Daily Archives: 19/01/2012

Eggplant Lasagna

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INGREDIENTS:
1 medium or 2 small eggplants
9 lasagna noodles
1 block (14-16 oz) of tofu (I used extra firm)
2 cups spinach
1/4 cup minced garlic
3 cup spaghetti sauce (or your favorite sauce)
8 oz soy cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Boil the lasagna noodles until they are tender.
While the noodles are cooking, cut the eggplant into thin slices.
Place the eggplant slices on pan and broil until the pieces are tender.
While the eggplant is cooking, put the tofu and garlic in a food processor. The mixture should have the consistency of ricotta cheese.
Put a few tablespoons of spaghetti sauce in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
Place the three lasagna noodles in the bottom of the pan.
Spread a few more tablespoons of sauce on top of the noodles.
Spread some of the tofu mixture on top of the sauce.
Sprinkle some soy cheese on top of the tofu mixture (optional).
Layer some eggplant on top of the cheese.
Repeat steps until all of the eggplant has been used.
Place the remaining sauce, tofu mixture on top of the last layer of eggplant.
Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes.
Cut the lasagna into 12 equal slices.

SOURCE: SparkRecipes.com

Eye Opening Experience

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I am just one day short of completing the 12 day program described in The McDougall Plan by Dr. John McDougall. In this “journey” I had my aunt, who convinced my wife to participate. We had hoped to get my wife’s best friend to join us, but due to priorities and some family issues she hasn’t completely stuck to the 12 day program. But, the door is always open to start or restart the program any time.

As for me, it’s been an eye opening experience even being on the plant based, whole food diet since October, 2011. One thing I have noticed doesn’t really relate to me, but what I now observe in others. I am also noticing the amount of oil in some of the foods I have been preparing for my son. Something I might have dismissed earlier, before I learned about this way of eating.

I have started to pay more attention to people and am noticing more and more of them are heavy set or obese. Might not be right to call them fat, but in the case of some (or many) that’s what it is. Fat! It is most apparent when I pick my son up from kindergarten on Tuesday and Wednesday. For the most part it’s the women who are in overweight. It makes me wonder what will happen to their kids in 5-7 years. Might be unfair, but the majority of parents picking their kids up seem to be the moms, as opposed to the dads.

In some cases the kid resembles the part. I can cite a few examples when I am waiting to pick up my son. Hopefully my wife and I don’t have to worry about having an obese child. Personally, I was never obese, but always one of the “bigger” boys growing up. I did seem to have a small fat layer that hung with me though high school and I never took the time during sports I participated in to build some muscle.

I do worry about what we feed he. It seems when dinnertime rolls around, I use the excuse of being tired and want something quick and easy to feed to my son. That is really not fair to him at all. This last week I was able to feed him a Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burger and last night it was a Boco Burger, which I added cheese and ketchup to. Not sure he really knew the difference from a hamburger made from meat, but he ate them and enjoyed them. Hopefully that can be a step in the right direction for us when it comes to dinner.

My concern for his health and that of my wife stems from this new found knowledge I have gained over the course of 3 months. I am not out to change the world with his knowledge, let alone change my wife’s habit. Thankfully I have control over what I feed my son until he is old enough to make his own decisions. My wife has had mixed feelings during the week about this way of eating. I preached about the weight loss I experienced over 2 months following the McDougall program and I expected her to experience more weight loss.

I will have more of a write up on Saturday after we finish the 12 days. I look forward to learning more about nutrition, to the point of wanting to take some classes on it. Not sure how I can pass this off as “work related” to get my company to pay for a portion of it. Even if I can’t the more I learn the more I know I have made the right decision for myself.