food flirts - week 1

By definition, flirting is low commitment and contains little pressure.  I mean - it's the fun part!  We were trying to be open to this new world of less meat, more plants and grains.  This week, delicious food options were discovered, and we checked off some of our foodie goals:

Activity 1: Visit a health food store.  Honestly all the new labels, brands, and crazy words (tempeh, seitan, tofurkey, umeboshi, nori...) were intimidating.  I didn't buy anything at the first store I visited, but then we went to Whole Foods armed with a list and that made it much easier to navigate.  I would recommend picking 5 to 10 things you want to experiment with and go from there. 

{Amy's cheese lasagna - surprisingly delicious}

{Rice Dream Chocolate Mint Pie - enjoyed in the car}

{the list}

Activity 2: Decrease coffee consumption.  This week I substituted my morning coffee for green tea and Naked juice on three days.  My favorite is the red machine juice, and I am not as hungry when I go through the cafeteria line at school, which helped me make some better choices this week.  Also, I've switched to organic half-and-half.  (P.S. those of you drinking Coffeemate - read the label.  There is some weird stuff in there!)

Activity 3: Try a milk-substitute.  This one is scary to me.  I had my own cow growing up (yay 4H!) and my grandparents milked their own cows.  However, after reading where commericialized milk comes from I decided to buy Edensoy rice-soy blend.  Update to come...

Activity 4: Make a vegan recipe.  Hello, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.  My dad used to put Reese's in my lunch during high school (how sweet that he made me lunch every day!), so why not try something familiar and delicious?

{really easy recipe = decadent dessert}

An update on our spending hiatus is coming up tomorrow!