What’s on Zyal Mind?
I altered this dish a bit by adding meat, but it was amazing! If you like cheese and creamy dish, it’s basically tastes like lasagna, but it’s made out of vegetables.  This is heaven for your taste buds, but it isn’t one of the healthiest recipes I am going to put up.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves minced
3 cups of heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon of freshly grounded nutmeg
1 tablespoon of minced fresh thyme
3 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound of parsnips (peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick)
1 pound of sweet potatoes (peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick)
1 pound celery root (peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick)
1 pound of ground beef
8 ounces of Gruyere cheese (shredded)
Salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste) 

Putting it all Together:
Preheat the oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.

Butter a 3 quart baking dish.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook your ground beef until it’s cooked throughly.

In another large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the garlic and cook it for 1 minute.  Add the cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and heat just until bubbles form around the edges of the pan. (This should take about 5 minutes.)  Remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes.

Arrange a layer of parsnips, slightly overlapping, in the prepared dish.  Then, arranging a layer of sweet potatoes on top of it. And lastly a layer of celery root.  On top of that, add your ground meat and pour 1/2 of the cream mixture over the ground meat and sprinkle half of the cheese, thyme, and parsley on top of that.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour.  Remove the foil and lightly press the gratin down with a spatula. Continue baking until the vegetables are tender and the top is golden brown, this should take an additional 15-30 minutes more.  

Let the gratin stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves 12-15 people! :D 

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups of spelt flour (or all purpose flour)
3/4 cup of raw organic sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 organic brown eggs
1/3 cup of canola oil or almond oil
1 organic banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (look for one that don’t have vanillin)
1 zucchini or totaling up to 4 ounces, shredded, drained and paper toweled
1/4 cup of almonds chopped

Putting it all together:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Ferheniet.  Grease 10 standard muffin cups.  Fill the unused cups with 1/3 full of water to prevent warping.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

in another bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, banana, vanilla, and zucchini until blended.  Add the flour mixture in three additions and beat just until evenly moistened and smooth.  Stir in the nuts just until evenly distributed.  

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling each o more than 3/4 full.  Bake until the muffins are golden, dry, and springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Equalling between 17 to 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.  Unmold the muffins.  Serve them warm or at room temperature.

“HEALTHY EATING” Tips
Benefits of Spelt Flour:Spelt is more water soluble and more easily digested than wheat flour.  It is preferred by many people with wheat sensitivities and may be an acceptable substitute for some people with gluten intolerance, however, this is not gluten free. Spelt four has slightly more protein and fewer calories than wheat flour.  It contains a broad array of nutrients and is a good source of vitamin B2, manganese, niacin, coper, phosphorus, protein, and fiber.  Spelt has a much tougher outer husk than wheat.  During milling, this tough outer shell helps protect the grain, preserving both nutrients and flavor.  It also helps protect the grain from pests and infestations which makes it much easier to grow without the use of pesticides.

Beware of Vanillin:
Vanillin is a chemical flavoring used in Vanilla extract.  Although, there is no real harm in ingesting the chemical vanillin, it does change the taste of whatever you are using it to cook with.  Since it is not an extract that came directly from a vanilla bean, it will change the taste of your food.  From cooking class, I learned that nothing compares to the taste of the real vanilla bean extract.

Stevia = BAD Modification Choice
I have also used carrots to make these muffins as well.  To be quite honest, do not use Stevia for these, or any other artificial sugar.  I have tried Stevia several times, and every time I make these muffins with Stevia, they come out dry and tasteless.  Real sugar makes the muffin sweet.  

Oh I admit it. I’m addicted to sweets.  I think I cannot go a day without putting something sweet in my mouth, but I found this interesting way to trick my mind and taste buds into thinking I’m eating ice cream.   

My “I Can’t Believe It’s” Ice Cream

what you’ll need:
a very sturdy blender (Example: Vitamix)
measuring cup
frozen strawberries
Vanilla extract
Stevia extract sugar
half and half milk 

method:
1.) In your very sturdy blender, mix the following:
2 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2-3 scoops of Stevia extract (spoon included when purchasing product) 
1/4 to 1/2 cup of half and half milk

2.) most sturdy blenders should have an option for “ice cream” if your blender does not, mix the following ingredients until product is a thick liquid consistency, should take about 5-10 minutes. 

“HEALTHY EATING” TIPS:
Right now I am trying to eat healthier by choosing organics over other other choices.  I am fortunate enough that where I live there are a ton of farmers markets throughout the week.  You want to remember to buy foods that are local.  That way there wasn’t a long travel for your food to come to your grocery store.  That’s why I think farmers markets are the best.  Anyways, I tend to buy my organic strawberries from the farmer market. I tend to buy an entire box, then I eat the ones I want to eat now, and I wash and cut up the rest the way I want them and stick them in the freezer. Now I have fresh organic strawberries frozen. 

I also tend not to use half and half milk as it would seem that I am becoming lactose-intolerance.  Therefore, I use water instead, but it does take away from the creaminess of the entire product.  

And lastly Stevia is a sugar made from rice.  Yes, I would tell you that you need to shop around when buying your Stevia.  Some Stevia’s have an aftertaste, but I am currently using: “Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Stevia Extract.” Obviously from the name it came from Trader Joe’s.  This one does not seem to have an aftertaste to it.  Plus, I only need to use 3-4 spoons which was provided in the produce to same sweetness as regular ice cream tastes like.  I think the equivalence is like 1/4 a teaspoon or even less.  I also like to use this in my coffee as well.  It gives my coffee and tea the same sweetness as regular sugar does…plus it tastes just like regular sugar..to me.  

If anyone does try it, I would love to hear how it went…

*commemorates myself on my very first blog.*

Starting today I have decided to do a “Christmas Project.”  For my whole life I have always been struggling with almost everything in my life.  First there was college and decided at first that I didn’t want to do that.  But now I’m going to college and will graduate from a 4 year university next May.  Now my next battle is to overcome my weight issues  For as far as I could think back, I have always been on the chunkier side, but now it’s becoming an issue with my “soon to be” new career.

Granted, I may have the secret to hiding it well with bigger clothes, but let’s face it…I am only 5 feet 2 and 1/2 inches and I almost weight about 170 pounds. Lol!  I think that’s a bit much for someone who’s got a small bone structure and isn’t very tall.  Time and time again, I had going to my physician because I know every time I see her, she tells me that I need to lose about 30 to 40 pounds…and time and time again I end up weight more and more every time I see her.  There comes a point, when you either have to give up the fight or start doing something about it…

I choose to start doing something about it.  In about a year from now I will be working in the medical field and will have to be telling others that they need to eat healthy and they need to get in shape since there are many Americans who are overweight.  Question is, would you really listen to your health care professional if they themselves were overweight and were telling you that you needed to lose weight?  *ha*  I would probably laugh them sarcastically and think why should I be listening to someone who cannot even control their own weight.

So after rambling for a few paragraphs, I came to the realization that I want to lose weight, I have always dreamed about losing weight and being happy.  I just cannot get my lazy butt to start doing it.  Hopefully by announcing this to the world, it will force to me actually do something about myself.  No, I am not about to start posting neked pictures of myself, or myself in a bra and undies, that’s just a bit too embarrassing at the moment.  But starting today, I am going to try to lose about 10 pounds before christmas comes.  10 pounds shouldn’t be too hard of a task for a 3 month period.  I am going to start making better food choices.  I am going to stray away from Starbucks and sugary coffees and sweets.  I am going to attempt to exercise at least 4 times a week and eat smaller portions.  (Probably should stop eating when I’m bored.)  I am hoping that in about 3 months from now I will have obtained my goal and maybe lose some more. :p