Recipe Review: 4 Cheese Veggie Lasagna

For under 300 calories, this lasagna, though a bit more time intensive then my prefered 30 minute or under prep time, is super tasty and a great way to get in 3-4 servings of veggies in one meal!! Here's the recipe from Cooking Light with an E.H. Fitness twist...some easy and even more healthy substitutions!


Serves 9

• 3 zucchini's sliced thin for "noodles"
• Cooking spray
• 3 cups chopped broccoli
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrot
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
• 2 cups fat free cottage cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced fat part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese
• Freshly ground pepper (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat a large pan coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add broccoli and next 4 ingredients (broccoli through garlic), and sauté 7 minutes. Set aside.

Place flour in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook 5 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Reserve 1/2 cup spinach mixture for top layer of casserole, and set aside.

Combine cottage cheese, mozzarella, and Swiss cheese; stir well. Spread 1/2 cup spinach mixture in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 1/3 of the zucchini slices over spinach mixture in dish; top with half of cottage cheese mixture, half of broccoli mixture, and half of remaining spinach mixture. Repeat layers, ending with zucchini. Spread reserved 1/2 cup spinach mixture over noodles; sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake at 375° for 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with pepper, if desired.

Sleep and weight loss/gain...what's a new mom to do?!

I have a fantastic baby. He's not colicky--I mean he cries, but not for hours and rarely during the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. Carter is, however, a non-napper...so he's up all day long and into the late night. But I'll tell you what, even with a happy baby and 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, I am totally exhausted. In fact, this week (week #9 of being a mommy) has been my most exhausting week ever. I will chalk this unfortunateness up to everything catching up to me...mommy-hood is not new and shiny anymore...it's great...but there is a lot of monotony to it, plus the holidays just ended and I'm starting work tomorrow. SOooooooooo, in all of that, this morning, I was squeezing myself into my pre-pregnancy jeans which now button, but not without muffin topping all of my lovely loose skin out everywhere. While looking in the mirror with disgust, I was reminded of the importance of sleep on weight loss and how we, as new moms, are almost destined to failure as we put our child's needs ahead of our own getting-back-into-prepregnancy-jeans-and-looking-good-in-them needs. Check out this staggering stat:

According to National Geographic when compared to the person who gets the average recommended amount of sleep (7-8 hours per night), the risk of obesity increases 23% when a person gets just 6 hours of sleep up to a whopping 73% when a person only gets 4 hours of sleep per night.

So what can a person do if they have problems falling asleep or staying asleep like some 50 to 70 million Americans do? Incorporating a few simple changes into your life (especially around bed time) can make a big difference in how easily you fall asleep and stay asleep.

So what's a girl to do? Get as much sleep as possible, plus eat healthy and get her butt moving! I'm off to take a nap!

New Years Resolution Time!

So this year, I have two things I'm going to start. My first New Years Resolution (NYR) is professional: to read one business or fitness/nutrition book a month. My second, is to cook something I've never made before once a week...most likely on Wednesdays :)

I don't have a book quite yet in mind for January, but I'm making Cooking Light's Kung Pao Chicken on Wednesday!

Wish me luck! :)