Snack Time

The daughter and I just had a snack before her nap time, guacamole and chips, I love avocado.  Such a good for you food, a bit on the fatty side, but in moderation, yum.  We are big snackers in this house, I always have crackers of varying kind, cheeses, dips, popcorn, almonds, etc.  Costco sells these great Tamari flavoured almonds that we love, even our very picky son.  We also love almond butter, cashew butter and regular old peanut butter, as long as you don't buy the sugar filled crap, they are all good for you.


Other options for snacks I make sure to I have on hand is fruits.  I always have apples, bananas, pears, strawberries and blueberries.  The latter I have to wait until they are in season or they are very expensive.  I do buy frozen strawberries and blueberries for smoothies and freeze bananas that are about to turn bad.  I need to work on getting more vegetables into our family diet, for some reason that always seems to be a challenge.


Also, my mushroom risotto turned out fantastic, I think my husband even liked it.  I paired that with roasted root vegetables, sweet potatoes and carrots (all that was in the fridge).  Last night we had pasta with a cream sauce (I'm a sucker for cream sauces, much to my husband's dismay).  Tonight it's pizza night, I have some roasted red peppers, veggie salami, mushrooms, veggie chicken strips and cheese.  Load 'er up!


Here is a quick list of what we like to snack on:

• Almonds, regular and Tamari flavoured
• chips and dip (usually guacamole)
• cheese and crackers
• popcorn
• fruit
• sometimes veggies, I'm going to get on increasing that
• almond, cashew and peanut butter on crackers, apples, pears, wraps rolled up

Not too exciting, but if anyone has any suggestions for different, quick and easy snacks, please send them along.


Have a great day!

A little history of the why

Well today I am going to start with a little history of why I decided to become a vegetarian. I was always raise a meat and potatoes girl, my family had to have meat, potatoes and some sort of boiled to bits vegetable for dinner. For about the last two years the thought of cooking meat has made me sick, I remember opening a package of ground beef and being grossed out by the blood that was at the bottom of the tray. Then I started getting mental images of the cow it came from and that was that for beef, but I still ate chicken. Then one day I was making some sort of dish with chicken thighs and when I bit into it I hit a small piece of bone, gross, again. So that was it for chicken. Now all I had left was seafood, then I got a bad bit of shrimp and there goes the seafood. I still eat some dairy, real cream for my coffee, the odd bit of cheese, mostly Goat Cheese and some Brie. I don't eat eggs as well and that stems from cracking open an egg to find blood and other bits inside and I thought I was going to throw up right there and then. That is when I decided on being a veggie, I read alot of books as I knew this was going to be a major change to my life and families as well. We have a very picky 6 year old and if he doesn't eat meat he would get no protein, so for now I am keeping him a meat eater. My husband, doesn't like alot of meat, but occasionally likes his double cheese burgers or meatloaf, I actually make a pretty good meatloaf (which I will now have to show him how to make).
My favourite book is "Becoming Vegetarian by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis", the bible for me. I wanted to make sure I was going to get all my correct nutrients, protein, calcium, etc. and this book had it all. Then I started, I went to the grocery store, stocked up on what I thought I would eat and away I went. It has been a bit difficult in the sense that the rest of the family still eats meat, so I try to make dishes that I can substitute tofu for the meat or I'm cooking two separate meals. Not always fun. Also I am a mother of a 6 year old and a 18 month old, so I need fast and easy recipes, nothing fancy here. I have a few good cook books, but rely on the Internet for alot of recipes as well. But I am finding it difficult to find fast, easy and inexpensive recipes. So, here starts my journey of blogging what I eat, hopefully I can help others out there that need some meal plans.

Here is what I have going to have for dinner for the next couple of days, I thought I would start with dinners mostly, as breakfasts for me are pretty simple, I need to get a 6 year old off to school. I eat mostly cereal, oatmeal, waffles, fruit that sort of thing, so nothing special in the vegetarian world there.

Nov. 17, I am going to have the Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl that is in this month's Vegetarian Times, it looks super yummy and if my version looks half as good as the picture, it's going to be great.

Nov. 18 I have planned a Polenta and mushroom lasagna, another Vegetarian Times recipes.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10175?section this is the recipe for the Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl, tell me that doesn't look yummy.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9770?section= here is the polenta lasagna, yum.

My journey to Vegetarianism

First, I wanted to blog about my journey to vegetarianism, am I new at this journey, pretty sure I'm not. The rest of my family is not converting, well maybe our 18 month old daughter, I do the cooking, so she doesn't have a choice, LOL. Also my written English is going to be bad, just to let you know off the bat, so don't email me with corrections. I'm going to post what my menu plan is for the week, probably all three meals and some snacks, if I'm feeling ambitious. If there is a recipe involved I shall post that as well. Since I am a visual person, I need a map to make this conversion and creating a meal plan for me was that map. I couldn't find anything on the Internet that catered to this option. So I hope you enjoy my blog, if you have suggestions, I would love to hear them, if you just want to criticize my choice of being a veggie, I don't want to hear from you. Thanks and will post tomorrow my week of meals.