this morning. In fact, I wanted to try to do two different things this morning. The first was to not have a yogurt berry bowl again and the second was to forgo the iced coffee just to say I could. So I did, but I still got to have some yum flavor a la instant coffee in my yogurt. Plus I added wheat germ, stevia, and cocoa powder.

Turned out great.

I also had a weigh in today, in the last two weeks I've lost 6 pounds..BAM!

Today is my spin day which is my favorite workout. I have to make sure I've eaten enough calories to perform with gusto. Yesterday's run with Marc went well. I really pushed myself to quicken the pace. Hopefully I'll be at least 10 minutes faster than my last 5k!

See you guys later!

Eat the Crayon Box!

Yesterday I felt that I could have eaten more veggies, or at least more color variety (lots of greens), so todays mini goal was to eat as many colors as possible in the crayon box! You guys can see how I've done so far.

This is my breakfast of champions, and my "I'm currently in a breakfast rut that I'm unsure I want to get out of" breakkie. I love this mix of berries, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, and whole milk yogurt.

This yogurt is SO BEYOND good (Hey Stonyfield, send me some yogurt coupons okay?!) If you can get your hands on this yogurt I recommend it. It tastes sweet to me even though it's plain, and it's so luxurious. Screw fat free yogurt!

Here goes the crutch side of my morning. Yes I'm big into coffee again. You know I'm not sure if this is a habit (okay..addiction) that I wish to get rid of. I love coffee! Who would have thought. There is something so fun about a ritualistic behavior like having a morning cuppa. <<--- haha I said cuppa.

I had to run to work this morning (and was still "late", being on time is late at this job blegh). I also thought I was going to be home by 1 or so, but  I ended up getting home at three. So needless to say, I was so hungry.

 

In comes pork stir fry! I rarely eat pork, but I have to say I love it. Maybe it's because I dont eat it very often?

In the mix: carrot, red pepper, cabbage, snow peas, ginger, garlic, liquid aminos, and pork. Oh and the black dots are smoked sesame seeds, so yum!

 

Dinner tonight will be after Marc and my first official training for the 5k we are registered for! Were doing the color run August 11th. I'm thinking dinner will probably be egg based since I had quite the portion of meat for lunch.

 

So I have a couple question(s) for you my lovely reader...

 

1) Do you have a food ritual like my coffee addiction? Do you wish to quit it or think it's a normal and fun part of your life?

 

2) How many colors of the crayon box did you eat today?

A new space for eats!

Hi folks! some of you may know me from my blog I had originally started Czesia Lives. That blog has been a place to record my eating habits and stay accountable to my cyberspace pals. I fell out of the habit slowly and surely and started talking more about my humdrum life instead of my foodie love! This created a boredom and weirdness about czesia lives that I didn't want to invade what I considered a helpful and happy space. SO...now I have created a sister site, this one you are on right now, Czesia Eats! I'm very excited for this new baby and hope you will join me on both sites for a hopeful revamp! I really missed blogging, I've missed you, and I've missed posting yummy pictures so here you go! My first posting!

This was my lunch today. A salad of romaine and baby spinach with sunflower seeds and a dressing of lime, canola oil, salt and pepper. I also had two crisp bread crackers (norwegian crackers made of whole grain rye) oven roasted turkey, deer creek white cheddar, dijon and a boiled egg. It was delicious! Super flavorful. I'm always surprised that this is something that I would find craveable after my french fry, pizza, and krispy kreme past.

 

 I have the day off work so I had some time to really think about what I wanted for lunch. Lately, I'm trying to limit my consumption of excess sugar and refined carbs so this was a good match for what I'm going for! For my drink I mixed diet tonic water with cold peppermint tea. What a great combo!

 

 

I love the condensation forming on the glass.

 

 

I am so excited for this part of my blogging life. Thank you for sharing your day with me and for checking in!

 

-Czesia