Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Getting "Veggie" in the Kitchen

My apologies for the delay in getting a new posting up.  To be honest, I haven’t really had much on my mind to write about, and I have been too exhausted to sit in front of the computer to type an article.  We’ve had nine mostly sleepless nights in a row now, due to Lydia having really bad gas that’s been keeping us both up.  We can’t seem to figure out what’s causing it, despite alleviating possible culprits from my diet (including my vitamins), which is what sucks the worst.  It’s awful having to watch my little one suffer…
Anyhoo…  I believe I have mentioned in passing that James and I recently got our “numbers” checked, and said that, unfortunately, his numbers were terrible.  High blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, BMI, etc.  (And though my BMI was too high, the diagnostic people failed to take into account that I just had a baby four months prior.)  That got us thinking that we needed to do something pretty drastic with our lifestyle, changing the way we view exercise and eating. 
We watched three documentaries that got us thinking about our food intake, and how we can choose life or death when we choose what to eat.  We have decided to cut out almost all of the meats we were eating (though I am still eating more than he is b/c of nursing), to eat more fruits and veggies (especially raw), cut way back on sugars, and avoid processed foods in general.  With the kitchen as mostly my domain, this felt like a daunting task, but I knew I was up to it. 
I grabbed a couple cookbooks from my mom, got a couple ideas from my imagination, from the internet, and from picking James’ brain, and we went to the Farmer’s Market and the grocery store.  It was a fun afternoon!  We decided that our health was definitely more important than keeping strictly to our budget, and just had a good time.  We enjoyed picking out our favorite kinds of produce together, and buying several that we’d never experienced before (i.e. leeks).  We grabbed everything from potatoes to Portobellos to eggplant, bananas to pineapple to Muscadine grapes, heck, we even picked a peck of apples! 
I have had such a good time getting creative in the kitchen.  Cooking (mostly) vegetarian is actually quite the adventure.  I have had difficulties in the past with getting stuck in a rut with what I cook, and I feel like now that I have the freedom to get gourmet, I can really get crazy and discover a new talent and passion. 
Here are some of the dishes I have been making, please let me know if you’d like a recipe!
Ratatouille a la Stevie with Spaghetti Squash
Pinto Beans and Rice (simple, I know, but I’d never made beans before!)
Roasted Portobello and Red Pepper Sandwiches with Cayenne Aioli
Stuffed Bell Peppers (made with yellow rice, Portobello mushrooms, onion, and yellow bell pepper)
Creamy Potato and Kale Soup (Vegan, and one of my FAVES so far)
Chicken Noodle Soup (though it was not vegetarian, it was DELICIOUS, and approved of by both James and Brittany!)
I recommend watching Food, Inc. to anyone with Netflix.  It will change the way you view the foods you see at the grocery store.  It will cause you to be curious about where your food comes from, and it may even make you mad.  That said, I’m sure that I will have turned you away from watching it. 
It’s been an adventure for sure, this lifestyle change, be we feel better physically and mentally, knowing we are investing in our health.

1 comment:

MotherOfPearl said...

Tonight I made Veggie Fajitas with Home Made Tortillas!!