Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Holiday Tip #7

Day 7 of Holiday Tips (That's a whole week to keep you going, folks).

FITNESS TIP:

Do you usually do bicep curls, squats, shoulder exercises, etc. sitting on a bench or standing? To challenge your balance and your core, try balancing
on one foot while performing these exercises. Here's an example of a single leg bicep curl:
You can also rest your foot on a stability ball like this:
If it feels too challenging to keep your foot raised that high on either exercise (or if you have hip flexor pain), you can let one foot stay parallel to the other while letting it hover above the floor (NASM says, "let the feet be friends, but not close friends." Which means they don't touch...clever). You can also just let the toe touch the ground if raising your entire foot from the ground proves too difficult. Remember to switch the foot that is balancing between sets.

HEALTHY INDULGENCE:

You're going to a holiday party and you don't know what to bring. Everyone else is bringing Christmas cookies, and you want to bring a main dish. Also, you're like me and you don't cook very often. What to do? Follow my lead and make a vegetarian lasagna. This recipe doesn't use as many noodles or as much cheese as a "normal" lasagna, so it's lower in calories; it's extremely easy to make; and it's red and green so it's festive. Huzzah!

Ingredients:
-8 oz of no-boil lasagna pasta (buy this package, but you won't use all of the noodles)
-26 ounce jar of chunky vegetable pasta sauce (I used a chunky spinach sauce. It was tasty.)
-1 cup of part-skim ricotta cheese
-8 oz of part-skim mozzarella cheese
-1 egg
-Italian seasoning
-13x9 baking dish (I bought a disposable lasagna dish at the grocery store. 2 in a packagefor only 2 bucks! This is perfect if you are bringing the dish to a party. You won't have to worry about leaving one of your own dishes and picking it up later.)

Directions:
1)Preheat oven to 350ยบ.
2) Spread a think layer of veggie sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.
3) Lightly beat the egg and add ricotta cheese. Mix together with Italian seasoning.
4) Place a layer of pasta over the sauce to fit the pan (I used 3 noodles).
5) Spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the hard pasta.
6) Add half of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta.
7) Spread a generous layer of sauce over the ricotta cheese. Make sure none of the pasta is exposed.
8) Repeat steps 4 through 7 one time.
9) Cover the dish with foil.
10) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
11) Remove foil and cook for an extra 15 minutes.

It looks like there are a lot of steps here, but it truly is easy to do. Believe me. I wouldn't make it if it were difficult!

Enjoy and Be Well!

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