*la dieta

You probably know I love books and documentaries about food, whole food, healthy food, food politics... anything that gets me fired up against corn syrup and cheetos-like substances.  My favorite book is probably Omnivore's Dilemma - I love that it's not radical or unobtainable to follow his advice: eat food, mostly plants, not too much.  I've always tried to eat healthier, non-processed food, but I fully admit that am often lazy and will have a spoonful of peanut butter with my yerba mate instead of taking the time to make a salad.  Or I eat the rest of the girls' honey toast or mac and cheese. Or I eat not one but two raspberry bars at the bakery or go back for thirds of ice cream [hypothetical ;)].  This needs to change.

So anyway, last year at some point I watched Forks over Knives [thank you, Jenise!] and it really made me evaluate what we eat.  Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you should!  The last month or so I have made a serious effort to change our eating habits and even Ben is [almost] completely on board.  Instead of one "Meatless Monday", I am trying to make as many meals as I can revolve around vegetables and legumes, whole grains [sorry, I just don't like the idea of this paleo diet everyone's on!] and try to limit butter, cheese, extra oils, white anything, sugar... *  I do truly believe it is healthier to limit meats + dairy and also it is not as expensive.  I had the E2 cookbook out from the library last week and got a few ideas, as well as some I've found elsewhere and from my own head. I seriously need to just overhaul many of my go-to regular meals.  Here are a few winners that I am going to go back to.  If any of you friends have any vegetable heavy meal ideas, please let me know!

-this kale salad [seriously it was so good and filling! I had some carrots and hummus with it and wasn't even hungry later on]
-green curry with chicken or broiled tofu, green beans, peppers, spinach...
-chickpeas [I made them from dried beans for the first time - so much better!!] mixed with a pico de gallo type salad, cider vinegar, diced potatoes.  I got this idea from an Indian buffet we went to a few weeks ago. So fresh and delicious!
-salad as the main course. my favorites are spinach with goat cheese and steamed beets and pinenuts, spinach/kale with roasted butternut squash [thank you again, Jen], feta and walnuts.  I've served it on top of quinoa or brown rice so it's more filling and we are less tempted to eat before bed [on these nights I basically separate the salad into parts on their plates and add mac and cheese or sliced turkey or just something healthy so they fill up].
-Ina's Winter Minestrone with added kale [I guess minus the pancetta...]
-black eyed peas + rice + avocado + spinach + parsley/cilantro + salsa verde
-black bean burgers from the E2 cookbook... made these tonight for the first time - I loved it, Ben thought it was pretty good [I think he just didn't want to admit it was really good :)], Vera said she didn't like it but ate it all without prodding, Edie liked it enough to eat half.
-miso soup with bok choy, watercress, tofu [I haven't done this one yet, but will once I find this amazing miso paste that Rosie used to bring from CA...]
-lime-pozole-tortilla-like soup with or without chicken.
-black bean+sweet potato+spinach burritos

*I am not going to completely cut out these things because I enjoy food :)