So Many Flavors

What's good bloggers?! This will also be a nice change in flavor from the previous dishes. I don't really have a name for this dish yet, but its kind of like stir fry without the noodles that I came up with when those munchies were killing me! Ingredients include: Shredded Carrots, Red Onion, Shrimp(cooked or fresh), Diced White onion, Rice Vinegar, Sriracha (My favorite thing ever), EVOO, Black Pepper, Rock Salt, Garlic Salt, Soy sauce, Brown Sugar and not pictured are Coconut Oil, and Lime. Start off by getting the pan Hot (Medium High-High) with a light layer of Coconut oil. Get a good size bowl for ingredients. Slice about half a cup or more of Red Onion (long thin slices). Add 1/3 cup of Diced White Onion. Add about a cup  of Shrimp (More or less, your decision). 1/2 cup of Shredded Carrots (more or less). Now I will keep it real on the spices, as I tried to do before, a lot of these measurements are just based on how much of the flavor you really like, add as much or take away as much as you'd like! I would add about 3/4 TBS of Black Pepper, sprinkle of Rock Salt, 3/4 TBS of Garlic Salt, 1/3 cup of Soy Sauce, 1-2 TBS of EVOO (I just drizzle it all over), one strong squeeze of the Lime, and just a light light sprinkle of brown sugar, maybe a 1-1.5 TSP. Stir all of it really well and let sit for 1 minute then add it to the pan, turn pan on high and stir about every minute for about 3 minutes. Let it simmer for about 1-2 minutes on low heat with a top over man, stir 1 more time and than pour out on or into bowl or plate and enjoy! Side note: when I created this dish the first time I had spinach with this. I added fresh spinach during the last part of the cooking directions, when you let the dish simmer for the last 2 minutes, add the spinach all over the dish and cover.

I like Italian Herb..s

Hello everyone! Hope everyone has had an incredible day! Here is the thing, after I made those breaded zucchinis, they were so good, it inspired me to enhance it a bit, and get to working on one of my new favorite dishes to make! Now, people always say eat a low carb diet, stay away from carbs.. Lets get one thing straight, carbs ARE NOT BAD FOR YOU! You just have to eat the right carbs! So, what we have is: Whole Wheat French Bread (whole wheat, a good carb!) 4 Portobello Mushrooms, Sliced Eggplant, and left over Sliced Zucchini ends. These are oiled with EVOO, seasoned with Rock Salt, Black Pepper, and Garlic Salt. The mushrooms should sit on the grill at Medium High for a minimum of 5 minutes per side, they're filled with water so you want that to drain it out and, get them slightly crisp (it kind of looks burnt, don't be scared of that!). The eggplant and zucchini are grilled until each side is lightly browned with nice grill marks. While these are grilling, heat oven to 400 degrees. Next is our breading, it's almost the same has our last dish. Japanese Bread Crumbs, your desired amount of Red Pepper Flakes (I love spicy so I had a lot), Garlic Salt, a nice sprinkle of Oregano, and then about 8 Fresh Basil leafs finely chopped. Mix all these ingredients along with a light drizzle of EVOO in mixture, I don't know why I did this but I was glad I did, it helped the breading stick. Next, take your sliced french bread, and either lightly coat it with EVOO or whatever low fat butter you like (or none, but i suggest minimum of evoo). Lightly spread tomato sauce (organic from Trader Joe's) and then a light light sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese onto bread. After this, layer the zucchini with, with a light layer tomato sauce and the breading, then the same with eggplant, add some cubes of reduced fat buffalo mozzarella cheese on top of those eggplant slices (really bread those eggplants up!). Cut the mushrooms in half, then layer them on top of the eggplant, spread tomato sauce and completely cover the top of mushrooms with breading(I suggest maybe a touch of graded low fat mozzarella on top of the portobellos, but your call on how much cheese you want!). Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Slice, Eat and, enjoy!

Everyone should like Greens!

Good Day, Everyone! This weather is so amazing right now, isn't it?! Ok, I am starting you out with one of my favorite smoothies. Now, I have smoothies everyday, most mornings for my breakfast, this is not to get confused with juicing or anything of the sort! A friend of mine Brian, who is Vegan had suggested to me to try something out for awhile and see how I like it. He said, the first thing your body wants in the morning after that long fast is Water and Sugar, so what better sugar to give our bodies in the morning than its most natural form? FRUITS! Brian suggested to me, only have raw fruits and vegetables until Noon or later. I gave it a try, and since the beginning of July, I have carried this routine! I feel great in the mornings, and have tons of energy and just overall feel way better throughout my days! This is an easy smoothie to make and taste amazing! We have Ground Cinnamon, 1 Granny Smith Apple, Avocado, Banana, 4 Frozen Strawberries, and 2 cups of Spinach. As you can see, a snap of this green smoothie will really get your day going! No wake and bake here, all completely raw and delicious for those morning munchies. I sometimes cheat and add a piece of Dark Chocolate, just for a subtle chocolaty taste. To make this, cut up the apple, use at least half the avocado, LIGHT SPRINKLE of Cinnamon (a little goes a long way), throw in the Spinach with as much Ice as you'd like and you get a cup of what I like to call "Green Heaven". You can also add things I do not have for health benefits like Hemp Protein, or Chia seeds, or Macha. 

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Lunch time munchies! This is an experiment I came up with last night. Again, most of the day I am thinking Vegetarian, occasionally some chicken and turkey gets mixed in. Today though we have Breaded Zucchini! I was thinking more of a way to make healthy fried zucchini, along with a mozzarella sticks, and thought, why not make both into one?.. As you can see I cut the zucchini long ways, not to thin but not to thick. I put EVOO on them and let them just get the grill marks, I love crisp grill marks on most of my food. While those were going I got my breading mixture together. We have Japanese bread crumbs, Garlic salt, Rock salt, Black pepper, and Red pepper flakes. I just put in equal portions of each spice into the breading and mixed it together (you never can have to much garlic salt). After the zucchinis were done grilling, I oiled them lightly so the breading would stick. Once a good layer was on each zucchini slice, I put them in a large dish and lightly layered them each with Organic Tomato sauce from Trader Joe's (delicious), and than sprinkled a small small amount of low fat mozzarella cheese, then covered the cheese with another layer of our breading mixture. I put these in the oven on 375 degrees until cheese was melted. One suggestion I might have is oiling the dish you use for the oven first and layer that with the breading mixture first along with the other steps. Again, this was an experiment I just came up with and I feel that added touch could help make the dish a little better. Again, nothing hard about this, all healthy ingredients that help for a healthy day! It tasted great and I cannot wait to do this again but, with Eggplant! I have been on a huge Italian food thing lately, so expect more Italian infused dishes with these basic ingredients. Hope this satisfies those munchies you might have! Have a great day!

Natures Finest

Hey friends, happy to already be posting my second blog. First, I would like to send a fair warning, I will be typing freely in this blog and will not necessarily be paying attention to my grammar all that much, I am just going to let my thoughts pour out onto the keyboard and make sure it makes sense when I am done! Today's muchies were quite excellent! Since I have been on a more vegetarian thought process lately, today I made Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers! Now, if you follow me on Instagram @dmells21, you have already seen this recipe, but today I had to get  creative with how I cooked them. What we have is Mini Bell Peppers, Red Onion, Diced White Onion, Avocado, a fresh Jalapeno out of my friends sick vegetable garden (good looks J Hunt), Black Beans, Quinoa and, EVOO. I made a mistake by cutting out the stem without realizing, that's the side that sits up when roasting on the grill. Luckily I made a contraption to hold the bell peppers with the frame my father uses when making beer can chicken (a post will happen next thats cooked, delicious!). After cleaning out the bell peppers I lightly coated them inside and out with EVOO, and then let them slow roast on the grill. While those were roasting, I diced up my vegetables, and mixed all the ingredients together. After the bell peppers roasted with a light char on them I stuffed them to the top and set them up in there frames surrounded with foil. I them topped with the not pictured, Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Cheese. The cheese is very low in fat, and also super delicious. These peppers roasted on the grill for about 7-10 minutes on High. Just roast the peppers for however long you want for both roasting steps. Now, for those who are not familiar, Quinoa is the only grain that is a protein as well. It reminds be of brown rice and couscous ("So good, they named it twice"). Although, I did not calculate Calories, Grams of Fat, and so on, I just know this a very low fat meal. It's a vegetable stuffed with more vegetables, a grain with protein, black beans ( I eat a lot of these, high protein, low fat, high fiber) and also delicious avocado which is packed with healthy fats we need that also contains fiber! YUMM!!! Like I said, this a laid back blog, it's all for good fun, healthy/delicious food, and satisfying those times you have the munchies! Easy meal, tasted great, nothing special, healthy lunch! The best part about all of this, it was fun!... Not pictured is also the amazing smoothie I had today! Red Grapes, Mixed Berries (raspberry,blueberry,blackberry), 2 strawberries, banana, green apple, a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, and a cup or 2 of kale! Delicious breakfast! I call it, throw everything you have in the blender and hope that shit taste good!... it did!

I also have to share today's workout with you! For a very short period of time I was without a gym membership, so I had to use the next best thing, nature! Natures gym is wonderful when you get to workout in these beautiful Southern Cali conditions! Today my buddies Nick and Garett and I broke out the hold pitching machine I spent hours of my childhood in front of. Started out with a warm up of running and playing catch with the football. Throwing the football with a friend is an awesome way to get started, the constant stop and go from throwing to running and catching back and forth gets a good sweat going and kind of simulates interval sprint training. After that, it was time to bring back the power swings! Up first was Nick, chasing curve balls and sliders while blasting out some deep shots. Up next was Garett sending fast balls far away into the gaps. Then up was none other than Me... Yeah, definitely a leeeettle rusty, but when I connected, it was sweet! After swinging the bat we ended with a light cool down of jogging routes while catching the football and enjoyed natures finest. How can you say no to natures gym when that is the view you have?! Plus after all that, the munchies came back super quick! :) Who needs gym!.. Until next time.

Special Shout out to my sister Renee! Happy Birthday Sister, you're amazing! Love you!

Hello, I am Mello...

Hello fellow bloggers! This is my first Blog ever, so I am new to all of this. Just for a quick introduction, my name is Daniel Mello, I am college student at Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California, studying Kinesiology and Health Promotion. My life consist of mainly school, work, working out, coaching, running, cooking, and time with family and friends. Throughout most of my life I suffered from childhood obesity which carried its weight on me just until a few years ago when I decided to change my life a bit. I had to make many big changes and with those changes came a lot of sacrifices. I began to dedicate most of my time working on my fitness and diet. After about 4 years of making tons of health changes to myself I was able to lose 110 pounds. It was no easy ride, it took a lot of work throughout those years, but I would not change anything about it for a minute. The one thing about losing so much weight is maintaining and keep it off. When you have the kind of mentality I have which is: ALWAYS HAVING THE MUNCHIES, it is extremely hard to maintain consistency with what I eat. I had to learn ways to make delicious and healthy food replacements for the fattening one's I use to love... Ok I still love, sometimes... A lot of times, I cheat and have fun with my food, but for the most part, I do my best to keep it relatively healthy. This blog here is to show my personal and collaborative efforts to make healthy/delicious food that reminds me of the unhealthy food I use to eat. I have always had a passion for cooking and used my creativity to make fun healthy snacks and meals. There is nothing overly complicated or special to these snacks and recipes I make. They're simple and fun and I hope to inspire people to try the recipes out and even make your own recipes to go with them as well. Lately I have been on a huge Smoothie kick, lots of smoothies, everyday. Hope you all enjoy my post and share with friends!