Lately I have been very tired of food. Literally just tired of all the meals I normally cook, and a lot of the foods we eat. It must be something about springtime, but all I've wanted are fresh fruits and vegetables. It has gotten to the point that I can't plan menus because everything I can think of sounds disgusting. So I decided that something has to change, and I thought about this:
Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
D&C 89:12-13
I have known these verses all of my life, but for some reason have always just ignored them. And now I have found myself in a place where every meal seems to revolve around meat. My first question when trying to think of something to make for dinner is always, "What kind of meat do I have?".
Don't get me wrong, we eat a fair amount of fruits, vegetables, grains etc., but for some reason meat has become the centerpiece, and everything else is just garnish.
But not any more! Don't get me wrong, I'm not really planning to become a vegetarian, but I decided that this spring, and summer I am going to drastically reduce our meat consumption. I'm sure we'll generally still eat meat on Sunday, and I plan to eat the fish that Chris catches, but the rest of the time, we will get our protein in other ways.
I think the challenge of coming up with yummy, well-balanced, no-meat dishes will really help me decide that I like food again, and encourage me to find good ways to feed my family. We plan on eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, beans, eggs, and whole grains. And since we already eat quite a bit of that stuff (not as many beans as I would like, but we'll be eating more!) I will hopefully end up saving on groceries, since I am going to continue buying everything else, and not buying meat.
I really believe that the Lord will bless us for trying to do what He asks, and He promises amazing things to those who follow His Word of Wisdom. I truly expect that by trying to be more in line with what the Lord has asked, we will receive health in our navel and marrow in our bones, will find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, will run and not be weary, and walk and not faint, and that the destroying angel will pass us by! (D&C 89: 18-21)
Those are some blessings worth having! So here goes my experiment upon the word :)
If anyone has any really great ideas of yummy food that I should cook, please feel free to share them! I'm going to need some help changing my habits! And, just because it was yummy, I'll share what we had for dinner tonight.
Rice and Beans
1 1/2 c brown rice
1 can black beans, undrained
1 can stewed tomatoes (mine were in halves, so I chopped them up into smaller pieces)
1 onion, chopped
some oregano (I'm not very good at measuring, probably around a tsp.)
minced garlic (see comment on oregano)
I sort of made this up as I went, so you might have a better way of doing it, but I started the rice cooking, then sauteed the onion in a little bit of olive oil. To the onion, I then added the other ingredients and let it all come to a boil. By that time most of the water was cooked out of the rice, but it wasn't cooked all the way, so I just dumped the bean mixture into the rice pot, covered it and let it simmer till the rice was cooked (20-30 min?). I was worried about there being too much moisture, but it actually was mostly absorbed and it didn't end up being runny at all.
We ate the rice and beans on corn tortillas that I warmed up in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, and topped it with a little bit of cheese, some salsa, and lettuce. It was yummy! I ate way to much! The only thing I think it was lacking was some fresh lime squeezed on the top, but I didn't have any. Next time though!
We also had watermelon for desert.
Anyway...there's my dinner experiment. Please feel free to share anything you have with me!
As an added bonus to this whole thing, Chris decided that he wants to try going without sugar just to prove to himself that he can, so we are going to go the whole month of May without eating sugar. I did it in January and it felt really really good, but I have since slipped back into my old ways. It will be really nice to have Chris doing it with me this time, as he provided much of my temptation last time :).
7 comments:
rice and beans is one of our favorite meals!!! Love it! I am the meateater in our family, Derek could probably live without it. Steak is like heaven to me. But yeah, it is probably not good to have the focus of your meal always be meat. Way to go switching things up!
Yum! I've been going crazy buying fresh fruits and veggies now that they are coming back into season! There is a website I've been using a ton for meals lately: www.melskitchencafe.com
It's not meat-free by any means but there are several recipes that look delish that are meatless like the Lasagna Primavera, Summer Garden Vegetable Soup, Black Beans and Rice, and lots of yummy breads and salads. She doesn't use processed foods and her recipes are very easy and family friendly. Good luck!!
If you have a way to get in touch with Melisa you should ask her. She has been vegetarian for several years and has had to come up with new things to keep her strong and healthy.
Good luck with the no sugar thing. If you ever think I want some sugar just think Danielle is eating some for me. :)
We've switched how we eat too. The Lord's Law of Health lesson in R.S./Priesthood just hit really hard and I felt like Heavenly Father has slowly been bringing me where I would accept it over the last two years. For now we are temporarily vegan but after that we plan to only eat 10-12 ounces of animal protein a week and probably fish the majority of the time we do eat it. We only switched 3 or 4 weeks ago so we don't have a huge recipe bank to go from yet, but here are some favorites so far:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Black-Bean-Veggie-Burgers/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tasty-Lentil-Tacos/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Boilermaker-Tailgate-Chili/Detail.aspx (leave the meat out and it's still very, very hearty!)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Bean-Vegetable-Soup/Detail.aspx
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/01/southwest-stuffed-bell-peppers/
And I haven't bought it yet, but The Moosewood Cookbook is an entirely vegetarian cookbook that has been highly recommended to me.
Good luck!! I hope you find joy in cooking and eating again. We sure have and we feel so much better. I haven't had a headache in weeks (I usually had one every day) and I have so much energy now. No sugar will help with both of these as well. We haven't been eating sugar and have cut our salt and oils way back when we switched to the massive amounts of fruits and veggies and no animal protein. Worlds of difference!
Leave the beer out of the chili too. We have made it with (non-alcoholic) and without and the flavor was the same for both. No feeling awkward walking through the alcohol section to find the non-alcoholic beer that way. Unless you want beer for your garden -- helps with slugs -- then by all means get some and use the rest in your planting! :)
p.s. Sorry to monopolize your comments. I had a lot to say. We should catch up some time so I don't have to write novels on your blog.
I really like twopeasandtheirpod.com for recipes, and the woman who writes that is vegetarian, so there's a lot of good vegetarian recipes on there. Bettycrocker.com also has a big selection of vegetarian recipes. We like to do 2 or 3 vegetarian meals a week and we've found some good ones there.
We have been trying one meatless dinner per week...and then we will be on to two, and three, etc. Mark misses the meat, but we're having fun discovering which things still fill us up and give us enough protein...and taste good!
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