Many times over the past seven years many have asked me if my whole family eats like me and sadly many times I have said..."No, not regularly." Over the years we have modified a lot...we have no cookies, chips, ice-cream, juice boxes, pudding cups, snacky-type things in the house for regular consumption. However, the guys still have lots of opportunities to eat stuff that I don't eat.
I eat a diet based primarily on fruits, veggies, beans and nuts with a few whole grains thrown in for good measure. Low sodium and no added oils too! I learned about this way of eating from Dr. Joel Fuhrman in his book Eat to Live. His most recent book Eat for Health is also very good and provides a more gradual approach to eating this way....more on that another day.
I have tried to share my knowledge with them over the years in a non-threatening way but I don't want to sugar-coat the facts. Well on Saturday night I told my son (mr. picky) that many kids his age (12) have the start of heart disease and he quickly exclaimed "I don't!" and when I said that chances are he does he was shocked.
When I advised the boys that daddy was considering eating better and that they would all have to no one seemed too bothered by the news. Folks...I'm trying not to get too excited...this has happened before.
So I quickly tried to figure out what to make on Sunday so that they'd start off the week enjoying the predominantly plant-based diet I had planned for them. What did I make? Here's what I made and what I had planned for it.
Ful Mesdames is a lovely fava bean dip/spread that goes well with pitas, served with veggie sticks or even in a tortilla wrap. I made a batch of this for lunches.
I made a carrot/chickpea salad for me - 4 big carrots grated or in thin match sticks, 1 can of chick peas (drained and rinsed) 1 tsp cumin, a few shakes of freshly ground pepper and juice of 1 1/2 lemons. I'll probably eat this with some of the fava beans on the side. I had some today with some left over coleslow too.
I threw together a soup with crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, mixed beans, celery, carrots, mushrooms, a pkg of frozen spinach....kind of like an ad hoc minestrone soup. This will be dinner on Wednesday and maybe Thursday along with a huge salad.
Black bean, corn and sweet potato burritos - Stir two cans of black beans, a can of corn and your favourite jar of salsa along with 1 to 2 tsp of chili powder. Set this aside. Steam and mash 3 large sweet pototoes. When they're done spread onto a whole wheat tortilla along with the bean mix. Roll it...Enclose it...or fold in half and put it under the broiler like a quessadila...everyone loved this for dinner after our 32 oz romaine lettuce salad.
Dinner for today and tomorrow for the guys was a Vegan Lasagne...it was shaped like one so I'm calling it that.
Isa's Vegan Lasagne
Saute - 1 onion, 1 stalk of celery, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 3 cloves of garlic chopped. When it's getting soft....
Add - 1 big zucchini chopped, 1 big carrot chopped, 4 or 5 mushrooms chopped (I love my Pampered Chef Chopper). Stir it around a bit then...
Add - 1 cup dried red lentils and 2 cups water.
Cook until the lentils are soft and mushy. The key here was to give the filling a kind of creamy texture that would give it some body rather than being just veggies.
When that's ready add a large can of your favourite spaghetti sauce or add a large can of crushed tomatoes along with one pkg of defrosted frozen, chopped spinach....or add it frozen...it's up to you.
Simmer this and add basil, oregano, rosemary, chili sauce or pepper depending on your preference. I added more garlic and some onion powder to make it tasty without added salt.
Cook a box of whole wheat lasagne noodles. I used 16 in total.
Then assemble like you would a regular lasagne with 3 layers of filling.
I baked it in the oven covered for about 20 mins then let it cool because we were planning on baking it a bit more today.
This was served with another huge salad and everyone was satisfied with one or two pieces...hence the leftovers will be for dinner tomorrow.
My dinner was just salad. I don't eat processed grains very often but I'm trying to make it as enjoyable as possible while increasing their veggie intake and decreasing their animal product intake.
If you're still with me...let me know what Eat to Live or Eat for Health type foods your family enjoys.
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