Going Vegetarian

More and more of my meals are plant based these days. I think of myself as along a path toward becoming a vegetarian. There have already been several steps along the way. Over the past few years, I’ve eliminated some things completely.

• Dairy. I discovered that I felt better when I didn’t drink milk…then gradually eliminated cheese and, last of all, yogurt when they seemed to bother me. I now read the labels on salad dressings that might contain dairy products. I do still have butter occasionally (l love the flavor on baked sweet potatoes and butternut squash) and it does not seem to bother me, probably because it is mostly fat rather than lactose. It was very easy to switch to Almond Milk as my primary source for calcium.
• Pork. Ham, pork chops, and bacon - I opted to stop eating pork because of the high salt content (ham and bacon) and the commercial farm production methods for hogs. Occasionally I want the flavor of bacon with a salad….and satisfy it with the soy based ‘bacon bits.’
• Turkey. I didn’t eat it frequently anyway. Now I don’t eat it at all.

Some things I have just cut back on.

• Beef. We are eating organic beef…and eating less of it than we did a few years ago. Eventually we’ll probably cut back more to reduce our overall carbon footprint.
• Chicken. We are eating organic chicken. Like with beef we eat less. The meat component of our meals is not the ‘main dish.’
• Eggs. My husband and I eat about a dozen eggs a month. I use them in my occasional baking (yummy butternut squash custard, for example), hard boiled eggs for salads, and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

So - since what are my favorite sources of protein these days?

• Chickenless-nuggets. My grocery story has a great version of these that does not have too much breading. I like them cooked and cut up to top a salad….or to include in a stir fry.
• Veggie crumbles. These do best in recipes that are highly seasoned otherwise like a stir fry with lots of veggies and flavorful sauce.
• Dry roasted soybeans. They fit into meal preparation the same as peanuts do!
• Beans + grain.
• Quinoa.
• Mushrooms are one of my favorite stir fry ingredients.

At the rate I am going - I’ll probably be totally vegetarian within 5 years or less!

I’m eating more…..

Today I am thinking about foods that I am eating more frequently now that I was 5 years ago. Some are foods that are new to me within this time period. Some of the foods are ones that I’ve always eaten but I just each more of them now….or I buy different forms. My success in getting down to the ‘normal’ weight range for my height has a lot to do with the transformations I made in my diet. So - here is my list of the food I’m eating more this winter:

Pomegranates. The pomegranate season is something I look forward to. I eat 1/4 at a time….and managed to eat one a week for almost the entire season. But they’ve only been available from regular grocery stores in recent years. The first one I ate was on a visit to my mother; it is an easy fruit to like immediately.

Kale. Did you know that 1/4 cup of kale provides 131% of the Vitamin K daily requirement, 27% of Vitamin C, 28% of Copper and 12% of Vitamin A? It is a powerhouse leafy green. I use it in the winter time in soups and stir fries. I’d seen it in winter gardens long before I found it in the grocery and decided to try it in food. I prefer it cooked so I eat it more frequently in winter.

Mushrooms. I’ve purchased and eaten mushroom for a long time but have only recently started eating them more often. They are rich sources of Riboflavin, Niacin, and Pantothenic Acid as well as minerals like Copper and Selenium….and they contain protein too. I like them better in stir fries than I do raw….and I buy another package virtually every time I go to the grocery store.

Bell peppers. Until recently, I’ve generally eaten the green bell peppers but the packages of yellow, orange, red, and green peppers are what I have been buying recently. They all add color to stir fries - and the strips can be used to dip hummus during the summer.

Almond milk. I switched from cow’s milk to fortified almond milk a few years ago…and like it well enough to no longer need to take a calcium supplement!

Soy nuts. I like dry roast soy nuts. They are high in protein as well as good quality fats. They've replaced dry roasted peanuts almost entirely in my diet over the past year.

Quinoa. A grain that is a complete protein (i.e. includes all the essential amino acids)! And it cooks quickly too. I use it instead of rice under stir fry, in salads instead of pasta, and for breakfast instead of oatmeal or packaged cereals. It is my favorite grain. Quinoa has only recently become available in the grocery store.

Chia seeds. I tend to have a tablespoon of chia seeds with my almond milk almost every morning. It is quite a nutritional boost: Omega 3 fats, protein, and minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, selenium, and zinc. When I first tried chia seeds back in early 2012, I had to order them. Now they are available in my grocery store.

Butternut squash. For some reason, I tended to buy acorn squash if I bought winter squash at all. Then several years ago, I discovered butternut squash and now I buy it exclusively. I helps that the grocery store has packages of the squash already cut into chunks - perfect for roasting in the oven or cooking in broth to make a soup.

Plain yogurt. I used to always buy flavored yogurt….until I discovered how easy it was to make smoothies with plain yogurt and fruit. This winter I have been heating up frozen blueberries in the microwave and then putting a dollop of plain yogurt on top. Yummy….and I like the pretty purple it becomes when it is stirred into the blueberries.

Organic celery, oranges, beef, poultry, eggs. I seem to be buying more and more organic items over the past few years….but for different reasons. Celery was the first item I started buying organic after I read about it containing so many pesticides; I eat more of it during the summer than I do in the winter. I buy organic oranges because I want to make zest from the skin…where most of the pesticides would reside in the regular oranges. The organic beef was recommended by my husband’s nutritionist and tastes better too; I really don’t want the antibiotics and hormones that are part of the regular beef. The same comment about antibiotics goes for poultry and eggs as well….plus organically raised chickens are not raised entirely in a cage. I’m sure that over time I’ll be buying more organic produce - particularly when the price difference is not very significant.

What about you? Has your food consumption changed in the past 5 years?

Really Cooking

Having a home cooked meal is faster than going out for fast food - as long as the kitchen is ‘cook ready.’ I’ve been getting better at that recently with my favorite winter time meals - something warm and a complete meal in one dish.

The first type is a stir fry. I don’t generally have rice or noodles - preferring to fill up on the generally lower calorie veggies. Here’s my basic strategy to prepare a complete meal in 30 minutes or less.

Cut up veggies that need to cook the longest. Carrots, celery and bell pepper are examples. Add frozen veggies (I generally buy cauliflower and broccoli frozen since I can use it at the rate I want instead of being overwhelmed with the need to use up the amount I bought in the produce section). Begin the stir fry in a large skillet with a little olive oil. Season (I like orange zest and McCormick’s Pinch Perfect Citrus Fiesa).

While it cooks, cut up veggies that cook more quickly (like onions and mushrooms) and measure out protein (like dry roasted soybeans). Cut up broccoli and cauliflower if the pieces are too large with kitchen scissors once it has thawed. Add rest of veggies to the stir fry.

Once the onions and mushrooms have softened, add sauce (if desired). I like to use roasted garlic hummus with a quarter cup of water to coat the stir fry. It merely needs to be stirred in and heated.

And then it’s ready to eat!

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The second type of meal I like in the winter is soup. I always make a bean soup for lunch on the day I cook a pot of beans (soaked overnight and then cooked the following morning). This week I cooked a package of dried black beans.

About 20 minutes before I wanted lunch, I took out a couple of cups if bean liquidfrom the pot to start my soup in a smaller pan. I added 1/4 cup multi-grain rice (that cooks in about 15 minutes), dried onion flakes, orange peel and a bouillon cube.

While that bubbled, I cut up mushrooms, yellow pepper and carrots. The veggies went into the pot along with a cup of the cooked black beans after the rice has been cooking for about 10 minutes. Cook until the rice and veggies are cooked….and it’s a warming and filling meal!

The rest of the beans are parcelled out to containers of about 1 cup each and frozen to be the start for soups in the coming weeks!