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Anyways, the other night, when we had nothing planned for dinner and our fridge was looking exceptionally bare, I decided it was veggie soup time! It turned out SOOOO much better than I expected! You can certainly substitute different veggies depending on what you like or what you have on hand – another big plus to this recipe! Enjoy!

Garden Vegetable Soup (Adapted from Alton Brown)

Prep Time: 30 minutes, Cook Time: 45 minutes. Yields 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 C chopped leeks, white part only
• 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
• kosher salt
• 2 C carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds
• 2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 cans of diced peeled, tomatoes (14.5 oz cans)
• 2 C frozen corn kernels
• 2 C frozen green beans (instead I used the bag of frozen stalks I mentioned)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 C packed, chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 3 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat. Add leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sweat until softened.

2. Add carrots and continue to cook for 4 to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. (mine were a bit crunchier than I would have liked so I suggest maybe boiling them first)

3. Add the stock, increasing heat to high. Bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add tomatoes, corn, green beans, and pepper.

4. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the vegetables are fork tender, about 25 to 30 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Season, to taste, with kosher salt. Serve immediately.

So far so good. The first workout was harder than I expected so I am looking forward to seeing how I feel in a few weeks. I am also trying to squeeze in some extra treadmill time for a little added cardio. The problem I have with cardio is that I get really bored if I don’t have good music to listen to. And my playlist gets old fast when I listen to it everyday so switching it up is key. When I was approached by Run Hundred I was immediately intrigued. You can subscribe and get a fresh list of heart-pumping tunes for great workouts twice a week! Better yet, it’s free!! It was always such a pain to search all over the internet for good playlists, but this site allows your to choose what genre you like. It was so easy! Here is my first list that I tried out today and I must say, it worked like a charm – best workout I’ve had in a while! Check out the site and let me know what you think!

• Tim Berg – Seek Bromance (Avicii Vocal Edit)
• Katy Perry – The One That Got Away
• Alexandra Stan – Mr. Saxobeat (Maan Studio Remix)
• Flo Rida – Good Feeling
• Wolfgang Gartner & Will.I.Am – Forever
• Hot Chelle Rae – Tonight Tonight (Goldstein Remix)
• Taio Cruz & Flo Rida – Hangover
• Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull & The WAV.s – I Like How It Feels
• Kaskade & Skrillex – Lick It
• Kelly Clarkson – What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)

It was really nice being the one waited on and truthfully, he is a great cook. When we first met though he was used to Mama’s cookin’. Butter, cheese, meat, salt and sugar were his 5 main food groups and boy did his life change when we started living together! He has now eaten things he never dreamed of (insert Green Goddess soup…which he loved, might I add…) So I agreed to the manicotti so long as he did his best to make it healthy (without losing the taste). So while I would have loved to have seen more veggies incorporated into this dish, it was very delicious.

(P.S We had a side salad to make up for the lack of veggies which was a great pair with the heavy pasta. And I apologize for the lack of pics, I really took advantage of my night off….)

Corey’s Manicotti (adapted from Food Network’s)

Ingredients

• 12 Manicotti shells
• A little less than a whole bag of spinach (you could go with the whole bag, honestly)
• 3 cups or so of marinara or spaghetti sauce (we just used store bought)
• 1 1/2 cups of part skim ricotta cheese
• 1 cup of shredded part skim mozzarella
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup of Parmesan cheese
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Ground pepper and salt to taste
• Large baggie
• Optional: Fresh parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat, and season generously with salt. Fill a medium bowl with ice water and season with salt, as well. Boil the spinach, uncovered, until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, (do not drain), and immediately plunge the spinach into the ice water. Drain and squeeze the excess water from the spinach and finely chop. (NOTE – You can also saute the spinach instead of boiling, boiling makes the spinach lose some of its nutritional value and I tend to think sauteing just tastes better.)

2. In the same large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta shells until al dente (tender but still slightly firm – VERY IMPORTANT! If you overcook them, they will fall apart when your trying to stuff them…) Drain and pat dry.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Cover the bottom of a 9- x 13-inch ovenproof baking dish with 1 cup of the marinara sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, evenly combine the ricotta, mozzarella, and 1/3 cup of the Parmesan, the eggs, and the spinach. Season with a few sprinkles of salt, nutmeg, and pepper to taste. You can try to spoon the cheese mixture into the manicotti shell but we opted for the baking approach and put our mixture in a large baggie with one of the corner cut to create a small hole to fill the shells. Fill one side then the other until they are bustin’ with cheesy goodness.

5. Line them up in the baking dish. Cover with the remaining sauce. Scatter the remaining cheese on top. The sauce will sort of bake into the shells for optimum taste so don’t worry, your not wasting the sauce! Bake for 30 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes then serve.

Individual Vegetable Pot Pies (serves 8 ) adapted 5 And Spice, originally from a recipe in a 2007 Food & Wine magazine

Ingredients (measure veggies so they are equal parts – measurements below are flexible)

• 3-5 carrots, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces (depending on size)
• 3-4 stalks of celery or turnip, peeled and cut into half inch pieces
• 1/2 cup of frozen corn
• 1/2 cup of frozen beans
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 small onion, chopped (I also added some green onions too, just for fun)
• (NOTE: you can use whatever combination of seasonal vegetables you please, as long as you have about 8 cups, chopped, total)
• A whole lot of olive oil (around ¼ or 1/3 cup)
• Salt and pepper
• A couple tsp. of thyme
• A tsp. of sage
• 4 Tbs. of butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 2 1/2 – 3 cups milk (I used almond milk, which turned out great!)
• A tsp. of thyme and a pinch each of sage and nutmeg
• Optional: You can add a cup of cooked and cubed chicken

Directions

Heat your oven to 425F.  Toss all of the chopped vegetables and half of the chopped onion with the olive oil a couple tsp. of thyme, one tsp. of sage, and several big shakes of salt and pepper.  Spread them in a large roasting pan, put them into the oven and roast – stirring once or twice during the process – until they are soft and have gotten brown cooked spots on them, around 45 minutes, or so.  Remove from the oven and set aside.  (But leave the oven on.)

In a saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high heat, until it’s melted and starting to bubble.  Stir in the remaining half of the chopped onion and cook for a few minutes until softened and translucent.  Stir in the flour until it is all mixed in with the butter and onion and cook for a couple of minutes.  Then, whisk in the milk a little bit at a time, stirring vigorously to avoid lumps. Then stir in the remaining smaller amounts of thyme and sage and the nutmeg along with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Turn heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about ten minutes.  At this point, add more salt and pepper to taste.  Then, stir sauce and roasted vegetables together.  Either spoon the vegetables into 8 individual pot pie dishes (large ramekins) or into a large baking dish.  Put an unbaked sweet potato biscuit on top of each dish – or if using a large baking dish, arrange the biscuits on top to cover it, slightly overlapping one another.**  Pop the pot pies into the oven and bake until they are bubbling and the biscuits are puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.  (You can also make the vegetables with sauce ahead of time and refrigerate them, then just warm them up to room temp and spoon them into your baking dishes when you’re ready to bake).

** My biscuits didn’t cook all the way through because the sauce and veggies was keeping the moisture in on the bottom so I might suggest making the biscuits separately or cook them for a little bit then put them on top.

Sweet potato biscuits (makes 8)

Ingredients

• 1 medium-small sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
• 1 ¾ cups regular flour
• 1 Tbs. brown sugar
• 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 7 Tbs. cold regular butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

In a pot, cover the sweet potato with water,  bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until soft, about 20 minutes.  Drain the potato well, then smash it up with a fork.  Reserve ¾ cup of it and let it cool (you can use the rest of it for something else, for example eating it for a snack as you cook).  In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt.  Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like a coarse sand.  Alternatively you can just pulse all these ingredients together in a food processor.  Stir in the buttermilk and ¾ cup sweet potato mash until all the ingredients are just combined.  Scoop the dough out into a ball, and knead it a couple of times on a well floured surface.  Then, roll it to about ¼ inch thick and cut it into 8 biscuits – you can make squares or use a 4 inch circle cutter.  Put the unbaked biscuits on top of your pot pies before baking.  Or, if you just want biscuits, bake them in a 425F oven for 15 minutes, until golden.

I see so many people motivated on January 1st and by February 1st they are back to their old habits. The reason it doesn’t work is because diets and unrealistic goals make it impossible to maintain. You have to make a lifestyle change, often times one thing at a time. You can not go from couch potato to iron man in a month – so stop trying! Try walking before getting right to running. Try cutting out sugar before you cut out meat and dairy.

One way to stick with it is finding healthy foods that don’t feel like you are depriving yourself. And how could you feel deprived when your eating nachos?? I found these meatless nachos/tacos from The Happy Herbivore cookbook that I just bought myself for Christmas and I’ve eaten them three times already! The meat substitute is TVP which stands for “textured vegetable protein”. It is a soy-based protein, low in fat, very easy to cook and tastes just like ground meat so the options for how to use it are endless. I like this meat substitute considerably more than seitan, tempeh and especially tofu – bleh!

Ingredients (suggested nacho/taco mixings)

• Corn
• Black beans
• Lettuce/spinach
• Salsa
• Optional – sour cream, avocado, tomato, tortilla chips, cheese, lime juice

Meat substitute

• 1 cup of TVP
• 3/4 cup of broth
• 2 tbsp steak sauce
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp onion flakes
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• hot sauce as desired

Directions

1. Combine TVP and broth
2. Once the TVP is reconstituted, add remaining ingredients
3. Stir to combine
4. Scoop TVP and place it on top of salad with desired mixings.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup of cold water
• 1 medium butternut squash
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• Garlic
• Thyme
• S&P
• Optional – cheese, sour cream (highly recommended)

Directions

Measure 1 cup flour and 1tsp. salt into a mixing bowl. Measure 1/4 cup olive oil into a measuring cup, then fill to the 1/3 mark with cold water. Stir the oil and water with a fork to emulsify, then pour into the flour and stir until all the flour is moistened (you may have to add a touch more oil or water if it is too dry). Gather the dough and press into a ball. Flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the squash lengthwise in half and lay halves in a pan with a little bit of water. Roast at 425 degrees for about an hour, until soft and easily pierced with a fork.

While that is cooking, sautee your diced onion in a hefty splash of olive oil over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then turn heat to low and allow to cook for another 5-10 minutes to begin to caramelize. When the squash is cooked, carefully (ie, don’t burn yourself!) remove the seeds.

Discard the skin and mix squash with the onion mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you are adding cheese or sour cream add it here. I used about 3/4 cup of sour cream and 3/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese.

Press pie crust into pan to desired thickness (mine ended up being too thick, so be careful). Add squash/onion mixture and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. thyme. Bake in the oven at 375F for about 45 minutes, until the crust is golden.

If you have leftover squash/onion mixture keep it! It makes for a great snack the next day on it’s own, similar to mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

• Sliced mushrooms (a small handful for 1 serving is enough)
• Goat cheese
• Balsamic vinegar
• Rosemary
• Olive oil
• Whole wheat bun
• Optional – basil pesto spread, basil leaves, spinach, tomato
• (I didn’t end up using the lemon, just FYI)

Directions

1. Saute the mushrooms in olive oil and add about half of a teaspoon of balsamic and a pinch of rosemary for added flavor.

2. Meanwhile toast the bun. Once done smear the goat cheese on the bun, add the mushrooms and your choice of toppings (I suggest trying a few basil leaves first. If you do decide to try the basil pesto spread I would just do one side of the bread, not both)

I had mine with pita chips and it was delish!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh green beans, ends trimmed
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 Tbls olive oil (can sub broth for healthier option)
• 1/2 Tbls butter (optional)
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• S&P

Directions:

1. Place trimmed green beans, water and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt in a small skillet over medium heat. Cover and cook 10-15 minutes or until beans have softened slightly but are still crisp.  Drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, in another pan add olive oil and butter. Once butter has melted, add onions and mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes or until softened.

3. Return green beans to the pan, cook 5 minutes. Add garlic powder and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes (or 1 really big one), peeled and in 2-inch chunks
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup orange juice (not pictured. If you don’t have any in the house, use water)
• Optional: cheese, sour cream, cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Peel and chunk the sweet potato and add to the pot. Add diced onion. Then add the red bell pepper, can of tomatoes, beans, garlic, and seasonings. Pour in OJ and water. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until the onion is translucent and the sweet potato is fork-tender. This feeds 4-5 people.