Food Journal: Healthy but Hearty ❤️

Wednesday, September 22, 2021.

Have you ever been on a diet?

If the answer is yes, you'll relate just fine with today's article.

Growing up, I've always have had issues with my body weight. Before the age of thirteen, I was too skinny, after that, I just kept putting on and losing weight. This of course brought me a lot of trouble not just with issues like clothing, the worst of all is that I was body shamed. My "Friends" used to call me Revaca, a mixture of the first syllable of my name and the word Vaca which means Cow in English.

This of course caused some lack of confidence in my self-image, and even to this day I still have episodes, but that's not today's story. I continue, at one point I started to Diet with no hint of success, the only times I lost some weight was when I was sick or something. Because of this, my parents took me to an Adaptogen Clinic, which centers on holistic and energetic medicine, and treats all kinds of illnesses with natural remedies.

The examination was odd and the doctor found that I had a protein deficiency and gave me a No-Carb diet that I loved, the only thing was that I got bored of all the veggies I was consuming, so, time to come up with something, and my mom and I found a recipe of Stuffed Zucchinis.

The first time we did it I wasn't all convinced, I mean, it's zucchinis, tomatoes, onions, and parmesan cheese, which is the only thing that I thought was worthwhile. But as it turns out, the flavors blend so well that you don't believe that you're eating diet food, on the contrary, the taste is gourmet, at least from my perspective. We all love it and incorporated them into our regular menu, and even my dad, who was a little bit picky with his food, tried to make other versions of it, like substituting zucchinis with bell peppers, recipes that were online but with his own twist.

The situation in our country became so nasty over the years that we had to stop indulging ourselves with stuff like that, because yes, it's zucchinis, but those types of veggies at one point disappeared from my town and buying regular cheese was uphill, let alone parmesan cheese. Gladly, a few months back, my sister, her husband, and my beautiful nephew came to a medical visit. My brother-in-law had to see urgently a dentist and in Caracas, they are too expensive for them, so, after consulting with a few friends we got a very good recommendation with the Spanish 3 B's: Bueno, Bonito y Barato (in English Good, Pretty and Cheap).

Anyway, they came, and the first thing the doctor said before they even got here was that the day of the treatment he couldn't eat hard foods, and he didn't like that, so, I was on the very hard task of coming up with something yummy but soft, and most important, something that he'd like because he is one of the most capricious men I have ever met, to the point that, if he doesn't like something, he not only let you know, he most certainly will never let go that you gave him something obnoxious to his view. So, I remembered the Stuffed Zucchinis and I asked my sister to bring the cheese, they always buy it (he's Italian) so, that wouldn't be a problem at all. I asked if he ate zucchinis and she said yes, and she also remembered when I made them for her when we lived together, and added chicken breast to make them more appealing. Done! The meal was approved and we were set and ready to go.

The making of this dish is quite simple: wash and cut the zucchinis in half, length-wise, and blanch them in boiling water for 4 minutes then rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then, with a spoon, scrape the heart of the zucchini and set it aside because that's part of the filling. Chop onions, tomatoes, garlic, and zucchini pulp, and chicken breast. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and add the onion and the garlic, then the chicken breast, and cook until golden brown, later add the tomatoes and the zucchini pulp and season to taste. Cook until the liquid is almost gone. Then, stuff the zucchinis with this filling and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of each zucchini boat.

That's it! Bake them until the cheese is golden brown, bubbly and delicious, for whatever time your oven takes to do that and serve while hot.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures but rest assured that they tasted GOOD! They also brought Italian Bread from Caracas and later he was complaining because one, I intended to starve him because I gave him only 4 boats, (if it were up to him, he would have eaten the whole tray), and two, that we wouldn't allow him to eat the crust of the bread because it was too hard for his teeth. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the meal and asked me to teach my sister to cook, which she didn't think was funny (she is pretty decent in the kitchen).

In the end, one doesn't have to eat bad or eat boring just because you're on a diet. There are plenty of recipes out there that are delicious and nutritious at the same time, and if you don't find anything that you think is appealing, take what you know you can eat and experiment, maybe a hearty meal can come of that, if not, a funny anecdote isn't bad for the soul either.

This recipe was also shared in Hive.Blog a few months ago but as a tutorial, not as a story, but I'll leave the link so you can see for yourselves. That one is 100% original, just as this one, only shared from a different point of view. 

Thank's to my wounderfull sponsors and to all of you beautiful people!

✨✨Blessings✨✨

@rebeysa85