Loving' The Whole Foods Thing

So for two weeks now my husband and I have been eating a whole foods, plant-based, diet. No processed food, no meat, no dairy. I have to say that I thought this would be really hard...but it hasn't been hard at all. I am actually starting to crave vegetables and fruits and even looking at a donut or a hamburger makes me feel sick. I am full all the time and I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. I have been having a blast trying out new recipes...so today I thought I would share some of my favorites from the last two weeks.

The first one that we use every morning is the Green Smoothie. This is a quick and delicious smoothie that we whip up in about 4 minutes every morning. We use 1 cup soy milk, 2 cups spinach, 1 tbs flax seed, 1 banana, 5 frozen strawberries, and 1 scoop Amazing Grass in chocolate flavor (the amazing grass it what makes it taste so good-like a chocolate shake). I whip this up at about 5am and it keeps me full until about 9am.

Some of our favorite dinners so far have been: 

Marakesh Vegetable Curry (could be the best food I've ever eaten)-     http://allrecipes.com/recipe/marrakesh-vegetable-curry/detail.aspx

Indian Style Rice with Cashews, Raisins, and Tumeric-  

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/indian-style-rice-with-cashews-raisins-and-turmeric/detail.aspx

Quinoa Chili (I added  tvp, to give it a meat consistency) 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quinoa-chili/detail.aspx

Low-fat Tahini-Chickpea Salad Dressing (the best dressing I've EVER had) (see photo above)

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/08/low-fat-tahini-chickpea-dressing.html

Zuchinni Tomato Casserole(yummy with nutritional yeast in place of cheese) 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tomato-zucchini-casserole/detail.aspx

Homemade 100% whole wheat bread (with honey) 

http://cookingforseven.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/favorite-100-whole-wheat-bread/

Low Fat (no-oil) Hummus (great on sandwiches/pita)   

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7262.0

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies  (best cookies I've ever had) 

http://www.cookiemadness.net/2012/01/vegan-chocolate-chip-cookies-with-kelapo-coconut-oil/

Some MUST have items in the kitchen:

Coconut Oil (healthiest oil to cook with-use in scant amounts)

100% whole wheat flour

Nutritional Yeast (to replace cheese in recipes-cooks to creamy deliciousness)

Maple Syrup (great in many recipes)

Fresh spices (love the co-op for these)

Quinoa, couscous, basmati rice

I have to say that a pressure cooker also makes this type of cooking a breeze. I throw in whatever veggies, grain, and spices we are having and it takes about 10 minutes and it's done!! For example-the marakesh vegetable curry: I chopped up the veggies (took about 4 minutes), threw everything in pressure cooker, and 15 minutes later we are eating the most delicious meal I've ever had. A pressure cooker can cook most vegetables in under 4 minutes and grains in under 10 (amazing since otherwise it would take about 45 minutes to cook quinoa or lentils). Here is a link to the time charts I use so you can see how amazing it is

http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/cooking_times_pressure_cooker.php

That's it for now-hopefully you are inspired to try some of these recipes. Jacob is really loving them and Josh and Katie are trying them...and then eating healthy cereal or whole grain pancakes with fruit for dinner. Joe and I started this as a sacrifice for Lent (giving up processed foods) but I think it will become a major lifestyle change for us!