Jeannette Bessinger

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Vegucate Your Comfort Foods: A Secret for Feeling Better Fast

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Everybody and their brother knows you’re supposed to eat lots of vegetables. 
But why, exactly, is it such a power move? 

I’ll give you 3 great reasons:

  1. They are nutrient powerhouses of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants – all crucial to health and vibrancy.
  2. Eating lots of them (at least 5 full servings daily) dramatically reduces your risk of chronic disease. (People who consume a lot of veggies every day have a reduced risk of things like heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, etc.)
  3. Filling up on veggies helps your weight stabilize. The fiber makes you to chew more and thus slows down your eating. It also helps to fill you up – and we know how important that feeling is!! Also the tiny micronutrients and big “life energy” help fill your body’s nutrition and power quota and, over time, can start to calm the fire of your cravings.

Here’s the bottom line for your weight: vegetables are so low in calories and high in fiber that even if you eat a big ole pile of them, you’re probably taking in fewer total calories per meal.

One strategies I often offer my clients is to “vegucate” your favorite comfort foods:

Replace the dense, high-calorie, high-glycemic-load carbs in your favorite meals with cleverly worked vegetables (that still taste really good!)

You can swap regular rice for “riced” cauliflower in your stir fry. Serve sandwiches as “stuffies” inside hollowed out bell peppers or tomatoes instead of a bagel or a roll at lunchtime. Or swap pasta for “zoodles” – the infamous zucchini noodles.

This single strategy delivers a one-two punch of filling you up without weighing you down, and dosing you up with high quality nutrition that serves your health and energy in countless ways.

Check out my Vegucated Lasagna recipe below. It’s quick and easy to prepare, inexpensive, versatile (can swing vegetarian or even vegan) and it’s a crowd pleaser – delicious and satisfying – but will help lift your energy instead of weighing it down.

Enjoy!

#thenewcomfortfood

#vegucatemycomfortfood

Vegucated Lasagna

High-veg, low-carb lasagna deliciousness that can swing from meat-eater to vegetarian (or even vegan if you swap the cheese for vegan alternates!)

Yield
4-6 Servings

Prep Time
15M

Cook Time
1H15M

Ingredients

  • 1 large spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
  • 1 pound lean, pastured ground turkey, ground beef or vegetarian beef “crumbles”, divided*
  • 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1 teaspoon granulated onion
  • Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
  • 1 24-oz jar high quality marinara sauce
  • 1 8-oz carton organic, part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup organic part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  2. Lay the squash halves face down on a baking sheet with an edge and roast for 35-40 minutes until you can dent the squash skin with a spoon.
  3. While the squash is baking, combine the ground meat, garlic, onion, salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until all pink is gone, about 7 minutes. (If using vegetarian crumbles, you can skip the cooking step.)
  4. Once the squash is tender, remove from the oven, reduce oven temp to 350°F and let squash cool slightly until you can handle it. Scrape all the squash strands out of the skin and transfer evenly to a large baking dish.
  5. Spread the prepared ground meat (or vegetarian crumbles and spices) evenly over the squash. Pour the sauce evenly over the meat. Dot the top with dollops of the ricotta and sprinkle with the mozzarella.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes or until hot throughout and cheese is melted.

Notes

*You can also omit the stovetop cooking step by substituting 8-10 frozen turkey or vegetarian meatballs for the ground meat – just place them evenly into the squash and follow the rest of the instructions.

The fresher your spaghetti squash, the “juicier” it will be when cooked. If your squash releases a lot of moisture you can drain it for 15 minutes in a colander or sieve after scraping it out of its skin. Alternatively, you can remove excess moisture from the (cooked and slightly cooled) lasagna by gently supporting contents with a large pan lid and tipping the pan to drain.

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