Healthy | - Part 2

Hey Everybody!

Today’s recipe is one for delectable baked zucchini fries. I unfortunately consider myself to be pretty picky so finding a way to get my vegetables in can be really hard. I have been working hard to find recipes that I love so that I eat all the servings I should be without gagging them down.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, which is my favorite place to find new ideas.

This recipe comes from budgetbytes.com:

Ingredients

1 lb. Zucchini Squash

1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

1/8 tsp. Salt

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese (Fresh or Grated)

1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning Blend (I used Olive Garden actual dressing)

1 Large Egg

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse and dry the zucchini. Cut the ends off and then cut each one into strips, approximately 1/3 inch thick.
Place the zucchini strips in a large zip lock bag and add the flour and salt. Shake the bag to coat the zucchini in flour. In a wide, shallow bowl combine the panko bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine. In a second, wide, shallow bowl, whisk a raw egg with about 1 Tbsp of water until fairly smooth.
Cover a baking sheet with foil and then place two wire cooling racks over top. One by one, take the flour coated zucchini strips and dip them in the egg and then the seasoned bread crumb mixture. Place the breaded zucchini on the wire cooling racks. The wire racks keep the zucchini up off of the baking sheet and allows hot air to circulate underneath, which will prevent soggy bottoms. Also make sure there is a small amount of space between each strip to allow circulation.
Once all of the zucchini strips are breaded, bake them for approximately 15 minutes or until they are a medium golden brown color. Cooking time will vary with the thickness of your zucchini strips, so keep a close eye. I personally cooked mine for 25 minutes as I like mine pretty crispy.

If you want to visit the original site go to:

https://www.budgetbytes.com/baked-zucchini-fries/

They even have a printable version of the recipe! This site has a ton of great recipes, I’m sure I’ll be sharing more of them with you guys in the future.

Let me know what you think about this recipe in the comments below. If you love this please subscribe as well!

[email-subscribers-form id=”1″]

Hey Everybody!

Today I am focusing on the importance of getting outside! Since summer is only beginning, I thought that this would be the perfect time. I am located in Utah and there are so many fun activities to do outside during the summer. Some of them including: hiking, biking, swimming, longboarding, wakesurfing, etc. Being outside has proven to be very good for your health and has many benefits. Some of these benefits include: relieves stress, calms the mind, increases happiness, and leads to a healthier lifestyle. These may seem to be farfetched but let’s look into each of these benefits individually.

Relieves Stress

Getting outside can help you to naturally relieve stress. Being inside with constant stimulation is not good for us. Even getting outside for a few minutes can make the world of difference. I like to go outside and take a quick walk when I am starting to feel overwhelmed or stressed out. I take a few deep breaths of fresh air and I can literally feel it calming me down each breath.

Calms the Mind

There have been studies in which children with ADHD play inside and outside. The children who got to play outside showed significantly less symptoms of ADHD than those who played inside, for the exact same amount of time. Being able to focus on something other than you or your current task at hand really helps to calm the mind. I actually suffer from ADHD so I found these studies to be very interesting and I can see the results from doing this in my own life.

Increases Happiness

Light tends to increase mood, according to Harvard Medical School. You will more than likely have a higher exposure to light when you are outside rather than inside. The physical activity you are doing to get outside will also release endorphins which will naturally make you feel happier as well.

Leads to a Healthier Lifestyle

Being outside will raise your Vitamin D levels. This is a vitamin that will help your body to fight off things like heart disease, osteoporosis and even depression! Being outside can also increase your immunity. We need to be exposed to things in order to build an immunity and by being outside we are exposing ourselves to new things everywhere. Being exposed to light can also help you to have a better sleep schedule because we have an internal rhythm and it helps to keep you in sync. The exercise from being outside helps to keep you healthier as well.

There are so many benefits to getting outside and I have barely touched on them. I feel so much better when I get outside. I am sure you will too. Get outside today!!

If you loved today’s post don’t forget to subscribe or leave a comment below. I appreciate all of the support you guys show me.