Greetings!
I loved reading your I Believe comments from this morning…what an amazing bunch you are.
I forgot something from my I Believe list this morning…
I Believe…
- The key to a happy relationship is telling your partner one specific thing you appreciate about them and why, every single day.
This applies to all kinds of relationships…romantic, family, friendship, co-workers, etc. Everyone loves to be appreciated!
When I tell Eric something that I appreciate about him I can literally see his entire face light up with pride. Sometimes all someone needs is a ‘I notice what you do and I thank you for it.’ Now, go on and tell someone in your life how much you appreciate them!
In other news, I could not fathom eating anything cooked/hot/heated up today. It was another scorcher! I was cooking myself and needed to be cooled off…
LUNCH:
2 pieces of Eziekel bread with 1 cup of tomato curry chickpeas. I used 1 cup chickpeas + 2-3 tbsp tomato paste + 1/4 tsp Arvinda’s curry masala spice.
[Ok, ok I lied…the bread was toasted!]
+ Purslane Green Monster made up of 2 cups of Purslane, 1 cup almond milk, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp raw maca powder, ice, ice baby. The cinnamon was fabulous and I didn’t even need any fruit! I can’t believe I have not been adding cinnamon to my Green Monsters all this time. I will also be adding some cinnamon to my next batch of Vegan Overnight Oats too. I remember how much I enjoyed it when Eric made me some and I totally forgot about it.
I am loving Purslane greens in my Green Monsters!
The Purslane is so energizing, largely in part to all the wonderful omega oils and antioxidants it provides. I felt on fire this afternoon and cranked through over 200 Glo Bars baked, packaged, labeled, and boxed up!
Today is our Plan B CSA day which means scarfing some major veggies to make room for the new box! If you need some motivation to eat more veggies I highly recommend getting a CSA share. Eric and I eat more veggies now than we ever have. Surprisingly, I think we have ended up saving money because we have cut down our grocery store trips by half and we aren’t making those impulse purchases like before.
Everything But The Kitchen Sink Salad
Ingredients:
- Greens = Spinach + Mixed greens
- 2 small carrots
- 1 large tomato
- 1 large avocado
- 1 huge green onion stalk
- 1.5 cups snow peas
- Dried parsley, to garnish
- Freshly ground black pepper, to garnish
- Better than bottled balsamic vinaigrette
Awesome salad! The snow peas were a nice addition!
On the side we each had a slice of cold pie…IN A JIFFY VEGGIE PIE!
I had mine on a bed of TJ’s Habanero and lime salsa.
It was a great dinner!
Dessert was the last of the Cherry, Banana, and coconut butter bread. I am fighting tears as I type this.
This was the defrosted leftovers and it was even more moist and gooey than before. It was so doughy…I was in love!
Just look at that gooey bread!
For Eric, this gooey bread was a texture nightmare.
He stuck to his ‘dry’ mini loaves that I cooked the hell out of last week (he just loves them though!).
To each their own. :tongue:
Healthy Eating: A Love Affair With The Kitchen
Recently, I received an email from a reader named ‘Krista’ telling me about all of these wonderful changes she has made to her health. One of the things that Krista mentioned was that since she has started eating healthier, she spends so much more time in the kitchen prepping vegetables, washing dishes/new appliances, and cooking among other things. She didn’t say that this was a bad thing necessarily, as she enjoys it for the most part, she just thought it was interesting to point out how much more time is required to eat healthy.
Oh did this email hit home with me!
I thought this was such an interesting point about how healthy eating requires not only a commitment to EAT healthier foods, but it involves a commitment to spend the time to prepare healthier foods.
As you can imagine, I spend hours and hours in the kitchen, not only because I run a bakery, but because I prepare and cook most of my meals. Eating healthy is a huge time commitment- there is the washing, drying, chopping, roasting, sautéing, prepping, packing, planning, shopping, DISH WASHING, APPLIANCE WASHING (damn you, juicer!!!!!!), cooking flops (story of my life), etc. Eric always jokes that I should put Professional Dish Washer (P.D.W.) on my resume because I wash so many dishes and so many appliances each day.
Because my time is limited, I rely on very quick and simple recipes. That is why you will rarely see me whip up a meal that takes longer than 15-20 minutes. Over time, I have figured out what will work for me. While some days the last thing I want to do is prepare a healthy meal for myself, often I enjoy the satisfaction that comes with creating healthy meals that I can feel good about.
Can you relate to having to spend more time in the kitchen to eat healthier? Do you spend more time in the kitchen now than in the past? What are your time-saving tricks to limit the amount of time it takes to eat healthy?
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story
Eating healthy takes A LOT of work. We prep food ahead of time and on top of that it is expensive. But it IS worth it. It was the number one thing that my clients never wanted to do – prep their food, but it is the best way to stay consistent!
Healthy eating takes extra effort besides punching some buttons on the microwave, but your body and energy levels will so much appreciate it!
So true, I would have to say eating healthy makes me enjoy cooking!
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, preparing my meals, but I don’t mind. I love to cook, and I love to eat healthy foods even more. So it’s a win win situation :)
I spend SO much time in the kitchen and I have a pretty tiny one. I can’t wait to have a house with a larger kitchen so all of my appliances can have a special home! :) Being healthy does require time and money (especially if you eat organic) but the pay off is so worth it!
I’m in the same boat! I have less space on my kitchen counter than on my small desk at work! Oh the joys of living alone in a bachelor apartment. :P
-Alison
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen because I make everything from scratch and refuse to eat processed or pre-packaged stuff that has mystery ingredients in it (I do keep emergency organic pasta sauce in the back of the cupboard thought!). I find that because I use a lot of fresh ingredients though, my midweek meals don’t take very long to cook (20-30 mins max) because I want to preserve the flavours of the veggies themselves by not cooking them for too long. I also make soups on the weekend to freeze and have for midweek lunches (or dinner after soccer training which finishes late). Weekends are also time for more involved dinners – pizza dough from scratch, etc.
I also wash my juicer immediately after making juice – before I even drink the juice! This saves time because it cleans really easily when you do it straight away.
I am constantly thinking about food and recipes though! My commutes to work and my runs are just an excuse for me to plan what I’m going to cook with my veggie box delivery for that week!
haha I am the same way- constantly thinking about new recipes. It is so fun.
I too try to wash my juicer quickly (but after photoshoot and drinking it!). ;) I have left it a couple times and was not a happy camper cleaning it.
I LOVE all the cooking and baking it takes to eat healthy! I even love washing my vitamix, my food processor and my good pan. :)
Jason cannot stand gooey bread either – he picks up the dog and tells me “cook it until it’s this brown”
:)
Umm can I hire you? lol
Great post!
Love affair is right! I started eating healthier at school, coincidentally when I lived in my own apartment and was the only one of my housemates that used the kitchen. Now, as I find myself busier and spending more time outside of the house, I’m having some trouble figuring out how to keep up those healthy habits aka lots of greens and vegetables. Even the changes in my physical appearance (weight gain that is minor… but still) aren’t enough to get me back to cook, cook, cookin’ and for some reason, I have not been craving salads all that much. It’s okay though, I guess, because ultimately… I believe that I deserve to be healthy :) no matter what the circumstances. This morning’s post was life-changing, by the way. It just may be my most favorite one yet. Thank you!
Glad you liked the post!
I think you have a great mindset with your current situation. It will work itself out! There are always these ‘blips’ on the radar along the road to health.
Eating healthy definitely takes more time and patience to prepare everything. However, eating healthy can be completely simple and quick too–with no preparation at all aside from washing fruits and veggies for snacks. For me, I tend to have 2 big kitchen days where I prep/cut veggies, make a fruit salad, food process some onion and garlic for the week, and bake about 2 dozen muffins for breakfasts. Doing these things help make other days easier and quicker.
I try my best to cook healthy meals every night for dinner, but the reality is is that sometimes, specifically here in Korea, it is a lot cheaper to go out and eat than it is to buy groceries. So going out for a quick meal is quite tempting on those days when I am tired. On a positive note, Korean cuisine is quite healthy, so I can’t complain too much.
I spend a lot more time in the kitchen now that I am blogging!!!! Eating healthy means more time in the kitchen, but I LOVE it!! The kitchen is one of my favourite places to be :-)
I definitely spend more time in the kitchen but.. I love it! Cooking and baking happen to be something that I find enjoyable and that I’m naturally good at so any time in the kitchen is lovely. A dirty little secret of mine is that.. I … actually enjoy washing and drying dishes! It’s relaxing and lets me unwind – putting music on makes it even better. The only thing is that I wish I was more creative in the kitchen instead of always following recipes.
I need to start playing music when I wash dishes!
While I wouldn’t say the kitchen is my favorite place to be…I do enjoy it more than I used to! Either way it’s worth the extra time and effort to feel good about my health!
I almost always cook up more than I can eat in a sitting so that I can have leftovers in the fridge. It’s so nice to just walk in and heat up leftovers when I’m feeling especially tired…or especially busy!
Angela, I have a question that I hope you wont mind answering.
It’s completely out of the blue but you mentioned earlier on in your blog days that Eric isnt a vegan. I was wondering, does he eat meat with his coworkers or something? or will he ask you to prep a bit of meat on the side for him?
Sorry, I just randomly thoguht about this and had to ask. :) Hope you dont mind
Yup he still eats meat once and a while…he goes out to eat every day at work and will have meat once a week or so maybe. Also he also BBQ’s meat on the grill when he gets the craving.
It does take more time to eat healthy meals, but it is so worth it. So many bad for you foods are prepackaged and ready to eat or cook (think: frozen food aisle, Pop tarts, instant noodles). If you want a balanced meal it takes effort to combine all those ingredients. I could throw a frozen dinner in the oven, wait 30 minutes, wash one cookie sheet or I could pull out a pot and make my own mashed potatoes, baked chicken, and whatever veggie I wanted. Not to mention most of those tv dinners have corn as the veggie. Corn is tasty but there are much more nutritious options out there if you just make the meal yourself.
I love cooking my own meals but I have to agree about the dishes. SO MANY DISHES!! Arthur always gasps and asks “Where did they all come from!?” I told him I have to do dishes everyday or else there just becomes too many and he thought I was crazy. Good to know I’m not alone! ;)
If you saw my kitchen sink/dishwasher you’d think the Brady Bunch lived here! lol
I definitely spend more time in the kitchen now that I’m eating healthier. I find I like one-pot meals like stews and chili. Of course, this time of year isn’t the best for those, but that hasn’t stopped me!
One thing I love about preparing my own food is the financial savings. I try calculating the costs of meals and they are usually just a couple of dollars each if that! Compared to a restaurant meal (which, for a vegetarian, often means pasta), it’s like 20% of the cost. That warms my frugal heart :)
Ok, next time I bake the Coconut Cherry Banana bread, I am intentionally under-baking it. Yours looks amazing!
mmmm cant wait to hear how you like it!
Since starting my blog back in April, it’s amazing how different my eating and food prep have changed. Suddenly, I’m held accountable for the foods that I’m eating, so I better make them look tasty! And whereas I used to often just grab a quick yogurt & granola bar for breakfast on the go – totally a thing of the past. But honestly, I can’t even imagine going back! Yes, eating healthy does take extra work for sure, but it’s worth every minute. :)
I can relate to this so much. The blog has totally transformed the way I eat, cook, display, etc.
Yes! I spend more time in the kitchen but I cook in bulk on Sundays and just reheat or eat cold the rest of the week. I like the creative space and time for cooking but during the week I’m tired and I need a quick, healthy meal.
Yes! Eating healthier often does mean more time in the kitchen, but if you know you are going to eat many veggie filled meals throughout the week, it’s easiest to cut them all up on Sunday and parse them out in tupperware containers so you’re ready to go. Tofu meals are always much faster than meat, which is great as well :)
Oh and the best part of being in the kitchen longer, is that nice glass of wine I drink while cooking!
I need to start adding some wine to my cooking…hehe
YES! It’s such an enjoyable ‘me’ time and I feel like once I relax I allow myself to think more out of the box and usually end up with some pretty fun recipes!