Homemade Tomato Sauce : Healthy, clean && easy!

Before finding out that I couldn't eat pasta, I ate pasta. Well saying I ate pasta is really not doing it justice..I more like devoured pasta frequently, and by frequently I mean multiple times a week. Pasta was my go-to food for when I was happy, sad, angry or bored. Once I did find out that pasta was something I couldn't eat anymore I was devastated. What other food was out there?

Now-a-days I still eat pasta, but it has to be gluten-free (i.e. pretty tasteless). I buy quinoa pasta and it is by far my favorite type of gluten-free pasta, mainly because it doesn't dissolve like rice pasta.I haven't figured out how to make gluten-free pasta from scratch besides using squash and spiralizing it (and be sure to look for a post about that coming up!) so I am forced to resort to buying a processed item. This pasta however is all natural and probably the healthiest you could find, so I recommend it.

Given that my favorite food was taken away from me and replaced with an alternative I do not find TOO tasty I was forced of ways to make pasta taste good. I bought a Vitamix 2 years ago, and that blender came with a recipe book that includes making sauces with the blender.

"Sauces in a blender? How stupid is that?!"- I thought. I was desperate and so I tried it. After 2 years of practice I have figured out how to make a delicious tomato sauce to drench my gluten-free pasta in that is super easy, relatively quick and mighty delicious.

First think of all the flavors you enjoy in a tomato based pasta sauce; mine were garlic, basil, onions, mushrooms, and oregano. So there you have it: 99% of my ingredients. I use fresh herbs from my herb garden and would HIGHLY recommend buying fresh herbs to use in any sauce you make, it will kick ass.

I cut up 4-6 tomatoes in 1/4 and put them in a baking pan. I then cut up one clove of garlic, 1/4 an onion, a handful of fresh basil, a tablespoon of fresh oregano and I drizzle olive oil all over it. I don't measure my olive oil, but I would say I don't drizzle more than 2-3 tablespoons.

I put a little pepper and no salt; you don't need salt when you are messing with fresh herbs, they provide all the flavor you need.

I then bake these ingredients at 350 degrees for about 15-25 minutes. Your kitchen should start smelling like heaven!

After you bake the tomatoes you can either blend it for 10 seconds OR you can put it in the stove top at a medium heat and stir everything up. If you like creamier sauce feel free to add a little milk.

After I blend it up for 10 seconds I put it on the stove top to simmer and I usually cut up mushrooms and bell peppers to add some chunkiness to my sauce. I do this for about 10 minutes until I get a consistency I like. I know you might be skeptical about a sauce that is "blended" and has all natural ingredients, but let me tell you that this sauce is so delicious and flavorful. Modify this recipe to fit what you like, and try adding new things! My next sauce project is a vodka sauce, though I can't be sure I can claim that to be healthy. ;)

I mix in my gluten-free pasta and voilà : a dinner that is clean, healthy and super easy. On nights I feel naughty, I sprinkle munster cheese over it. Yum.

Give me feedback, let me know how you liked this!
xoxo

How much should you be eating?

One of the first things I learned as I started picking up a healthier lifestyle was that LESS food doesn't necessarily mean HEALTHIER body. My husband was eating all day non-stop and was losing fat and gaining muscle. It literally blew my mind. I started to realize though that is wasn't all about how much to eat but more about the WHAT, and how much of that what.

Before I was forced to give up gluten I would say that 70% of my diet was carbs. Carbs encompass fruits, veggies and of course BREADS. I would snack on carbs, have 90% carb meals (spaghetti, with bread) and I would turn to carbs for days when things didn't go as planned. I ate what I liked to eat, even though I didn't always feel so good afterwords.

There are 3 macro-nutrient groups: Carbs, Proteins and Fats. A healthy diet consist of a balance of the 3, fat being the least consumed. My husband's eating habits were a lot different than mine, and he rarely seemed to have the upset stomach and low energy levels I did.

I started to look up what a healthy balance of macros looks like, and tried to incorporate it into my life. I recommend looking at a tool like Macro Calculator if you want to get an idea of your diet needs based on your weight and activity level. Below is a picture of what mine is:

This is based on MY weight and MY activity levels. Although this is super useful, what is difficult is ACTUALLY counting my macros. I work 40-50 hours a week and eat all day long. I tried to use various apps on my phone to track how much of what I am eating has so many macros, but it was just too time consuming for me. If this is something you are capable of doing, then I think this is a great place to start!

This at least made me re-evaluate my diet and showed me I wasn't consuming enough protein, which many people are guilty of. What I did find helpful was using the 21dayfix meal planning containers! The booklet comes with instruction on figuring out how much each food group you should be eating and instead of counting macros the containers measure out your food for you and you simply check a box each day to see if you are eating the correct portions. I find it so helpful and I think this is a great way for people to start off when considering changing up your eating lifestyle to something more balanced. A balanced diet between the 3 macro groups will help ensure your body is getting the proper nutrients. Buy these containers - Go to shop beach body then nutrition and supplements

I would NOT recommend counting calories for this reason: just because something is low calorie doesn't mean it adds ANY benefit to your diet. You could drink wine all day and meet your calorie intake WITHOUT providing anything beneficial to your body. 

The picture above demonstrates that 200 calories of different types of food means different things! 200 calories of something healthy is better for your body as opposed to 100 calories because you ate half a doughnut. 

I think that finding a balanced meal plan that suits YOUR body's need is extremely important for hormonal balance, digestion health, and overall bodily function.

I hope this helps and of course feel free to reach out to me about any questions of concerns you may have!

Enjoy!

xoxo

Homemade mac and cheese!

I love cheese. I love carbs and I love fresh herbs. So I set out on a mission to make a healthier version of Mac and Cheese. I think it's difficult to make anything with cheese too healthy, but I certainly believe that fresh cheese from the deli is much healthier than that powder cheese that comes in the mac and cheese boxes. 

Ingredients:

Block(s) of cheese

Pasta *I used gluten free quiona*

1 cup of milk

1-2 tbsp of flour

Choice of herb

pinch of salt and pepper

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

So the first thing I did was put a pot with a cup of milk on the stove top at a medium heat and then I chose my 3 favorite cheeses and cut them up into small cubes that would be easy to melt (grating the cheese is also an option!).

Next step is getting the cheese to melt, so keep stirring with the milk. I added a tbsp of gluten free flour to thicken the mixture and to help combine the cheese and milk. Gage what amount of cheese you want, but I used about 1/4 of each block. I also put a dash of salt and pepper as I was stirring

While I got the cheese to a consistency I liked I also started boiling up the pasta! When the cheese reached the creaminess I liked I just switched the heat to a very low setting and kept stirring periodically to keep the cheese creamy. I added fresh oregano through-out the process and sprinkled a few leaves on the final product.

Lastly I added fresh oregano from my herb garden. My herb garden is small, but it is one of the best investments you could EVER make. I have had an herb garden for about 1 year and I rarely season anything because fresh herbs are the bomb. We have our herbs in a partially shaded part of the porch for a good portion of the day, and we water the plants at most 5 times  a week. Keeping the herbs alive is easier than you would think, and some of ours survived the winter!

All of my herbs cost about 5-6 dollars to start, and besides a pot and soil I haven't had to put any other money into it. I think it's a fun hobby and really adds excitement to cooking!

The result was FABULOUS. It was much simpler than I thought and tasted really good! If you aren't used to gluten-free noodles then it won't taste as good as noodles with gluten, but for someone like me gluten-free is the only option and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This totally fit my meal plan for the fitness program I am doing too! You don't have to avoid carbs or fats to be healthy, it's all about moderation and balance.

Enjoy!

xoxo