cheese |

I am still stuffed after that Thanksgiving dinner. Saturday we had our late Thanksgiving dinner & we pigged out all night! We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, honey glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, & much more. Today I am still sitting in a food coma thinking about the amazing turkey we had.

We even attempted to make a pie from scratch. Just a side note: evaporated milk isn’t the same as condensed milk. No matter how lazy you are & no matter how badly you don’t want to go back to the store.

Anyway… now it’s Wednesday & all I should be eating is salads. We eat a lot of salads here in this house, but usually as a side or after dinner. This week, all the rules are out the window! I am planning on having tons of salads for lunches & dinners.

I love throwing veggies together, with some great cheeses, & toppings to make new salads. The first time I put this salad together I literally opened the fridge & pull whatever was reaching it’s shelf life out. I had some left over coleslaw, mozzarella that I needed to eat or trash, & my chia seeds that live in my cheese drawer for life.

As long as the coleslaw sits overnight, enough liquid will form & no dressing will be needed. Healthy!! Here is the recipe for just one small salad, that is good enough to eat on it’s own.

Signature

2 ½ cups baby spinach
2 oz mozzarella cheese
½ cup coleslaw
1 Tbsp chia seeds

Coleslaw Ingredients:
½ small head purple cabbage
½ cup mayonayze, sliced thin
2 carrots, shredded
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp Dijon mayo

1. Mix all ingredients for cole slaw and allow to sit overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Place a bed of baby spinach in bowl. Top with coleslaw.
3. Cut cheese into chunks and place on top of salad.
4. Sprinkle chia seeds and serve.

I was recently looking at some old photos of myself and I realized, I need to jump off the pity party bus and run alongside it in order to lose some weight. I am starting by saying goodbye to any and all fast food and soda. I didn’t realize how much soda I drank. I figured I don’t buy it when I go grocery shopping so that means I don’t drink a lot. Well my friends, when you are purchasing a $1 large coke from Mickey D’s four to five times a week, that’s a lot of soda!! Kind of gross now that I just wrote that down. Anyway, I digress. Besides no fast food and soda I am also trying to cut back on my carb intake. Now I am Italian so I can’t cut it out all together (I’d be one sad Italian) but I can always cut back. Below is a Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese recipe I found, and of course changed. I actually tried to follow this recipe, but then when I took a bite of it, I decided it needed a few extra things added in.

1 large spaghetti squash
Pam cooking spray
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 hand full of cheddar cheese
1 hand full of mozzarella cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes
Garlic, minced

1. Preheat the oven to 400⁰ and wash the outside of the squash thoroughly.
2. Cut the squash in half, long ways, and spray both sides with Pam. Let cook in oven for 50 minutes. Squash should be tender to the touch of a fork when done.
3. Once squash is out of the oven microwave frozen broccoli for 4-5 minutes, until steamed.
4. While squash is cooling and broccoli is cooking, melt butter in skillet and whisk in flour. Once flour thickens add in shredded cheeses and milk while continuously whisking.
5. Lower heat and quickly scoop insides out of squash and place into bowl.
6. Add in cooked broccoli and top with cheese sauce. Add salt, pepper, red pepper and garlic.

**I added a lot more salt than I normally would for any other meal. I also added Tastefully Simple’s Garlic Garlic but garlic powder or minced garlic would work fine.