After a early morning run with my sister Bethanie, I walked into the Whole Foods Grocery Store we were parked at and decided to try some more samples of their ready-made deli items. You know, the fresh variety of salads, pastas and fruits. Except at this store it was filled with several quinoa salads, grains, and tasty alternatives to what you find in a conventional grocery store. This is now one of my favorite passtimes as I ask for a half dozen samples and order small quanties of the ones I love so I can take them home and try to duplicate the flavors. I leisurely walked over to the bulk food section and started to browse the selection. I am always in search of the latest organic grain, bean or rice that will create a base for my new vegetarian dishes. I was delighted to find that they had fava beans and farro (a type of wheat berry that is very hard to find). Even better, it was only $2.10/lb compared to another health food store by my house that had it for $8/pound. The price made me skim over the other prices of the bulk items and I realized how cheap these organic bulk items were; mostly less than 1.50/lb. When you consider that a pound of most of these items will make several large dishes the price seems even that much better. It's a funny thing how we assume eating healthy costs more. But when you REALLY look at your options and truly make things from scratch, that isn't the case at all. My grocery bill has already gone down quite a bit in the last few weeks. Eating healthy has resulted in us eating less. When you eat right, you're not as hungry and you eat less overall. A tradtional household is used to buying pre-made items such as bags of chips, snacks and boxed dishes which is very costly. Once you cut out all these pre-made items, eating healthy is eating cheaper, even when you choose organic. I used to argue that I just didn't have time to cook every meal. But switching to a vegetarian diet has resulted in my cooking habits completely getting an overhaul. Instead of cooking small time consuming meals often (2-3 times a day), I find myself cooking every other day and making 2 or 3 easy dishes at the same time. Imagine that deli I just walked through at Whole Foods... you make a few of those dishes in an evening then you pop them in the refrigerator. Viola, you have meals for the whole family for 2-3 days. Done. REALLY. Yes, I realize its not the traditional way where you make a meal, you gather everyone, you eat, you clean, you sleep (cuz the food was so heavy). But the way my cooking habits have changed actually give me WAY more time, make me feel better after I eat it and we still eat as a family. Many of the meals such as Vegetable Quinoa, Greek Farro Salad and Mushroom and Leak soup really are one-dish wonders. At what point did we turn into a society where we have to have our plates filled with 3 or 4 different items? Perhaps it was to get our meat, starch and veggie all in one meal. But cooking one-dish vegetarian style DOES get all that (sans the meat) into a meal. Starches such as Quinoa are a complete protien and replaces meat nicely.
Cooking this way has also brought me a lot of joy. The most profound revelation I have had is cooking with meat often results in limited boring choices. We try to think of which of the 3 meat groups we will make for a meal; beef, chicken or fish. We throw some seasoning on it, cut up a veggie or make a salad and add a side of rice or bean all of which usually take a good amount of prep and time (and cleanup). However, when you take the meat out of the equation, instead of choosing to build everything around 1 of 3 things, you now have hundreds of possibilites as you look at all the fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains you can work with. The flavor and taste of each individual vegetable, fruit, herb and spice is suddenly its own exciting item waiting to be enhanced with just a few simple other natural foods. I have so many recipes I want to try that I often can't figure out which one to do next. It's an amazing feeling and I can't believe how meat tied me down to such a small amount of choices. Okay, okay, before you roll your eyes, I have to assure you I am not one of those snobby meat-hating vegetarians that turns their nose up at people as they chow down on their steak. I am simply expressing how much fun changing my diet has been. I loved to cook before, but now I love it so much that I often find myself daydreaming about what new food I will try next.
Even greater joy has come from how much my family has supported my choice to go vegetarian until November 8th. Both my husband and 11-year old son have been happily eating the vegetarian dishes. My husband even announced that he never was a huge meat-eater. On another evening, after a day of new recipes and no meat, I mentioned to my 11-year old son how happy I was he was eating my food. Telling him I knew it wasn't as delicious as some of the things I use to make laden with fat and meat. To my surprise he said, "Actually Mom, I think the food you're making is better than the food at McDonald's and other fast food we buy a lot." To my excitement he was full of ideas for recipes; veggie burgers made to look like a chicken nugget, sweet potatoe fries, homemade healthy ice cream. Then he said he saw some aloe Vera juice you can drink at the store... he wants to try it!
The thing I am really amazed about most is that the healthy way of eating is changing so may other seemingly small but profound things in my life from my mood, health (even my skin looks better tonight as I peered in the mirror with a naked face), my conversations with my family (Bridon talking about how'd he be able to turn our master bath into a house and where he'd put the kitchen, laundry and bed in a confined space--talk about his perspective simplifying!). I used to associate vegetarians as being a more earth friendly, hippie-like type of person. But now I realize why we stereotype them. Changing your eating to vegetarian-based forces you to become keenly aware of natural foods, the health benefits and how this amazing earth provides us with such an abundance and variety of delicious foods. This overflows into your other daily decisions and how they affect your surroundings. I am really excited to discover how eating this way changes other things I do. I will be sure to share in the upcoming weeks.
With my commitment to eat a vegetarian based diet to Nov 8th in support of my sister Kailee Rainey who is undergoing a juice fast until the same date, my refrigerator has undergone quite the transformation. Slowly, all the meat based products made their way out of the refrigerator. When I opened it today I realized the transformation was complete. It is now fully stocked on almost EVERY shelf with fresh fruits, veggies and herbs. Stacked in the drawers are kale, cabbage and collard greens. Grapefruit, mango, oranges and apples take up another drawer. Packed into bags are fresh cilantro, parsley, green onions and peppers. Freshly made Green Curry Mushroom Soup and Vegetable Quinoa sit packed in containers ready to eat tomorrow. It feels SO GREAT to eat this way and my refrigerator looks so much better than the old one packed with processed ready-made foods, take-out left overs and old veggies that were going bad, never to be used. Follow our journey as we blog with our progress: http://mylastfatsummer.blogspo
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