{Eat to LIVE}

Okay, i am so excited about EAT TO LIVE and i have had a few people ask me about it, as well as others wanting recipes, so i decided to get back on here to try and post a few things for you.

Eat to Live is a book by Dr. Fuhrman.  I have tried many FAD diets in the past...The Paleo Diet, The Atkins Diet, trying to reduce my portion size at dinner, counting calories, etc.  Nothing really worked.  The Atkins diet did work, but if you realized the long term affects of what that is doing to your body then you wouldn't be doing it. It's terrible for you. So it counting calories. If you are counting calories, but all your consuming in a day is sugars, meats, breads, dairy then you are basically starving your body of good foods. Counting calories while consuming foods that aren't good for you will have a terrible effect on your body because you aren't putting anything good in your body in the first place. You will eventually feel so hungry you will go back to consuming what you did before and gain it back.

Dr. Fuhrman has done lots of research, along with Dr. Robbins, author of The China Study. The China Study is the most comprehensive research ever done on food and its effects. With both of their research combined it opened a whole new world to me. It all made COMPLETE sense to me and rang true in every way possible.

Think of a car. If you put bad gas in a car it WILL NOT give you optimum performance.  The same goes with our bodies. Your body will not give you optimum performance if you are not putting good things in it.

Basically, what you eat in a week should be 90% plant based foods.  10% of what you eat in a week can be sugars, meats, dairy, processed, etc.  So, i feed my family two meals out of the week whatever meal they want.

Let me fill you in on why i started this. I was feeling so tired everyday. I felt like i lost my energy. I was feeling sluggish, kind of down, and just yucky.  I would hit a WALL at some point during the middle of my day and i just had to lay down and take a quick nap because it was so overwhelming.  I knew that i needed to eat better, but just didn't KNOW HOW to. So many things in the media today confuse EVERYONE on how they should be eating. It can be very confusing.

My friend recommended that i read this book and it changed me.  I jumped on board quickly and it helped so much that he Dr. Fuhrman has a 2 week meal plan in the back of the book. YES, this means you have to cook, and it does take some time, BUT it's worth your health. It's worth feeling good.  Convenience foods are great, but they do nothing good for your health or for helping you feel good OR for helping your fight cancers, disease, and sickness . NOTHING.

We have been on this for 3 weeks now and i feel GREAT. I am NOT tired in the day anymore. I keep great energy throughout my days, which i absolutely LOVE. Dare i say i have been sleeping better at night?!?! Hallelujah! That's a miracle. :) I feel better all around, i feel healthy and most importantly , so does my husband!  He has lost 15 lbs. Ive lost 8 lbs.  And the weight came off QUICKLY for us both.  With this, you can consume all the veggies and greens you want in a day.  You can consume lots of fruits, but you shouldn't consume more fruits than veggies.  You can eat lots of beans. My favorite beans are garbanzo beans! LOVE. :) And there are so many different ways to cook with them!

I LOVE to juice ONE drink a day. One for me and one for shane.  I also make some for two of our three boys. One won't drink it and the other two like drinking a little bit of it.  We juice a whole bag of spinach(sometimes collard greens), cucumbers, apples, carrots, lemon and celery.  It makes enough for each of us to drink down 2 cups.  Juicing is a great way to make sure your body is getting all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals it needs in a day. It's great.

I am so happy eating this way. The othe reason i was excited about trying this was the hope that my stomach pains would go away that i have been dealing with for a few years.  I get bloated often and terrible stomach pains, and a few times they have been so bad that i can't stand up.  I didn't know what it was, and the docs don't give me any good answer, just meds.  SO, i had to take matters into my own hands. Since starting this i haven't had any stomach problems at all. THIS ALONE is a huge motivation for me to keep eating this way.  It's worth not having the stomach pains anymore.

Last night we went out to dinner. It was a fun kids night and they had some buffet style foods. Much to my surprise they had salad, and warm vegetables.  I ate tons of it, but realized that it was probably cooked in butter. Shane agreed. Shortly after eating my stomach starting killing me.  All three boys complained of having a stomach ache. We all left feeling so sick.  Our stomachs weren't used to that kind of food for a few weeks and i think it didn't sit well.  You know it's bad when it makes you feel that way. I never feel that way eating plant based foods, nor did i feel that way when i first started eating this way.

The first 1-2 weeks can be a little hard because your body is experiencing withdrawal symptoms from all the crap that it's used to consuming. But once you get over that hump you will feel great and won't want to go back to eating bad foods because of how good you feel.  I don't crave sweets anymore.  I just don't. It's the weirdest thing. And if i THINK i want sweets i quickly change my mind when i realize that the price i will pay for eating it far outweighs the pleasure i gain from eating it and then it's very easy to turn it down.

I will be back for more later, and with a couple of my favorite recipes. I have to go get my kids for now! :)

{Yummy and Quick Vegetarian Salad}

The main reason i am avoiding chicken is b/c it is helping me save about $30.00 a week on groceries. I sometimes cook it once a week and sometimes not at all during the week. I never use hamburger...if i do, again, it's once a week. I am not strictly vegetarian. I am just saving money. I refuse to buy only 80% lean hamburger. And the 93% lean is expensive. Anyway, i found AND tried this yummy vegetarian salad. I did it a little different from the original. I like to eat something different than my kids do for lunch. They like macaroni(but they can only eat it twice a week). Otherwise they eat pbj sandwiches or turkey(all natural, no added stuff) sandwiches. They have turkey lunch meat like that at wal-mart, in case you are wondering. It doesn't have those nitrites(is that correct?) in it and other added stuff they say you should avoid in lunch meat. I might eat a turkey sandwich with avocado on it and spinach and tomato with olive oil mayo. ANYWAY, getting to the point, this is a yummy healthy lunch. I enjoyed it and it filled me. I couldn't eat it all. Plus, garbanzo(aka:chickpeas) beans are so good for you!

Ingredients:

2 TBS. olive oil

3/4 TBS. red wine vinegar

1 TBS. mint, chopped

1 TBS. Basil(i didn't have basil so i put in about 1 tbs. pesto, which i keep on hand)

1 cup grape tomatoes(sliced in half)

Walnuts(i crush them up with my hands and put the amount in to my liking)

Feta cheese(however much you would like in it)

1 can garbanzo beans

Directions:

Mix it all together and enjoy!

Source: merrygourmet.com

{Italian Veggie Salad}

I LOVE LOVE LOVE eating my vegetables like this. For me, it is sooooo good. I love it. Try it out! I make it for a side dish for one of our dinner meals and then i will snack on it the next day...all day long! :)

Ingredients:

About 1/2 head cauliflower(pulled apart into Bite Size florets)

1 can of black olives

Large Tomato(cut up into bite size pieces)

1 Red Bell Pepper(cut into bit size pieces)

Mushrooms(Cut in half or fourths, depending on what you like)

1 cucumber

1/2 to a whole red onion(cut into bite size pieces)

1 package of zesty italian seasoning(follow the directions on the back of the package)

Feta cheese

Directions:

Throw all the veggies in a cake pan and pour the mixed zesty italian dressing on top. Stir it up good so that each piece is covered in the dressing. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to soak up the dressing. And occasionally stir it while it's in the fridge sitting. You can eat it right away, but it tastes so much better the longer it sits! :) Sprinkle some feta cheese all over. The quantity depends on your liking.

Also, you put in however much of the vegetables you feel you would like. There really is no set recipe for the amount of each vegetable. That's just what i usually put in.

{Beans-and-Greens Tacos With Goat Cheese}

If you like vegetarian meals, try this one. It actually was pretty good and my family of boys ate them with zero complaints. I take that back...Shane(my picky eater) wasn't too faund of em. He said "Where's the meat?" I am trying to save money by fixing vegetarian b/c meat is pricey and really hikes up my grocery bill! There are so many things i would eat if i didn't have to consider Shane's eating habits. :) I really enjoyed these. I didn't feel stuffed afterwards, or weighed down by the food. It was very light. They DID taste good too. I would make them again for myself over and over. They were very easy to make, quick, and tasty! :) If you want the salsa for it that you are supposed to put on top, you will find it under this recipe in the same post! I didn't make the salsa b/c i forgot tomatillos! DARN! BUT i think it would have made these even better!

Ingredients:

3 TBS. Olive oil

2 red onions, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 lb. Swiss Chard, stems and ribs removed, leaves washed well and coarsely chopped

1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained

1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock

Salt and Pepper

8 white corn tortillas

1/3 cup soft goat cheese, crumbled

cilantro

Directions:

1.Heat oil in a large high-sided skillet over medium heat. Cook onions until soft, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Stir in Chard, beans, and stock. Cook until greens are wilted and beans are warmed through, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

2.Using tongs, hold each tortilla driectly over a gas flame, turning, until heated through, about 5 seconds.(Alternatively, wrap tortillas in foil, and warm in a 350 degree oven.) Spoon filling onto tortillas. Top with cheese and cilantro.

*Side Note* I just used regular whole wheat flour tortillas and warmed them up in the microwave.

Tomatillo and Chipotle Salsa

Ingredients:

6 tomatillos

3 garlic cloves(do not peel)

4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, coarsely chopped

1/4 tsp. sugar

coarse salt

Directions:

Cook tomatillos and garlic in a large skillet over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until charred on all sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a plate, and let cool slightly. Peel garlic. Finely chop tomatillos and garlic.

2.Mix together tomatillos, garlic, chipotles, sugar, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Source: Martha Stewart

{Chicken Pitas with Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette}

This was a quick and easy meal to make. I put the chicken in the crockpot for a few hours. And when the chicken was done i just mixed everything together. It was a pretty tasty meal. I will make it again. It was easy, quick, and tasty. I served it with a fresh fruit salad. Yummy! Go for it!

Ingredients:

2 TBS. balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 TBS. sun-dried tomato oil

1 TBS. chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

4 cups shredded cooked chicken breast(about 3/4 lb.)

1 cup chopped tomato(medium )

1/2 cup grated asiago cheese

1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Whole wheat Pitas, cut in half

3 cups mixed baby greens

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix balsamic vinegar, sun dried tomato oil, sun-dried tomatoes, pepper and garlic. Stir in the chicken, tomato, cheese, and basil. Line each pita half with 1/4 cup greens. Divide chicken mixture evenly among pita halves.

*SIDE NOTE* For the sun-dried tomato oil, i just used the oil that's in the packed sun-dried tomatoes. Also, i didn't use asiago cheese. It would add a little more taste, but i didn't have any. It still tasted good without it. ALSO, i had to double this recipe. It was just enough for the five of us.

Source: www.sweetpeaskitchen.com

{Green Smoothie}

Yes, i am into smoothies. I love em. What can i say. So, a friend of mine posted a green smoothie recipe on her blog a couple years ago. I made it for awhile and then stopped. I wanted to make those again , but couldn't remember the exact recipe so i decided to just put in what i remember and then add what i think i would like. It turned out DELICIOUS! I make this after my workout. It's my recovery drink! You can drink it anytime though! TRY IT!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup vanillla yogurt(any yogurt you prefer)

a squeeze of agave nectar, which is about 2-3 TBS.

juice of an orange

1 scoop of protein powder

About 1/8- 1/4 cup Flaxseed

one banana

6-7 strawberries

2 handfuls of spinach

6-8 ice cubes(your preference)

Directions:

Mix the liquids first along with the protein powder, then add the spinach, strawberries, bananas. And lastly, the ice cubes. Enjoy!

I am going to be totally honest. I can be a pig. This makes about 4 cups. I drink 3 cups of it. Tanner drinks about one cup. It's a lot, but man it tastes so good after a hard workout. I gulp it down quick! :)

I will be experimenting more with smoothies again soon.

{Healthy Strawberry Banana Smoothie and MORE...}

Seriously, this was sooo good and creamy. This is my very own recipe! Man i am good. haha! :) Granted, i did look into smoothies and what would be good to put in it, so i kind of grabbed different ingredients from different recipes and put it all together. I put in the amounts that i felt i wanted in it. TRY THIS! It's the best smoothie i have had, but maybe i haven't had many smoothies, which might be why it's the best smoothie i have had. Usually when i eat a "smoothie" i like it to be more like a slushy with the ice bits in it. I don't usually go for anything without the slushy taste. BUT i did with this! There is a fabulous after taste that stays with you after every gulp. I didn't need this to be like a slushy in order to like it! YUMMY! :)

Ingredients:

1 whole banana

About 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

2-3 TBSP. honey

1/3 of an avocado

Juice from one orange

1 cup Coconut milk

1/4 cup Original plain greek yogurt

6 ice cubes

Directions:

Blend it all in your blender! Wahlah! Makes about 4 servings.

Strawberry Mango Smoothie

6 strawberries, medium to large size

1 cup frozen mango

3 TBSP. Agave nectar

1/2 of an avocado

Juice from an orange

1 1/3 cup coconut milk

1/3 cup original plain greek yogurt

Directions:

Blend well.

*Tip*: If you don't like the taste of coconut, then use almond milk. I found that i like coconut milk better than almond milk for my smoothies.