Sweet Potato Meal-Prepping Recipe
First step: clean some potatoes. :-)
Pierce those spuds so they can let out some steam.
Line them up on a baking sheet.
They taste swell with pesto, balsamic tomatoes, mushrooms, steamed kale, and polenta.
They go great with red lentils, quinoa, steamed kale, sorrel (you can go get this from your yard), and enchilada sauce.
Also goes well with peanut sauce, peppers, black rice, green beans, and easy avocado.
Q’s Morning Chalkboard: continued discussions of race and how to use his voice/privilege.
A plant-based kiddo fixing his own breakfast.
“Mama, look! I made a monster face. See his snaggly tooth?”
Homemade whole-oat bread. apple, cacao cream, and peanut butter.
For Aria
“It’s a coconut octopus walking through a field of wheat with a big sign that shows how much he loves her. See all the hearts? It means he loves her a LOT. And underneath, there is a trapdoor spider in a green burrow, the coconut octopus’ burrow full of extra coconuts, and this lobster has the best burrow of them all!”
For me <3
“It’s you and me, Mama. And we’re at an aquarium that has a Kraken! And he has this giant cave with stalactites and stalagmites and he’s gathered old driftwood to make these arms (so it looks like the house from Monster House) and he’s found red diamonds to use as eyes.”
Plant-Based Lunch: Vegetable Red Curry (carrots, garbanzo beans, broccoli, peas, asparagus, and kale), bell peppers, and black rice noodles.
Dessert: berry bread, peanut butter, and cashew cream.
Giving him a haircut and realizing my own needs to be thinned.
Misguidedly worried that Plant-Based Whole-Foods will leave you nutritionally deficient? These days, my hair is so full I have to take thinning shears to it every few weeks or I look like Sideshow Bob.
<3
He is the soul who insists on that front, dangling lock. He refuses to let me cut it because he says he likes the way it looks, he likes that he can pull it over his eyes “like Violet from the Incredibles”, and that it looks like a tentacle. :-)
Spent my afternoon documenting and writing up the process for our lentil loaf. That nutritious and environmentally-kind recipe will be posted soon.
Evening cardio before dinner: running through the yard with weights.
We run through the yard to whatever song he’s feeling (last night it was “Champion” from Game Changers again)
Q’s favorite way to keep moving fast and having fun? Playing tag. <3
Plant-Based Whole-Food Dinner (for 2 , because Ian was working late in the yard: caulking the house to prep for painting.)
Polenta, Lentil Loaf, Homemade Marinara, Steamed Kale, and Peas.
Rainbow Sherbet Nice Cream: banana, strawberry, raspberry, and orange.
Nightly Reading
The Balcony is another favorite. It has gorgeous illustrations and a great message.
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
6.9.2020
