Healthy Choices...

Growing up in the Hansen household we always ate pretty well. My mom is an awesome cook and my dad is great with the grill. Because my dad is a doctor of natural medicine (Dr.Hansen) he has always pushed for healthy meals. We weren't crazy health nuts but we didn't get a lot of junk or eat out much when I was a kid. My mom would experiment with different veggies to make yummy and healthy dinners. Sometimes it took a lot of convincing to get us to eat but other times we would gobble it up. As I have grown up, I now have more appreciation for the meals my mom would make and the variety of vegetables I have been exposed to. 

Justin and I have decided to try and be more aware of what we are eating and to make healthier choices. If I could I would always have the fridge stocked with lots fruits and vegetables but its not always easy on a student budget. I have decided to avoid sweets and extra sugar where possible. I am a self proclaimed sugar addict and I need to break the habit! It is really hard but I'm starting small. I don't ever plan to cut out all sugar completely but I will definitely cut out a good amount.

One meal my mom used to make is eggplant sandwiches. When I made the suggestion to Justin he was a little bit skeptical but I convinced him to let me make them and they are actually pretty delicious. 

You just bread the thick cut eggplant and fry it in a little bit of vegetable oil.

You toast your bread, add your eggplant, mozzarella and/or parmesan cheese, and marinara sauce. 

Give it a quick broil to melt the cheese...

and there you go! If you don't think you like eggplant, give this a try, and I bet you'll like it!

I know its fried but it is still more veggies and less meat. I like that, and I like to be healthy.

good lookin'... I mean cookin'

I love food. A little too much (as my love handles can attest). Justin and I both have fun thinking of what to make and finding recipes from family cookbooks and using ideas from things we see off like The Food Channel and stuff.

We saw a Rhodes Rolls commercial the other day that suggested you use the rolls as pizza dough. So we had to try it. We made a fancy half mushroom, sausage half leftover chimichurri, steak, tomato pizza. Turned out to be delicious.

A family Pot Pie recipe that was super yummy posted by Justin's cousin. It called for white wine so maybe that's why it tasted so good...

 Our early "Christmas morning" Monkey Bread and dipping sauce. Yeah, we ate the whole thing.

Buffalo Chicken Salad is one of our favorites. Justin batters and shallow fries the chicken. Then we make some buffalo sauce to drench them in before putting it on top of some romaine with black beans, green onion and ranch of course!

I'm so lucky to have a husband that cooks and likes it!

Tweet Me!

Here's a secret about me. I love Facebook for stalking people but that is about it. I hardly ever post anything and I certainly do not make status updates. The last status I had was probably about my wedding... and before that, my engagement... I figure I can't just start putting up status' or people may think I've gone crazy! But the truth is... I kind of want to say random things to the world sometimes. I got an iPhone for my birthday from my man and discovered the beauty of so many other forms of social media. I now love Instagram and more recently Twitter. With Twitter I can just say whatever I want, whenever I feel so inclined! It's awesome! Who cares if anyone really sees it, but I have fun with it. Now I just have to watch that I'm not spending more time on my phone than with my man. Oops!