Veggiemania!

Perhaps I should have stuck to my plan to go grocery shopping on my way home from work yesterday morning, but I wasn't sure of a couple of ingredients, so I just came on home. The result was that I ended up eating leftover taco soup, fruit, and yogurt yesterday. This morning I woke up and had another bowl of taco soup while I worked out my menu. Finally, I headed for the store.

I am pretty proud of myself - over half of my list consisted of produce section items. I grabbed everything else first, and then got ridiculously excited when I got to the produce. I chucked the biggest grapes I've ever seen into the cart. Beautiful little sweet onions. A large, fresh pineapple. Crisp, green scallions. They were out of roma tomatoes, so I grabbed a few campari tomatoes. They aren't quite acidic enough for me, but they still taste pretty good this time of year. Suddenly, a beautiful eggplant caught my eye.

I never was big on eggplant. I found them to be bitter and tough-ish. Last week I made noodle-free veggie lasagna, and it called for eggplant. I fell in love. My mind started building flavors for me, and I got really hungry. I was literally giggling while I threw an eggplant, a large zucchini, and some sliced baby 'bellas into my cart. I couldn't wait to get home.

I preheated my oven to 425 F. My mom bought me a couple of quarter sheet pans a few years ago, and they've become super helpful since I started back on Weight Watchers. I scrounged a red onion, chopped it up with the zucchini and eggplant, cleaned off the mushrooms, and put it all into a bowl.I lightly coated the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper, and poured them out on the pans. I roasted the veggies for about 25 minutes, getting a nice char on some edges, scraped them back into the bowl, and added a cup of marinara sauce. I placed the vegetables into a casserole dish and cooked them at 350 F for another 20 minutes.

Y'all. Pure bliss!

I am getting more and more enamored with vegetables. This is the time of year that things like acorn and butternut squash are plentiful. I have never cooked them, but it's time I try them! I am looking forward to eating more brussels sprouts, rutabagas, parsnips, and sweet potatoes. Yes, yes... I know sweet potatoes are starchy, but they are divine with fish and greens. I am thinking of branching out and trying them cooked in various ways other than roasted, my favorite way to eat them.

While making my Black Bean and Feta Quinoa Salad, I realized there wouldn't be room in the jar for the chicken I roasted, so I unintentionally made two of my three daily meals vegetarian. That's ok. I now have precooked chicken in the freezer, ready for whatever I decide to make in the next couple of weeks. It'll shave some prep time. My other meatless meal is chickpea and spinach stew. The brown rice will help boost the protein. Instead of taco soup this week, I decided to try a new recipe: Taco Casserole. It is actually pretty light on taco flavor and uses ground turkey. I added extra cheese. If I like it enough, I am going to halve the cheese. Unfortunately, I couldn't find fat free cheddar. Annoying to say the least.

I know I'm not slated to be a vegetarian unless it is unavoidable, but I am loving having one or two meatless meals a day. Truly, I wish that fruits and vegetables were cheaper. It's harder for many of my patients to access larger amounts of them, and it makes no sense for a small cup of pre-cut fruit to cost $4-$5. I always cut my own fruit now. Not only does it taste better, but for the same price of a cup of cut fruit, I can get much more. Instead of eating one serving of fruit, I usually have enough for the week. Admittedly, I spend $10 to $20 on fruit alone, because everyone in my house eats it.

On my next visit to the store, I plan to pick up butternut or acorn squash and try it. And believe me... An eggplant will also be in that cart!