Veggie Lasagna!

Yesterday, I made Veggie lasagna and it was very good.  Why veggie lasagna you ask?  Well, I am trying to make Mondays meatless in our house full of carnivores (Plus my kids just don't eat enough veggies.)  So Mondays are meatless until further notice from management me.  It was very scrumptous and each serving was only 206 calories, made 12 servings. Here is the recipe I made up followed:

Ingredients:

 Cooking spray 

 Barilla - Lasagna No Boil Noodles, 9 pieces

Italian Style Five Cheese Blend, shredded, 1 container (2 cup (28g) ea.)
Pasta Sauce: Tomato, Basil & Garlic, 1 container (2 1/2 cups ea.)
Onion - Raw, 1 cup, chopped
Olives, Ripe, Black -Sliced, 1 container (64 grams ea.)
Mushrooms - Raw, chopped (small container, I think it was 8 oz)
Squash, includes skin, raw, sliced medium Zucchini, includes skin, raw, sliced medium
Low-Fat Ricotta Cheese, 1 container (1 4/5 cups ea.) (I used Target brand for everything except the noodles. The olives say Kroger, but they were Target, odd.) Directions: Preheat oven to 375. Chop all the veggies and toss together in large mixing bowl. (I didn't layer my veggies individually because I was feeling lazy so I mixed them all together)  I used a 9x13 glass baking dish.  Sprayed the baking dish with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Spread pasta sauce on the bottom of pan (I used about 4 soup spoon fulls).  Lay 3 lasagna noodles side by side on the bottom of the pan, there might be spaces in betwen depending on your dish.  Spread 3 dollups of ricotta cheese covering the noodles.  Spread a few handfulls of veggies over the ricotta. Sprinkle a handful of the shredded cheese over the veggies.  Spread paste sause over cheese, about the same amount as before.  Then start over layering with noodles and lather, rinse, repeat.  Your last layer should be veggies covered with shredded cheese.  Pop it in the oven for about 35-45 minutes.  Then enjoy!! I used myfitnesspal.com to calculate the calories.  See screenshot below:

 

If you change the serving size to 8 people the calories are 309, which still isn't that bad. 

 

Hubby and I loved it, the girls liked it but once they discovered there wasn't any meat they weren't to happy.  (They still ate it of course, but there were faces made.)  The leftovers are wonderful.

 

Tonight is breakfast for dinner.  Eggs, bacon and whole wheat choco-chip pancakes! Yum!

 

Stefanie

One year.

One Year ago today, I set out on a journey to take back my body.  To lose all of my baby weight and get healthy again.  When the hubby and I got married (7 years ago) I weighed 145lbs.  I worked out all the time and was the healthiest I have ever been.  Then I had two kids and life took over.  I started 2011 weighing between 195-198lbs, depending on the day.  I was a size 14 but could squeeze into a 12, if I wanted to torture myself.  I didn't work out and was not happy with how I looked or felt.  It was time for a change & the journey began.

Before

After

While I would love to say that I met my goal weight of 145, I didn't.  But I sure did get to 148.5!! 

I have been @ 148.5 for the past 2 weeks.  I think my body likes it here.  I know I do!!  I feel like a different person.  I am currently wearing size 6 or 8 pants depending on the cut and style.  I can fit into a medium shirt and not feel like I'm trapped.  I'm not going to lie though, this journey has been tough.  There are days that I look in the mirror and still see 195lb me.  But I know it is in my head and I'm working on changing how I see myself.   I've come to terms with my body for the most part. I know that I will never look like I did when I was in high school, that was over 10 years ago, and my body has experienced a great deal of wonderful things to get me here and I'm happy here. 

 

So what's next?  Well, now I am going to start the maintaining process.  I am going to revamp my (and my familys) diet to maintain a health lifesytle from now on.  I also am going to continiue to train and exercise.  Let the journey to a health lifestyle begin!!