A Month of Beans and Greens

I am going to post a Wednesday Weigh-In, but I just spent the last eight hours working on this post and I need a break from the computer. I may wait until tomorrow morning.

I've been putting this post off all month because I felt overwhelmed with it. I should have been more organized through the month and wrote down what I cooked in order to keep track of what I was taking pictures of. But better late than never, and "chaotic" is my middle name, so here we go...

Jerry and I had gotten into the bad habit of eating a lot of convenience foods--vegan nuggets, burgers, stuff like that. After reading about so many people in their 30's and 40's getting colorectal cancer, we decided we needed to focus on eating much healthier--no more convenience foods, at least for a while. And so I thought it would be fun to try a challenge to eat some sort of beans and greens every day day for a month.

First, I want to say that even if I was a food stylist/photographer, a lot of beans and greens meals just do not look appetizing. I would say that probably most of the photos in this post might be a turn off from the beans and greens; but remember, I am not a food stylist or photographer in any sense of the words, so please don't let these pics keep you from trying different versions of beans and greens!

Why Beans and Greens?

A grain, a green, and a bean walked into a bar...

They are pretty much the perfect meal: loaded with nutrition, lots of fiber, endless varieties of combinations, super cheap to make, easy to sub ingredients, and easy to get creative with so it doesn't get boring.

I almost always eat beans and greens with some sort of grain (95% of the time it's brown rice). A super easy "rule of thumb" for a healthy vegan dinner is a grain, a green, and a bean. (I include lentils in the beans category because they are so similar in nutrition. I also include tofu and soy curls, because they are just soy beans.

My favorite grains: short grain brown rice, brown basmati rice, bulgur, red quinoa, and barley. (If you want to switch from white to brown rice for health benefits, try short grain brown rice--it's softer and stickier than other varieties and reminds me of white rice. That's how I got my kids to like it years ago.) I would put pasta and bread in this category as well, but I don't really like bread much and I prefer rice over pasta.

My favorite greens: Collards are my very favorite because they are super easy to prep, they hold up well after cooking a long time, and they take on whatever flavor is in the dish. For this Beans and Greens Month, I also tried mustard greens, rainbow chard, kale, spinach, bok choy, and I think a couple of others. The ones I like the least are the kale and spinach, because they have a strong flavor.

My favorite beans: dark red kidney beans, chickpeas, great northern beans, black beans, navy beans. Despite eating quite a bit of them over the month, I don't really love the flavor of black-eyed peas. I usually choose beans for the texture that I'm going for in the dish: kidney beans hold up really well and don't get mushy, great northern are very soft white beans and perfect for blending into sauces, etc.

As far as lentils, I'm kind of obsessed with red lentils and black (beluga) lentils. The red lentils break down a LOT when cooked, which is good if you're not a fan of the texture of lentils or for dishes like curries. The black lentils hold their shape really well and they're very small (about the size of rice) making them perfect for salads or mujadara (a lentil and rice dish with caramelized onions--so good!). The black lentils are super versatile, so they're my very favorite.

You'll see that most of the beans and greens dishes I make are curries--some sort of sauce with spices (depending on what flavor profile I'm going for), beans (sometimes whole or sometimes blended into the sauce), and about four cups of chopped greens. I almost always serve it with a whole grain. Depending on what I'm making, I use other ingredients as well, but those are the basics.

I apologize that I don't have links for all of the recipes (honestly, I can't remember what some of the dishes even were). I'll link to the ones that I'm able. A lot of these came from the How Not to Die Cookbook, How Not to Diet Cookbook, and How Not to Age Cookbooks.

Any time the recipes called for one can of beans, I always used two. And several, if not most, of the recipes don't call for greens at all! When that was the case, I just chopped four cups of whatever greens I had at the moment and added them. When the recipe did call for greens, most of the time I subbed whatever greens I had on hand rather than sticking to what was called for in the recipe.

Here are photos of the beans and greens (and grains!) meals I made in July...

Pasta with Garlicky White Beans and Greens (How Not to Diet, p. 85). I used red lentil pasta for even more "beans", but did not like the pasta; while I love red lentils, the pasta was not a good texture for me.

Creamy Mushroom Coconut Curry by Happy Veggie Kitchen (I added chick peas and extra mushrooms and skipped the sugar and cilantro. Fun fact: when I took the DNA test a few years ago, I learned that I have the gene that make cilantro taste like soap. I never did like it!).

Slow Cooker Lentil and Quinoa Chili by Aggies Kitchen. I've made this a few times; it's super easy to throw in the crockpot and it tastes delicious! Jerry really likes this one.

Persian Black-Eyed Peas and Greens (How Not to Diet, p. 130) with barley. I used dark red kidney beans and red beans instead of black-eyed peas.

Coconut Chickpea Curry by Real and Vibrant with brown basmati rice. I can't remember if I liked this or not, but I think I remember it being bland. I used chickpeas and black-eyed peas because I didn't have two cans of chickpeas.The greens weren't in the recipe; I just added what I had on hand.

I cannot figure out what this was; clearly some sort of lentil curry!

Hoppin' John Stuffed Collard Rolls (How Not to Die, p. 158). I (obviously) didn't make stuffed rolls; I just chopped up the collard greens and added them to the sauce. Instead of rice, I served it over bulgur. 

I know this is shredded tofu and bok choy with short grain brown rice, but I can't remember what I did for the sauce/seasoning.

Coconut Curry Dal with short grain brown rice. This is currently my favorite go-to meal. (I use full-fat coconut milk instead of lite and skip the oil.) There is rice on top because I realized I didn't add enough to my bowl!

Red Bean and Tempeh Jambalaya (How Not to Age, p. 150) with purple rice. I'd only tried tempeh (fermented soy beans) a couple of times, but it had been a while. I really liked it!

I cannot remember what this was (obviously a curry of chickpeas, tomatoes, collards, and brown basmati, but I don't remember what spices I used).

This was some sort of mushroom curry, but it didn't turn out very good so I threw away the recipe.

Cheesy Broccoli Soup (How Not to Diet, p. 20). This is HEAVENLY. Noah actually asks me to make this for him sometimes because he loves it as well. (There is no cheese in it, despite the name.) It doesn't call for greens, but I added some in addition to the broccoli. The beans are blended into the soup, which makes it thick (along with the cashews). I'm actually planning to make this for dinner tonight.

Barley Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (How Not to Diet, p. 167). I used this recipe *very* loosely. I did not use cabbage; I used whatever greens I had on hand at the time. I obviously didn't stuff them; I just combined the filling and sauce to serve on top of the barley.

Black Lentil Dal (How Not to Diet, p. 137), with short grain brown rice. This is SO much better than it looks! I've made this several times (without the greens) and it's a favorite.

Smokey Black-Eyed Peas and Collards (How Not to Die, p. 127) with red quinoa. I added an extra can of black-eyed peas.

Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Butter Beans by Nora Cooks. This sauce was AMAZING. Like, I wanted to just eat it by the spoonful. This was my first time trying butter beans (a.k.a. lima beans) and I did not like the texture of them. I'll definitely make this again, but with great northern beans instead. And *definitely* with tofu.

 African Red Bean and Sweet Potato Stew (also in How Not to Diet, p. 138). This is one of my very favorite recipes ever. Like, in my top five favorite meals. It's what made me start seeing peanut butter as a savory ingredient--so good. Jerry doesn't even like sweet potatoes, but he loves this too! It doesn't call for greens, but I added what I had.

Vegan Creole Beans (with red rice). I didn't have enough kidney beans, so I used some red beans as well. It didn't call for greens, but I added what I had.

Indian-Style Soy Curls (my recipe that I've perfected over time, loosely based on butter chicken and chicken tikka masala). I make this all the time--the sauce is SO GOOD. Sometimes I make it with tofu, sometimes with beans, sometimes with the soy curls. But it's ridiculously easy--you just throw all the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until it's really creamy. Then heat it on the stove with soy curls/tofu/beans until hot. I serve this with brown basmati rice. I will post the recipe another day soon!

10-Minute Peanut Butter Curry by Healthy Living James. This didn't have much flavor, so I tossed the recipe. It definitely needed more spices.

Doing this beans and greens experiment (not really an experiment.. a challenge?) was fun! It got me out of the rut of convenience food that Jerry and I had unfortunately gotten used to, and definitely helped me with weight loss (I lost 15 pounds in July).

I'm so sorry that I had a lot of "I don't remember" on here! I really should have been more organized. Still, maybe it'll inspire you to try some version of beans and greens for a nice plant-based meal. After working on this post, I am SO hungry--I'm going to get started on dinner. I may post my weigh-in tonight, but if not, I will tomorrow morning for sure.

Continue Reading...

Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 7

As I was writing the date on this, I realized that it's the anniversary of when I started losing weight in 2009. On this day, 17 years ago(?!), I was 253 pounds. I *hate* this "before" photo of me, but seeing the pictures side-by-side really drives home how far I've come.

Of course, I didn't just lose all the weight and keep all of it off for all this time. I've gotten as low as 121 pounds and as high as 197. I feel my best at around 130 pounds, give or take 5. My ultimate goal for maintenance is about 133.

So where was I on the scale on this day, 17 years to the day after I started counting calories?

I was at 149.6... I broke into the 140's! It wasn't that long ago that I was super excited to see the 150's again. A few months ago, I really didn't even dream I'd ever see the 140's again. I'm now only five pounds from being a "normal" BMI (I'm considered "overweight" until I'm under 145). I've been asked several times recently how tall I am--I'm 5'4". 

I've still been doing the same stuff I've been doing over the last seven weeks: lots of fiber, no sweets or snacks (occasionally I have a piece of fruit in the afternoon if I'm hungry, or even a small portion of leftover dinner). Running three days a week, adding just a tiny bit of distance each run. I think what has helped me the most is the not snacking. I used to snack after dinner, but now I've been eating a large dinner and I don't have interest in snacking later.

For my running this week:

I've had to modify my routes so that I run past my house about a mile in (to drop off Joey at the house, which I mentioned last week). Thankfully, my neighborhood is is almost exactly a mile around the perimeter, so I take him around the neighborhood and then drop him off at home and add head back out until I hit my goal for the day.

Friday- My previous run had been 1.53 miles, so I planned to aim for about 1.60. Since I don't know a 0.6 mile route from my house, I just had to guesstimate and I overshot a little (not a bad thing!). I ran 1.70 miles at a 12:08/mile pace and average heart rate of 151 bpm. My "Joey mile" was 12:23; years ago, he would be out in front of me, pulling me along, the entire time; but now I've had to deliberately slow myself so he can keep up. I feel really bad for him; he would run with me until he legs gave out if I let him. I'm hoping once it's not so humid, it'll be easier for him. He's got SO MUCH FUR, the humidity has to be really hard for him.

Sunday- Same sort of thing. Previous run was 1.70, so my plan was to aim for about 1.80. Again, I dropped Joey off (that first mile time was 12:18) and then I did a guesstimate to continue the distance. I overshot again and hit 1.92 miles. I could have kept going in order to hit 2.0, but I decided I wanted my 2-miler to be a special day of its own. Finished the 1.92 miles at an 11:54/mi average pace (11:27 without Joey) with an average heart rate of 151 bpm.

Tuesday- The weather was GREAT for running! Unfortunately, as soon as Joey and I started out, my legs just felt heavy and I was feeling very tired. I was bummed because it was my 2.0-mile day. Since Tuesday was the last day of my running week, I couldn't put it off. I just pushed through it, and was thrilled when I hit the two-mile mark! It wasn't that long ago that I was struggling HARD to run half a mile. Now, my average heart rate is down a little and my pace is getting a little faster (without trying). I finished two miles--12:04/mi with Joey and 11:14/mi without Joey. Overall, I did 2.00 miles with an average pace of 11:39/mi and average heart rate of 152 bpm.

The running has actually done wonders for my day-to-day mood! Even after all these years, I still get really nervous before a run (even a short easy run). I have no idea why. But as soon as I get home, I walk straight to the bathroom, put the shower on straight-up cold water, strip as quickly as possible and jump in before I cool off. The cold water feels SO good! And then I feel good about it the rest of the day. It's exciting to see the improvement so far.

A few random personal things from recently...

Joey- I took him to the vet about his balance/"clumsiness", and after a thorough check-up, the vet didn't find anything concerning. We think it could be his hearing; he's definitely had hearing loss over the last year or so, and a sudden noise can startle him to losing his balance. But he has no balance issues when he runs with me, and the vet was very impressed that he can run a mile at his age. (Granted, we are not running to qualify for Boston, but running nonetheless. The vet also did some bloodwork since he's getting old, and she said there was a slight abnormality with his kidneys. She doesn't think it's alarming, but we're going to retest him in a few months and compare the results. 

When I tell him that my mom is going to come pick him up, he gets SO EXCITED. So we go outside and he stands like this, watching the end of the road for my mom's car to turn the corner.

Eli is starting the fire academy in a couple of weeks! I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but he wants to be a firefighter and has been working really hard to get in shape before he starts the academy. As a mom, I am terrified of him becoming a firefighter; but I am happy that he's chosen to go back to school to do something that interests him. He put in his two-week notice at work yesterday. He still lives at home, but spends most of his time at work, the gym, and his girlfriend's apartment.

Noah is still working full-time and living at home to save money to buy property (he wants to build a house). He's just now starting to look at other options for jobs. He would ideally like to get into a trade like electrical. We've been helping him explore those options. For now, he works a lot (he picks up overtime for the extra money) and when he's not working, he's usually spending time with his boyfriend (yes, you read that correctly; he is very happy and Jerry and I are happy for him!). 

Jerry and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday. We did the most unlike-us thing we could have chosen... we went to the Henry Ford Museum! I have probably mentioned (several times over the years) that I hate going to that museum because I chaperoned field trips every.goddamned.year. when the kids were in school. But I've changed so much over the last 4-5 years. When I became vegan, I started reading more about veganism--which led to reading more about the impacts of diet on the environment (I *highly* recommend the documentary called "Eating Our Way to Extinction", free on YouTube). That led me to interest in politics, which led me to learning about war, which led me to learning about history. All things I never had any interest in. 

Anyway, Jerry and I went to the Henry Ford Museum and it was like looking at it with fresh eyes. I really enjoyed our time there! (Jerry has always loved the museum.) We were there for five hours and didn't even see everything. My favorite part was that there is a temporary exhibit called Fabric of America: Our Fashions, Textiles, and Technologies. So perfect for me! There were quilts (including one from the 1700's) and lots of clothing and furniture from throughout the last couple of centuries. It was super interesting (even Jerry liked it).

I was stunned to see this quilt called the Vine Quilt from the late 1800's. Every single one of the leaves and vines are hand-appliquéd! Having appliquéd petals on a couple of quilts myself, I know how much time this must have taken. And most of these individual leaves are pieced with multiple fabrics!

The cats are still spoiled rotten. Estelle is about 18 years old and just recently, she's started to show her age a little. She's gotten smaller and is starting to look a little frail, like Phoebe did for a few years before she passed. But Estelle still gets the zoomies occasionally and she always shows the "kittens" who's boss. Chick and Duck (mainly Duck) are about as needy as two toddlers, which drives me crazy. But I'm still obsessed with Duck and we are totally codependent, haha.

I brought them some "cat grass" from Eastern Market in Detroit. They LOVE this stuff!

Well, I guess that's enough update for now. I *promise* to post my Beans and Greens post by Friday. I'm writing that here so that I actually have a deadline and I stop procrastinating!

Continue Reading...

Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 4

I flipped this photo to reverse the mirror image--this shirt was one of my "projects of the week". I love doing reverse appliqué! It's super easy and it's so fun to see the design revealed as you snip away. (The PURRVANA wasn't my idea; I got inspiration from Pinterest. But I love it! Also, can you believe it's been 32 YEARS since Kurt Cobain died?!)

Time seems to have slowed down quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, and it feels nice. Usually, I feel like I just blink and it's a month later. The only time that time seemed to slow down was when I was running ;)

Speaking of running, I reached a mile this week! I'm choosing to celebrate that, because I truly feel like a beginner again and a mile is a big deal for beginners. My first run (meaning, a month ago; not back in 2010) was 0.41 miles at a 13:01/mi pace and I felt like I was going to DIE. This week, I noticed that it felt *slightly* easier. Strong emphasis on slightly.

Thursday- My previous run had been 0.90 miles, so I decided to aim for 0.95. It was only 60 degrees outside, and I think that made a significant difference in how I felt. Since I was feeling relatively good, thought it would be a nice opportunity to go for my first mile. And I did--I finished 1.0 miles in 12:25 with an average heart rate of 153 bpm.

Saturday- It was on the cool side again, and I felt pretty much the same as Thursday. I had no idea what route to run--I can tell you 20 different three-mile routes from my house, but for these shorter runs, I'm basically guessing each time I go out. On Saturday, I figured I would do 1.10, but I did a terrible job guessing and had to run past my house. I turned around too soon and was at 1.04, so I just stopped there instead of entertaining my neighbors' Ring cameras for the third time. Ran 1.04 miles at a 12:38/mi pace and average heart rate of 155 bpm.

Tuesday- I went out at 6:30 and it was about 70 degrees (not terrible) but the air was thick with humidity. I ran about as slowly as I could, hoping to feel good throughout. It actually ended up feeling the best of all my runs so far! Still not easy, but I didn't feel completely spent toward the end. I ran 1.10 miles at a 12:42/mi pace and average heart rate of 153.

When I look back at my first run, my average heart rate and max heart rate are both significantly lower than yesterday's, but I think that might be because the duration was so short. It was only five minutes to start, so my heart rate didn't have much time to build up. Once I reach my three-mile goal, I'd like to work on lowering my average heart rate. Ideally, I'll be able to run at my MAF rate of 136 bpm; at my MAF rate was when I didn't dread running because it felt so easy. I would love to feel like that again.  

Anyway, as you can see, I've added a little to each run and four weeks later, I'm up to 1.10 miles. If I continue at about this rate, I should be able to start three-milers in October--the best time of year to run!

This was the last week of Jerry's and my beans and greens experiment. Since we started this for health reasons, the purpose of the beans and greens was to get a lot of fiber via whole foods--and beans and greens are basically the perfect whole-food high-fiber meal. I'll write more about this in a separate post. I made a big variety of versions of beans and greens, so I'll post photos and recipes/links with all that. Now the problem is that I have to figure out what recipe each photo was for! I should have written it all down.

I wish I'd thought of this beans and greens thing earlier, because holy cow--the weight is dropping off quickly.

I was down 3.2 pounds this week. In the last four weeks, I've lost 14.6 pounds--I'm more than stunned!  These are the factors that have been working for me:

*I'm vegan for the animals, but a vegan diet is probably the only reason I didn't get back up to 250+ pounds over the last couple of years. (There are a lot of vegan junk foods, however, so it's easy to gain weight, vegan or not.)

*I quit eating sweets several months ago. My sweets-eating was getting out of control, so I made a bet with a friend where I would lose quite a bit of money if I ate sweets before the end of August. It was rough at first--it actually took much longer than I thought it would to get rid of the cravings--but now I have zero cravings at all for sweets. I literally don't even think about them (and believe me, that is CRAZY TALK). I mean, my blog is Runs for *Cookies*! Even after this bet is over, I don't want to eat even a single cookie, because I'm like an addict and I just lose all control when attempting moderation.

*Eating a ton of (natural) fiber. Whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit. (That literally looks like a line from the health food books I love to hate.) In the beans and greens post, I'll write a little more about the specifics; my breakfast plays a big role in my fiber intake. My diet sounds extremely boring, I know; but my spice collection is huge and just by changing out spices, the same meal can taste completely different. My diet is far from boring (in my eyes, anyway).

*Not snacking. This wasn't a "rule" I made; I just naturally fell into it when I quit eating sweets and started eating very filling meals. The fiber makes a big difference--it's impossible to eat a high fiber meal very quickly, so meals are longer and more filling. I eat dinner at about 5:00-ish, and I'm not hungry again all evening (I go to bed at 9:00). Most of the time, I don't eat lunch; but if I'm hungry, I'll eat something (usually a small portion of dinner leftovers). 

*Cutting way back on salt. I've never had high blood pressure, so I never paid much attention to sodium intake. Since I've been eating only whole foods this month, however, my sodium intake was cut drastically. I also scaled back on how much salt I cook with. I've noticed that my weight doesn't fluctuate much at all day-to-day and I think the sodium plays a big part. I used to swing 3-4 pounds overnight sometimes, depending on my dinner!

That's all I can think of right now. Overall, I think the switch to whole foods has had the most impact on my weight this month. My body feels *so* much better, too, and it's only been four weeks!

Continue Reading...

A Complete Daily Dozen

As I've said several times, my health focus for 2024 is to eat more vegetables. I've been really interested in Dr. David Greger's research and I *love* his books: "How Not To Die", "How Not To Diet", and now I'm listening to the audiobook of "How Not To Age". If I was a faster reader, I'd love to read them and take notes--but they are *very* long books. "How Not To Age" is over 24 hours on audiobook! They are fascinating, though, and loaded with research.

Dr. Greger has a list called the "Daily Dozen", which is a list of the ideal things to include in your diet each day. I love that he says it's an aspirational list and not to overthink it. (You know I'm a total overthinker.) I use it as a guide to push me in the right direction, but I don't expect to check off the entire list every day. Also, the list is meant to be the minimum intake. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat beyond what's on the list.

(The app is free and there aren't any ads or subscriptions or anything. Dr. Greger's work is non-profit because he doesn't have a hidden agenda--just a desire to learn and share facts from tons of research.)

On Saturday, I was so ready to get out of the house. Jerry and I went to Ann Arbor for Salvation Army, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. We don't have TJ's or WF near us, so it's kind of an event to go, hahaha. We bought the produce we'd need for the week as well as some odd and hard-to-find or unique ingredients.

Yesterday, I realized that I got in the whole Daily Dozen! I took pictures (sometimes I post pictures of memorable food in a private Instagram account) so I thought I'd share the day's eats on this post. First, here is the checklist (when you tap on each item in the app, it gives more specific info). I didn't log this into a calorie counting app, but a quick guesstimate for the day is about 1600 calories.

Breakfast was rolled oats (uncooked, because they just sounded better that way), blueberries, banana, flaxseed, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and soy milk. I usually eat Grape Nuts instead of oats, but since the oats are healthier, I'm going to try to have them more often. [As far as the list, this counted as whole grains, berries, another fruit, and flaxseed]

My latest obsession has been cucumbers with hummus--I cannot get enough! This counted as an "other" vegetable and two servings of beans.

Jerry bought me a few Asian pears that he'd found and this was the last one. Usually I eat fruit like apples and pears with the skin, but Asian pears have a tougher skin so I peel them. This counted as an "other" fruit.

Dinner was SO good! Ethiopian Collard Greens & Beans, from the "How Not To Diet" cookbook, served over red quinoa. Jerry and I both loved this. On the Daily Dozen, this checked off beans, whole grains, cruciferous vegetables, one "other" vegetable, and a ton of spices. I also had a small salad with it, which counted for my leafy greens.

These are all the spices that were in the dish above.

In the evening, I still needed one more fruit and nuts. Usually I have pistachios and an apple, but I was kind of full from dinner, so I had a few dates with almond butter.

My B12 supplement

I got in lots of water (recommended is six 12-oz glasses and I definitely reached that). This is the tumbler that Ava, Eli's girlfriend, gave me for Christmas. It makes me feel good <3

As far as exercise, I didn't count minutes (because that would be overthinking for me)--I just did my run in the morning and went for a walk later.

I really like the Daily Dozen app; it definitely helps me to think about my choices before I eat. And I've loved adding more vegetables where I can. Jerry has been enjoying it, too. He started a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) class yesterday. He loves HIIT and likes the structure of going to a class rather than doing it on his own. When he got home, he said that it was extremely humbling and it made him really want to be healthier, especially with his diet. Having him on board helps a lot!

Continue Reading...

Two Weeks of Whole Foods

I'm still struggling with things to write about. I've been wanting to put together a post of the dinners Jerry and I have been eating lately but I was hoping to wait until I have more photos. I'm starting to forget what some of these recipes even were, so I'll just go ahead and post them.

The main goal (for our two-week challenge) was to eat more vegetables, but it kind of turned into eating mainly whole foods. Both of us really loved doing this! It was interesting to see how much better we felt--physically and mentally--when eating foods our bodies like. And that was only two weeks!

I made most of the recipes from the How Not To Die and How Not To Diet cookbooks. I don't think there were any that we didn't like; both of those cookbooks have been awesome. Keep in mind that I am not-even-a-little-bit-good at food photography, so my pictures aren't exactly appealing, hahaha. There were actually a few that I'm not even going to post because it will make people never want to try things like black lentils and black bean soup!

Anyway, here are some of the ways we got more vegetables in...

Sweet Potato Waffles (I discovered that I use far less syrup if I put it in a little ramekin and dip the waffles as I eat rather than pouring it on top; I only used half of what is pictured)

I didn't mean to include this, but I definitely ate all of these Asian pears before they went bad! Haha. 

Sweet Potato Taco Bowl (brown rice, sweet potatoes, corn, black beans, seasoning)

Millet "Risotto" with mushrooms, spinach, and white beans (we didn't like this dish only because we didn't like the flavor of the millet itself; this would be good with a different grain)

I forget what this was called--I think it was some sort of stew--but it had barley, mushrooms, peppers, onions, carrots, and chickpeas.

Lentil & Quinoa Chili

I actually forget what this was, but it reminded me of a broccoli/cheese/rice casserole. It was good!

Sweet Potato Shawarma Bowl (quinoa with seasoned sweet potatoes and cauliflower; topped with lettuce, onions, cucumbers, and a homemade tahini dressing.

Stew with butternut squash, red beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. There is quinoa under there, too ;)

This was kind of our "junk food" dinner--tofu in a sriracha marinade and baked, along with baby potatoes with "chili cheese" seasoning. 

Again, I forget what this was called. But it had sweet potatoes, cauliflower, peas, peppers, and raisins (it sounded odd to me with the raisins, which is why I picked it from the book). I don't remember what grain was under there, but it was probably brown rice. This was really good!

Well, that was the start of Jerry's and my year of being grown-ups and eating our veggies. I had really hoped that this challenge would help Jerry to like vegetables more, and he discovered that he does like sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and cauliflower (when prepared certain ways). He even admitted the cucumber in the shawarma bowls actually worked well. He has never liked cucumbers because he said that they overpower everything else and all you can taste is cucumber. I happen to love them. I think I'll make some hummus today and have cucumbers and hummus for a snack--that sounds delicious.

Now, I'm going to write up a meal plan for the week. I used to hate meal planning, but this vegetable challenge kind of made me excited to meal plan again. I'm going to try kale again this week--it's been YEARS since I tried it--and I'm hoping I'll like it better this time around. When cooking with greens, I usually go for spinach or collard greens. Yesterday, Jerry and I decided to do another two weeks of eating (mostly) whole foods. We both felt gross from eating poorly after eating really well for two weeks.

Anyway, if you have a favorite recipe that uses lots of vegetables, please share!

Continue Reading...