I love to eat. Like a lot. The problem is, I love all kinds of food - fancy pants food, healthy food, comfort food, homemade food, fast food, greasy spoon, chain restaurant, mom and pop restaurants - FOOOOOOD! I love it and I want to eat it all. So I've wound up, like sooo many others, needing to lose a little weight. For vanity reasons, yes, I"m not gonna lie, but when I was at the doctor most recently the (extremely rude) nurse grunted that I needed to lose weight because my blood pressure was too high. Obviously my blood pressure was high because I was in the doctor's office, which makes me antsy, and her being rude as heck was doing nothing to help me relax. So when anyone runs into me when I'm working out or eating a salad or what have you and goes "ohhhh you're beautiful, you don't need to lose any weight!" I always say thank you, because a compliment is a compliment even if it's one of those you-have-to-say-something-nice-because-that's-how-society-works compliments; then I'm like, "Ohhh no! My doctor told me to lose weight! BOOYA." Well, I don't really say all that because that's kinda rude, but I do say my blood pressure was slightly high and my doctor advised me to start exercising and eating smaller portions. Boring but whatever.
The thing is, I carry my weight pretty well and have an hourglass figure, and I ALWAYS dress to my body. No one believes my BMI is considered "obese" (BMI is kind of a wonky measurement, but I'm just using it as kind of a baseline and I'm not totally married to it or anything) because I try to always wear clothes that fit and cover and flatter. But I've had to give away about a closetful of cute clothes that I LOVED because I've 'outgrown' them. Which makes me sad. Because I like cute clothes.
SO, I wanna eat healthy nutritious food, BUT I love food and it's gotta taste good. So you have to get creative!
Just as a point of interest, I've found through personal experimentation over the last few months that a paleo/primal diet (www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/) that limits dairy products works really really well for me if I stick to it. If you don't like the sound of the Paleo diet, I don't really care because this is my blog and my belly and I do what I want. If you think a diet consisting of vegetables, meat, some fruit and as little processed man-made food as reasonably possible is not healthy, that's fine, please eat whatever works for you! I've just found (again, through personal experimentation) that avoiding grains and dairy results (for me) in clearer skin and less bloat. Having said that, I don't live my life as a 'diet Nazi' because sometimes, you just need to have some wine and cheese. Really, I call my way of eating Jemmalithic because it's a combination of low-carb, primal, 80/20 (eating 'clean' 80% of the time and having yummy indulgences 20% of the time) and again, I do what I want.
I just wanted to mention that so you're not like, "wtf" when I'm using coconut milk instead of cream in something. You might still be like "wtf" but there is a method to my madness.
Ok, so here's the recipe I'mma healthify! (This is especially fun if you say it Southern gospel preacher style - HEALTHIFY!)
Impossibly Easy Zucchini Tomato Pie
My mom used to make this tomato pie thing with mayo and cheese and pie crust and it is to DIE FOR. If you like tomatoes, which I do. A lot! I could just cut up a tomato and eat it with a fork and knife. (Sidenote: some peeps that follow a very strict paleo or autoimmune-friendly diet avoid tomatoes because they are part of the nightshade family and are thought to possibly cause inflammation in peeps who have a sensitivity to them. From my experimentation, I don't think I have a sensitivity, and also I love them and again... say it with me... I do what I want!) Obviously that's not a good option for the 80% part of my diet. I'm on a bit of a deadline - there's a certain weight I'd like to hit by the end of the month. I've been indulging a little too much so far this month (my 80/20 kinda slid into a 60/40) so I need to clean it up and focus to reach my goal. But I really have a hankering for some tomato pie. LET'S PROBLEM SOLVE!
Here's the ingredients in the original Betty Crocker recipe:
- 1
- cup chopped zucchini
- 1
- cup chopped tomato
- 1/2
- cup chopped onion
- 1/3
- cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2/3
- cup Bisquick Heart Smart® mix
- 3/4
- cup fat-free (skim) milk
- 2
- eggs or 1/2 cup fat-free cholesterol-free egg product
- 1/2
- teaspoon salt
- 1/4
- teaspoon pepper
- Sounds delicious and I can't front on that. But the Bisquick (heart smart or not), milk, and (delicious) parm are off the table at the moment. Everything else looks pretty rad. I should also note that I VERY RARELY follow a recipe exactly to the letter - I really just use them as guidelines.
- First off, I'm gonna pump up the veggie-volume in this piece. One cup zucchini? ONE CUP TOMATO?? Uh, no. I'm hungry over here. Adding extra veggies wherever you can is just a good idea in general.
- Here's what I got:
- I already had the dachshund. It's optional, but I recommend a dachsie as a kitchen helper. ;)
- Some semi-local tomatoes and onions (they're not from RIGHT HERE but nearby Plant City, which is I think better and fresher than something that came from Guatemala or Mexico after sitting on a truck for who knows how many weeks). I got them from a local produce stand where the price is waaay better than the grocery store (supporting my personal cheapness and a local businessman at the same time!) The zucchinis are from Publix because I didn't know if the produce stand would have zucchinis right now. (He did, so oops on my part.) Whatever, none of that really matters.
- I used 3 of my tomatoes, scraping out the seeds. If you leave the seeds in, it can make things overly mushy, especially if you're trying to prepare something in advance. I think a lot of people who say they don't like tomatoes are actually just grossed out by the seeds, because they do kind of look like tomato-snot. Just a theory. It ended up being about 3 cups of tomatoey goodness.
- I had to get a bigger bowl. 3 tomatoes, 2 large zucchinis, and 1 big ole' yellow onion. VEGGIES!
- Ok, so I had to split it into two dishes. I told you I was hungry. :P Taste the rainbow! I also generously seasoned it all with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and then some sea salt and black pepper.
- Here's where things get marginally more labor intensive. If you've ever cooked low carb 'comfort style' food, you know about the awesomeness that is almond meal! You can pay like $9 for pre-ground almond meal in the store, you know, if you're rich. If you're like me and will only be using it in small amounts, you can get a bag of slivered almond for around $6 and just grind em' up as you need it. Measure roughly the amount you're going to need and throw it in the blender, or food processor if you have it. Don't blend it too much or you'll wind up with almond butter, which is yummy but not what I'm going for in this case. It's not going to be perfect, you're gonna have some almond chunks. It's ok, trust me. This looks like about half a cup.
- My lil' baby blender is a little beat up and has some scratches but it's still chugging along!
- Boom, almond meal. I'll be using it in a mo, but let's set it aside for now.
- Coconut milk! Here's another item you can end up spending quite a bit on, I think needlessly. I got this from Wal-Mart. You can also usually find it in discount grocery stores, our local discount steez is called Save-A-Lot. I believe I got this for $1.50. Anyway, I try to find one where the ingredients are just coconut milk, or coconut milk and water. A lot of them have guar gum and xantham gum and what have you, which probably aren't gonna kill you, but the less ingredients the better, generally speaking. You can spend like $2 or $3 for organic brand-name coconut milk, but why?? Pinch them pennies, ya'll.
Taste the healthy bargains!
- So I mix up my coconut milk, in place of the regular milk, with my eggs, and pour it over my veg and mix it up a little. Then sprinkle your almond meal on top, like you would with breadcrumbs, and into the oven she goes!
I think it baked like 20 minutes, I don't remember exactly. I just checked on it every now and then and pulled it out when I thought it looked ready.
Ok, I suck at food photography. There are people whose job is 'food stylist' and they specifically arrange and photograph food for magazines and cookbooks - that seems like a super awesome fun job, but it ain't for me, sadly.
RESULTS: It was pretty tasty. Me and the Mister had two large helpings, and my dad, who thinks he doesn't like "healthy" food also enjoyed it and also complimented its appearance. (See, it was much prettier in real life vs. my terrible photo.) Next time, I will definitely scale it down to fit in one pie dish and use 3 eggs instead of 2 to make it more firm. If I wanted to make it meatier (and had some on hand) some bite-size chunks of ham would be a nice addition. Also, some feta or goat's milk cheese would probably be yummy on top. Goat's milk cheese is dairy, of course, but it has less lactose content due to the goat's milk and how it's processed. Also, it has a quite strong flavor so you don't need a whole lot.
So all in all, a veggie-dense low carb, low sugar, yummy light meal. Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my kitchen experimentation!
