The best one.,. and most recently, I found a "butter" diet in a magazine that pretty much won me over in the first 30 seconds.. butter, on a diet.. I'll take that! All I had to do was eat grass fed cow butter for every meal.. including my morning coffee.. and I would lose 65 pounds in 3 months! Wahoo.. finally! The diet gods have answered my prayers. So, I set out to find this magic butter. After a few stops.. there it was.. Calling my name.. "Sarah, moooo, Sarah,, moo" I mean come on.. I don't know what it was saying.. it was from a cow, and it was calling my name,. that's all I got.. Any who.. I brought it home, already feeling skinnier from this magic cow potion. The next morning I told husband about my newest diet endeavor. He is usually pretty supportive, he knows I want to have my pre-baby body back. However, he wasn't nearly as excited about my butter diet. He said.. "so let me get this straight.. you are going to put butter in your coffee and lose weight." I mean to me.. it sounded perfect. Again he brings a very important part of the diet to my attention.. "Sarah, you don't drink coffee." I mean I knew that.. but I could start drinking coffee, if I could put butter in it. Again.. husband tries to rationalize, "Let me give you a couple choices.. and you choose which one is the healthy or not healthy." Well I love games.. but I knew he had some direction he was going.. however, I let him be wise (for a moment ;)) "Ok a salad with light dressing." "Healthy," I shouted."" Regular exercise, he stated." Again I said healthy.. and I may have rolled my eyes.. "Lean Chicken?" Again.. I said healthy. less excited and less into this new game.. and finally, "Putting butter in your coffee." Ok. I decided not to answer. He made his point. HE wins.. but I brushed him off (which sometimes I do, :) ) and prepared my butter coffee. You know in movies where they have the spit takes.. I created my own. Gosh, coffee sucks and butter is not good in coffee. What kind of grass did they feed those cows? ugghh... I knew I couldn't choke it down. Instead of powering through.. I ended the reign of the butter diet. I did, however, have great grilled cheese for awhile with all that good butter. ;)
Ok.. so I am supposed to be inspiring you.. Let me get back to that. Like I was saying, I am a yo-yo dieter. So, this year for my New Year's resolution I decided to end that. Yes, I am losing weight.. yes, I am working out almost everyday.. but this year, I am getting healthy. I am changing the way I eat. I can't promise I won't cheat every so often.. (I just cant totally give up Taco Bell forever..I refuse that one.) I am saying that I will make much better choices about what I put in my body. So, since I love to cook.. I have really enjoyed re-teaching myself ways to make my favorite things, but in a healthier manner. This has been the secret to my new body beginnings.
Here are a couple recipes I have made in the past few weeks that have helped us stay on track. You can always adjust certain things to adapt to your pallet. These can just get you started.
Until next time my fine feathered friends.
Dessert.. ( I adapted this from multiple different recipes)
Strawberry Sorbet
You need a food processor or good blender for this one
4 cups of frozen strawberries (they have to be frozen)
1/3 cup of honey
half of a lemon squeezed (about 2 tablespoons of juice)
1-2 teaspoons of stevia (about 2 packets)
1/4 cup milk (whatever you prefer)
Put all ingredients into processor or blender and turn on high for 2-4 minutes. You may have to stop and stir midway through. Once it is a very smooth consistency, you can serve immediately, or put in a freezable container.
Dinner.. Makes about 24
Spinach Won-Ton Ravioli
Most of these measurements are estimated. I just make stuff up as I go. :) But, they can't be messed up
2 cups cooked spinach. Fresh is best. (Also, you must squeeze all the water out as best you can.)
1 pint of part skim Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
water
won ton wrappers
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine cooked drained spinach, ricotta, parmesan cheese and 1 egg until well blended. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and Italian seasoning. If you like some spice, you can throw in some red pepper flakes.
Take your other egg and blend with a little water.
Brush your egg mixture on the edges of a wonton wrapper. Spoon your filling into the middle of the wrapper. I would say about a teaspoon of filling is best. cover the wrapper with a another wrap and press the edges until sealed. (A little tip, while pressing your ravioli.. begin around the filling and work outwards to avoid bubbles. You could even fork press the edges if you want the ravioli look.)
Continue with the rest of your filling. You will have wrappers left over. This will make about 24 or so ravioli.
Now here is the part you can decide how you want to cook them. You can drop your ravioli into SALTED boiling water and cook them this way. Do them about 4-5 at a time...about 3-4 minutes is good.
You can also bake them. This is how we like them. As you make the ravioli, place them onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Throw them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. This really all depends on your oven. When you see them crisping up, they are finished. We like ours super crispy, so we can pick them up and dip them into the sauce.. so this is your personal call.
You can serve these with a homemade marinara or store bought pasta sauce.
*If you don't like spinach, you could literally use any kind of filling, and these would be great. The key for this recipe is that, the won ton wrappers are low in calories, versus that of pasta. You can make your flavors whatever you like. *
I'll continue to post more of our favorite recipes.. Hope you enjoy these. :)
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Just a little.. PSA before I wrap up this one.. Influenster is a free app that can get you enrolled in product reviews. I just recently started doing this.. and kinda love it. You get to review all kinds of products you use, answer questions.. etc. They will send you coupons for free stuff and you just have to use them and tell about it. Way to easy. Anyways.. this connects because, I have been getting free coupons for healthy food!! Win. win. Check it out. You could get something for free that could jump start your own weight loss journey. :)
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