Keep it Simple

One thing I have found on getting my family to eat nutritarian is that we have to keep it simple; but creative. Making things that are familiar from our S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) is always interesting.

Last night we had tacos...yes you heard me right. I found this recipe from the site of whole food mommies http://www.wholefoodmommies.com/ which has been good for me to find recipes for my girls. I did make some adjustments.

Here's my version

Blue taco shells (I like these better since I can read all the ingredients on the box)
Black beans (cooked these up and actually added some rolled oats and ground flaxseed then mashed it up with a potato masher. This helped absorb the juices and it adds some texture)
*It's important to get flaxseed every day. I buy golden flaxseeds at Sprouts then grind them up in my coffee grinder, not using it for coffee anymore, but have found a use for it after all :)
From there it is simple, beans on the bottom, salsa (we used mild for the girls), spinach leaves, tomato and sliced avocado.

In addition to our tacos last night I made a salad to be our main dish...Remember, salad is the main dish.

Our salad was simple again:

Spring Mix
Fresh Blueberries
Oranges
Walnuts
 We didn't use any dressing since the oranges add juice to the salad, but you can always juice and orange slice atop each one.

Keep it simple!

Also check out the site, there is a wonderful snack of peanut butter coconut balls that I keep in the freezer constantly. My girls and Peter love them. Make sure if you do this that you get the unsweetened coconut.

Breakfast Favorites

So they say the most important meal of the day is breakfast. Well I've learned that I only eat once I'm hungry; which makes sense. Why would you eat if you're not hungry. That just contributes to overeating.... (now this doesn't count for kids; they need to eat in the morning since they start using their brains and energy right away as they grow).

Over this process I've found some favorites I enjoy to begin my day with.

So I traded in my morning coffee for a non-caffeinated Lemon & Ginger tea. I never thought I would give up coffee, I would drink it throughout the day; but I did it and never felt more energy. I'm not a morning person, but once I changed my diet that's what I became. I get up and get going; it's rather disgusting.

Waking up and feeling the cleanse of my Lemon/Ginger tea is something I have started to look forward to. Be careful what you buy; my favorite is the STASH brand; but whatever you choose the ingredients should be simple. When I turn mine over it says "Ingredients: Lemon, lemon grass & ginger" That's it; simple. I've learned that if I don't know what the label says, I don't eat it. Anything that is a chemical that I can't tell you where it came from; it's out...

Once I finish my morning tea and my body finally tells me I'm hungry; it's time for breakfast. Two of my favorites are really simple.

My first fav. if a breakfast smoothie. When I need to take something on the go; these works best. Smoothies can be as simple or as complex as you want. Here's one I really enjoy. You will see my measurements are not exact; I really just throw things in, but if you needed measurements then you can use them.

Morning Smoothie
Frozen Strawberries (approx. 1 1/2 cups)
Two Banana
6 or 7 Romaine leaves (you can also opt for Dandelion greens or spinach which I use a large handful)
2 cups water


This definitely has a lettuce taste to it; but when I find that I haven't been eating as much greens as I need to I grab this in the mornings. It also makes enough that I can drink it through the day too.


Another favorite I have is also really simple. This can be variates with the type of fruits I put in; but it works.


Oatmeal & Fruit
Small handful of rolled oats (about 1/2 cup)
Banana (sliced)
Pears (cut in chunks)
Apple (cut in chunks)
Walnuts (small handful maybe 1/4 cup)
I microwave this for about 1 1/2 minutes and eat it warm. The banana and the other fruit adds enough moisture to the oatmeal that I don't need any water.

Hope you enjoy these two simple morning recipes....

Time to Change

This is the first of what I  hope to be many blogs to share with my friends recipes that are nutritarian. Back in October 2011, my husband and I watched a movie; "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". The movie chronicled this one man's journey of curing his illnesses by changing his eating habits. Although I was  a skeptic, I did hear one ladies story about how she cured her migraines. That alone made me want to try juicing; so we gave it a shot. Never did I imagine we would change our way of eating.

Since that day, my husband, two girls (ages 4 & 5) and I have totally changed our outlook on food. We watched some other documentaries; probably the most important was "Forks over Knives" and then read a few books: Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman; Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn; Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn; and The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Each of these books are a must have and some include some pretty good recipes.

What I have found in rearranging our way of eating, is everything I prepare for meals and my shopping has required me to find new recipes. As I've visited with friends about this, I also have learned that this is a struggle for many of us. I will tell you, I get tired of seeing salads all the time, but I completely understand the importance of them as your main meal...so what do you do.

My hope in this blog is that we can all share our struggles and even some really good recipes and some warnings of not so good recipes as we try them.

To avoid any copyright infringement, I will not post recipes that are from the books above; but I will let you know about them so you can also find them in the book if you choose to purchase them.

So here we go. Enjoy some of these recipes and please share as you make your own too.