Zesty Italian Vegan Bratwurst

Okay, the title of today's lunch might not sound like the healthiest thing in the world, but luckily, it's really not that bad. The Brat itself, is fairly low in calories & fat since it's vegan, plus I really tried to make up for splurging a little bit with the rest of the lunchbox and squeezed in as many raw fruits & vegetables as I could. Brats were something that I really enjoyed back when I used to eat meat. We used to eat them at the lake all of the time, covered with grilled onions and peppers. YUM! But gosh those things were unhealthy. Fortunately, this one's not so bad. But it tastes just as good!

Yve's Zesty Italian Brats are delicious. I would put a link to the product page at their website, but none exists. For some reason, this product is not listed on their website yet. Maybe it's brand new? First of all, they are HUGE and they've only got 150 calories and 5g of fat, ALL of which is monounsaturated & polyunsaturated. And second of all they taste really good. I would like to use them at some point in the future to try and recreate a delicious, and terribly unhealthy, hot dog creation that I ate once at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in Key West back when I was an omnivore. It was the best hot dog I have ever had in my life, and one of the reasons was because the frank that was on it was a lot like this veggie brat. Guess I'll add that to my ever growing list of things to try. These brats would also be super delicious sliced up in some Sauerkraut. I'll probably get around to that before I try recreating that Margaritaville hot dog.

All I did to prepare my Yve's Zesty Italian Brat was heat it up in a skillet, then grill some Onion and Bell Peppers and then pile the whole mess on a Light Hot Dog Bun. I've been careful to make sure that what bread I do eat lately is the lower calorie version since I'm trying to drop some pounds. These hot dog buns are only 60 calories, so they're not too bad.

Instead of bringing chips or fries, or anything else that you might usually bring along with a Brat or a Hot Dog, I just brought along a bunch of raw vegetables. I've got some Celery, some Cherry Tomatoes (or actually, these may be the Grape kind, I'm not sure) and a bunch of those Sugar Snap Peas that were on sale this week at the local grocer. For dessert, I've got a Banana Cookie Larabar which, if I'm not mistaken, contains a whole banana. Of course, it's completely raw, and completely yummy. Overall, I figure I've got just a little over 400 calories in this lunch. Not too bad.

I actually thought this was an unusual amount of vegetables at first, and figured that I wouldn't be able to eat them all in one sitting. I originally planned on maybe eating the Brat and Larabar for lunch and then snacking on the veggies throughout the rest of the day. Well, much to my surprise, when I sat down to eat lunch, I was so hungry, and the raw vegetables were so delicious, that I basically inhaled the entire lunchbox of food. I ate every single bite, and I am stuffed. Luckily, we did our lunchtime walk BEFORE we ate today. Otherwise, I might find it difficult to get up and get motivated after eating that much food. At least it was healthy though. ;o)

So I guess that does it for Wednesday's lunch.

Thanks for coming by and I'll see you tomorrow!