Whole Roasted Squash With Tomato-Ginger Chickpeas & Za ’atar

I read myself the riot act about 6 months ago, when my cholesterol level reached a new high. My doctor seemed nonplussed, perhaps because my cardiac calcium score was a perfect zero. But I was not happy. Yes, I had lost weight and was exercising, but to be honest, my heart belonged to cheese. And eggs. And ice cream. Something had to change. Breakfast was easy. The whole eggs (which I had been eating almost daily) were replaced by Starbucks Sous Vide Egg whites or oatmeal served with a side of chicken sausage. Lunches were yogurt or soup or vegan bean burritos or salad or tuna or peanut butter. I started snacking on nuts and fruits and avocado. But dinner remained a challenge for some time, as it’s the one meal my husband and I always eat (and often cook) together, and he loves meat. Though we often cooked chicken, we were definitely eating more red meat than recommended, not enough fish and almost never an entire veggie meal. He loves salmon, so we added that more frequently into the rotation. But It was hard to convince him to forgo the red meat. Until his cholesterol returned elevated – though not as high as mine. We decided it was time to tackle dinner together. We dropped red meat from the menu, except for the occasional grass fed beef and lamb or top rib in a cabbage soup, upped the fish to several times a week, and started rotating in some vegetarian dinners. I’m proud to report that, with just these changes, my total cholesterol dropp...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Vegetables Butternut Squash Chickpeas vegetarian za'atar Source Type: blogs