Pizza & stuff.

Now that I have been working at this for a year, I feel myself wanting to branch out and try new recipes and food. I have been having so much fun trying new things! These 3 are really good dinner ideas and are about 500 calories each.

Healthy Pizza?
- I use a "?" because it's so hard to find a low calorie pizza. As I have mentioned before, Thursdays at my house are "take out" night, and my family always gets pizza or chinese. For the past couple of months I have been absolutly sick of them eating it with me at the table eating a salad. I had enough! So I took action, and I'm so excited.  A slice of pizzeria pizza can be anywhere from 400-600 calories and is packed with cheese and yucky grease and an unhealthy crust. Heres what I did, I got a whole wheat crust from the store. Not a mini size, a regular size. I just got plain ragu pizza sauce and low-fat part skim mozzerella cheese. I wanted to load it with veggies, but since this was my first try, I didn't want to chance it, so I had a salad, but anyway... It was SO GOOD. I put the crust in the oven to crisp it for about 10 minutes, took it out, put 1/2 cup sauce and 1/2 cup cheese, baked it for another 5 to 10 minutes, and yummo. Half of my whole wheat pizza was 500 calories. HALF. I had half a pizza (about 4 small slices) for about the same amount as 1 slice of pizzeria pizza. Love it.

Chunky Veggie Chili.
- This is amazing. It is so good, and is perfect to eat in this horrible winter weather. I put about 10 baby carrots quatered, 3 celery sticks chopped, one medium onion, 2 garlic gloves, sautee all that, then I brown either ground turkey, beef and chicken (ground turkey is the best in my opinon) add a can of tomatoes,small can of kidney beans and some chili seasoning. Let that all simmer for however long you want. It's so good. I put it over brown rice. It is so filling and so delicious. This is probably my favorite thing ever. I follow the serving size with the rice, and then measure out about a cup and a half of chili.

Eggplant Lasanga.
- I tried this for the first time tonight and I was blown away. It was so good, and SO filling. I baked the eggplant in the oven after I put about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs on the slices. I boiled whole wheat noodle sheets, I didn't feel like waiting for them to bake. After those where both done, I just layerd it like a regular lasanga just instead of a meat layer, I put eggplant, and barley any cheese. Just 1/4 cup on the top. My mom said "I feel like Im eating at a resturant, this is so good!" So did I. It was fabulous. I just follow the serving size with the pasta and cheese.

Once you have healthy eating down, it is so important to find new foods to try. This is really keeping me motivated and it is so fun! It's like an adventure finding healthy ways of making things. It is so worth it when you can eat the things you love, just a little healthier and see results! I will post more recipies as I try them.

On another note, I just wanted to say I'm really enjoying all the email questions, and I am so, so glad to help anyone. Keep them coming!