nutritarian living

here are some of the yummy, healthy, vegan/nutritarian meals and snacks we've been eating this month. so good. the girls have been absolute troopers and hardly complained at all! so glad i'm doing this while they're young.
1.10-chickpeas and assorted veggies for lunch(this was ok but not our favorite and won't likely be repeated.)

1.11-we almost always start our day with a 'green' smoothie. it's loaded with fruits and veggies and is delicious. and super healthy. this is river's smoothie face every morning! :)
that night for dinner we had sauteed mushrooms, red peppers and onions. the girls scarfed it and were sad i didn't make more than i had. we repeated it a couple of days later with double or triple the amount. yum.
they noshed on raw red peppers while the meal cooked.
i made another smoothie that night to go with dinner because we love them so much! delicious!
1.13-snack-a banana spread with either natural peanut butter(just peanuts) or almond butter and craisins. it's a favorite!
1.16-snack-pink lady apples with natural peanut butter and cutie oranges. another favorite.
dinner-this has been one of our favorite dinners! a portabello 'burger'. the portabello was our bun. then we put a layer of red pepper hummus, a layer of shredded carrots, a slice of onion, some guacamole and some cucumbers. so juicy and delicious. we could have each had another but we didn't have the stuff to make more. the peaches were also yummy!

1.19-this is an absolute favorite! vegan tacos. yum. kg rocked it with these. flower ate 3, maybe more and river had a couple as well. so good.
1.22-the bountiful basket sure makes eating nutritarian easier. look at all that goodness!

our fridge loaded with only healthy nutritarian items.1.23-i spent sunday in the kitchen using up all the veggies from our bountiful basket making six different soups. they were all so delicious!

onion mushroom

cream of asparagus

corn and potato chowder

butter nut squash soup

millet eggplant soup

vegan stew

the mushroom one was my favorite, the asparagus my least favorite but all of them good!

here are things i've noticed so far as of 1/23/11-after two weeks
-kg lost 6 pounds
-i lost 4 pounds.
-my post nasal drip has decreased significantly.
-it's hard to explain but i feel fresh, like from the inside out. it's almost a strange feeling. i'm just comfortable.
-i feel good when i wake up. i'm just ready to be up now. i don't need to lay there hoping for more sleep. my eyes don't hurt anymore when i wake up and the pressure behind them is gone. my hands also don't hurt anymore when i wake up.
-my hips don't hurt for the first time in i don't know how long.
-the foggy brain has significantly diminished!
-i have more energy
-flower's eczema is almost gone! this amazes me. for the first time in 4 years, after using so much medication and cream, it's almost gone. i rarely see her scratching herself now! and her skin hasn't bleed since a few days after we started. awesome!
-river is sleeping better. her skin rash is also gone.

one of the things that has most astounded me is how good i feel knowing my girls are eating so well! it brings me great satisfaction to know that i'm filling them up with such wholesome, nutrient dense food. and that i'm teaching them such good eating habits at a young age. on a side note, i've always fed them better than i've fed myself(hence them not being overweight) because i feel like as a parent that's my job and i owe that to them. like we've never purchased fruit snacks, or snacky type food. we've never bought juice so they absolutely love water. chocolate milk, juice and soda are a very very rare treat. we go for natural granola bars instead of chocolate covered ones. but there was still plenty of room for improvement and i didn't realize it until now. and i'm surprised how good it makes me feel to feed them this way.

don't get me wrong it's had it's tough moments. i've had my cravings but i think they are more associated with what we are doing, like movie night, and our family habits and traditions, far more than meaning i'm hungry. i also feel like i'm more in control of my food choices now so it's easier to pick the healthier option. our first movie night i threw some frozen strawberries in the blender with some fresh lemon juice and we had a strawberry lemonade smoothie that was delicious, healthy and made us forget about the caramel corn.

so two weeks in and we are well on our way. so far i've been surprised that i haven't had more withdrawal symptoms like i've had in the past when i've given up sugar. but i think now i've given it up AND eating healthy so i'm sure my body isn't missing anything.

be back soon with more details!