Upsides to the Down Economy/ Sneak Some Veggies In

Spaghetti Squash

Lean Cuisine with SS

Side salad of Arugula

You know that cookbook where the idea of it was to sneak veggies into your kid's meals? Well, obviously we all need to eat more veggies, so I sometimes "sneak" them into my food as well. If  I'm making a Lean Cuisine with pasta and sauce, I'll toss a handful of spinach leaves in, after it's cooked so it wilts and gives me a little veggie boost. I had a Spaghetti Squash sitting in the fridge from my no-pasta HcG diet. My plan was to eat the spaghetti squash as pasta, with tomato sauce, but never got around to it. I cooked it (prick all over with a knife and nuke for 16 minutes), sliced it, scooped out the seeds to roast, and scooped out the flesh. It is really cool the way the squash separates like spaghetti! I was going to eat it with a Chicken Parmesan Lean Cuisine, but it already had spaghetti with it, so I just tossed some of the spaghetti squash in with the pasta, mixed the sauce into it and Voila! a great veggie boost, and at 42 calories a cup, it's still a lean cuisine. Warning: Spaghetti Squash does not taste (or have the consistency) of real pasta. It is squash, after all. I have some left over and was thinking it would be good with some of the leftover Bar-B-Que pork stirred into it. One thing I love that I see a lot of restaurants doing lately is serving a little side salad with your meal. With this lunch, I cut some arugula from my garden, spritzed it with olive oil and a little lemon juice, salt and pepper and it added a nice little side touch to my meal. Arugula is super easy to grow, you can even just grow it in a pot and after it's gone, just re-seed and you'll have more in a couple weeks. Mesclun (mixted lettuces) works the same way and the baby lettuce leaves are especially sweet and tender.

The Incredible Edible Egg with Flax Seed

   Another thing I am trying to eat every day (from the Lean book) is flax seed. I toasted some and either sprinkle it into a smoothie, on top of yogurt and fruit or into cereal (hot or cold). It's nutty taste adds a little extra crunch to many things. I even had the ingenious idea of sprinkling it on my sunny side up egg. I have also put herbs, like chives, into the white of my egg, where it is suspended and adds some flavor. So, don't fool yourself! Add some veggies or flax seed to your diet every day and enjoy.