I feel like I’ve been really into incorporating vegetables into my diet over the past few weeks. Remember when I first became a vegetarian and “everything” was foreign to me? I had no idea what I was doing, but I had to learn quickly. Once I started cooking with new ingredients, my eyes were opened to a huge world of food with methods I had never tried.
Cooking is fun again!
Eventually, I got into good habits, although I still enjoy cooking new recipes. Now that my main goal is to eat more vegetables, I’ve reached the “OMG, I want to try *everything*!” stage. I bought the How Not to Die cookbook (as well as the How Not to Diet cookbook) and love all the recipes I’ve made so far. Soon, I’ll be writing a post about what I cooked.
I’m excited to get that fun attitude back. I actually enjoy cooking; a few years ago, I would never have said that.
My focus now is on creating recipes with lots of vegetables. So, I thought I’d write down three things that have happened or habits I’ve developed when it comes to vegetables…
1. I eat a salad before every meal.
This is an excerpt from Dr. Gregor’s list of 21 weight-loss tweaks (tidbits that have been shown to improve weight-loss results). One is to start each meal with a “negative calorie” food – he suggests a small salad or an apple – that has less than 100 calories. So, even though I’m not a big salad person, I know I could use two cups of veggies. I just add some spring mix to the bowl and top it with a little of the dressing I made (also from his recipe).
The reason for this isn’t just to “fill you up” so you can eat less dinner. There are studies showing several benefits to doing this (it would take a lot of time to explain here, so I recommend reading the book How Not to Diet). There is even a difference between eating before and during a meal.
This is actually pretty awesome! I love salad, but I never thought I would – maybe because it’s so simple – and I feel like it completes the meal. I think I’ll continue this habit after this two week challenge between Jerry and me.
2. I sit at the table and eat dinner.
This has always been difficult for me, especially when I’m home alone. I want to sit in front of the TV. However, I realized that I spent too much time trying to figure out what to watch rather than just eat. Plus, the salad *and* my meal seemed too much to eat on the coffee table. Instead, I sat down to eat a salad and then ate. Most of the time, I was so full that I couldn’t even finish the meal. (All that fiber and veggies are filling!)
3. I’ve never found it so easy to skip snacking at night!
This is something I never expected to happen. I eat dinner very early – around 5:00 – and I’m always worried that I’ll be hungry by 7:00 or 8:00 and then I’ll dig in for more food. However, since I’ve been preparing hearty meals, I haven’t even thought about snacking. If I’m very hungry, I might eat a date or a few prunes.
Overall, I’m glad we’re doing this experiment! Even if I count the new spices I got, it was a lot cheaper than I thought. A full week’s worth of produce is only $50.
My favorite meal so far is the Sweet Potato Shawarma Bowl – sweet potatoes, cauliflower, shawarma dressing on quinoa and topped with onions, cucumbers and lettuce. Drizzle with amazing tahini sauce. This surprised me.
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| Not all mine! It’s the bowl on the left. Then I put the goodies on top 🙂 |
Last but not least, I must mention the taste of all these recipes I have been cooking. Because what good would it all be if it wasn’t delicious? I would say probably seven out of about nine recipes are really good! There were only a few I didn’t like (one was overcooked).
It was a refreshing experience. I’m so happy and excited to be cooking again!