So what was the hardest thing to give up when we changed our diet to plant-based?  Cheese! Oh did I crave the cheese!  And every vegi-based cheese we found either tasted like cardboard or had milk casein in it.  Daiya cheese is wonderful.  It tastes and melts just like regular cow’s milk cheese.  You want to know what I missed even more than cheese?  Macaroni and cheese!  OH MY GOODNESS I used to eat that stuff by the pound as child.  It hurt to let that one go.  We tried a few recipes we found here and there but none were good and creamy.  It was more like plain noodles with some cheese clumps spread around a bit.  Blah!

Thankfully my very creative husband came to the rescue.  He served what might be the absolute best creamy mac n’ cheese I’ve ever had… even in all my years as a dairy consumer.  My children DEVOURED it!  Ezra had 3 bowls!  It was crazy!  I admit I was miffed… I wanted LEFT OVERS so I could enjoy again another day.  One bite and I knew I had to share it all with  you.  So here you go!  Mac N’ Cheese without all of the artery clogging cholesterol and inflammation causing cow’s milk!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 3/4 cup of Daiya Cheddar Cheese
• 3/4 cup of Daiya Mozzarella Cheese
• 2 tbs dairy free sour cream (Tofuti)
• 2 tbs diary free cream cream cheese (Tofuti)
• 1 box of pasta of your choice

Cook pasta according to package directions.  In a separate pan mix vegetable broth, cream cheese, and sour cream.  Whisk it all together.  Heat over medium and start adding the Daiya stirring frequently until thick.  You can add more broth for a thinner sauce or more cheese for a thicker sauce.  Mix with your pasta and serve.

If you do indeed whip up this recipe please share the results with me.  I want to hear if you loved it as much as I did.

For some reason no one cared where we got our protein from before we switched our diet.  But now EVERYONE cares.  It’s the number one questions we are asked.  Do you know there is plenty of protein in plants?  But more specifically a little cup of beans contains as much protein as an entire steak, minus the fat, cholesterol, calories, and horrible impact on the environment   Oh, and it is DELICIOUS!

• 1 cup of cooked quiona
• 15 oz black beans mashed
• A bunch of spices like ketchup, garlic powder, onion powder, steak seasoning, and whatever else you have in your cabinet.

Mush all of the ingredients together into patties and cook them up on a skillet.  We try very hard to avoid oils and fats so we just put a little thin layer of water in the pan.  We might use Daiya cheese on the top.  It helps the cheese melt a bit better to cover the burger’s for a minute or two.

Top them however you wish and serve them up!  It’s really that easy!  And oh man are they good!

It’s been a year since we switched to a plant-based diet.  Our health and our life has improved tremendously in that time.  I’ll have to share more on that later.  In the meantime I wanted to share with you one of our newest meals! It’s a twist on an old tried true and recipe that I grew up with… Stuffed Peppers!  The stuffed peppers I ate as a child were definitely meat filled. Quite obviously if I’m talking about it on this blog than you can be assured there will be no meat in these puppies.  This recipe actually originally came from my friend Shannon.  She shared what she was serving her family on her Facebook page.  I took her recipe, adapted it to suit our family’s diet, and asked her if I could share it with you!  She graciously gave me permission.

So this is what you’ll need:

• Sweet Peppers (Shannon used mini ones and we used large ones – I think the mini  ones might be more fun!).  For our family of 5, seven or eight peppers were plenty, enough for leftovers the next day.
• A cup and a half of quinoa
• A can of chickpeas
• A cup of spinach
• A cup of Daiya dairy free cheddar cheese – a little more might be even better.
• So-Delicious Coconut Greek Yogurt – we used about 6oz. but next time we might double or even triple that.
• Then you can add a few garlic cloves, onion powder oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme and anything else you might like.

What To Do!

You’ll need to precook the quinoa then combine it with the chickpeas, spinach and anything else you decide to toss in there.  Mix all of that together and fill up those peppers.  Then stick them in the oven at 350 degrees and cook for a half an our or so.  Make sure it’s good and hot and those peppers are as soft as you like them!  Cut them up and serve!

The Verdict!

I had 3 very very happy little children!  Every one loved it!  Plates were scraped clean and everyone cheered!  Seriously they loved it that much!  So did I!  I love that this is packed with protein and lots of very good for you vitamins.  The calorie count is low and that is good for those with that concern.  It is a bright and beautifully colored meal to serve too!  Very healthy and very tasty.   Actually I’m off to have the leftovers right now!

If you make this up please share with me how it comes out and how to change it up for your family!

Once upon a time I had a problem. I suffered from this problem all of my adult life. I think the first time I recognized the problem was when I was a college student. What was that problem? Every single afternoon at around 2:00 I CRASHED! I became so stinking exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open. I became useless. All true productivity ended for several hours.

In college the solution was easy. I scheduled my classes around it and took a nap! Later on when I became a teacher I just powered through it. As a mom I started hunting down a cup of coffee.

Then in February we changed our eating habits! We lost the meat and dairy products and switched to a whole-foods plant-based diet. In a few days I became like a new person. My energy level SHOT THROUGH THE ROOF! I no longer felt as if I was going just keel over every afternoon. I started to actually be able to keep my eyes open as I read to my children. I found I had the get up and go to get up and go take my children to the playground or the library or the museum. What an amazing difference. I do believe it is my lunch choices that directly impacts my afternoon energy level.

So what do I eat for lunch these days? I prefer a hot meal if I can manage it but I don’t usual have the time to make one so we often eat the leftovers from another night’s dinner. Other days I have to take the time to put something together whether I like it not. I wanted to share with you one of my favorites. I call it the kitchen sink wrap. It is pretty simple, extremely healthy, and absolutely delicious!

I begin with a big green leaf. It might be kale or perhaps chard. I use that as the outside wrap instead of bread or anything else. I fill it with everything but the kitchen sink… otherwise known as every vegetable in the house. Raw carrots, celery, peppers, lettuce, onions. broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, and of course salsa! Do you know I eat about 4 and a half pounds of salsa a week? Ask my husband. The world stops if we don’t have salsa in the house. I don’t use mayonnaise or salad dressing or butter or anything like that very much at all any more. I use SALSA! YUM!

So I encourage you to stop and think about how your food choices are impacting you all day! I challenge you to make some changes and see if you can tell a difference.  In the end it is all YUM so how can you go wrong?