Veg Heads

A few months ago we stopped cooking meat at home. Well, first we tried to cook according to a vegan diet, but that felt so restrictive it was frustrating. We ended up deciding to cook vegetarian meals, use a little cheese in recipes sometimes, and continue in our use of almond milk in place of cow's milk. The goal was to get rid of most of the cholesterol rich foods we had been eating all the time (in addition to the hormones and chemicals in those foods), learn new things to cook that centered around vegetables, and thereby improve our health (and hopefully lose a few pounds in the process!!). We're not vegetarians since we may order meat when we go out to eat sometimes, we allow the kids to eat meat several times a week (and yogurt regularly), and if meat is served to us at someone's home we won't turn it away. I think the technical word for that is a flexitarian, ha!! Limiting the meat and dairy at home, though, gets the amount of cholesterol-containing foods we eat down to a much healthier level and also helps me control my weight easier than other options. We do feel better eating this way and hope that our kids will grow up loving to eat a diverse array of healthy foods and enjoy trying new things. All that being said, there are many ways for people to get all of their nutrients, this is just what we've chosen for now.  

 

Pictures of some lunch and dinner food we've enjoyed....

Hummus on bread with tomatoes and cucumber, mandarin oranges, and a carrot and raisin salad.

 

This a vegan lasagna that we tried. It had LOTS of veggies in it and crushed cashews on top.

 

Yamadillas- quesadillas filled with sweet potatoes, black beans, and some green chile salsa.

 

I've eaten a lot of the plate on the left... tortillas with a bit of hummus, topped with a mixture of tomatoes, cucumber, corn, and black beans, then topped with salsa. The salad has a strawberry vinaigrette I made that was yummy.

 

Spinach, feta, olive, and cucumber salad, and sautéed zucchini!

 

My first ever batch of fried green tomatoes!! They were SO good! (And only the second time in my life I've ever eaten them...) We served them over a salad of greens, radishes, and black eye peas. With a little Ranch dressing, of course.

 

We've enjoyed lots of different dishes like sweet and sour cabbage rolls, eggplant parm, spinach and mushroom quesadillas, different types of stuffed peppers, a butternut squash tort, chipotle bean enchiladas, homemade marinara sauce and pasta, all sorts of salads with various toppings, and that good ole standard: the vegetable plate! The recipes have mainly come from a Better Homes and Gardens vegetarian cookbook that I got from a friend several years ago.

 

My recent trips have given me a nice break from cooking and washing the dishes and a few servings of meat, but now I'm ready to continue cooking like we have been! Here's to praying that my physical in September will reveal drastically improved cholesterol and an overall healthier woman ready to accomplish all that God has in store!