Vegetarian Recipe 3: Crack-a-dillas

I'm going to save the trouble of explaining to you why I haven't updated in 6.7 billion years. It might have something to do with the fact that my life has been 98% more complicated than it was when I started this blog and I cannot seem to keep my head above water long enough to write about my diet, take pictures of all the meals that I create and then write something lengthy and witty about them. It's not that I don't love doing that. I love to talk about the new ways that I find to eat well. However, it's a bit of an operation to do all of these things well and I am not really much of a half-asser. So here I am returning to you with not much credibility under my belt since I can't seem to keep any of my promises and not much promise for the future. But I am damn well going to try.

I tend to make lists for myself and then either shred them up with my lack of motivation or rearrange them so that they no longer resemble the original goal. This is what I have done for my blog. I have made a very fancy little list that maps out the titles and subjects of each entry for the rest of the month of May. This list has a little more promise than my "cleaning house" list. One, because I'm currently out of school and have nothing to do besides sit around the house, talk to my stuffed animals and watch Food Network. Two, because I will probably use this blog as a procrastination method to put off the cleaning house list to a later date. But again, I can't make any promises that I won't find something much more entertaining to do other than write this blog....like build a log cabin out of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Today is Monday so that means that I have to do something vegetarian. I say that so painfully, like I HAVE to, but to be honest it's not all bad. I could stand to put a little more green in my life and a little less red. I'm just not vegetarian material as far as lifestyle goes but having a good meatless meal a few times a week is actually really nice. In fact, this recipe that I have found for you is actually quite simple, tasty and fast. This recipe can be made with meat, but personally, I prefer it completely meatless. This is something that I make when I have just enough time on my hands to open the fridge and start tossing things in the oven. Usually on nights when I get home late from a night out, or I have a lot of homework or am just feeling lazy, this is my go-to recipe.

I found this recipe one night while I was surfing YouTube. Pre-current boyfriend era, I had no life. I know that's really hard to believe but I didn't really do much but attend school and spend a good bit of time at my apartment. YouTube swiftly became my best friend and connection to the outside world. Right at your fingertips there is a whole slew of home cooks that post videos onto YouTube showing you their recipes and techniques right there for you to watch. I follow quite a few cooks on the YouTube, however there is one man who has opened my eyes to a whole new world of quesadillas. His name is Michael, also known as Freitasex on YouTube. NO. His name is not Freita Sex. It's Freitas Ex. I was quite confused about that upon seeing his channel. I thought that I had found something dirty when really, YouTube just doesn't allow the usage of spaces in your username. So Michael is Freitas Ex....not Freita Sex.....moving on.

I'm in college so I am always looking for something ridiculously easy to do. So when I saw Michael making these quesadillas I knew I could easily do my own rendition of this. I've altered the ingredients just a little because I did not have all of those things that he used in my pantry. So I did what he said to do and "use whatever you like". The version that I created has been a favorite amongst boyfriend and I for as long as we have been dating. In fact, I cooked these for him on our second date and he hasn't left since! Because I don't have a picture for this entry (I know I fail at this), I am going to offer something better. I have attached the video of Michael making the quesadillas to this entry. So you can watch the original video and then read about how I made mine. I would also like to point out at this time for any vegetarians reading this entry, Michael does use a chicken breast in his video. However, the version that I have created is meatless. So this is just a warning.




Here is my rendition of Michael's Quesadillas in which I have affectionately nicknamed "Crack-a-dillas" for their addictive properties.

Ingredients:

2 6-inch flour tortillas
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons of no fat cream cheese
Red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
2 green onions chopped
Light sour cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Lay out a baking sheet large enough to fit your tortillas. Spray one side of one of the tortillas with cooking spray generously and lay down on baking sheet spray side down.

In a mixing cup or bowl, combine the cream cheese with the red pepper flakes and mix thoroughly. You may add as much flakes as you would like depending on how spicy you like your quesadillas.

Spread the cream cheese mixture onto the oiled tortilla.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese evenly on top of the cream cheese.

Sprinkle the green onions on top of the cheddar cheese.

Spray one side of the second tortilla with cooking spray generously and lay it on top with spray side facing up.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until desired gooeyness and crispness is achieved.

Slice into four wedges and serve with sour cream. The sour cream is optional. You can also substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream.



As you might have noticed, I made a few alterations. Since I did not have the adobo chiles on hand (does anyone know where I can buy these, I need them for a different recipe?) I took his alternative suggestion and used the red pepper flakes. I am sure that this is not as tasty as the adobo chiles but I find that the red pepper flakes are just fine for me. I also opted to use just plain cheddar since I did not have any Mexican cheese mix on hand either. I used green onions instead of red onions (I had been cooking Asian meals that week that I first tried this so I had LOTS of green onions in the fridge). Although now that I go back and re-watch this video I think I will try these with the red onions. Delicious. I also used a much smaller tortilla since I am quite carb sensitive and have to cut back on my portions anyway. I did not use salsa because I am not a huge fan of it on anything other than corn chips and so I don't really buy it. But this is how I serve mine. I wonder if Michael will approve of my toppings? I wonder if adding sweet corn would be nice as well? As you can see, this is very versatile. I have to thank Michael however for showing me the red pepper flakes in cream cheese technique. I would have never thought to put cream cheese on a quesadilla. Fantastic idea Michael!

So how does it weigh in on the healthy factor? Upon looking at this recipe you might think it is quite indulgent and unhealthy. However, I am here to report that one quesadilla (4 wedges) is about 440 calories (sans sour cream). If that means absolutely nothing to you, I will say that when I was on the Aspen Clinic diet they told me that around 400 calories is a good ball park for a meal. So that is my rule of thumb. Most of the Lean Cuisines in the markets are around the 400 calorie ball park as well. Now some of you might be raising your hands and wondering about the fat content and you would be mostly right to say that this meal is high in fat, mostly because of the cheese. But it is also high in protein and in a healthy calorie range. I have been advised before by many dietitians that if you are going to count something, let it either be calories or fat grams. It must be either or. Things that are high in fat could be less calories and things that are high in calories could have less fat. Eggs are a good example of this phenomenon. Not many calories but a good amount of fat.

It is really difficult to count both things closely. What I will do is count calories closely and sort of keep an eye on the fat grams. There are some things that are blatantly wrong. Eating a fudge cake is BOTH high in calories and fat grams so that's a large no no. But having two eggs in the morning for breakfast is pretty high in fat grams but it also gives me protein and does not count for many calories. The cheese in this recipe is the same way. I used the no fat cream cheese so actually that has no fat in it obviously. The cheddar cheese will have a little fat but I only opted for 1/2 cup. Also, a key element in keeping this recipe healthy is not frying it. I did the quesadillas just like Michael did in the video, in the oven. This makes them baked and not fried reducing the fat and calories as well. I will also substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream in the future. While I was staying at my aunt's this past week I discovered Fage Greek Yogurt. If I didn't know the difference, I'd say it was sour cream. It's very savory and goes with a lot of things.

When it came around to Monday and I had to write a vegetarian entry, I immediately thought of these. Now vegan...I cannot help you guys. I'm leaving you on your own because I simply cannot cope with your eating habits BUT veggies...I hope you will try this one out and love it! Base credit for this recipe goes to Michael or "Freitasex" of YouTube. Check him out.

Eat, Pray, Love,

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

Weight Loss Blog 2: Behaving Badly

I will go ahead and quote my aunt Lisa (one of my few readers) for starters, "Now you're going to have to go back and tell everyone on your blog what you did". And she's right. I am definitely going to have to fess up to what's been done in the last few weeks.

I have been strategically avoiding the scale in my bathroom, trying to convince myself that it is "unhealthy" or wrong to weigh myself for it excites emotional problems and mental trauma and will basically set me back even further than I am now. I know in my heart of hearts, that this is a lie. A clever lie I have made up in order to not stand trial for the candies, cakes, sugary alcoholic beverages, and greasy fast food that I have consumed in the last few weeks. I was on Mardi Gras break gosh darnit! If that isn't a good time to eat crap then I don't know what is. Living in New Orleans can be SUCH a trial sometimes. A very....delicious and hedonistic trial. Except the whole point of Mardi Gras is to transition into Lent a day later, a Christian period of fasting and sacrifice. The mini Twix bar that I have just consumed moments ago can attest for the fact that I am not participating in Lent this year. Sorry Jesus. I'm a bad lady. I just wanted a little chocolate all right?

My original Lent sacrifice was going to be working out in addition to the walking to school everyday. Yeah....that has yet to happen. It's not that I don't want to...or that I am lazy...it's just that...I have been distracted by so many other things. So many many other nice things. For instance, the gorgeous hunk of man that walks me to school every morning, takes me on movie dates, and buys me sweets. Every time I look at my new boyfriend I think, "That's mine? How the hell is that mine? What did I do to deserve such a thoughtful, wonderful, smiley, sweet, gentle human being as my significant other?" And so I have been pleasantly preoccupied with all sorts of new relationship fun. It's not that my sweet boy doesn't support my healthy lifestyle. He does. He's offered to go work out with me, I cook healthy meals for the both of us, he's even offered to video tape a cooking show with me for YouTube and this blog in support of my endeavors. But the truth of the matter is....we're lazy. We like to watch movies on the couch and we like to...eat....and go out to places where we....sit. Neither of us are SUPER active people. Neither of us really...ENJOY working out. We'd much rather cuddle and watch television or something. And it's not like we're really any different than most people. MOST people would prefer cuddles and movies over...strenuous exercise. It's just that...on my own, I'm healthier. Because my boyfriend doesn't have a health problem like I do so he can drink soda and he can eat candy and I'm really....not supposed to. But if he's doing it...then I'm going to do it too. And that's my fault for having zero will power. I really do have...no will power. I need to work on that.

What I really need to do is draw on the lessons that I learned in my 10 month phase of being single and alone. I CANNOT let my significant other's actions become MY actions. I am my own person. I make the decision whether to eat the chips or not. I make the decision whether to drink the soda or not. At the end of the day, I'm still in control of my life even if there are a few more distractions. I just seem to be really good at getting lost in my relationships. Like..really good. I just have less will power when someone else is doing it. Temptation if you will.

I will gladly say that after writing this entry I DID weigh myself and I have stayed below 200 lbs. I haven't gained any weight...which is surprising. I was pretty sure the mass amounts of King Kake, daiquiris, party food, Wendy's, and chips that I ingested over the break would have done me in. But for now...I have been spared. I really have to work on this though, even if it is a little bit a day. Otherwise I'm going to look like a jackass on my own blog. And we can't have that now can we?

Here's to kicking into Lent a little late...

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

Vegetarian Recipe 2: Asparagus Soup

Hello out there!

Crikey! It's been awhile. I would first of all like to address my absence in brief, so that everyone knows that I'm not a slacker and I've just been blowing everyone off. I will describe my adventures in this past week in detail in my Tuesday Weight Loss blog entry. But for now I will let it leak that I went on Mardi Gras break and behaved very badly. All right sickos...I'm not talking about showing my tatas at Mardi Gras parades, I'm talking about bad eating habits. I took a week and a half off to spend time with my family and there was a lot of...restaurant food...and very little cooking going on so there really wasn't much for me to write about. And THEN when I got back from Mardi Gras break I started...seeing someone. And when one is newly in a relationship, we tend to forget our duties and responsibilities and go frolicking in the fields of new found love. So while I have been hanging out on Cloud 9, my blog has been suffering. Badly. And I sincerely apologize for that. But hey, I have to live a LITTLE. If I spent my life in front of this computer screen I'd be pale and antisocial. But all that aside, I am BACK and excited to share with you some more Health Nut cooking adventures.

So in this recipe we're going to be talking about asparagus, a food demon that I'm still not 100% with. I'm not particularly in love with this vegetable and I have to admit that when I see it on my plate I don't get very excited. I usually save it for last, or push it around my plate a bit before I actually consume it. It's got all the wrong things going for it. There's only so many ways you can cook an asparagus. Blanched and drizzled with salt and olive oil...I've seen people put it in the oven to tender up...chopped in salads...the Japanese food industry makes good use of it by putting it in some sushi rolls...but honestly, asparagus isn't very creative. And it's not a particularly good flavor either. It's got that real....green flavor to it. There isn't much you CAN do to trick yourself. You know you're eating a think, crunchy, green vegetable and there isn't much you can do about it. So apart from having it served to me as an unexpected side dish at restaurants or having it in sushi rolls, I don't have much experience with the vegetable. And to be honest, I haven't really cooked with it before.

Many a time have I been strolling down the produce aisle at my grocery store and passed by the asparagus. A few times I have gotten a bit too bold and actually purchased this asparagus, only to later let it die and rot in my refrigerator for I honestly know not what to do with it. I have come to grips with the idea that I do this because I WANT to like asparagus. I WANT to like green vegetables and be healthy, but when the time comes to prepare the dish, I chicken out. Well those days are over. I SHALL NOT waste another cent on asparagus for I have been given the recipe to solve all my asparagus problems. This recipe was handed off to me by a Turkish friend of mine. She and I were discussing Mediterranean food and she had mentioned this asparagus soup. At first I didn't think too much of it because as I've said, I'm not a fan of this vegetable at all. But then I remembered the bunch of asparagus that I had very stupidly purchased a week previous, which were now going slightly soft and rotten under my irresponsible care. So I retrieved this Mediterranean recipe from her in order to make the best of my foolish purchase.

Soup is a great way to get in your servings of vegetables. I find that getting my fruit servings in is a lot easier than getting in my vegetables. Whipping up a nice soup is a quick and easy way to feed your cells and your soul AND to sneak in a few servings of green without having to sacrifice that taste or texture problem. I have tried this soup both hot and cold and it works well either way. So it is nice for the winter or the summer months. Personally I eat hot soup all year round even though I am ridiculously hot blooded and like to run up my energy bill with overages every time the weather even THINKS about getting hot.

Let's just throw out the recipe now shall we? I give full credit to my dear friend Crystal for this one! I am going to copy her recipe verbatim except I am going to change the measurements from metric measurements to US standard.

Ingredients (serves 6):

2 lb asparagus
2 oz butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 slightly rounded tablespoon plain flour
4 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup double cream or creme fraiche
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Prepare the asparagus by cutting away and discarding the tough, stringy white ends of the stalks, reserve 12 asparagus tips to garnish the soup, then chop the green parts of the rest of the asparagus into 1 inch lengths. Next, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a gentle heat and cook the chopped onion in it for 5 minutes, keeping the heat low to prevent the onion from coloring. Stir the asparagus into the melted butter and onion, then put a lid on and let it sweat for about 10 minutes, giving it a stir now and then. Sprinkle in the tablespoon of flour, stir again to soak up the juices and add the hot chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring after each addition.

When all the stock is in, bring to simmering point, season with salt and freshly milled black pepper and keeping the heat low, let the soup barely simmer, partially covered, for 20-25 minutes. Now you need to let the soup cool a little, then pour it into a blender and blend in batches (a large bowl is helpful here). Taste to check the seasoning. Finally, stir in the double cream or creme fraiche and the reserved asparagus tips. Re-heat gently for 3-4 minutes and serve very hot in warm soup bowls or alternatively, cool and chill thoroughly before serving in chilled bowls.


Katie's Edits:

I want to say that I didn't really change much to this recipe. I was nervous making it since I have never worked with asparagus before and I didn't want to mess it up or screw up the flavor. The only real edit that I did was I used milk instead of cream. I'm sure the soup would be much tastier with the cream or creme fraiche, but not having either of those on hand, I went with milk. I would assume that the soup would be thicker had I used the cream, but for me it was just right. For those that are trying to watch the calories, it is probably healthier to use milk rather than cream, however, you're eating a vegetable soup...you can only calorie grub so much before it becomes ridiculous so you may use what you think is best for your taste.

Another thing I did that was a huge mistake, and now that I'm looking back on it, very stupid of me, was that I added salt. A lot...of salt. To be honest I wasn't even really thinking about it and I threw it in there almost habitually with the pepper not realizing that the chicken stock...has A LOT of salt. Please PLEASE if you're going to make this...DO NOT SALT THE SOUP. My soup came out very VERY salty. I tried cutting it with a bit more milk but it was pretty much ruined. I of course will still eat it because I do not mind such salt, but for those people who need to watch their sodium and can't tolerate salty foods should really REALLY avoid doing something as stupid as this. Who DOESN'T know that chicken stock is salty? Apparently I had a brain fart and destroyed my soup. So this is your fair warning.

Putting the salt issue aside, after trying this, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it tasted A LOT like broccoli cheese soup. But the funny thing is that I didn't add in any cheese. It just TASTES like it has cheese in it. Maybe asparagus isn't such a bad vegetable after all! It is a very delicious soup and can be served with a crusty bread if you're into that kind of thing. I am definitely planning on bringing this as my lunch to campus one day, maybe with a half of sandwich or like I said, a piece of bread. A very simple and delicious dish that I hope you try!
Thanks, MANY thanks, to my friend Crystal for passing this on to me!

Best Wishes,

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

Healthy Recipe 2: The Katie Roll

I have to be honest with everyone, this was a completely impromptu entry. I had QUITE a few recipes that I could have picked from honestly, but this week I pretty much managed to exist on a completely different plane than everyone else. This week has been one of those weeks where I just completely checked out and didn't feel like doing anything. So when the thought came to my mind that I needed to eat tonight, I decided that I was going to be ballsy and make sushi. I know...completely out of the blue right? Now...sushi is something that takes a really long time to learn to make right. I mean in Japan, making sushi is like an art. You don't just buy ingredients at the store and be like "I'm going to make excellent sushi tonight", like I did. I once heard that learning to make the sushi RICE takes 7 years to perfect. For me, tonight was my first go and I really have to say, I'm impressed with myself.

I mean of course it's not restaurant quality. If you want restaurant quality then go pay $15 per person and see where that gets you. I mean I barely have enough money to support my grocery bill so I really can't afford to be hauling off to a sushi place every week to get my fix. So I purchased some nori (toasted seaweed. Comes in sheets. It's the greenish black wrap in most sushi rolls) and some more crab stick, and I just so happened to have a little tiny bit of cream cheese left and randomly enough...some asparagus....and I threw this together. I call it...the Katie Roll! Ok I'm sure that this has been made before and has been called something else. But the sheer ghetto-ness of this roll makes it a Katie Roll.

Let me just tell you how to make it since this might take some explaining. It's my own recipe, I didn't get it from anywhere...I just kind of made it up on the spot with what I had in my pantry.

Ingredients:

1. Nori, you can find this in the Asian section of your grocery store. Maybe not WalMart because WalMart is a fail in the selection department, but I got mine at Albertson's.
2. Sushi Rice, my brand is Botan Calrose rice. This you CAN find in the Asian part of your WalMart. You must use this kind of rice because it is very....sticky. And it helps hold together the sushi.
3. Crab stick, I found this at WalMart. I can't really explain to you WHERE I found it. It was in a case right next to the frozen fish section.
4. Asparagus
5. Cream cheese.

Directions:

1. First you must cook your rice. I did mine in rice cooker. 1 cup to 2 cups water and turned it on and let it do its thing. You can cook your rice in the traditional way as well, on the stove. Pretty much the same process except my rice cooker is faster. I seasoned the water the rice was cooking in with some salt.
2. After rice is cooked, put it into a bowl and put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes so that it is cooled.
3. Take the rice out and place your sheet of nori on a paper towel. Usually you would use a bamboo mat for this, but as I said, this was totally freestyle so I didn't have a bamboo mat. Paper towel worked fine.
4. Wet your spoon (it is important to keep wetting the spoon because the rice is like glue. It sticks to everything and will not cooperate if you don't keep your utensils wet) and spoon out some rice onto the nori, spreading it out evenly across the sheet. This is why it is important to cool the rice because if the rice is too wet and hot it will disintegrate the nori. You want your nori to have a nice layer of rice on it.
5. Place your crab stick on the side of the nori closest to you. If your crab stick is long and fits on the nori nicely, leave it. If your crab stick is short, cut it in half so that it fits on the whole thing.
6. Cut the tips off your asparagus and place them next to the crab stick.
7. Now, block cream cheese would be ideal for this, so cut off a strip of cream cheese and set that on top of the crab stick and asparagus.
8. Now this is the hard part. Grab the paper towel and fold the nori over the ingredients to make a roll. Keep rolling until the nori meets itself. The rice should be sticky enough to adhere to itself, but in case it's not, apply a little water onto the seam of rice to make it stick.
9. Squeeze the roll gently to make sure all of the nori is filled.
10. Take a sharp knife and wet it. Carefully trim off the ends. You don't want to go hog wild with this because then you're going to break your roll. You MUST wet the knife.
11. Now, slice the roll into pieces. Remember to keep wetting the knife in between each cut. That is very important.

Well now the roll is done, but you may add some garnish to this. A popular sauce that people use often in sushi restaurants, at least here in America is Japanese Mayo. Or as my favorite sushi place, Yujin Japanese Restaurant calls it, "white sauce". Now I think that Yujin makes theirs differently, but maybe not....I have figured out by taste testing many samples of Japanese mayo over the years that it is made with mayonnaise, white sugar and sriracha sauce. Just put a dollop of mayo in a container, put a teaspoon of sugar and a squirt of sriracha, mix it all up well and you're cooking with gas. That's the sauce for the top of this sushi.

Now I think that this recipe is pretty healthy. I know what some of you are thinking, "Katie can't eat white rice". You're right. I can't. And I'm going to be paying for that later. But I love sushi so much and so do many other people who can indeed have white rice. So I wanted to post that. I didn't use very much cream cheese because well....I didn't have very much left. But you shouldn't use a lot anyway. This is not a cream cheese roll, the main flavor is the rice and crab with a nice crunch from the asparagus roll. The sauce, since it is made out of mayo and sugar is very unhealthy. So you can omit that if you want and have it plain. I had mine plain. I just drizzled it on top for the picture and wiped it off after! Haha!

I hope that this is a good recipe for you guys to try. If anything it is FUN to make. If eating sushi is not your thing then you probably won't want to use this recipe. But since it is very popular here...I thought it was worth a shot. Have a great night all! If you have any questions let me know!

Live Long and Prosper,

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

Weight Loss Blog 1: The Plateau

Jeez Louise, already one week into my blog and I've managed to be late on a post. I'm sorry guys. I got stopped along the way to "Blogville" by a nasty British Literature Midterm that exhausted me to the point that I could not write. Lame excuse I know, but exams take a lot out of you! This entry is not going to contain any recipes or tips so I suppose if you don't feel like listening to me rant about my weight loss experience then just...fail to show up at this page on Tuesdays. Because that's what we do on Tuesdays. Talk about my weight loss. However, I am not going to speak too much on the subject because I don't want to seem like I'm...bragging or talking too much about my own life.

I guess I should point out that my starting weight was 222 lbs. Yeah I'm not proud either. You don't have to tell me that it's bad. I can't really give you a definite answer on how I got that way, all I know is....that one day I came to the harsh reality that I was becoming really unhealthy. To be honest I'm glad that I caught it at 222. That was a good place to catch it at because I think that if I had let myself get up to 250 that would have been my point of no return and you were going to see me on Biggest Loser on prime time in a few years. All I can say is that, my weight gain was part because of PCO, part because of my eating disorder, part because I medicated with food and part because I'm a naturally very nervous person. Like I've said before, I had my diet change epiphany right before my ex left me, and now I am safely back of the eating healthy band wagon for 7 months.

Although, in 7 months time I've only lost about 22 lbs. Which is bad. And it's basically because I've become complacent. I've been able to maintain a weight of 200 lbs for 7 months. Which means that for 7 months I've been at a plateau. And you thought that I was such an expert on this healthy living thing. Haha! Barely. I am only just a student as you are. I can safely say that this plateau has occurred because I am not very good at working out. I hate it. I actually....I really can't think of anything I hate more than working out. I'm going to be straight up honest. I can only pretend to be some kind of health guru for so long before someone asks me about exercise. And honestly, I can't really say that I can give anyone any kind of guidance on that because my idea of working out on a daily is walking 25 minutes to school and walking 25 back. Which isn't BAD exercise. Doctors will tell you that walking is quite good for you and since I do it EVERYDAY except on weekends, I am already doing pretty good. I can probably say that walking to and from school has helped me lose that good 22 lbs and has helped me keep it off definitely. But reaching that plateau means that you're not doing ENOUGH to push you into more weight loss. And that's what I'm struggling with right now.

I suffer from severe clinical depression. I know it's not an excuse because there are plenty of people with clinical depression that somehow find a way to make it through the day. And I know I know, exercising releases endorphins and makes you happier...I know. Believe me. I've had a weight problem since I was 11. I've heard it ALL. But what most people who don't have depression don't realize is that, depression isn't something that just makes you SAD it is also a disease that zaps you of all energy and motivation. It's such a fantastical disease I can't really even explain it to anyone properly because they think I'm making it up. But I promise you, you're just going to have to take my word for it when I say that depression is completely numbing. There's that commercial on television, I forget for which medication, that says that people with depression have to keep "winding themselves up" to accomplish even the most menial of tasks in everyday life. That's so true. I have SUCH a hard time getting myself to get out of bed, take a shower, brush my teeth, put my make up on, and get myself dressed and fed in the morning that by the time I actually do walk that 25 minutes to school I feel like I've already done an entire day's worth of work in 2 hours.

So when I get home from school I literally cannot find the strength to walk much less work out. Everyday this week I have fallen asleep after school against my own will. My body just shuts down. Like someone just pressed the "off" button. I know it's like mid-semester and that's when things start getting hectic and don't really get any better until exams are over and it's summer time and that plays a huge part in everything too. I'm just getting worn out. I'm not comfortable enough to work out in front of people yet. There is a gym in my apartment complex that is widely used by the football players and Malibu Barbies of the area and honestly, I don't know where I fit in there. It's really embarrassing to walk in there and sit between Barbie and Ken with my inner tube belly. I've tried to do a bit of working out at home but I don't know too many things I can do at home. So I guess maybe what I should be doing is asking any of my viewers out there in Blogville if they know of some good at home work outs that I can do? If someone mentions yoga, I'm going to scream. I am horrible at it and I don't think it's for me. Thank you very much. So any suggestions besides yoga? Thanks very much.

So that's my short little entry about how I am going with my weight loss. I can't imagine anything being much different next Tuesday but we'll see!


Eat Pray Love (and exercise),

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

Vegetarian Recipe 1: Black Bean Burritos

Seeing as it is 2 in the morning and will probably be close to 3 once I have this entry "publish ready" to my satisfaction, I am going to attempt to be brief. As has been commented before, I tend to be long winded. And as much as I find that to be one of my many charms, some people find it to be....overdone. I would like to comment that I am very passionate about this subject and rightfully so since I am writing an entire blog about it. If I weren't going to write much then there might as well be no blog. If all I was to do was copy and paste recipes into this here text box, well then I would be criticized for being too unoriginal or boring. Ah the critics. You just can't escape them. Oh well would you look at that, I'm already breaking my "I'm going to attempt to be brief" rule. Ah me.

A little while ago, I guess it would be a few months by now, I considered becoming vegetarian. I wouldn't say that it was for moral purposes so much as it was a gross out factor. After I started cooking more and more things for myself I started dealing with raw meats, something that 4 years ago I was NOT comfortable with doing. I can say that biting my lip and "dealing with it" is my current tactic for cutting and handling raw meat. But I guess that after dealing with it I became gradually aware of WHAT meat WAS. I know that's really stupid because we all know what meat is. But if we don't cook, we don't really have to deal with it in it's....grossest form....right off the animal bone. I started practicing the ritual of offering up a prayer for the animals that have given their lives for this food just to fill a void in me after I realized that I was eating a big, thick slab of animal body. I can safely say that NOW I have given up most red meats. I don't eat ground beef anymore (which is killing me), I don't eat pork...actually come to think of it I don't really eat ANY kind of beef. Oh...something really dumb I did the other day....I stopped buying bacon because it was red meat. I told my dad this while we were in the supermarket. And he said "Since when do you eat real bacon?" And I thought about it and realized that I've been eating turkey bacon my whole life so....it was indeed NOT red meat. Silly silly Katie.

So lately I've been sticking to just poultry. Chicken and turkey. Oh and seafood. I eat fish and shrimp and crab. I could never really give any of that up. I love seafood so much. And for some reason I am still eating two of the cutest animals in my opinion. I think fish and birds are so cute. I know weird right? So I definitely don't think it's a moral thing. Anyway. Since I've cut out red meats I have to supplement my diet with something else so I've been exploring vegetarian recipes. Back when I was on Trail One of this blog I got a request from a vegetarian friend to do more veg recipes. So that is why I implemented "Vegetarian Monday" into my blog.

I'm going to be brief now and just give you the recipe. This was something that I also found on Allrecipes.com but I changed it up A LOT. However, I will post the original recipe here. The Allrecipe's user that this recipe belongs to goes by the name of "jessie". This recipe serves two, so adjust accordingly.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Black-Bean-Burritos/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

* 2 (10 inch) flour tortillas
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 teaspoon minced jalapeno peppers
* 3 ounces cream cheese
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Wrap tortillas in foil and place in oven heated to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for 15 minutes or until heated through.
2. Heat oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Place onion, bell pepper, garlic and jalapenos in skillet, cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Pour beans into skillet, cook 3 minutes stirring.
3. Cut cream cheese into cubes and add to skillet with salt. Cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir cilantro into mixture.
4. Spoon mixture evenly down center of warmed tortilla and roll tortillas up. Serve

Katie's Edits:

Ok, so I made a few crucial changes to this recipe. I do recommend using a 10 inch tortilla because it helps portion better, but I used a 6 inch. So I made two little ones. I also added corn into the mixture instead of using jalapenos. You can use whatever you want really, it doesn't really matter. I just didn't have any jalapenos on hand. And I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh, I recommend using fresh. It's a much better flavor. The only real health edit I did on this was that I only used 2 ounces of cream cheese to cut fat. Anytime you have a lot of cheese there is going to be a lot of fat. I wanted the mixture to have a lot of flavor with the cream cheese but I also wanted it to be less fattening. It worked out just fine for me. Also, something I do whenever I make ANY kind of burrito, I take my George Foreman grill and I spray a little cooking spray on there. I put the burrito on the grill, seam facing down, and close it for a few seconds in order for it to toast and get a little crispy. This helps the burrito to seal so that all your filling isn't falling out. I made that trick up all by myself! *cue cheesy grin*

That's it guys! As I expected it's 2:55 now, so I really should be getting to sleep. I hope you'll like this first vegetarian recipe!

Eat Pray Love,

The Hungry Hungry Health Nut

PS: How'd I do for time?

Snacking Friday 1: Almonds Are Awesome

I wanted to speak about snacking first and foremost because I struggle with this a lot. I'm going to confess something right now.... I love chips. I love them. I love chips. All kinds of chips. The ones that are just lightly salted, the ones that are flavored, the ones covered in cheese. Thick chips, crispy chips, thin chips. I love potato chips. Sun chips. Corn chips. Veggie chips. I like puffy chips like Cheetos. I freaking love chips. Oh dear God do I love chips. But alas, chips are probably one of the WORST things you could eat. And most people eat them as a snack. But this is why they are not good snackable foods for ME. I can't just eat....a handful of chips. Which is a snack. No. I have to eat like the entire family sized bag of chips and then..even THEN if given another bag I could crack that one open as well. If left up to my own devices, I could eat three potatoes worth of chips. So really...chips are not a feasible snack for me because they become a full course meal instead of a light snack in my hands. Plus you know...generally chips are bad for you. Greasy, full of calories and salt. Potatoes are really supposed to be consumed in moderation. They're good to have in your diet, but alone they are a sugar. So imagine what deep frying them and drenching them in salt does for you. Exactly.

But I have to be honest. Snacking is difficult. Because it's a necessity to a healthy diet. Eating small snacks in between meals helps keep down overeating at big meal time and keeps your energy up throughout the day. Some people have to snack due to their blood sugar levels. But it seems that something has gone horribly awry in the snacking business. The other day I was watching television and I saw a commercial for the McDonald's "Snack Wrap". Oh yes. A piece of deep fried fused chicken parts with fatty sauce rolled into a carb is the EXACT way to go for a snack. Ladies and gentlemen that IS NOT a snack. If you take a stroll down the WalMart "snack aisle" it is heavily laden with an assortment of (my personal kryptonite) chips, candies, high fructose corn syrup products, crackers and sugar and chocolate covered goodies. When did any of THOSE things become an appropriate snack? When did any of this become the definition of snacks? I mean...I'm not saying that they aren't good. And I'm sure if you ate these things in moderation every once in awhile you're not going to die. But I like to classify these things as "treats". We need to learn to separate "treats" and "snacks".

So let's redefine a snack. A snack should be wholesome, temporarily filling (you don't want it to be like a meal), and gives your body energy. None of the pre-described items really do any of that. In fact they do the opposite. They are not wholesome, full of sugar and calories. They actually will often make you hungrier and crave sugar. And they tend to make you sluggish. So no energy there! So I definitely think that it's a worthwhile endeavor to talk about healthy snacking. So the very first snack lesson I am going to teach you is something that I thought I would NEVER eat.

Yogurt really isn't one of my favorite things in the world. It's kind of like granola. I really had to learn to make friends with it. Granola and I are way better friends than yogurt and I, but we get along. I know a lot of people think that granola and yogurt is a super healthy combo and IT IS. That isn't what I'm saying. But for me personally, I just can't warm up to the two together. So just this semester in my writing course, I was reading a magazine article that one of the girls had brought to class. The article was from a dietitian who was "sprucing up" people's diets. One woman proudly said that she had eaten a healthy parfait for breakfast and the dietitian told her that adding almonds instead of granola to your yogurt was a bit more healthy. Now. I LOVE almonds. I would say that almond is my second favorite flavor. It's one of my "flavorites" tehe! But I never really ate them raw. I have to say, that dietitian knew what she was talking about. The almonds with the yogurt are FABULOUS. They go with any flavor yogurt, even the fruit flavors and they add a very delicious texture and crunch.

Now if you don't prefer to eat yogurt, you can eat some almonds by themselves. You can add them to some dried fruits to make a trail mix as well. I will discuss dried fruits in length at another time. But this snack is full of protein and will keep you moving throughout the day. I like to buy the Yoplait cups (even though I'm kind of on the fence about them, again, that's for another entry) because they are a perfect serving of yogurt. I usually pour it into a small bowl and toss some almonds on the top. I don't like eating out of that weird shaped container. In fact, I just had some almonds with Yoplait's new Black Forest Cake flavor tonight. It was an excellent dessert before bed.

The one con to almonds is that they are very expensive. I was APPALLED to find out that a relatively small bag of almonds (the one picture above actually) was SEVEN DOLLARS. Why? I don't know the answer to that. I'm sure there is one, and if anyone knows, can they please inform me why almonds are mucho expensive? Usually in that situation I will attempt to buy the WalMart brand "Great Value". But even Great Value's almonds were through the roof! I was shocked. But I had to have these almonds. I made the sacrifice of seven dollars to get these almonds and so far they've lasted me pretty long. I try to use them sparingly until the price drops. But some people have a larger budget than me and can afford $7 for a bag of almonds. And I personally think they are a great investment. Hey...at least they were cheaper than the pistachios (TEN DOLLARS for ONE bag) Also, keep in mind that you want the PLAIN almonds. Not the "smokehouse" flavor or the ones covered in honey and sugar. That's just added calories. And I don't think that "smokehouse" almonds would go with yogurt....just saying.


I highly encourage any of you that are looking for a healthy snack to try this out. Please stay tuned until next week starting off with Vegetarian Monday.

Live Long and Prosper,
The Hungry Hungry Health Nut