My Plant-Based Family

Feeding My Family a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet, On a Budget

Holly Yzquierdo

Are You Ready for a Change?

by Leave a Comment

Are you ready to change your life? If not what will it take; sky high cholesterol or blood pressure, too much weight that won’t go anywhere, or a dire diagnosis?

I’ve been speaking to a lot of people lately who are interested in making the switch to a plant-based diet and I can assure you it is not as difficult as you may think. For the next few weeks I’ll focus on the “how to’s” of making a change to a plant-based diet. Topics will include Tossing the Junk, How to Shop, Eating Out, What to Eat, plus the usual Meal Plans and recipes.

So what are you waiting for?

On a side note I’ve been traveling since the middle of last week so my blogging has been a bit irregular. Next week I’ll be back in a in a routine and return to the regularly scheduled program. 😉

Tomatoes

by Leave a Comment

It is happening, first with mushrooms and now with tomatoes.

My whole life I have loathed the taste of tomatoes. I liked tomato products like ketchup, salsa, and marinara. I did not like raw tomatoes at all or huge chunks of cooked tomatoes. Blech!

A few weeks ago I went to favorite pizza place of ours and ordered the vegetarian pizza without cheese. It came out with LARGE AND IN CHARGE pieces of tomatoes on top. I psyched myself up and took a bite of this tomato laden pizza and enjoyed it.

That was the first time I enjoyed tomatoes. Ever! I have since made french bread pizza’s with tomatoes, Italian Bake, “taco” salad, and a host of other tomato-full foods. I’m not planning on snacking on whole tomatoes anytime soon but who knows!

Do you have a surprise food you like after years of revulsion?

Gratituesday: A Change of Pace

by Leave a Comment

We’ve been spending a few days visiting family. Even though traveling brings it’s own work it has been nice to avoid laundry, dishes, and the normal household chores.
I’m grateful for the time we got to share with family. My boys loved spending time outside running around with their grandparents. They also got to see aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents, and one of my great friends and her family.

Checking out the tractor

20120424-111132.jpg
Climbing fence

20120424-111847.jpg
Picking leaves

20120424-111931.jpg
Enjoying more wide open space than they have ever seen

20120424-112023.jpg

You Are Invited

by Leave a Comment

I will not be posting a Meal Plan this week but you can visit the Meal Plan Section to see all of the previous Meal Plans.

Instead I’d like to invite you to join Ann from An Unrefined Vegan (she is one of my favorite vegan bloggers) and many other bloggers from around the world for the Virtual Vegan Potluck. Next Monday is the the deadline to sign up, the potluck is on May 12th.

I hope you’ll join us!

Snacking While Traveling

by Leave a Comment

We have not taken a family trip since before we went to a Plant-Based Diet. A lot of the fun of our trips was related to food. We would pack a ton of snacks and stop at gas stations and buy tons more. Once we little one’s came along we had to be intentional about buy them healthy and kid friendly snacks because there was no way I would feed my precious babies the garbage we were eating. 😉

Another tradition that will continue is making a freezing PB&J’s or AB&J’s. They slowly defrost throughout the day for a quick and timely lunch. We pack easy to eat fruit and crackers, dried fruit and trail mix has always been a big hit with us. 

This year we will take Go Go squeeZ. GoGo squeeZ is applesauce in little handy pouches, I know you’ve seen them. They are easy to use because they require no dishes, perfect for my 3 year old. (They are a much better deal at Costco so if you have a membership buy them there instead of a regular store.) Additionally they are all natural and gluten, nut, and dairy free.

I’ll share my experience of traveling with kids and eating a Plant-Based diet in a few weeks, but for now I seek your advice. What would you take on a trip?

If you follow My Plant-Based Family on Facebook you will get to see how it is going in real time because somethings are just to funny to wait. 

How Much is that Muffin in the Window

by Leave a Comment

One of the stores I shop at most often is called Fresh & Easy and it is indeed fresh and easy. It is the closes store to my house. I could walk there if I had to but I usually just stop in on my way home. I can get in and out in 15 minutes and that is if I go down every isle. They are usually well stocked with almond and coconut milk (although they have stopped carrying soy creamer-BOO!) They have fresh produce and an amazing clearance section. They also have a lot of ready made foods that are pretty darn good, including their spicy hummus, yum!

Recently they started carrying some vegan muffins made with super food. I’ve wanted to try them but I did want to spend the money if I didn’t like them. A good friend of mine bought some yesterday and brought them to our Bible study. I was excited to get a taste but I acted cool and didn’t pounce on them immediately. After a few more minutes had passed I put one on my plate, peeled back the paper and took a small bite. I can not tell you how glad I was that it was only a small bite because they tasted awful. There was no hiding the look on my face although I did refrain from spiting it out. Maybe they were not so bad, I was just expecting something sweet and I vaguely remember the package they came in saying something about fruit, I could see raisins or something, but alas no sweetness. 

When my friend inquired as to how they tasted I just said, “these do not taste like MY MUFFINS.” The other muffins sat neatly on the table the whole time. If the weird one of the group (ME) wouldn’t eat them was their really a chance for anyone else.

Have you had an experience like that? Excitement to try a new product or dish only to be very disappointed. It also happened to me Sunday night when I tried freeze dried veggies-Bleck!