our life | what we eat

Cody and I both have a love for some good, healthy food. It also helps that I'm trying to reshape our diet to get off these baby pounds. Here are a few ideas for some healthy snacks and meals!

chia seed "pudding"

ingredients:

some fruit: bananas, peaches, berries, etc. any kind works!

coconut milk (fill bowl about half way)

chia seeds (about 1/4 cup)

coconut shavings (about 1/4 cup)

vanilla extract (a dash)

cinnamon (a dash)

mix them all together and let it sit for a minute to allow the chia seeds plump up :)

this is a great breakfast or snack!

dinner:

spaghetti squash pad thai

ingredients: 

spaghetti squash

meat (we used shrimp)

veggies (mushrooms, carrot shavings, broccoli)

eggs

sauce (I used lettuce wrap sauce from the store)

Cook the spaghetti squash first, cut the squash in half, sprinkle with oil and cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, put broccoli, carrots and mushrooms in a skillet to simmer. Once they are soft, add shrimp in for a few minutes. If theres room in that skillet (or else get a separate one) to cook and scramble an egg. Add the egg and veggies together and top with sauce. Once the spaghetti squash is done cooking, you should be able to scrap the "pasta" out of the squash shell with a fork and it have  a spaghetti appearance. Put squash "noodles" in a bowl and top with the veggie mixture. 

it is so delicious and so nice to know it is essentially all veggies!!

cauliflower crust pizza

i was skeptical about this because how could cauliflower possibly replace pizza crust but it actually turned out great!

first, I cut off the cauliflower florets and put them in a food processor where I chopped them to a "rice consistency". I made about 6 cups worth (about 3/4 of the cauliflower). then i microwaved that (no water added) for 7 minutes to soften the pieces. meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. once the cauliflower was cooked, i added one egg, a sprinkle of basil, a sprinkle of garlic powder,  a sprinkle of parsley, and black pepper. (i never measure spices in these situations). mix it all together then spread it out on a greased pizza pan. I didn't make it too thin and i bunched up the edges to be a crust. then add your toppings. i used what we had on hand: pizza sauce, sliced tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, and cheese. we had to eat it with a fork but it was great! and so nice to know it was all veggies and not all greasy. 

fall squash salad

for this salad, I cut an acorn squash into thin slices, then cut the slices into smaller pieces about 4 inches long. I sautéed that on a skillet with brown sugar until soft.  i added pecans and pumpkin pie spice  to one part of the skillet to brown those. meanwhile, i chopped up a cucumber and avocado. i made a vinaigrette with vinegar, olive oil and black pepper. put all on top of a spinach mix and ta-da!