A Glimpse into our Diet

I‘ve had so many questions since I made my WHY WE MADE A CHANGE blog post this Fall.   A lot of people have asked that I do a follow-up post with meal ideas and for a glimpse into “a day of my diet.”  I have tried to take some pictures when I remember after cooking or making snacks, so I can share with y’all some of our favorite foods to eat.  I hope this is helpful!  I recently posted on my Facebook page that I had been reflecting a lot lately  on all that’s happened the last two years. Two years ago on January 1st 2017, I made a decision that changed my life and my family’s life. I decided to give up eating meat, make a change in my health and I started a new fitness routine. I was trying to lose the last of my baby weight and feel better. Flash forward to 2 years later, and I’ve never felt better or happier. My family and I now eat a plant based diet and have never been healthier. I have some BIG goals for 2019 for my fitness and diet and I can’t wait to rock them. Who’s with me?! I love continuing to push myself and become a better version of myself. And, I definitely have to give a special shout out to my amazing trainer who’s helped transform my body and make me stronger – Ryan Mosley – you’re the absolute best & I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without you! 2019, I’ve got some big plans for you!




Meal Planning:
I don’t stress about meal planning like I use to.  I can credit that 100% to Purple Carrot.  We have been using Purple Carrot religiously every week for a year and a half now.  I have a few free boxes to send out, so email me asap if you want to try it out for one week!  Every week I know I will be getting a box of three (3) 100% plant based meals.  That takes care of 3 dinners for the entire week!  They say that it only feeds 2 people, but let me tell you, all 5 of us can eat each meal.  We don’t have left-overs, but we aren’t a big left-over eating family anyways. Occasionally we will have to throw in some extra quinoa or farro for grains or extra buns if we are making burgers.  But, it isn’t that big of a deal.    We enjoy making 1 or 2 of the meals over the weekend when we have more time to enjoy them all together as a family.  And, I usually make at least 1 of them during the week.  That only leaves 2 weekdays to figure out dinner for our family and for those 2 days I can do one of our stand by meals of pasta and veggies and a Mexican night ( my kids LOVE a Taco Tuesday! ).  We usually eat out one night a week.  


Here are some ideas for what we ( my entire family)  eats for meals on a weekly basis.  If I don’t list specific items or ingredients, shoot me an email and I will for sure help you buy the right stuff that I promise is yummy!  


BREAKFAST:


-1 mashed avocado + the juice of 1 lime + pink Himalayan salt + pepper.  Marcus and I like to eat this plain, but my girls love it spread on a bagel or bread ( vegan bread ).  For any guacamole lover, this is a dream come true for breakfast and seriously so delicious!  We go through probably 10 avocados a week!


-Raw Fruit.  There is an extremely interesting article that I encourage you to read about fruit and what it does for your digestion system if you consume it at the right time.  We try to wake up and eat only raw fruit before eating other items. ( Pineapple, melon, strawberries, grapefruit, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc).  With my new diet + fitness goals, I am trying to get in the habit of eating smaller meals throughout the day, so this works well when focusing on fruit:
FRUITS DO NOT MIX WELL WITH OTHER TYPES OF FOOD


-Protein Shakes.  I love VEGA and my kids love Daily Sunshine by Shakeology.  My girl 
Stephanie can hook you up with the Daily Sunshine if you’re interested.  

-Overnight Oats  ( we use our Pea milk )  My younger two kids go crazy over this oatmeal instead of cereal in the morning!

–Vegan pancakes ( I usually add fresh blueberries or I will do bananas+ peanut butter ).  I try to make a batch of these every weekend.  We switched from maple syrup to Agave Nectar for pancakes and my kids don’t even care.  They love the Agave Nectar!  There is also a plant-based sausage – Field Roast Apple Maple sausage that our kids go nuts over!   It’s a plant-based sausage made with apple, maple, potatoes.  Soo good!

**Side notes**

I encourage you to refresh your pantry and baking supplies by making a few changes that will go a long way with getting healthier!!

-Throw out cane sugar and use COCONUT sugar for a substitute 
( for all baking!!)
-Throw out table salt and replace with PINK HIMILYAN SALT for all cooking and baking
-Throw out white flour and replace with WHOLE WHEAT or GLUTEN FREE FLOUR for all cooking and baking!
-Throw out all canola or soybean oil and ONLY use AVOCADO OIL, COCONUT OIL and SESAME OIL for baking and cooking.  Olive oil is ok for making dresses, but shouldn’t be used to cook or bake at high heats.  We use AVOCADO oil for 95% of all cooking and baking.

LUNCH:


-Salads ( LOVE making fresh salads with added hemp hearts + pepitas for added protein!  )  Our favorite salad dressing right now is PRIMAL KITCHEN Lemon Tumeric Avocado Oil dressing.  You can make a big salad on Sunday for the week and then use the extra veggies for lunch boxes.  My kids love peppers, carrots and cucumbers.


-Wraps – my kids love hummus or vegan pesto wraps with some raw veggies + red wine vinegar.  


-Good old PB sandwich or PB or Almond butter with bananas or apples.  We LOVE nut butters.


-Mexican Bowl with Quinoa or Farro or rice, black beans or chickpeas, guacamole, salsa, tomatoes, cashew queso.


-Coconut Milk Yogurt + Hemp seeds + fruit


-Crispy baked kale.  My kids literally fight over this.  Just bake kale with avocado oil + pink Himalayan salt + pepper.  They don’t love cooked kale or kale in a salad but if it’s crunchy baked kale, they go crazy.


-Leftover Lemon Pasta for a cold pasta salad.  


DINNER:


-PURPLE CARROT !!!

-Taco Tuesday!  My kids LOVE Italian flavored Seitan or Jackfruit  and then we fill our tacos or wraps ( I love Siete almond flour wraps! ) with guacamole ( homemade! ), salsa, beans, lettuce, etc.

-Lemon Pasta + peas.  My kids request lemon pasta every day!  We love the TOLERANT brand of Red Lentil Pasta. Or Chickpea pasta. Each serving of the Red Lentil kind has 21 grams of protein!  And then for the sauce we squeeze 3 lemons + zest + Pink Himalayan Salt + pepper and Vegan Parmesan cheese ( PARMA brand )

-I love making different veggie soups in the winter.  Veggie broth + ancient grains + lentils and add in any veggies I have on hand!  Make it thicker with coconut cream if you want a creamy based soup.

Yummy Purple Carrot Dinner full of veggies

This was a picture of my lunch in Disney World! A veggie Mexican bowl with rice, black beans and squash.  I was surprised at how well we were able to eat Disney.  Lots of plant-based options.  If you’re going to Disney, let me know and I can email you an article of every single restaurant there that has Vegan options and “hidden menu” items.

Soup!

Lunches!

Vegan Blueberry Muffins + raspberries + avocado + lime

Love these snack crackers from Whole Foods. They also have a Carrot + Maple

The milk we drink.  LOVE it.

Snacks.  These Brami flavored beans are amazing!

We love chickpeas and pumpkin seeds for snacking

My kids literally put this on everything and it’s locally made!  No added canola oil or bad ingredients.

My girls love their Lara bars.  Blakesley and I also love the High protein gomacro bars.

More snack options. KIDS VITAMINS