So you want to return to sparingly and eat more vegetables. Great! For those of you just getting started on a more vegetarian lifestyle, can I share some honest observations with you? 1. You’re going to miss it Meat is addictive. Milk is addictive. Cheese is addictive. And who doesn’t love ice cream? I mean, seriously??? You will miss it. But you can get through it. It helps to find other people who are also trying to cut down on their meat and dairy. 2. There really is no such thing as a meat or dairy “substitute”They never taste quite the same – be it the texture, the flavor, or whatever. I don't care what they say. Cauliflower doused in BBQ sauce does not taste like BBQ chicken. If you have to substitute something, go for a “nutritional” substitute instead of a “flavor” or "texture" substitute. For example, most vegetarian burgers at the store are full processed nastiness that is worse for you than the real thing! Actually, most vegetarian substitutes are like that. I don’t think Heavenly Father wants that garbage in our bodies which are supposed to be temples. So I don’t buy into those anymore. Instead, just season a bean burger like you would season a steak and enjoy a healthier nutritious protein substitute instead of an unhealthy burger-flavor-and-texture substitute. 3. The change is still worth it Even if you have to live without substitutes. It’s worth the energy, the stamina, and the spiritual blessings that come from pleasing the Lord and making the change. We’ve seen those amazing blessings in our family. We want them for everyone! 4. Yes, you can still enjoy your food!Addiction is real. Cravings are real. But recovery is real too. Once you get those things out of your system, you crave them less and less. Then when you do revert and eat meat and dairy (it happens), you find you don’t really like them like you used to. And you discover new flavors that you’ll really start to appreciate. My husband surprised me by saying he enjoys his food more now than he ever has before. And come to think of it, so do I. We’ve found a bunch of delicious vegetarian and vegan recipes out there are actually super tasty. Some of them call for ingredients you won’t recognize. Yikes! No, no, it’s okay. That leads me to number 5... 5. Don’t be afraid to try out new stuff If it’s healthy, then it probably won't hurt you. In my mind, that means it’s definitely worth a shot! I never heard of tahini or nutritional yeast until we tried to truly eat meat and animal products sparingly. Now I know that we don’t really love tahini, but we DO love nutritional yeast! Try out the new things and expect different, yet interesting and tasty new flavors 6. Start Small Some of you have the talent to go cold turkey (heh heh, pun totally intended!), and cheers to you! As for us… we couldn’t figure out how to do that.
We tried. We starved. So if it's hard for you too, start by cutting out one thing. Or try a couple new recipes that don’t need meat and find a couple you like before you take the plunge. I’ll be posting soon about a couple things that really helped my family when we decided to eat less meat. Hope that helps! Stay tuned.
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This black bean salad recipe is probably the easiest thing in this whole wide world to make - and so fast! It's my go-to recipe when I need something quick and healthy to feed the family. What I like about it best is...
Quick and Easy Black Bean Salad
INGREDIENTS 2 cans (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained 1 cup diced tomatoes (fresh, or canned and drained) 3-4 green onion stalks, chopped 1-2 Tbsp Italian dressing *optional ingredients: 1-2 avocado, chopped 1 Tbsp basil 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder Mix all ingredients together. Serve chilled (we like eating it with chips, like it's a salsa or chip dip). When we stumbled across quotes from apostles and prophets saying that we need to be very sparing when it came to meat, we realized we needed to make a change in our eating habits.
That pretty much requires a gargantuan lifestyle change. We're still in the process of that change. We're not perfect at it, but we are still learning and still trying to understand the Word of Wisdom better. Through this blog, we hope to share inspiring quotes, wholesome recipes, and other resources to help anyone else who might be on the same journey. *Just a note: We don't make any profit off this site. It's only up because we see that other people who are also trying to return to sparingly need help doing it (like we did). That's the whole purpose of this site. Here's hoping it can help you! |
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