So, that's pretty much my New Year's resolution in a nutshell. I've decided to give up making huge, sweeping dietary changes that are not sustainable past about January 9th. I've decided not to "diet" anymore, just to eat better. According to Michael Pollan's "eating manifesto,"
In Defense of Food, the seven words we should follow as rules for eating are "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." In other words, eat clean (not processed), and less meat & dairy.
In anticipation of this goal, I bought myself a new cookbook for Christmas,
The Plantiful Table by
Andrea Duclos. It is by far my favorite cookbook to date. And it's vegan.
What? Vegan!? Anyone who knows me is probably laughing out loud right now, knowing that I would
never give up cheese. And they may be right. But I'm working on eating less dairy, and for me that means less cheese. I've already made a few recipes involving
nutritional yeast (which has a cheesy sort of taste), and I'm a fan. I will probably never totally give up Parmesan cheese, because it is basically my favorite food in the world, but I'm OK with that.
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| James' first attempt at homemade ravioli! |
The very first recipe James and I created from the new cookbook was artichoke, cashew, & garlic ravioli. And we made the pasta with James' new KitchenAid pasta maker attachment! I won't lie, I was pretty intimidated to make pasta at first, but it's really simple. And fun. Just a little time-consuming.
And here's the second attempt, a few days later:
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| Same recipe, 3 days later. It's that good. |
Nearly everyone who tried this ravioli was enamored. We served it with a bit of pesto on top, but honestly, the filling is so good you could eat it alone.
The other cookbook I've been relying on for recipes this week is
The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which James gifted me last Christmas.
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| menu planning |
More recipe adventures to come while I work on eating more plants! What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you have any awesome vegetarian or vegan recipes I should try--I'd love to hear!?
XO,
B
It's not as hard as you'd think. There are so many days I go eating vegan because it's just a part of my lifestyle. If you do eat dairy or meat, don't beat yourself up. And make it worth your while. My favorite cheese has to be feta!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support--I am pledging to also be forgiving with myself on this journey! I do love feta cheese as well, but Parm is my go-to.
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