A friend of mine recently asked me exactly how one might go vegetarian or vegan. And I totally understood what he was asking for! I mean, it sounds nice to stop eating meat, but there is something about the pleasure seeking part of my brain that really gets a kick out of certain foods–many of which are meat based, or in my case problem food based.
So, step one of my journey towards a more vegetable based diet was in experimenting with food. I googled blogs, recipe websites and bought cook books galore! (There are a lot of good ones on Kindle that are pretty cheap!)
It’s all very overwhelming, though and I seemed to be loosing track of some recipes that I tried and enjoyed. I would stick the print out or the website address somewhere and when I went to make it again, I couldn’t find it! So, I’ve started a binder and am putting all my favorite recipes in it! There’s even a section for partner-approved dishes and fancy dinner party dishes/menus.
Basically, though, the key to switching to plant based over animal based foods was to replace my favorite foods with problem free indulgences, like the Mexican dip I posted about last time. (Check it out here!) It is SO GOOD, especially with Garden of Eatin’s Blue Corn Chips! Something about the crunch of those chips REALLY hits the spot in my brain’s pleasure center! Mmm!
At any rate, one of my favorite foods was grilled cheese! I actually made a really fantastic version of grilled cheese with italian bread (the hardish, dryish white kind) with spicy white cheese, a thin layer of raspberry jelly (homemade by my Mom who goes easy on the sugar) and a thick layer of fresh spinach! I know it might sound weird, but the sweet and savory combination was just perfect!
Well, I recently discovered an amazing gluten-free, dairy-free, low sugar (at least low enough not to give me gut issues) frozen waffles!
I’ve been enjoying them with a big pile of fresh berries!
But then I grabbed some dairy-free sliced and individually packaged cheese that was on sale at Kroger. I’ve been wanting to try it and since it was on sale I thought, now’s the time! So I got home and ate a piece plain. WOW. If I didn’t know that it wasn’t milk based I would not have known! It was a light colored cheese with a spicy jalapeno flavor. It reminded me of the grilled cheese I used to make and then I had an idea!
I made the waffles, melted the cheese on them, added a layer of raspberry jelly and topped it off with fresh spinach (it needed more, I’ll add more next time).
It was exactly like I used to make only better! The waffles have much more flavor to them that the italian bread did! And more omega-3 fatty acid! Oh man, I will be making these again!!!
So, step one of going veggie? Get creative in the kitchen! Use ingredients that are similar to the other ingredients and experiment! If you’re not into experimenting, google some recipes! There are TONS out there!
And remember, don’t tell yourself that you can’t have something, like bread or meat or whatever you’re trying to replace. Of course you can have it! The question is, do you really want it? Now that I know what bread, dairy products and meat products do to me, the environment, etc, I don’t want it. I want sliced strawberries on a bed of leafy greens! And I want to have grown those greens or picked those strawberries from a local farmer!
I am happy to report that my greens have been coming from my church’s greenhouse for the past couple of weeks! (They’re in the picture, actually!) The greenhouse is growing rampant amounts of leafy greens! Spinach, kale, bak choy, and mustard greens! I didn’t think I liked the last three of those until I tasted them fresh and ripe! Mmm-mm!
What food would you miss the most if you were to switch to all plant based foods?
Searching For Health And Healing Through Food 