One Family, Two Books And Baby Steps To A Healthier Us

This Christmas, my eldest gave me 2 books to read.  One was "Crazy, Sexy Diet" by Kris Carr, the other was "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.   Even though I have always considered my diet to be pretty good in general, I found these two books introduced me to some excellent ways of thinking about my food and what I was shoving into my face. I always thought plant based eating was difficult, would be limited and time consuming.  I also discovered that food was not just a way to sustain us, but it was an everyday medicine cabinet that was designed around prevention of illness and a way for those with underlying health issues to manage them with no or fewer medications.  The words within the covers of these 2 books made a lot of sense and were certainly worth trying out.

Thanks to my eldest daughter, I have been venturing into plant based meals.  Since January, some of my meals are completely vegan while others are a little meat and LOTS of veggies and grains.  Even though we are proceeding with this new way of eating in baby steps, my first BIG step was to ban bologna and wieners from my shopping cart. There will be failures and successes, especially since it's not just my taste buds I have to retrain!

Family Progress...
Green tea, juicing and veggie smoothies are a big for me.  Husband says NO to green juice but drinks my avocado/spinach smoothies; the kid says NO to green beverage so I have opted to make her fruit smoothies healthier.  I have started weaning her off the Kraft peanut butter and mixing it with the organic healthy choice.  We have more salads, better wraps in school lunches, I have been experimenting with bean spreads like roasted beet humus, and have tried "Save the Tuna Wraps" from Kris Carr (I will have to continue tweaking the recipe for my family's tastes, I have been making healthier desserts plus finding ways to incorporate plant based proteins in our traditional family favourites.  

Successes!

• Non-dairy chocolate pudding made from avocados, bananas, coconut oil and cocoa.
• Coconut pistachio and chocolate chip ice cream
• Kale, broccoli, Brussels sprout, purple cabbage salad with poppy seed dressing, cranberries and pumpkin seeds
• Red lentils hidden in the potato soup and the broccoli soup
• Green lentils hidden in my traditional shepherd's pie (half and half ground meat)
• Green lentils in my veggie stir fry
• Mushroom Chili (no meat at all)
• Lunch wraps with lots of spinach, diced red pepper and Ranch dressing with just a little cubed chicken
• Non-dairy fruit smoothies
• Using agave, honey, maple syrup and introducing evaporated sugar cane to replace white sugar

Rome wasn't built in a day.  It has only been 3 months!