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