What's cooking?

I really believe the best thing you can do to establish healthy habits is start cooking for yourself.

If you don't know how, the internet is a great teacher! Last night I had portabellos, lentils, squash, feta (every Greek home has feta, yes?). I wasnt sure what to make but thought I'd try at least partly vegan.

Got both these recipes off the internet: Squash with lentils and feta, and stuffed portobello* mushrooms. Disclaimer: as I am prone to do, I modified them. Don't have an ingredient? Substitute. Who wants to run to the grocery store at 5 pm, right?

*you say portobello and I say portabella. Both spellings are right! Who knew? :-)

Considering Vegan Options?

Find the original recipes with a quick google search; both are from the nytimes cooking section. But first, here a few of my notes and modifications.

For the stuffed Portabella mushrooms I used chard since I was out of spinach but honestly think the spinach would add a lighter touch and better balance to it. However, still good! Cut in small pieces if you use chard. Also added more onion to the saute (because you can't have enough onions, right?), and I added a oregano, basil and thyme since I was at my daughter's house and couldn't find rosemary. Since I love nutritional yeast, I added a bit more than the recipe called for. Finally, since I'm gluten free I left one mushroom without breadcrumbs (which I also didn't have, but crushed a few stale croutons).

For the lentil and squash salad I added a sweet potato to the mix, substituted great northern for cannelini beans, added pomegranate seeds on top and tried it with feta (so that made the dish non-vegan, but when you love feta, what can you do?)

I have to admit, I don’t cook vegan very often. Vegetarian? Sure. Pescatarian? All the time. But vegan is not on my repertoire for a few reasons.

First, my hubby likes his protein and we both enjoy the complex flavors that fish and meat provide. I'm sure these can be achieved vegan, with more education on my part!

Also, many vegan dishes aren't gluten free, and that's how I eat since a 30 day detox I did years ago taught me what foods to avoid to feel my best, and one of those was wheat (at least wheat in the US, but that's another story.)

Finally, with vegan, you need to be sure you are getting enough essential amino acids. That's one reason I like Arbonne protein - vegan and also supplying essential amino acids. For more info on that https://www.arbonne.com/us/en/arb/cecilechaconas/shop-all/nutrition/protein/feelfit-pea-protein-shake---vanilla-flavor/p/2070%20US