veggie stir-fry

OK, so I haven't quite started on the whole vegan cookbook challenge thing (oops!), however, I did actually cook a REAL meal at home tonight! It was super easy, delicious and ridiculously healthy, not to mention gluten-free and vegan! So, I thought I'd share it with you. It took less than 30 minutes, cost less than $10 (and it even left me with plenty of left-overs), and requires minimal kitchen skill!

What you'll need

• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 onion (sliced)
• 1 green bell pepper (sliced)
• 1 red bell pepper (sliced)
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• Liquid Aminos (or wheat-free soy sauce)
• agave nectar (optional)

Directions:

• First bring 2 1/2 cups water to a boil (add salt to taste), then stir in brown rice.
• Once it begins to boil again, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the rice has absorbed all of the water
• While the rice is boiling, heat a large skillet on med-high heat add a touch oil (just so the veggies won't stick)
• slice onion and add to heated skillet
• then, slice peppers and toss in with onions
• follow with the mushrooms and bean sprouts
• cook for about 5-10 minutes, stirring/tossing occasionally (be careful not to overcook...nothing worse than soggy veggies)
• add in some liquid aminos (or soy sauce) to taste...I probably use way too much!
• remove from heat
• makes 3-4 servings
• serve veggies on top of rice and enjoy!
• I like to top mine with a little agave nectar to give it that sweet savory sort of flavor. You can even stir in a 2 TBSP of natural chunky peanut butter for Thai inspired flavor! :)

My New Recipe Project

Many people ask me what I eat as a gluten-free vegan. It does become a little complicated and unconventional when you are unable to eat anything containing wheat, oats, barley, rye, beef, poultry, pork, eggs, dairy, or any other product made from an animal. Sometimes, I am even at a loss as to what to eat! I find that I have become increasingly bored with my current menu, and cooking at home rarely happens anymore.

Luckily, my amazing sister gave me a wonderful cookbook, The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien. It contains 150 interesting and yummy recipes that are perfectly suited for my diet. It has given me some new motivation to cook, really cook, at home and make healthy, delicious, and exciting recipes for me and my girls. My goal is to test each of the new recipes out and share them with you. Then, maybe you can try them out for yourself, or at least find some inspiration to try to incorporate some vegetarian meals into your diet.

Let's Hit the Trail

I used to spend hours at the gym on treadmills, stationary bikes, stair climbers, I did it all! It was so hard to motivate myself to "run in place" on treadmill for even 20 minutes. No passing scenery, no breeze in my face, just a screen in front of me telling me how long I had been running. It was torture!

I cancelled my gym membership and decided to get my exercise in a more natural way. I thought I could do some resistance training at home, and go for runs around the neighborhood for cardio. So, I bought a jogging stroller/bike trailer so my girls could come along with me. It worked. I had figured out how to stay in decent shape without going to the gym.

The girls in our bike trailer.

Then, I discovered my trail, and it has made a world of difference for me! It's a 13 mile walking trail/bike path near my home. It is covered by trees, and absolutely surrounded by nature. It is breathtaking! My favorite moments in my day are usually spent on the trail. I can easily spend two hours out there and not even realize it! My torturous 20 minute runs have turned into 8 miles and I actually enjoy it! My girlies and I go for long walks, runs, and bike rides almost every morning. It is where I find peace, time to reflect, and get away from the hustle of daily life. It seems as though we are miles away from it all and on our own little adventure. I get to be free, run at my own pace, and take in some fresh air!

My amazing view while I run.

Being surrounded by nature has also deepened my appreciation for the earth and how important it is that we care for what God created for us. Everyday when I am out there, I am blown away by the beauty and detail that He put into it all for us. It absolutely inspires me!

The girls love it too (with the exception of a little arguing over who had what toy first, of course)! We see countless butterflies, birds, and squirrels (even some turtles and a possum once)! I think that it is so important for them to be able to enjoy creation too. To help them appreciate how wonderful the earth is in its natural state, so that they can understand why we need to care for it and preserve it.

I let Emma take some pictures while we were out one morning, and I loved what she captured. So interesting to see the world through her eyes.

Emma's view looking up into the trees

Her view from the trailer.

I love that I have found another way to live a bit more simply and naturally. I encourage you to try to find what you love doing in nature, whether it may be gardening, swimming, hiking, biking, or taking your dog for a walk. Find anything that gets you out of your daily grind and helps to bring you back to a simpler time, if only for a moment. Then, maybe we will appreciate the earth a little more and want to take better care of God's beautiful creation.   

Off the Juice!

I have always had a problem with giving my kids juice to drink. I am not a big fan of it myself, its too sugary for my taste.  Most people feel that it is a necessity; a dietary staple for our children to receive the vitamins they need. To me, this is ridiculous! Juice is simply not the equivalent to an actual piece of fruit. Fruit (and veggies, of course!) is a vital part of our daily diets. It contains vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants that keep our bodies healthy, growing, and going.


Let's consider apple juice for a moment, every kids favorite. Apples are an amazing fruit that naturally contains fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and even a little calcium.  But, it is 100% juice, so is it just like eating an apple? Not really, most juice, even though it says "contains 100% juice" on the label, is still from concentrate. Now take that same apple and strip away the peel and the flesh, along with all of the nutrients, leaving nothing but the sugary juice that was inside. Concentrate it (filter and remove all water from it), then reconstitute it, and "fortify" it with man-made "vitamins". How healthy does that sound? Yet, we are pumping it into our kids nonstop. Even going as far as making convenient individual juice containers that a bottle nipple can screw right on the top of!

Sometimes, I think it can be a great beverage to have with their breakfast; their version of a cup of coffee in the morning (which I cannot live without!). However, guzzling cup after cup all day; I just don't think that is very good for them. I delayed giving both of my girls juice until they had progressed to drinking from sippy cups, but even then, I always diluted it to half water-half juice. I still didn't feel right about it. They wanted it all of the time, and would simply refuse water. I had to have juice at the house at all times, or have to face a melt down. (Plus, my plastics recycling bin was filling up way too quickly!)


As a child that had a long hard struggle with obesity, I am a firm believer that instead of trying to fool our kids into eating healthy, we need to begin to teach them from an early age what kinds of foods they need to eat to keep their little bodies healthy. We should instill healthy eating habits that will continue on into their adulthood. I think the best way to do this, is to lead by example. Eat healthy meals and snacks with your kids, and maybe trade in that soda for a glass of water. How about instead of animal cookies and apple juice, we offer apple slices for a snack, maybe with a little peanut butter to dip (a favorite for me and my girlies). Or orange slices with breakfast instead of a cup of orange juice. It's easier than you may think!


So last week, I made a promise to myself. A promise to just fight the battle head on and not buy anymore juice (or soda for me)! It has been so much easier than I thought it would be. I began making home-made fruit infused water for the girls to drink instead, and they love it! (I also love it when I am craving a soda. The hint of flavor totally satisfies my craving.) It's super easy to make, simply add a fruit of your choice to a pitcher of water and chill. The natural flavors of the fruit give your water a hint of sweetness and yummy flavor to enjoy!
Some favorites of mine...

Mixed berry water I made at home

• Strawberry
• Blueberry
• Mango
• Peach
• Lemon
• Lime
• and even Cucumber

Since I made the switch, I have noticed that my girls aren't as whiny and are more willing to try new foods. Now, I can feel good that my girlies are drinking WATER all day! How wonderful! Give it a try and see if you can feel a difference too! Remember, small changes over time can revolutionize your health and your life!

Go Veggie!: for health

One of the things I am passionate about, is being a vegetarian. Its always frustrating when people find out I am a vegetarian and they ask me why, expecting a simple answer. However, my reasons are countless and complex, so I am going to cover this in a  three part series of sorts: health, environment, and ethics. They are all so closely tied together though.

First, we will start for health. At my heaviest, I weighed about 230 lbs. I was constantly starting fad diets, then failing them because they were impossible, then feeling more like a failure, and gaining more weight. What a wonderful cycle we are creating for young girls in America to follow! I remember trying the Adkins Diet and it worked for a while. I lost 30 pounds eating a pound of bacon for breakfast every morning! That's when I began viewing meat a little differently. The whole cooking process always grossed me out: blood, bones, skin, and the random feather in my chicken wing...ugh! Now granted, I was the kid that put a dozen eggs in the oven trying to incubate them. I've always had a heart for animals.

The yo-yo dieting continued for many years. Then while in college, I finally wanted to be healthier instead of skinnier. I began looking into the foods we eat and how our bodies process them, and I realized that it is called junk food for a reason! The foods that many Americans eat are completely void of any nutritional value, therefore, we are obese yet still malnourished. How sad is that?!  

God created us. He made these bodies just for us. A complex system of bones, muscles, neurons, cells all working perfectly together. Now say someone bought you a brand new Mercedes (I'd personally trade it in for a van that runs on veggie oil, but that's another topic) and you took it to the gas station and filled the tank up with water? The tank is full, but how well do you think that Mercedes is going to run? Just like the human body and junk food! We are destroying ourselves! So that got me thinking about how did God create us to eat? Well, Adam and Eve were vegetarians until they were kicked out of the garden. So I started doing some research about our bodies and meat. There is tons of research that proves the fact that humans are not designed to be carnivores. Just look at our teeth, our nails, even the acidity in our stomachs and the length of our intestines (GoVeg.com has a great article about this). Also, our bodies are designed to break down fruits and vegetables and use every bit of them as fuel, and yet those are the very staples that are completely missing from some Americans diets. Once again, our bodies just weren't designed to break down all of those saturated fats. Medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet greatly reduces the risk for cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney stones, gallstones, and even osteoporosis. A meat free diet has also been shown to reverse diabetes and asthma. Read this article for details about each one of these. There is also the issue of growth hormones and other chemical agents involved with eating meet, but I'll go into detail about that when I discuss how it effects our environment.

Once I began eating vegetarian, I was hooked! I feel so much better. It's hard to explain, but my insides really feel cleaner! It's so much easier than most people may think. There are a ton of yummy and interesting recipes out there! One of my personal favorites, Ultimate Veggie Lasagna, I shared on naturallychicmama. Check it out here!

My girlies are not exactly vegetarian. Our house is vegetarian. When we are out or when they are at their dad's I let them choose what they want to eat. It is one of my goals to have them on a completely vegetarian diet by the end of the year. And yes, it is perfectly safe for them. This is a great article explaining why.

There are so many interesting reasons to become a vegetarian, I'll discuss environment and ethics later. But remember, one of my main goals is to love everyone no matter what! I am not trying to convince anyone that they have to stop eating meat. I am not offended by the rack of ribs you are eating. I just want to open up to some what they might not know much about...and maybe help the planet, your health, and those baby chickens along the way! :)