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We want to be like Elli because she was the Norse Goddess of Aging who beat Thor in a wrestling match. We want to be like Elli, fit and strong as we age
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Veggie Challenge

Becoming Elli / Veggie Challenge
Buddha Bowl

Buddha Bowl

What is a Buddha Bowl? It usually includes a combination of both cooked and raw vegetables, whole grains, a source of protein and a sauce. Buddha Bowls were originally a vegan dish but if you're not a purist, you can add some animal protein. I usually end up with chicken or some shrimp on mine. The beauty of Buddha bowls lies in their flexibility—you can tailor them to fit your taste preferences, dietary needs, and what you have on hand. Whether you’re aiming for plant-based, low-carb, or just looking to increase your vegetable intake, there's a Buddha bowl for you. To build your own, start with a base like quinoa, brown rice, or leafy greens. Add colorful vegetables like roasted sweet potatoes, bell peppers, carrots, or cucumbers...

Looking Back at Our Veggie Challenges

Looking Back at Our Veggie Challenges

Chris recently posted about how eating more vegetables helps her maintain her weight and included some information about roasting zucchini. For some reason that made me think about some of our earlier posts about vegetables so I decided it was time for looking back at our veggie challenges. If you enter Veggie Challenge in the search field, a lot of entries come up. Scrolling through the search results, I realized we have a lot of great ideas on how to get more vegetables onto our plates. I found a recipe for a kohlrabi slaw that I made in 2019. Five years ago so I guess that’s why I forgot all about this dish but it sounds good. I need to make it again. It’s basically kohlrabi and...

Vegetable Soup for a Cold Weekend

Vegetable Soup for a Cold Weekend

Vegetable soup for a cold weekend seems like a natural for me. It's been very cold here in Northeast Ohio this weekend. So making various soups has been my go to response for eating. Here are some snapshots and recipes. Super Quick Salsa Soup Ingredients: 1 jar of mild or medium salsa 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder1/2 teaspoon cilantro2 cans black beans (rinse)1 bag of frozen vegetables (thawed)1 can corn undrained3 cups chicken broth 2 cups shredded cooked chicken Instructions: Dump everything into a pot. Bring just to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Top with shredded cheese, if you like. This is an easy way to get lots of vegetables and especially good if you have "put up" a lot of homemade salsa in the fall. The beans and chicken...

2024 Eat The Rainbow Challenge

Eat The Rainbow is a new 2024 challenge for the Becoming Elli Community and the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast! You can download the Eat The Rainbow checklist and information about why it's important to Eat The Rainbow. Eating the rainbow is an easy way to optimize your diet. Why is it important to EAT THE RAINBOW? Because colorful foods contain phytonutrients or plant compounds. These compounds provide beneficial nutrients to us. They are found in plant foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes (beans), and whole grains. Teas, herbs and spices also contain thousands of different phytonutrients. Phytonutrients protect our health. Some phytonutrients help protect our cells from damage and some support the body’s natural detoxification processes. Others have anti-inflammatory or anticancer effects, or promote brain, heart, skin,...

veggies with protein cropped

Lunch of Veggies with Protein

I had an awesome lunch over the weekend of veggies with protein. It was delicious. It seems like all the vegetables are becoming ripe and are really tasting especially good to me right now. Maybe it is just that time of year! By this photo you might think I didn't get enough protein ,but I added a couple of ingredients at the end of cooking and after I took this photo that really boosted the protein levels in my meal. Here's my recipe for these delicious veggies. No surprise, I sautéed them on the stove. To prepare this meal, first I pulled out the cutting board and a sharp knife. Heated up the pan with some extra virgin olive oil. Chopped and sliced the following veggies: Onions Peppers: red,...

Tomatillias – a New Vegetable for Me

We've been growing tomatillias in the garden! A while back we had a veggie challenge and I find I am still adding new vegetables to my meals, especially in the summer. I didn't know a whole lot about tomatillias. They've been on the edge of my veggie list for a while. Maybe you aren't familiar with them either. If you've ever had verde salsa, you've probably eaten tomatillias. That's the green salsa. Until this summer, that's been the extent of my knowledge about the tomatillia. They are a vegetable fruit - basically a member of the nightshade family, like the tomato. (Other nightshade members are eggplant, peppers and . They often have a little elf cap on their stem.) When they grow, they've got a husk surrounding the...

Roasting Eggplant in the Air Fryer

My Roasting Eggplant in the Air Fryer Experiment

If you Google how to roast eggplant in the air fryer, you will discover a lot of recipes. Trust me on that. I found lots of different recipes for roasting eggplant, even when I limited my search to using the Air Fryer. I asked in the Becoming Elli Facebook Group (join us there if you haven’t already!) if anyone had any good ideas on what to do with eggplant. People made many suggestions so I have ways to prepare eggplant for a while. I also checked for other eggplant recipes in this site and found one recipe that Chris posted. It sounds good too so I may add that to my list of ways to prepare eggplant. Roasted eggplant was one of the more popular suggestions so...

Spicing Up Bland Vegetable Soup

Spicing Up My Bland Vegetable Soup

I made a pot of vegetable soup the other day using my Instant Pot. My son and daughter-in-law were coming to visit and I wanted to have soup since it was one of the first cooler days of fall. I was rushed and just sort of threw the soup together. It wasn't bad but it was rather bland. It definitely needed some spicing up. Here's how I made the soup. I used: Onions Carrots Celery Cabbage Potatoes Chicken Can of diced tomatoes Chicken broth Because I was rushed, I didn't sauté any of the vegetables before adding the other ingredients. I decided it didn't really matter.  The Instant Pot was full, almost overly so. I cooked the soup and served it up right away when my guests...

Salmon and sardine patties

Salmon and Sardine Patties Recipe

I love salmon patties. They're quick and easy and taste great. I was trying to figure out how to get more sardines into my diet. I had a number of cans of sardines in my pantry so it made sense to use them but also sardines are supposed to be good for you. Sure, salmon is too but I find it harder to work sardines into my eating patterns. I've written about this before so I guess it's an ongoing challenge for me. This time I wanted something warm for dinner, not a sardine salad so I came up with the idea of salmon and sardine patties. Because we're doing the 2021 Veggie Challenge, I wanted to be sure to add some vegetables to this. Normally...

beyond burger review plant based patties

Beyond Burger Review

I tried a new to me kind of veggie burger this week called Beyond Burger. Does this count as part of the veggie challenge? I'm not sure, because this sure felt like cheating! Just to clarify, I am a meat eater but want to have something on hand when vegetarian family members are here for lunch. I've tried Boca Burgers and like the original version...