Trying To Eat Healthy and Lose Weight

Roger and I started changing our way of eating and cooking about 3 weeks ago. He has high blood pressure and high cholesterol with heart disease in his family. I am getting to the borderline of high cholesterol and about 30 pounds overweight. We have lost and gain several times over the years but we decided that we weren't going on a diet.

Instead of dieting that works only when you are on the diet and you regain the weight after you go back to eating like you did before you started...I wanted to learn more about a healthy way of cooking and eating, life changing habits.

I am a huge fan of the Biggest Loser and I decided after this past season to buy the cookbook.

I purchased the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook and oh, my....the recipes are delicious!

We have started eating lots of turkey (which I haven't been a fan of before) and Tyler loves some of the recipes that I fixed before with ground beef...now better with turkey. He has never like chili but loves my turkey chili...he ate several bowls of it. He is a growing boy with a huge appetite.


(Not a pic of mine...just a visual aid)

I wanted to share our favorite recipe so far...I fixed it for lunch Sunday after church. Keep in mind that I prepared the Marinara sauce on Friday for another recipe. It makes enough for at least two recipes. The sauce takes an hour to cook prior to making the rest of the recipe...make before hand.

Spirals and Meatballs

Marinara Sauce:

Olive Oil Spray...put extra virgin olive oil in a spray bottle...not Pam

1 cup of minced yellow or white onion

2 Tbsp. of freshly minced garlic

1 - 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup of water

2 Tbsp. of no-salt-added tomato paste

2 Tbsp. of honey

1 Tbsp. of dried oregano

2 tsp. of dried basil

1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes- will leave out next time (Roger doesn't like hot or spicy)

Salt - to taste

Spray a medium sauce pan with your olive oil spray and place over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until just becoming tender. Reduce heat to low and with a wooden spoon stir in tomatoes, water, tomato paste, honey, oregano, basil and pepper flakes until well combined.

Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for at least 1 hour.

Meatballs: Delicious!!! Roger said not everyone can make a delicious meatball...but he loved these.

Olive oil spray

2 egg whites

1/2 cup of quick-cooking oats

1/4 cup of fat free milk

1/2 cup of finely chopped fresh parsley

1 Tbsp. of dried minced onions

1/2 tsp. of dried oregano

1/2 tsp. of garlic powder

1/4 tsp. of salt

1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper (I left out)

1 lb. of 96% lean ground beef

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat a large nonstick baking sheet with the olive oil spray.

In a medium bowl, using a fork, mix together the egg whites, oats and milk until well blended. Added the parsley, onion, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper flakes until combined. Mix in the beef until well combined.

Make 32 uniform meatballs, each about 1 1/4" diameter. Roll the balls with your hands and arrange, not touching, on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until no longer pink inside.

Pasta:

8 ounces of fiber-enriched rotini pasta (said they use Ronzoni Smart Taste...we already use this)

3 cups of Marinara Sauce

32 Favorite Meatballs

4 tsp. of grated reduced fat Parmesan cheese

This was wonderful, filling meal that was healthy and low in fat and calories.

Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Oh...did I mention that Roger has lost 13 pounds and well, I've lost 3!

Have a wonderfully blessed day!