The test took into account several lifestyle factors like work, stress level, diet, and exercise. I am quite sure that one reason I aged so low is that, due to not being in school as a student or teacher for the first time in two decades, my stress level is almost nil. And I am able to workout nearly every day.
The area where the test marked both of us down was in diet even though that was pretty darned good if you ask me. Although we get plenty of whole grains and protein, and I get plenty of fruit, the test suggested that both of us should incorporate more vegetables into our diet.
I've known for awhile that this is a weakness of mine. I do like vegetables. Seriously. I remember clearly that the first time I came home from college, the one thing I was dying for my mom to make was cooked broccoli.
I'm just not motivated to eat them until dinner time. Vegetables and breakfast? Well, unless I'm putting peppers or mushrooms into an omelet, no thanks. Celery doesn't really mix so well with the Greek yogurt I eat at lunch. If I'm hungry during the day, I am far more likely to reach for an apple or a handful of grapes than a carrot stick. And even if I do make sure we eat salad pretty much every night, how many vegetable servings can a person really cram into one meal?
(Although I just checked the governmental guidelines for vegetables, and they include tomatoes, which I've always considered a fruit, so maybe we're not doing as poorly as I thought...)
Recipe: (Click here to see the recipe on its original blog - Sweet Peas and Pumpkins)
1 pound pasta (I used Barilla Plus penne)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 15-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups vegetable of your choice**
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t oregano
1 16-oz container ricotta cheese (I subbed cottage cheese as I still dislike the texture of ricotta.)
1/2 cup grated parmesan (I used shredded parmesan.)
8-oz package Italian shredded cheese
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook the pasta according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking, heat the spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic powder, oregano, and vegetable of your choice in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine.
When it is done cooking, drain the penne and add to pan with sauce mixture, stirring well.
Place half in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Spread the ricotta on top, following with the parmesan cheese and half of the Italian cheese blend. Top with remaining pasta sauce and penne, ending with more Italian cheese.
Bake for 20-30 minutes (although mine was done at 15 minutes).
**The variety of vegetables you can use in this dish is almost endless. I used broccoli, which I microwaved for one minute before putting into the sauce just to make sure it was slightly softened. There are so many other ways I would like to try this, including mushrooms (but we all know that won't happen unless hubby is out of town), peppers, eggplant, asparagus, artichokes.... Oh my... If this much cheese weren't involved I might make a different one every night for a week! (Alex the anti-vegetarian suggests that we add grilled chicken, which would actually be very good, I'd just have to make something else as the weekly meatless meal.)
Verdict:
Delightful and delicious! Alex and I enjoyed every bite. And this time, he went back for a very large plate of seconds, which is always a good sign. I mean, with this much cheese, did anyone expect anything different? But seriously, there were several specific components that I appreciated and even a few that I plan to incorporate into my regular Italian Pasta Bake. First, adding the touch of garlic powder and oregano really made a difference to the store bought sauce (never as good as homemade). That's easy enough to add to any tomato-sauce based baked pasta dish. We also both really liked the Italian blend cheese as an alternative to mozzarella. Not that mozzarella isn't great. But it's nice to have options. Adding some diced tomatoes to jarred spaghetti sauce? Genius. The chunkiness this added to the texture made it feel just a bit more homemade (ironic, actually, as a recall several years of methodically picking out any and all 'chunks' in spaghetti sauce but, whatevs, people change). And I love how this dish can be adjusted to fit just about whatever vegetable combination I have leftover in my refrigerator.
With this meal plus a colorful salad plus a conscious effort to get some veggies onto our lunch plates, we at least got close to the recommended daily amount of vegetables (though again, if you count all those tomatoes, then we pretty much nailed it - so which is it: tomato = fruit or tomato = vegetable?)!
I need to try this! Chris claims he can't get full from a vegetarian meal though he wants to try some different ones after seeing Fork Over Knives. And just an idea for adding veggies to breakfast - I have a smoothie every morning and I put a big handful of raw spinach in the blender. It looks kinda weird but I swear you can't taste it:)
ReplyDeleteLooks good, would like to try maybe with some zucchini. Or maybe some Kale.
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