Meal Time: Baked Sweet Potato w/ Salad

Good Evenings folks....

So I saw a recipe for baked sweet potatoes in Whole Living magazine, and it turned into a lingering craving for days.

I don't believe I've ever had a baked sweet potato, and I gotta say it's pretty dang-o-good.

You can find the recipe here.

I added a basic salad with it to use up my aging veggies. I just used some lettuce, red bell peppers and carrots.

The dressing was just a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and pepper.

I was pretty impressed this meal was so good.

AND...I didn't even add salt to anything!

Damn you Martha, you always know how to catch my eye....you snooty frigid talented witch!

Educational Interest: Food Combining from Healthy Vegan

Heather from Youtube's Healthy Vegan posted an interesting video about food combining. I know every person's body is different from another's, but this might be good for me to try since I'm making a dramatic diet change.

I never try and rely or trust one source of information but it's nice to learn a variety of health information. This diet change is completely unknown territory for me, so I could really use all the knowledge I could get.

Chart from Heather's Site

PS.
You should also check out her YouTube Channel for some good looking recipes

Motivational Resource: Whole Living Action Plan

http://www.wholeliving.com/152870/2012-whole-living-action-plan

The latest issue of Martha Stewart's magazine, Whole Living, had a really great article on clean eating. They have a whole action plan to get healthy this year. They feature weekly recipes to get you started. The food on here looks....really really, so good. And they actually don't look too complicated, so I think even I could make these meals.
I'm looking forward to trying these out.

Produce Paradise

I think when one hears Alaska, great fresh produce is not one of the things that would come to mind. Produce here is costly, and more often than not....less than appetizing. Everything comes on a boat or on a plane here, so most of our fruits and vegetables are either too ripe or too green.

Luckily there is a great program that delivers really good, really fresh produce to Alaska. Full Circle Farm is a weekly program that delivers fresh (mostly organic) produce to locations in Alaska, Washington and Idaho. Most of the produce comes from farms in Washington (my home state, can't go wrong there).

I've never run into anything that was rotten or spoiled. It's also nice to get what's seasonal, it makes all my dishes seem that more fresh.

The best part about Full Circle is their customer service. They are crazy helpful, they've always gone out of their way to help me with any questions or requests I've had.

You can check their site out for membership and general info

http://www.fullcircle.com/

here is a link to their blog as well

http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/

This is a photo of what I received this week. This is the 'Garden' size box.

Meal Time: Pesto Pasta w/ Roasted Cauliflower

The theme tonight is using up what's in the kitchen.

I made this pasta dish yesterday, but I had plenty of left overs. I also had a cauliflower I needed to use, so I figure it would be a quick heat-and-eat dinner.

Pasta w/ peas and beans

1 pkg Whole Wheat Angel Hair pasta

1 pkg peas, frozen

1 bndl fresh green beans

Pesto Sauce

1pkg Simply Organic 'Sweet Basil Pesto'

1/2 cup water

1/4 Olive Oil

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head fresh cauliflower

2 tblspn Olive Oil

2 tblspn Paprika

I started by boiling the pasta, while mixing the pesto sauce with the water and oil in a large pan. Once the pasta was ready I transferred it directly to the pesto pan, and added the green beans and frozen peas. I continued to stir and simmer the pasta for about 20 minutes.

The cauliflower was super simple, just olive oil drizzled over chopped cauliflower with a sprinkle of paprika.

I baked for about 20 minutes on 350.

I love these quick but filling meals, something I wouldn't expect when cutting out meat and dairy.

I'm still waiting to receive some cookbooks I ordered, so hopefully some more creative dishes will be posted here.

Motivational Resource: VegNews Vegan Starter Kit

I found this Vegan Starter Kit from VegNews today.

This is really helpful and hopeful to continue this process.

I know there is a stigma that comes with the Vegan culture, but being mocked for a healthy lifestyle will be much greater than being ostracized from everyday activities due to my poor health choices.

PS. the link is in PDF format, so it might take a moment to load.

                        http://www.vegnews.com/web/uploads/asset/3560/file/VegNewsGoVegGuide.pdf

Meal Time: 10 grain Hot Cereal

Slow morning start.

Trying to break free of the easy-out cereal routine.

Typically any stove top cooking proves to be quite intimidating for me, but this was as easy as boiling water.

1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat 10 Grain Hot Cereal

1 Cup Costco Rader Farms 3 Berry Mix, frozen

Agave Nectar to taste

I  purchased Bob's 10 Grain Hot Cereal, and just followed the instructions on the bag.

I added a few frozen berries from a Costco berry mix bag.

And a few droplets of agave nectar for a bit of sweet to balance out the tart berries.

It's pretty great to find easy things even I can make that are plant people friendly.

I think I can do this after all.

Motivational Resource: Go Vegan with Ellen

'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer - Vegan Blog

Found a great resource for plant based lifestyle...on Ellen's site of all places.
This book looks pretty interesting, maybe I'll even consider possibly thinking about reading that.


There's plenty more information over on Ellen's site. Seems to be pretty helpful for those who are just starting to switch their carnivorous cravings to a vegan diet. I'm really glad I found this, I need all the knowledge and help I can get to be successful at this.

                                                    http://vegan.ellen.warnerbros.com/

Meal Time: Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Squash I feel is a good start into my cooking plans.

It's a dish that I'm at least familiar with, and is pretty easy for a novice like myself.

1 Jar spaghetti sauce

3 roma tomatoes

1 zucchini

3 mushrooms

1 spaghetti squash

1 bunch asparagus

All I did was start with a tomato/spaghetti sauce and added a few veggies like zucchini and mushrooms.

I substituted pasta for the spaghetti squash, which has noodle like texture when scraped with a fork.

I just cut mine in half, scoop out the seeds and guts (very similar to a pumpkin) and bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes

The asparagus I just throw on a pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkled with Montreal Steak seasoning.  It probably would still be pretty good without any seasoning I'm sure.

Very simple, and pretty filling.

I think the key to any culinary success for me will be starting with the basics.

Every attempt at any Martha Stewart-grandiose-scientific-formula of a meal tends to end up a charred mess that takes days to clean.

So here are my baby steps at food...and posting these entries.

improvement to be continued

1st entry...done

Greetings from Alaska!

Well here it is, the first entry of this thing. I've never considered a blog before, but on a mission to keep motivated I'm willing to give it a shot.

I've made some pretty poor choices when it comes to my health, so this will be my designated space to log, vent and discuss my journey to a healthier lifestyle.

I have recently made the decision to steer clear of meats, and slowly ween off dairy as well.

It might be a bit more noble to say this choice is in defense of animal welfare, but frankly animals are delicious.

Animals meats and milk will always be tempting, but I've clearly abused my limits with them. I feel it is time for me to turn focus on the forgotten food, produce.

My organs are long overdue for some nutritional sustenance and it's time I give them the fuel they deserve.

This blog, like my start to healthy living, is going to be quite the learning experience. I face a lot of hurdles seeing as I know little about both, but I'm always open to opinions and suggestions on any topic.

Here's to future mistakes and corrections!

Thanks for reading,

 S