Living Healthy, Living Well...

Adventures in Living Healthy with CityMomma/CountryMomma

It's another Friday my friends and I'm continuing with my Friday feature chronicling my journey in healthy living. Click here and here if you'd also like to see my previous Friday posts.

Well, the news is good... I'm down another 1.8 pounds! That gives me a grand total of 15.6. It's slow going but it's being done the healthy way with good eating and lots of exercise so I'm really proud of myself. I DO get easily discouraged so I really hope that it continues to come off with at least a pound a week.

I also achieved another goal today, I beat my previous best time for my "Treadmill 5K" in fact, this time, I managed to shave off one minute and twelve seconds! I just got home from the Y so it's still up in the air as to whether or not I'll be able to walk tomorrow but the Advil is close by and I'll be popping a couple in a minute. I will be working out tomorrow but I will not be running...probably some elliptical machine and bike in addition to my weights.

So, this week I decided to post a recipe that helps me stay on this healthy eating plan. It's a recipe I got years back when I did another diet that involved pre-packaged food. I lost a lot of weight on that diet but gained it back after a year or so for various reasons, the main reason being that I still hadn't realized that I have to think about what I eat for the rest of my life. The pre-packaged meals weren't something I could continue and after I got "thin" I forgot that I still had to worry about my portions and what I ate and drank... eventually, I gained it all back and then some. Years passed... many years passed, and here I am today. This WILL be the last time that I have to do that because as I approach 40, I am finally learning.

So anyway, on to that recipe...this is my favorite recipe for roasted vegetables it's been modified along the way and it's actually a very flexible recipe, you can play around with it as you like. My husband usually makes these and he'll make a huge batch on Sunday and we'll eat them with everything all week long. I usually have them for lunch OR dinner and have another green veggie at the opposite meal. (I LOVE those "steam fresh" veggies that are plain and just cook in thier own bag)

2 bags precut "baby" carrots
onion (one large to three small depending on how much you like roasted onion)
3 large red peppers
1 large eggplant
2 fresh lemons
3-4 Tablespoons dried rosemary (you can use fresh but then you need lots more)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

-Mix the juice of the lemons, the olive oil and the rosemary, salt and pepper.
-Cut up your onion into medium chunks.
-Mix your carrots and onion with half of your liquid mixture
-Roast at 400-450 degrees for approximately one hour, stirring occasionally.
-While your carrot/onion mixture is roasting, cut up your eggplant (we like the skin left on but you could peel it) and red peppers in to medium pieces. Remember that everything will "shrink" down as it roasts, you don't have to cut too small.
-After the first hour, add your peppers and eggplant pieces to your carrot/onion mixture with the remaining half of the liquid, continue to roast for another hour (approximately) stirring occasionally.

Voila'! You are finished! This recipe is very approximate, especially the roasting times. We like ours very roasted but if you like things more crisp, you can do less time. You can experiment with adding other veggies too of course. Please let me know if you do, we've been eating these for years and haven't tried it!

I like to add my roasted veggies to brown rice or cous cous or quinoa with some chicken or shrimp and just kind of mix it all up...delish and VERY healthy or I just have them as a side dish or even add them to salad... the possibilities are endless. Honestly, these veggies keep me on my diet, without them, I wouldn't get even close to the variety of veggies and the amount of servings that are required for a healthy diet.

Try it and let me know what you think! Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or if anything I wrote is unclear to you.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend everyone! I have to go get The Son ready for school, today is pajama day and he's also the "special helper" he's thrilled! Should be a fun day!