Could You Be a Vegetarian?

The older I get the harder it is to keep the pounds at bay.  I feel like I'm constantly exercising but it just isn't enough any more.  About a year or two ago I finally surrendered to the fact that food choices also have to play a role in fitness, so slowly but constantly I strive to eat better/healthier.

This year, I was pondering the vegetarian life style and I realized I don't even know enough vegetarian recipes to last a week.  What would you eat for seven days?  You shouldn't just lean on breads, but as much as I love fruits that can't be all one eats......so as an experiment I signed up for the vegetarian meal plan at www.fresh20.com

At the start of each week Fresh20 emails me a grocery list of 20 fresh ingredients (they use very few canned or processed foods) for five vegetarian meals.  I spend about $20-$30 on the ingredients, but the recipes are for a family of four, so really one weeks groceries last me about two weeks. I've been using their system for a few months now (not every week, but some) and it is so much fun, I'm discovering new foods, cooking with ingredients I've always loved but never cooked with before, and I feel like I'm eatting a much more well rounded diet than I ever had before!

I've made homemade pesto sauce, stuffed mushrooms, polenta (I didn't even know what a polenta was before the fresh20)...one week I made my own black bean veggie burgers...as I said, it's so much fun!

The only down side is that these meal plans are getting created each week by the fresh20 team, so while you have variety and excitement, you also have typo's and confusing instructions from time to time....It helps that I already know how to cook, so I can say "no way, that can't be right..."  We're all human, I can forgive the typos, it just makes me sad when I make a wrong meal, because normally I would write notes in my cookbook and make the meal right the next time, but with their system I don't know if I'd remember if I see the same recipe a second time...

Another issue I had to overcome: it seems like each week one out of the five meals is a little too adventurous for me. This week it was Ginger Bok Choy and Tofu.  I'll admit I don't even know what ginger bok choy and tofu would taste like, but it just doesn't sound good. In the past, I would buy the ingredients for the meal with the intention of 'expanding my horizons', but then come up with every excuse possible to not make that meal, leaving all those precious ingredients to spoil in my fridge...I've learned it is better to stick with my first impressions, if the meal doesn't sound good, don't buy the ingredients, and don't plan on making it.

I think the Fresh 20 system was worth every penny.  It would be an awesome gift for foodie, someone going vegetarian, or someone striving to cook at home every night.  

Being Healthy(er)

Blair and I watched the documentary Unforked on netflix a few months ago, and the movie really moved me. I've always had slightly ill feelings towards vegan people, mainly because I've seen so many malnourished vegans. (Speaking of young adults). But this was a documentary that was arguing for a vegan lifestyle. Scientists talking about their strong beliefs that milk and meat are causing cancers and illnesses, and how they truly believed we should strive to live a life eating low processed whole foods.

Honestly what moved me the most was how beautiful their food looked. It really got me thinking about how difficult it is to "eat healthy." I'm pro food, I hate the idea of banning any food, so I'm never going to completely go vegan, but lets say you wanted to for one week eat only truly healthy foods. Could you do it? I don't think I know enough sin free, completely healthy recipes.

I know lots of pasta dishes, but there's the whole gluttony of starches, and I know how to cook any meat strait up, but there's the whole "how much is too much?"...so what should I be eating instead of pasta or meat?!?!

To answer this question Blair and I decided to buy the book that is tied to the movie, which has 125 recipes. We agreed to make all 125 recipes at least once no matter how scary they sound (and some of them are pretty frightening). We are marking each recipe with our rating of how much we liked it, and notes about what would make it better, or what tips would help next time we make the recipe.

Honestly, we seem to like the deserts and snacks the best, but hey, they are really good for you, and most munchies I eat are not "really good for you," so I still think it's a win. Plus it's a lot of fun cooking with all kinds of ingredients I've never used before. I'm hoping in the end I will have a couple dozen super healthy recipes that I will add to my weekly/monthly/yearly rotation.

So far our absolute favorite recipe is
Frozen Chocolate Banana Bon Bons:

(to make about 50 bon bons)
1/3 cup maple syrup (I use real maple syrup)
1/3 cup plant-based milk (I use real milk)
1/3 cup cocoa power
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 ripe bananas
2 cups of rolled oats (not the instant stuff)
and grape nuts to roll the stuff in

Puree everything except the oats and the grape nuts, stir in the oats, then scoop up a little ball of the mixture (bite sized balls) and drop it into a bowl of grape-nuts and cover on all sides (it will be pretty sloppy, covering it in grape-nuts is kind of what holds it together), then place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper…freeze the entire pan, them move them into a tubberware dish of some sort.

After they are deeply frozen, 5 minutes of thawing can help soften them a little, but they are so yummy…they fulfill chocolate cravings, as well as ice cream cravings.

Making Better Smoothies

My boyfriend and I have been on a huge smoothie kick lately.  I love them because I feel like they keep me from wanting junk food so badly, and because it’s easy to pack them full of good for you foods.  My favorite of which is chia seeds (a type of grass seed, I kid you not).

We get the chia seeds at Whole Foods, and I put about a teaspoon in each smoothie because they are a good source of fiber, calcium, protein, and they have an astounding about of omega 3’s. (On top of all that they are rumored to help with weigh loss…never a bad thing when one loves smoothies!)

The seeds are amazing. If given 15 minutes or so in a liquid they will form a jelly coating on the outside of each seed and soak in what ever flavor they are submersed in.

After weeks of chia seeds mixed into our drinks my boyfriend got bold and suggested we try adding kale and chard to our smoothies too…which made them a funny color, but you couldn’t taste the leafy greens at all.  After a while I got tired of seeing my beautifly colored smoothies twisted into a strange unnatural color so we replaced the fresh leafy greens with GreenSuperFood…this stuff is quite expensive, and it tastes/smells AWEFUL, but it’s a powder that is packed with the nutriance from a wide variety of greens such as alfalfa and wheat grass…we only add 1/8^th of a serving to each smoothie since it has such a strong taste but I feel like anything is better than nothing.

And lastly, as I’ve mentioned before, in my opinion a smoothie must be served with a straw. However, we were drinking so many smoothies that I felt like we were creating a lot of trash with our straws, so we invested in metal straws.  The only catch is that it’s best to rinse the straw immediately after you use it, so food partials don’t dry inside the straw.  But the four pack of straws that we bought came with a little wire brush for cleaning the insides, so even if we fail on the rinsing, the straw is not destroyed.

My favorite smoothie recipe:

(which is great after working out because it is packed with protein and calcium and a little sugar for a great pick-me-up)

-          8 strawberries, hulled (or 4 strawberries and half a cup of frozen blueberries)

-          ½ cup of low fat milk

-          ½ cup of greek yogurt

-          3 tablespoons of white sugar

-          2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

-          and six ice cubes

-          ¼ of a scoop of GreenSuperFood (not necessary, it’s just what we do)

Blend all ingredients together, then top with chia seeds after pouring into drinking glasses (if you put the chia seeds in your blender it will be very difficult to wash them out of the blender so I like to add them as the very last step)