An overdue post about resolutions.

The husband and I aren't the type of people who typically make New Year's Resolutions. My cynical mind says that they're just made to make ourselves feel better, and abandoned before long. So under the guise of a "lifestyle change, not a resolution" we decided to renew our commitment to health and fitness. We watched a documentary called 'Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead' (I highly recommend it!) and became aware of just how beneficial a diet high in good ol' fruits and veggies really is. With that we decided to supplement our goal of gyming it at least four days each week with a vegetarian diet five days a week. So far we're on week three and it's going really well! Better for the husband as he's lost about ten pounds and I...well, we'll just say I haven't. Regardless consuming more veggies and less meat is a trend I definitely want to keep up.

So today being Valentine's Day and with Jon having to work and study all day and all evening I knew we would be staying in tonight. I wracked my brain and scoured the Internet for something vegetarian and resembling any one of Jon's favorite meals. When I saw this recipe for 'spiriballs' (from Macheesmo) I knew I'd found a winner! Jon loves spaghetti and meatballs and, for reasons probably to be blamed on 'Lady and the Tramp', I've always thought it was a pretty romantic meal. So I trekked out to the store to gather the ingredients and made this delicious meal for our Valentine's Day dinner!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups Italian breadcrumbs (plus some extra)
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tbsp fresh oregano
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Chop the spinach and oregano and put it in a medium size bowl. Add the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses.

Stir together and add the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of breadcrumbs. Add more if you need to, but don't add too much. You want just enough to hold the mixture together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir it all together making sure the mixture stays light, but well combined.

Grease a cookie sheet, and make sure it's really greased! Mine could have used a little more cooking spray as the spiriballs stuck a little. Form a table spoon of the mixture into a ball and roll in some extra breadcrumbs so that they're crispy on the outside when they're finished (I forgot this step. Oops!). Place it on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all of the mixture has been used and drizzle a little olive oil over the tops so they get nice and golden-brown in the oven. I had about 35 spiriballs, but obviously the amount will vary depending on the size of the balls.

Pop them into the oven for 30 - 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and devour! I wasn't ambitious enough to make my owns sauce. That's probably the only thing that could have made these better!

These were so delicious, the husband gobbled them right up! They went great with whole wheat spaghetti, tomato basil sauce and garlic bread. Definitely a keeper. Spiriballs would be super easy to freeze for a quick dinner too, and I'm all about quick cooking! I hope everyone had a great, love-filled Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day dinner spread. Yummy!