July 23: Best Meatless Monday Yet

Meatless Mondays have been something of a struggle over the last few weeks, but yesterday might have been my best one.

For lunch I made stuffed shells. Here's the basic recipe (apologies for vague measurements, I eyeballed it):

• 12-16 large pasta shells, cooked to al dente and rinsed with cold water.
• Half of a medium zucchini, diced.
• Half of a red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• Salt and pepper
• Roughly 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• Roughly 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 tbsp Tuscan Sunset (Italian seasoning)
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Saute the zucchini and bell pepper with salt and pepper in a little olive oil until tender, then set aside on a plate to cool for a moment. Combine the ricotta, half the mozzarella cheese and seasoning in a medium bowl.

To stuff the shells, put a large spoonful of the diced vegetables inside a shell. Then cover that with a spoonful of the cheese mixture and place stuffing-side up in a 9x9 baking dish. Spoon the pasta sauce over the shells, spread it out as evenly as you can, then cover that with the rest of the mozzarella. 

Either cover this with nonstick foil or foil you've sprayed with cooking spray, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. After that remove the foil and broil until the cheese has browned.

That was pretty good, but I'm even prouder of dinner: Nine vegetable crock pot tacos. The recipe is pretty simple:

• 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 uncooked ears of corn, with the kernels cut off the cob
• Half of a red bell pepper, seeded and diced.
• Half of a medium zucchini, shredded
• One jar of your favorite salsa
• One packet of taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• One red onion, diced
• Roma tomatoes, diced
• Radishes, sliced thinly
• Lettuce, shredded
• Avocado, sliced or diced
• Sour cream
• Shredded light Mexican cheese
• Flour tortillas

Combine the beans, corn, pepper, zucchini, salsa, taco seasoning and cornstarch in a slow cooker and cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve on the tortillas with the remaining ingredients.

We liked this enough that we're eating leftovers of it again tonight, which is a Meatless Monday first.

Exercise log: DDR, although I lost track of my calorie count.

Another sign that my plan is working: Today I'm using the second hole on my belt. I haven't used that in years.