~~ My Vegan Ways ~~

Good Monday Morning!!!  I hope you all had a beautiful weekend Praising Jesus and hanging out with your families. 

I have wanted for some time to blog consistently about something I'm passionate about:  food =) 

I like to eat and I like to eat well.  So as I've been thinking about this, I decided to blog about my healthy diet and lifestyle on Mondays and title it "My Vegan Ways".  I hope you enjoy these posts and find them helpful to you.

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I get many questions about my diet.  I want to clarify that I am more vegan than vegetarian, but not totally vegan all the time.  I will eat honey and girl likes her some sweets and so sometimes I will have some sweeties that are not vegan.  But those are becoming less and less with all the lovely vegan dessert options out there that taste really good.

Choosing to eat healthier is definitely an individual choice.  I can't choose to eat healthier for you as you cannot do so for me.  We are the ones putting our food choices in our bodies, so it must be something you decide and do on a regular basis to see good results.  But it is SO worth it!!!  You will have so much more energy and vitality.  It truly is amazing!!  But these things take time and if you are wanting to start a more healthy diet and you currently eat icky =)    give it some time.  Decide to maybe start daily with changing up one meal to eat more healthy.  And it doesn't have to be taking a meal and taking it totally vegan or vegetarian, because that may not be your deal and that is totally fine.  Just take one meal and instead of frying the chicken, bake it or stir fry it with LOTS of yummie veggies, or if that's not your thing, coat it in bread crumbs and bake it and serve it with a nice fresh pasta sauce and a salad.  That is a wonderful start.  And over time, that positive change will lead to more postive changes and before you know it, your diet will look much healthier and you will feel MUCH better.

So I will be focusing on one food-related topic each Monday and would love to know what you all would like me to talk about as well.  Is there a certain food or food group you would like to know more about, how to cook?  etc.

There are many wonderful vegan food blogs out there and I am not attempting to be one =)  Nor am I any kind of doctor or expert in the field.  I just know what works for me and thought I'd share about a thought or two in a one day a week post, and maybe help some of my fellow food lovers out there and it is something I'm passionate about.  Healthy food brings so much life and vitality to us.  It is a gift from our Heavenly Daddy.  I love that He gives us so many beautiful fruits and veggies to eat.

So today, I want to give you a recipe for something I made a couple of weeks ago.  It was definitely new to me and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  

Eggplant Pomodoro

    1 cup vegan mayonnaise (I use Veganaise) (Doesn't have to be vegan)
    1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2" rounds
    1 cup Italian style breadcrumbs
    3 roma tomatoes, diced
    10-15 fresh basil leaves, chopped
    2 cloves garlic, crushed
    1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and coat a cookie sheet with foil.

2. Coat each slice of eggplant with the mayo and then coat each slice with breadcrumbs. 

3. Arrange coated eggplant slices on prepared cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes.

4. While eggplant is baking, saute diced tomatoes, basil, and garlic in olive oil until well heated, and set aside. Serve baked eggplant with a generous portion of tomato mixture. Enjoy!

Serves: 2-4, Preparation time: 30-60 minutes 

This recipe is SO delicious and flavorful, but it is also very rich.  I LOVED this recipe and the sauce was AMAZING!!

Generally, I will find a recipe, like I did here and change it.  I take a basic recipe and make it work for me, so if there is something in this that you don't like or would like to add, change it up and make it yours.  The original recipe called for mustard with the mayo, I am not a fan of this, so I left it out.  But if you like that taste, add it in (I think it was 1/4 cup). 

I am growing eggplant in my garden this year along with tomatoes and basil.  Love me some garden goodness.

So I hope you enjoy this one and will try it soon alongside a fresh salad and tall glass of water!!

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions ~~

Love you ~~ Have a Blessed Monday ~~ Off to get my 2 miles in today =)