A Personal Food Revolution

One Year In.

Since I last wrote quite a bit has happened. 

At this moment, I am 20 some-odd weeks pregnant with our second child (a boy!). 

We found out we were pregnant shortly after I decided I wanted to be a vegan. Being pregnant has definitely affected the way I eat. I tried at first, to eat a wide array of fruits, veggies and healthy foods. But that didn’t last long. Once you’ve thrown up broccoli, and strawberries, and nearly everything else- healthy food isn’t exactly what I would call “appetizing.” 

This baby made me crave meat. Not just any type of meat. Steak. Prime Rib. with Baked Potato. It was a craving so severe, it made my mouth pool with saliva. If I tried to resist, I would end up spitting in a cup, because I had so much spit collecting in my mouth. It was disgusting. and awful. 

I chalked this up to a possible protein or Iron deficiency. I tried to eat veggies with lots of protein and iron. It didn’t work. I would eat it, and then I would get sick. It was awful. I would be vegetarian throughout the entire week, and then one day I would eat a steak. This isn’t something that i’m proud of. But I think even though this was a moment of weakness for me, it was a bright spot because I was able to realize exactly how drastically my eating habits have changed in the year since I started this blog. 

I went from eating meat 3 meals a day 7 days a week, to feeling insanely guilty about eating meat ONCE a week. Ben and I are growing our own garden with tomatoes, squash, strawberries and chilis. We love farmers markets and try to go whenever we can. We no longer shop for “cheap” food, we shop for good food. We have both (both- BEN TOO!) decided that being vegan is our ultimate goal, and it’s the lifestyle that we want for our family. We try to be aware of all of the food we eat- What’s in it, where it came from, roughly how many pesticides does it have? 

Our whole lifestyle has changed. When we first started dating three years ago, we ate whatever our families ate, or whatever we could afford. When we moved in together, we did one large commissary shop a month. We stocked up on meat, and I would try to cook dinner every night. We would go through a good amount of canned soups and mixes. Totinos pizza’s were always essential, and we ALWAYS had ramen and easy mac in the cabinet. We loved pizza rolls and we drank milk and soda like it was running out of style. 

Here we are, one year after starting our personal food revolution. Talking about being VEGAN. We never set out for that to be our goal. Vegetarianism was never our goal. Our goal was to simply stop eating so much shit. We wanted to cook more at home, and to eat less processed foods. We just wanted to eat healthier. 

Getting healthy, and learning about food has been possibly one of the most rewarding and addictive things we’ve ever done. It has been such a process to get to this point, but it has also been so enjoyable. It’s gone by so quickly, I didn’t even realize that it had been one year since I started this until just the other day. 

We shop/cook/eat totally differently than we did when we started this. It wasn’t a fast change- but I am confident that now I could go a month without eating meat. I’m confident that I want to be vegan. No, I didn’t eat perfectly over this last year. I didn’t lose a ton of weight, and I didn’t get super fit and awesome. I feel so so good about the choices and changes we have made. Here is to hoping that this next year is as successful as the last one. 

Vegan list.

I heard somewhere that making lists is important to help you work towards a goal, so here is a short list of reasons I would like to be a vegan.

-          I do not support factory-farming. The way they process meat in the United States is disgusting and it freaks me out.

-          I get really bad anxiety and paranoia sometimes. Healthy eating helps relieve some of it.

-          I want to live to be at least 80; my family has a history of diabetes and other health problems. I don’t want that to be me.

-          I don’t want Noah to struggle with eating healthy; I want it to be engrained in her.

-          I want to take care of my heart. I can get all the healthy oils and fats I need without eating meat or dairy.

-          I want to take care of myself.

-          I want to know where my food comes from, and what’s in it.

-          I’ve always wanted to be green. In fact, at one point I was going to school for environmental science. I try to recycle, and to do my part. Being a vegan is one of the “greenest” things I can do.

What is life, without Butter?

It’s funny to me how regularly eating healthy can change your habits. Just two months ago,  my ultimate goal was to become a vegetarian. In two short months, that’s changed. I used to laugh at vegans. I used to laugh at them, and pity them, because they could never feel the warm, deep, satisfaction of diving into a bowl of Chicken Alfredo. They also could never be friends with my home girl Paula Deen. No butter? What is life, without butter? To me, vegans had a sad hipster existence.

Once I became a vegetarian, I toyed with the idea of becoming a vegan.  In fact, Ben and I got into an argument about it. Anybody who has seen Ben and I together knows that we hardly ever, ever argue.  He said “ I’m not going to be a vegan. I’ll be an 85% vegetarian, and I’ll eat at home when you cook vegetarian, but I WILL NOT be a vegan.” The very next day, he took me to Dallas, to a vegan restaurant called Spiral Diner, to show me that he was supportive of me doing it (I know, I picked a wonderful man to marry.)

While I was there, I saw a book called Eating Animals. I thumbed through it really quick, but found it moderately interesting. I thought it’d be like a “vegan support” book, so I purchased it on my nook.

Terrible Idea. I wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone. It’s so good and full of knowledge; but it’s terrible because once you read it, the way you look at your food drastically changes. I couldn’t help but be slightly revolted when I passed the meat department at the grocery store after I read this stupid, stupid book. Don’t read it unless you really want to change the way you eat.

Anyway- Let me tell you a little about my friend Mrs. Ann.

Mrs. Ann is the most southern person I have ever known. She is from North Carolina, and I’ve known her most of my life. She is one of my mom’s best friends. I have fond memories of going to her house, and her making a London Broil or going out to dinner and getting steaks with her. It was shock and awe to me, when my mom informed me that she had become a vegan.

I was lucky enough to have dinner with her the other night. I was telling her about how I’d like to be a vegan eventually, but truth be told, I have a shameful love affair with cheese and cream. The meat, I could let go. Yogurt and milk I could probably let go. Cheese and cream-never. She started telling me about what motivated her to be a vegan, and it just lined up with everything that I eventually want to be.

Anns sister, is a cardiologist. She gave Ann a book that showed your arteries after ONE typical American meal; so imagine meatloaf, maybe mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and a vegetable. Anyway, after ONE MEAL, your arteries are noticeably more clogged and laden with animal fat.  She also told Ann that Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for her as a cardiologist, because people eat so much and clog their arteries to the point that they have heart attacks. One meal does make a difference.

These are the parts of the conversation that stood out to me:

“ I’m not about the Drama of being a vegan; it’s so political. Nobody knows that my husband is a vegan. He just doesn’t tell anybody. We don’t do anything different. I still do everything I would normally do if I wasn’t a vegan. I still go out to eat with my friends. I can eat anywhere.  I make the same things everybody else makes, and I’m a lazy vegan. I have an app on my iphone that tells me what I can eat at what restaurants. On Sundays, we make waffles. We just use egg substitute and almond milk. I make enough and put them in the freezer and we eat waffles all week.  We make a lot of chili and soups. We don’t do meat substitutions. I don’t do tofu. I don’t like a lot of vegan substitutions and I don’t generally like soy.”

I just looked at her, and remembered all of the reasons I have always thought she was wonderful. Everything she said, I could relate to. I don’t like the “politics” of being a vegan, I am lazy when it comes to cooking, I like to go out to eat with people, and I don’t do soy very often cause I think it tastes weird.

 I’m not gonna argue that eating meat is bad for you- because, although I’m not a doctor or a nutrionist, I don’t believe that meats and cheese are THAT BAD. But you know what, you never heard of someone eating too many fruits, veggies and whole grains. The majority of my family is still heavily carnivorous, I’m not going to become an omnivore basher- but about 2 weeks ago I decided that if my friend Mrs. Ann can do it, so can I. and so I’m going to.

Shrimp and Pesto pasta with spinach (YUM.)

I really wish I would’ve taken a picture of dinner tonight. It looked like it belonged on a food blog.

This past week, I ate meat for the first time in a little while. It was not kind to my stomach. I decided that instead of dealing with getting  adjusted to eating meat again, I would just not eat meat anymore. My ultimate goal is to be a vegetarian. (a very lax-vegetarian, one that still eats eggs.) 

I imagine that completely becoming a vegetarian will be a bit difficult, considering I am a former meat-lover. The longest i’ve been a vegetarian is a week. I just don’t really like meat that much anymore, but tonight I wanted something a little bit “more.” 

Hence the shrimp. 

I know vegetarians don’t really eat shrimp, but Cut me some slack, I am a work in progress. 

Anyway. In one of the 500+ mason jars in my fridge, I had some homemade pesto. I’m not sure if I posted the recipe for it, but it’s super simple, and delicious. Grab a lot of basil, a few toasted pine nuts and almonds, a couple of cloves of garlic, about a quarter cup of parmesan cheese and a good bit of olive oil, and throw it all in a food processor. I recommend putting pesto on anything- Pasta, pizza, bread. It’s always delicious. 

Since the pesto was already made, all I had to do was boil some pasta, and chop up some spinach. I chose fettucine, but i’m sure any pasta would’ve worked. I boiled the pasta, and cooked my shrimp. Then I took about 3 spoonfuls of my pesto, and tossed it in the warm pasta and added the shrimp. That was pretty much it. I cooked the spinach in a pan with a little bit of garlic, and then mixed it with the pasta, topped with a little bit of parmesan. voila. Dinner was done, in about 15 minutes. 

and it was fantastic. 

P.S

I know this makes me sound like a total hipster but uh, 

I use mason jars for everything. 

Right now, in my fridge I have 3 mason jars full of homemade apple sauce, homemade tomato sauce and homemade pesto. 

and on the counter, there are like 8 mason jars holding different kinds of beans, grains and rice. 

Update

It’s (obviously) been a while. 

In a lot of ways, our food revolution is still going strong, but it’s taken a different turn. No longer cooking from the book. I love you Jamie, but it was honestly, a bit of a pain in the ass to always follow a recipe. I’m not about following recipes. Most of the time I look at recipes for inspiration, and then I just kind of go with them. I look at recipes as “guidelines.” 

New updates in regard to the food revolution

- I am NOT a vegetarian, but I’d like to consider myself more of a “flexitarian.” Until 2 days ago, I had gone a week without eating meat. Before, this was un-heard of. 

- Yesterday I took my GRE. In a moment of Panic, I ate 2 slices of bacon with breakfast. It was the first time I had eaten bacon in at least 2 months. Also until today, I haven’t eaten red meat in 3 weeks, and 3 weeks ago, I ate half of a grass-fed burger. (it was delicious.) 

-The most processed foods in our house right now are teddy grahams for noah. 

- Being a “flexitarian” I try to cook as much as possible. We cook a lot of fresh vegetables. I try to do the grocery shopping every wednesday, because wednesday is double-sale day at Sprouts. 

-I won’t say how much, because i’m still not where I wanna be, but I will say that I’ve dropped a few pounds. 

You know, when I started this, one of the misconceptions I had about clean eating was that it was going to cost an arm and a leg. But you know what, when I cut out meat and processed foods, eating healthy is pretty dirty cheap. Vegetables are super inexpensive, and if you shop smart, you can get some pretty great deals. 

The main difference is that now, I can’t shop in bulk. I go to the grocery store every week for a “big” shop, and then sometimes I still have to go pick up one or two things. On the upside, because I coupon and get other household things for dirty cheap or free, I very, very rarely have to shop at the devil walmart anymore, which I love. 

 Although I haven’t been posting ( seriously, it’s been like 4 months since I posted anything on here. I suck at blogging), this “food rev” thing has honestly been pretty awesome. To avoid running the risk of sounding like a total fucking hippy, I won’t say it was life-changing (even though it kind of was.) 

My favorite, favorite recipe.

I use this recipe probably about twice a week- I completely love it. I have to be honest though, while it was completely Jamie-inspired, I did not get the recipe from my food rev cook book. (maybe it’s in there- I dont know, i honestly didn’t look yet.) Anyway. This is a recipe I found online. As I was typing this blog, I was simultaneously watching Food Revolution on Hulu, where I noticed Jamie was serving students this nifty popsicle looking things- I googled, and sure enough! Jamie does have a similar recipe! Heres the link to Jamie olivers popsicle recipe, however, it is nearly identical to the one I used. 

http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/recipes/YOGURT_POPS

Anyway. For my recipe, I use whatever fruits I have available (usually what ever is cheap at the grocery store that week- it doesn’t really matter, cause it always comes out delicious.) I’ve tried Banannas, Strawberries, Mango’s, Peaches, Blackberrys, and every combination that those fruits can have with one another. I had one of my very hipster friends over a little while ago, and she loved them- making me instantly cool. 

To make these delicious popsicles throw the following into a food processor:

1 banana and whatever other fruit you want to try, ( if you don’t have other fruits, banana by itself is delicious too), about a cup of plain yogurt (or vanilla is good too), a splash of vanilla extract, and honey to make it as sweet as you’d like ( i use about 2 tablespoons)

Food process it. put the mixture into popsicle molds, or paper cups with popsicle sticks, and freeze them.  Now, let me tell you- I was reluctant to buy a food processor. I didn’t have one for the longest time. So, that meant that to make this recipe, I would just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and mash them, like a caveman. they still came out delicious, but a food processor made my life so much easier, and it made making this pops, so much faster. I now use my food processor more than any other appliance in my kitchen (aside from the stove and the fridge, duh.)

I don’t have a picture right now- I will take one later, when my pops are totally frozen. If you make any recipe that I have posted- make this one. It is by far, the easiest, most rewarding one. I have a great feeling when i go to my fridge, and for a sweet snack pull out a delicious popsicle that i made, instead of reaching for overly processed ice cream. 

Yorkshire Puddings and Consistently Good Gravy

First things first. This isn’t my picture but my yorkshire’s came out identical to this. 

I’m going to post this recipe, because it was so wonderful. 

YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

MAKES 12

3 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

pinch of sea salt

scant 1 1/4 cups milk

Vegetable Oil

To prepare: Whisk the eggs, flour, salt and milk together really well in a bowl to make your batter, pour the batter into a jug and set aside for 30 minutes to rest, this will make it smoother, giving you light and crispy puddings.

To cook: Turn the oven up to the highest temp (475) and let it preheat fully. As it’s warming up, put a muffin pan on to a cookie sheet and place on the top shelf of the oven. When the oven is up to temp., carefully remove the pan and the sheet, close the oven door and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to each muffin hole in the muffin pan. Pop the pan and the sheet back in the oven for 5 minutes, until the oil is smoking hot. Open the oven door, and slide the shelf with the pan and sheet halfway out. Quickly fill each muffin hole with batter, then slide the shelf carefully back into the oven. Leave the door shut for 15 minutes, and don’t open it even once to check on how the Yorkshires are doing, otherwise they’ll end up all sunken. After 15 minutes, the Yorkshires will be nice and crisp and golden with a soft, fluffy center. If you prefer them to be crispy all the way through, turn the oven down to 300, and cook for another 10 minutes. remove the pan from the oven once the puddings are crisp, golden and puffed up. serve asap with your roast beef and gravy, or whatever you’d like. 

We made this several weeks ago, when we made the perfect pot roast. We made pot roast, with Yorkshire puddings and consistently good gravy. All of which was delicious. I will probably add this entire meal to my arsenal of meals to prepare for whenever I have company. The pot roast, you already know was delicious. These puddings were a great addition. Also, as silly as this may sound, I felt really accomplished that I made my own sort of biscuit thing. I had no idea what a yorkshire pudding was- all I knew, is that the picture made it look like a cross between a cupcake and a biscuit, which obviously meant it had to be delicious. It was really like a light fluffy biscuit with a slightly doughy center. I used it primarily to soak up the left over gravy from the pot roast. and it was fantastic. I’ll probably make them with soups in the future.

Here was my favorite part of the gravy: Most of the work was already done in making the pot roast. When I made the roast, I also made roasted Potatoes and Carrots with it in the bottom of the pan. The gravy was just a really good mixed up combination of the roasted veggies, with some flour, wine and some broth. It was perfect. Essentially, all you do, is mix everything togehter, and in a pan, mash up the veggies with a masher, and strain them through a fine strainer ( I don’t know the technical terms.) anyway, You mix it all up and strain it till you have this nice, brown, delicious gravy. It is seriously, perfect. I will never, ever, ever make gravy from a seasoning packet again. 

and to give credit where credit is due, this is the random website I stole the picture from http://www.food.com/recipe/jamie-olivers-huge-yorkshire-puddings-171106/photo?aid=110037