My client Laura wanted me to share her testimony:
“Before I met Maria, I felt lost when it came to food! I had read so many conflicting reports the only foods I felt “safe” eating were fruits and vegetables! I was ALWAYS hungry within the hour of eating, so I was ALWAYS eating! I would “crash” quickly and feel distracted and nervous until I could eat my next “meal.” I allowed myself to eat only a few nuts and/or nut butter, a teeny tiny amount of cheese and a few bites of meat (I was terrified of all of the warnings of high fat and calories of these foods). FOOD WAS A MAJOR STRESS IN MY LIFE!!! After learning the facts about nutrition from Maria, my life has changed dramatically!!!!
I am so calm and happy!
I LOVE food and eating and preparing my food!
I always feel so satisfied and satiated after eating. I have no trouble going hours without food! (I never dreamed that to be a possibility)
I LOVE my body! I feel so good about myself and feel so healthy!
My periods are finally healthy and normal (a big change!).
My hair and nails grow so quickly! My hair also feels thicker.
My grocery bill has decreased dramatically! I used to spend $150.00 a week buying organic fruits and vegetables (several bags to sustain me throughout the week! I was eating sometimes 4 or 5 bananas a day!). Now I don’t even need to go to the store! I’ve estimated an annual savings of at least $2,000 possibly more!
I am so happy not having to go to the store every week! It is so much less stressful!
My favorite preparation of meat is the crock-pot…cannot get any easier than that!!!”
My triglycerides are 14!”
To get started on your transformation, click HERE. http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/my-services/
1 eggplant
Celtic sea salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
SWERVE or Stevia glycerite to taste
butter/coconut oil
cinnamon (optional)
Peel eggplant and cut into slices. Sprinkle a small amount of salt on the eggplant. Turn eggplant pieces over and sprinkle a small amount on the other side. Let eggplant rest for two minutes. Mix eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and stevia in a bowl. Melt butter in frying pan on medium heat.
Put your eggplant in egg mixture and poke holes into it with a knife or fork. This allows the mixture to permeate the eggplant. Cook “french toast” until golden brown. Then flip and do the same on the other side. Top with my homemade syrup. Enjoy! Makes 2 servings.
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving):
Using White Bread = 229 calories, 6.1g fat, 10g protein, 31g carbs, 1.4g fiber (29.6g effective carbs)
Using EGGPLANT = 125 calories, 5g fat, 7.8g protein, 13.7g carbs, 7.8g fiber (5.9g effective carbs)
I love getting ideas like this…can’t wait to try it on my picky husband. You should have seen his face when I made him put a ground turkey burger on the grill but I spiced it up added egg and oatmeal and swiss cheese in the middle along with Trader Joes rye sprout bread and he ate it!! Miracles do happen:)
I love that you are making your family healthier. Just a heads up…I recommend real beef (grass-fed) if possible. It has l-carnitine, CoQ10, iron, and a lot more nutrients (even though Biggest Loser doesn’t tell you that!). If you want to “lighten” a burger up, try chopping button mushrooms into tiny pieces and mixing that in with the burger and egg…you will never taste it and it cuts the calories in half!
Brilliant advice. It’s the evil bread/bun/wheat that is unhealthy but people are stuck in the 90’s and can’t get that through their head.
That looks so yummy! I can’t wait to try it! 🙂
DELISH! Just tried the “new n improved” french toast! Yummy! I had mini eggplant and I cut it quite thin! I will add more cinnamon next time!! SOOO FILLING!
we LOVE small chopped mushrooms in our burgers- YUM!! But why do you suggest real beef vs. turkey?
Iron is necessary to make hemoglobin, the substance that carries oxygen through your blood to all the cells in your body. Hemoglobin is what makes red blood cells red. With insufficient iron, and therefore not enough hemoglobin, red blood cells become small and pale and don’t carry enough oxygen. You may have heard the phrase “tired blood.” This really means blood that is low in iron and that can’t carry enough oxygen to vital organs and muscles. “Tired blood” results in a tired body. I often see clients that I would consider “workout warriors,” but they never lose a stitch of weight. When we do a ferritin level test, they are often low in iron. This is problem-some because to lose fat you must get the oxygen you inhale into the mitochondria of your cells where you burn fat.
Iron is needed not only for blood, but also for brains. Neurotransmitters, the neurochemicals that carry messages from one nerve to another, require sufficient iron to function properly. A person with an iron deficiency may have a tired mind as well as a tired body.
To be fair, it really depends on what the beef AND the turkey have been fed. In order to compare apples to apples, the nutritional value of extra lean ground beef (not more than four percent fat) and extra lean turkey meat is very close. While there are certainly differences between the two, it may shock some to see that the turkey burger and the hamburger only vary slightly across the board.
Now, let’s check out grass-fed beef. It is much higher in vitamin E, and very rich in essential fatty acids like omega-3s and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA also helps convert fat to lean muscle mass. When taken in effective doses, CLA decreases body fat, especially in the area of the abdomen. Various studies prove the following additional benefits:
1. It can increase the rate of metabolism and is evidently very beneficial for thyroid patients.
2. People suffering from high cholesterol level and triglycerides can use this to lower levels at a faster rate.
3. It can also increase the growth of muscles which we now know stimulates our metabolism.
4. Many people suffer from the serious issue of insulin resistance in which CLA can be used to lower this resistance and therefore assist in controlling weight.
5. It can decrease Adrenal imbalances, which decreases abdominal fat stores.
6. It can help calm hormonal shifts; an area of concern to thyroid patients.
7. CLA has a very positive effect on our body by enhancing our immune system.
Many athletes and clients that want to lose weight spend loads of money on supplements containing CLA, but if they would just spend the extra money on quality beef, they could skip the supplements. If you are interested in more information on CLA, check out the supplements chapter in Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism.
Let’s go back to turkey…it doesn’t have CLA…it does have arsenic though. Since the 1960s, large-scale poultry producers have added arsenic to their poultry feed. Small amounts speed the growth of the birds, make their breast meat pinker, and kill certain bacteria. Chronic exposure to high levels of arsenic has been linked with cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a decline in brain function. But as long as poultry meat has fewer than 0.5 parts of arsenic per million, the USDA has declared that it is safe to eat.
That was set in the 1950s, and is way out of date. Within the past few years, studies show that arsenic is a more potent cancer promoter than first believed. It has to do with its effect on blood vessels. The reason that arsenic makes white meat pinker is that it increases the growth of blood vessels in the meat. The more blood, the pinker the meat. That process is called “angiogenesis.” It plays a major role in cancer promotion. Cancer cells can’t speed up their growth without the creation of new blood vessels to fuel them with nutrients. Arsenic does the trick. The European Union banned the use of arsenic in poultry production in 1999. So with that said… I’m sticking to my grass fed beef! It tastes WAY better anyway.
While I also agree that beef is way tastier then chicken/turkey here is an update on the arsenic in poultry rations:
3-Nitro is an arsenic-based animal drug. It was approved to help prevent coccidiosis when used in combination with certain animal drugs. Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease that infects the intestinal tracts in poultry and can lead to death in poultry. 3-Nitro was also approved for weight gain, feed efficiency and improved pigmentation in chickens.
Arsenic is in the environment as a naturally occurring substance or as a contaminant and is found in water, air, soil, and food. Published scientific reports have indicated that organic arsenic, a less toxic form of arsenic and the form present in 3-Nitro® (roxarsone), an approved animal drug, could transform into inorganic arsenic. In response, scientists from the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition developed an analytical method capable of detecting very low levels of inorganic arsenic in edible tissue.
Using the new method, FDA scientists found that the levels of inorganic arsenic in the livers of chickens treated with 3-Nitro® were increased relative to levels in the livers of the untreated control chickens.
Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc., decided to voluntarily suspend sale of 3-Nitro® and to facilitate an orderly process for suspending use of the product in the United States. Alpharma’s plan provides for continued sales of 3-Nitro® for 30 days from June 8, 2011. The company stated that allowing sales for this period will provide time for animal producers to transition to other treatment strategies and will help ensure that animal health and welfare needs are met. FDA officials stress that the levels of inorganic arsenic detected were very low and that continuing to eat chicken as 3-Nitro® is suspended from the market does not pose a health risk.
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ProductSafetyInformation/ucm257540.htm
With the withdrawal of 3-Nitro from the market arsenic is no longer included in poultry rations for chickens, turkeys, etc.
Thanks for the update. 🙂
Glycerite? Really? And why Celtic sea salt?
Yep, the glycerite form isn’t bitter. Celtic sea salt is a mineralized sea salt… Most brands are over processed and stripped of the minerals and iodine.
Happy eating!
Love this! Maria is right on AGAIN!!! 🙂
Thanks Vivian! You are very sweet!;)
The first time I made it my husband and I liked it so much that I went right out to buy another eggplant so we could have it the next day too! ♥ it!
Thanks Erin!
You totally made my day!!!
When I saw this I thought “what the heck, I will try it” , which is a shocker to my husband because I hate hate eggplant!! lol…. well…. I LOVE IT cooked like this!!! so so so good…. Thanks so much…..
Thanks! Glad you liked it. If you want another shocker with eggplant, try the bread pudding or beefaroni!
Hi Maria,
Being a cook myself I know how I love to hear
reports on my recipes. Your eggplant ‘French Toast’
was the menu this morning. My eggplants are bursting
at the seams and breakfast was looming so we went out
and cut some. Made the recipe, fried them in butter/
coconut oil. Increased just a bit on the cinnamon
and vanilla. Hubs loved it and ate 6 slices with his
two eggs, and Canadian bacon. Then I fried up the
rest and gave it to my taste testers next door.
They came over and gave me some good advice.
They loved the thin ones, not so much the thick.
Seems thick meant ‘veggie’ whereas thin was yummy
and non veggie tasting. Jay sez, make them anytime
and buy eggplant when ours poop out.
Love and hugs,
Barb
Thanks!
Im def going to try this french toast! Could this be made as “eggplant parmasean” also…W/cheese & tomato sauce? (low carb?) My mom mentioned my gramma made it this way…
Yes, just make eggplant parmesan with no sugar tomato sauce in some zucchini noodles. 🙂
Wow! I would never have thought of this. I am so happy to have found your blog through a link on Facebook. Eggplant is so numerous in the farmers markets now, but it’s not a big hit with my kids. I really think this will be! I can’t wait to try it. I’m off to read more of your wisdom. :P)
Thanks! 🙂
I finally tried this recipe this morning. I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not the best cook and am just learning, but I was even able to make it so that my husband loved it! Thanks for making me look good this morning. 🙂
I do love your blog! It’s helped me to continue on the low-carb lifestyle. Without it, I would have gotten bored and quit. With the variety of foods you can have, it really does help. Plus… I am feeling so much better! Thanks a million!
Yay! Glad you liked it. Thank you! 🙂
Made this this morning for the first time! LOVED IT! And, if I can make it, anyone can make it. It was so easy and quick. Thanks!
Thanks! 🙂
I made a couple slices this morning – GREAT substitute for bread in this application !!! I sliced mine pretty thin – the texture reminded me of my old french toast casserole where I add super thin slices of apple. Kind of that cooked apple – soft bready texture. I did not add sweetner to the egg mixture – but I did use a sugar free syrup over the finished product. I am thinking about mixing a littel almond flour into the batter to make it a bit thicker – Thanks Maria for your wonderful recipes, tips and encourgement!!!!
Thank you! 🙂
Wow. Five years ago, I would have thought someone was crazy to make something like this, never mind getting me to eat it. Since learning about “today’s” food and what it does to the body though, I am now thinking differently. These were delicious, simply put. 🙂 I even gave some to my Dad, who is a diabetic, and he didn’t even bat an eyelash. Cleared his whole plate…..which is a miracle, since he has become leery of my cooking…lol….
Thank you again 🙂
Thank you!
Just made them and ate them for lunch with a bit of grassfed butter (melts so nicely I love that). These were simply amazing !! I love eggplant but it never occurred to me you can use them in a sweet dish. They were soooooo good, gonna go and get me some more eggplant so I can eat it again tomorrow.
Thank you thank you thank you for this awesome recipe !
Thanks!
I love this idea! Can’t wait to try it out. What a neat way to think outside of the box.
Thanks!
I have read where once you cut an eggplant you need to use it because it goes bad quickly once it has been cut. So keeping that it mind, if I make French Toast out of the entire eggplant, does it reheat ok? If so, what is the best way to reheat it?
It should reheat ok. I would out in a pan with some oil to crisp back up. 🙂
Ok, was having a hard time getting my brain around this idea. But after reading the comments I’m going to give it a try.
Maria,
I need to make this!
When you say ONE eggplant – how many grams in total is that (peel and stem and all – before peeling and cutting)? ((There’s such a variety in sizes.))
Also – after sprinkling the eggplant with salt and leaving it, shouldn’t we rinse it off to get the salt off?
Thanks so much for such an innovative idea.
You’re a keto wizard, girl <3
I would say one medium sized (about 1 1/2 pounds). Yes, leave the salt on. 🙂
made this tonight and it was a hit! So yummy! Will be making again soon for sure. Question though- how did you get yours to look like actual slices of bread in your photo?? Mine just look like circles after slicing the eggplant.
I just carved them into rectangles for the photo. Thanks! 🙂
Maria— these are SICK GOOD!!! :-))….I made them yesterday and first off, they look exactly like the real thing so very appetizing but the texture & taste are also fantastic; btw, we didn’t feel the need to add any “syrup” as the addition of cinnamon as well as the swerve (I just dropped in a couple of pinch) was completely sufficient.
BTW, the serving size is for 3 slices of eggplant of +/- an inch thick each? I want to make sure I have my macro right. Thanks! M.J.
Thanks! That serving size sounds about right. 🙂
UNREAL. I couldn’t even wait til I was done my plate to tell you that these are amazing.
Either I’ve completely forgotten what bread tastes like…or this is the best (eggplant) french toast that I have ever had. It is truly, truly reminiscent of the real thing. SOOOOO GOOD. Thank you 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
Hmmm, tried this today. It was tasty, but not equivalent to french toast…wrong texture and I could still tell there were seeds in it. Definitely tasty though!
Sorry:(.
We thought this was really good. My husband who does not each in this manner was unsure when I served it. But much to his surprise, he did like it and said I could definitely fix it for him again!!! 😀
Awesome!!!!
Thanks for writing!
I tried keto for six months while tracking macros etc and I had all the opposite…my hair falling out in fistfuls, triglycerides jumped to 146, A1C was 5.5 despite no grain, sugar, fruit, juice, soda etc, and my periods have been non-existent now for over a year. My bloating and acne went away, I was full and my energy was up but everything else went poorly. I was pretty discouraged. Now eating just low carb and still not in balance. 😒😞
Most clients are doing Keto wrong. I suggest dairy and nut free. Certain supplements can also help 😉