Last year at new years I made a plan to eat more real food, and less if not none processed and pre-packaged food. When I went home I also decided not to buy any food in plastic packaging, this ended up being harder than I had thought and I ended up cheating a lot. It’s the dairy products that are the hardest. I had hoped to find a source for whole milk and make my own cheeses and yogurt but could not find anyone to sell me whole milk. The other hard one was potatoes chips; I love potato chips and wish they came in a card board box instead of a plastic bag. I did also make some homemade chips which were good right out of the oven but I wasn’t sure how they would store and just got lazy and never made them again. Other than that I did fairly well, it helped that I had a very bountiful garden and there was an endless supply of vegetables from May to October. I learned how to be very creative with stir frying and steaming vegetables using herbs and homemade sauces and salsas. I learned that lightly steamed vegetables are my favourite, lightly steamed being the key. If you just steam them ever so lightly they taste and still have the texture of fresh vegetables not like soggy used to be vegetables. Every day I took a bread bag of cut up raw vegetables and a bag of cut fruit to work with me and munched on them all day while on my tractor. (this is in addition to my lunch) I discovered I love rutabaga, something I hadn’t had since I was a kid and beets soon became my favourite.....
who knew. I loved them boiled and tossed with a little butter and salt, I peed purple all summer. I have since discovered that they are also good raw, shredded into a salad. I also learned that when you are eating fresh vegetables from your own garden it is not hard to eat 5-10 servings a day. I learned that vegetables can taste good when not over cooked and that one can actually have a craving for vegetables. I found I looked forward to an all vegetable supper as I was driving home from work, excited actually. To make sure I also had a serving of protein I would have boiled eggs on hand, or cottage cheese or a pot of beans, Kidney beans being my favourite. Not that I did not eat meat, I did, just not a whole lot of it. I found a meatless meal does not leave you feeling full, bloated and sluggish...down right lazy I would say. To all you women out there t hat are frustrated that your husband comes home from work, has supper and then lies on the couch all evening.....it’s the food you are feeding him in his lunch and at supper. Less meat more vegetables is the key. Remember I am saying less meat, not less protein. Meat is not the only source of protein and it certainly is not the best source either. Your body has to work very hard to digest meat protein, and it can only digest 4 oz at a time anyway, the rest goes to storage and becomes fat....or something like that. Little bits of protein at a time more often throughout the day I believe is the key let me know if I am wrong here.
All in all I think I have faired fairly well with my new years plan from last year. I will continue this year with a bigger garden and focus more on growing vegetables that store well over winter like squash, pumpkin, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage, corn and beets. I have also learned that you can freeze spinach and peppers. (did not know this)
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