Finding my Inner Vegetarian

Disclaimer – I am not a vegetarian, nor to I aspire to be. What I do aspire to is better overall health, less inflammation in my body, and a lower number on the scale. For that reason, I have been choosing to eat vegetarian meals for breakfast and lunch. I have been doing this mostly on weekdays, but I have been trying to do so on the weekends as well. I started with “clean eating” back in the last half of 2020, I’d say. I stopped eating most processed foods (let’s not forget that all cheese is processed, and I have not given that up), and because of that, slowly my diet has become more plant based. I have become more diligent about this since the beginning of the year ( 2 full weeks now), and already I feel better overall. My energy is better, I am less achy (that’s the inflammation going down), and my clothes are fitting more loosely. This is a winning lifestyle for me.

This week I prepped a play on the soup and sandwich combo. I made on a breakfast burrito (for lunch), but made it with tofu instead of eggs. It’s amazing, once you season and heat the mashed tofu, and mix it with a little turmeric, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast, it does looks just like eggs, and tastes like them too. I picked this dish because I had tofu in the house that I needed to use up, I like a burrito, and it just sounded like fun to me. You kind of can’t miss if you like sweet potatoes, zucchini, and red bell pepper. Here is the recipe: https://skinnyms.com/meal-prep-friendly-vegan-breakfast-burritos/. I will garnish these with a little salsa, and maybe a little avocado when I have them for lunch this week. The sweet potato is 3 points spread between 4 servings, and the Ole Whole Wheat Tortillas are 1 point on WW Blue Plan.

The soup I made today was born out of veggies I had hanging around in the fridge that needed to be used. I had almost a whole package of celery, so I looked up celery soups, and found this simple recipe: https://www.feastingathome.com/celery-soup/. I also used up my onions, most of my garlic, a few baby carrots I had in there, and the shredded zucchini I had left over from my burrito prep I had done earlier. The only new ingredient I bought for this was 1 Yukon gold potato (which is 2 points on WW Blue Plan). I kept the seasonings simple too, just S & P, and about a tablespoon of dried dill weed. I followed technique of the recipe, and used my immersion blender at the end to smooth it out. I decided against using the blender as shown in my photo.

In addition to my plant based meal plan, I have also kept up my exercise plan for the year so far. It’s a great NSV for me. As active as I am in general, it has been easy for me to make excuses for myself and skip days in the past. So far this year, I have either gone swimming or walking every single day. Even if I get home late from work, I walk for at least 15 minutes. My swims during the week are by reservation, so I just make sure I leave the office on time to make it there. If I have to go in early the next day to make up time, that’s an easy trade off for me.

I want to quickly share last week’s meal prep with you. It was also a soup and sandwich combo. This was a garbanzo bean salad done tuna salad style on a light English muffin, and a pureed roasted cauliflower and artichoke soup, inspired by my fabulous SIL, Cynthia. Here are the recipes: https://goop.com/recipes/chickpea-tuna-salad/, and https://food52.com/recipes/26788-roasted-cauliflower-artichoke-soup. Both were delicious, and this was a very filling meal.

I hope I have inspired you to try something new today, and to think more about what you are putting into your body, besides just low point foods. Eating clean is actually less expensive than buying processed convenience foods, even if they are low points. Clean foods are naturally low in points, calories, fat, and salt. And clean foods don’t have to be all plant based either. Lean animal proteins and fish are also delicious, clean eats, and don’t have to be expensive.

Thank you for stopping by today. Your comments, questions, and critiques are always welcome.

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