Two Year Plant-Based Anniversary

Two years ago today, Michael and I officially started eating a plant-based diet after watching the movie "Forks Over Knives" (available on Netflix). It's our Plantiversary! :)



Before and After

We made the decision to try a plant-based diet for health reasons and were both fully committed from the beginning. Since then, we have enjoyed absorbing knowledge from experts in this field and affectionately refer to ourselves as "the crazy leaf-eating hippies." Hey, it isn't easy choosing this lifestyle in the great state of Texas.

But for us, that's what it is: a choice. It's a choice we make everyday that our former way of eating was simply not worth it. People may think we're too extreme, and that's okay. For us, it's more extreme to suffer with health ailments that can be completely relieved or prevented. We choose to never "cheat" because in our minds, there is just no point. Plus, we thoroughly love all the food we "get to eat" so there's absolutely no feeling of deprivation.

We realize this choice tends to place us on the outside of many social activities and groups. We do our best to try to participate in other ways, but it's a choice we are comfortable making and one we know that not everyone will feel comfortable with. Again, for us, the benefits we've experienced far exceed the discomfort of feeling excluded from normal food-focused social activities. It's been a huge blessing to us to find fellow plant-based eaters through Facebook and other groups. We even enjoyed going on a McDougall Adventure vacation to Costa Rica this summer, where we met lots of fellow "McDougallers."

After two years of seeing such improvements in our health, that's all the motivation we need to continue choosing this lifestyle:

• Weight-loss
• Lowered blood pressure
• Lowered cholesterol
• Increased energy
• Increased fitness ability
• Improved immune system (we haven't been sick, not even with a common cold in almost 2 years)
• Balanced hormone levels
• Eliminated menstrual cramps...obviously this one only applies to me :)
• Healthier, clearer skin and decreased acne
• Eliminated recurring infections
• Cured me of my lifelong history of IBS
• Not taking any medication, vitamin, or supplement

I plan to do a post next on "How to Get Started" in case anyone has no idea where to begin. It will contain my tips and lessons learned from our two years of experience.

Our Food Lately

Pictures of more yummy plant-based foods we have enjoyed eating, added to our "So What CAN You Eat?" gallery.


Salad from Salata...topped with nearly every fresh vegetable, bean, and fruit they offered!


Fresh-grown broccoli sprouts make a delicious addition to a salad


Michael is the expert at fitting as many toppings as possible in the Genghis Grill bowl!


Roasted delicata squash...it has a slight cheesy flavor in our opinion


Veggie fajitas with sides of Spanish rice and black beans


Pesto pasta...one of our favorite sauces and it also tastes great on a pizza


Roasted red pepper and tomato sauce with zucchini and pasta


Brownie batter dessert dough with fresh apple slices


Decadent chocolate chip cookies topped with homemade chocolate banana "ice cream" and "banana boats" (bananas topped with peanut butter, chocolate, and honey that you broil in the oven)

A Plant-Based Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of co-hosting one of my closest friends' baby shower. She enjoys eating a plant-based diet as well and so it was perfectly natural that I volunteered to prepare all of the food for the shower, while my lovely co-host took care of the decorations (which turned out WAY better than my non-crafty self could do!)



The shower took place in the afternoon, so light snacks were the way to go. I prepared quinoa salad, baked potato bites (stuffed with red onions, carrots, avocado, and salsa), a veggie tray with oil-free roasted red pepper hummus, a fruit tray, and fudgy beet cupcakes with chocolate mousse as the frosting (and we set the extra mousse out as a dipping sauce).









I loved the look on people's faces when they heard me say that the cupcakes had beets in them. Several jaws dropped. And most of the people did not know until well into the shower that all of the food was vegan, oil-free, and gluten-free. I was so glad that people enjoyed the food because it's important to me to show people that plant-based foods are delicious in their own right, and that we do not eat raw broccoli and tofu all day. :)



I also made peach punch that turned out pretty tasty.

It was so fun celebrating our friends' little blessing from heaven!

Plants Equal Variety

When we first switched to a plant-based diet, we feared missing out on all the varieties of dishes we were used to eating. But to our great surprise, we discovered that with plants, there is even MORE variety! We've been on a fig kick lately. Well did you know that there are hundreds of fig varieties? Oh the joys of eating plants! Here are more photos of all the wonderful plant-based foods we have the pleasure of eating.


Black bean burgers on GF whole grain bread with sweet potato "fries"


Banana pancakes shown topped with fruit preserves or banana butter


Homemade Rolls (gluten-, oil-, dairy-, and egg-free)


Our homemade version of Jason's Deli's Zucchini Grillini


Homemade Bread (gluten-, oil-, dairy-, and egg-free)...so handy to make:


French toast


Eggless salad sandwiches


Chocolate pudding over homemade Nilla cookies and topped with bananas...OMG! :)


Spinach and sweet potato lasagna


For Michael's birthday, I made him a cookie cake...and then...


Served with vanilla Nada Moo ice cream, homemade fudge sauce and chopped peanuts


Mashed potatoes and a rich brown gravy


Whole grain cereal with banana milk (blend 1 banana to 1.5 to 2 cups ice cold water)


Ate at Vegeria in San Antonio for our wedding anniversary.


Food was delicious, but definitely not oil-free. Rare splurge for us.












Ate lunch at Whole Foods and got this yummy quinoa salad.




Mango sorbet topped with dewberry preserves


Potato "fries" and creamy dipping sauce


We usually try to limit how many high-fat plant foods we eat (nuts, avocados, and nut butters), but we do occasionally like to just eat some spoonfuls of peanut butter. :)


Our garden yielded a ton of patty pan squash, so we stuffed them with basmati rice, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and seasonings


While in D/FW, we enjoyed a meal at the Spiral Diner. Again, all vegan restaurant, but not oil-free, so it's a rare treat.


We shared two kinds of burritos that were delicious!




For dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Mudslide (brownie, chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and nuts -- all vegan of course)


Peach oatmeal cereal


Chocolate chip cookies topped with chocolate Nada Moo, fudge sauce, and chopped pecans


We have been loving some fresh figs lately! Plan to make some preserves soon.

Homemade Dewberry Cobbler Recipe

There's just something comforting about harvesting food from the land and using it to nourish your body...or in our case, to satisfy a sweet tooth craving.

It's dewberry pickin' time here in Texas, and so we went on a mission to gather a bunch of them. We first searched around our neighborhood and found a few small bushes, but that yielded only about a cup of berries. But then some friends from church invited us to their co-worker's private property to go dewberry picking.

When I say that this property was covered in dewberry bushes, I'm not even exaggerating. Everywhere you turned, there was a bush ripe with dewberries. We filled a 16-cup container with fresh dewberries.

For those that don't know, dewberry bushes have thorns. Not the fat thorns like a rose bush, but the tiny needle-like kind that burrow in your skin and you feel scratchy for hours later.

But once we tasted the homemade cobbler, it was all worth it! So for those who are fortunate enough to find about 5 cups worth of dewberries, here is a recipe for turning it into a delicious cobbler. This recipe has a lot of crust because I'm the type of girl who likes a high crust to berry ratio, so if you want less crust, reduce accordingly. Enjoy!

Homemade Dewberry Cobbler

Bottom Crust Ingredients:
2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 Tbsp maple syrup
2/3 cup oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl, combine the milk, vanilla, and syrup. Stir in the flour and baking powder. The batter will be runny. Pour into an 8x8 or similar sized dish (I used a ceramic oval shaped dish) and bake for 10 to 15 minutes - just enough so the crust hardens a bit and will support the weight of the berries in the next step.

Filling Ingredients:
5 cups dewberries (or other berries of choice)
2 Tbsp maple syrup or lemon juice (I used syrup)
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt

Directions: In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients until berries are moistened and well coated. Pour on top of the bottom crust. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper first, then aluminum foil (so the aluminum doesn't directly touch your food) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Top Crust Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups oat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp applesauce
2 Tbsp almond butter
Cinnamon sugar mixture for topping, optional

Directions: In a measuring cup, whisk the almond milk and vinegar together, then set aside for a few minutes. Then add the vanilla. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In a small bowl, combine the applesauce and almond butter. Cut the applesauce mixture into the flour mixture with a fork or pastry cutter until crumbly. Then add the milk mixture and stir just until moistened (do not over-mix). Drop spoonfuls on top of the berries until evenly covered. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar mixture if desired, and I even sprinkled additional cinnamon on top of that, because I LOVE cinnamon. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Tips for Not Going Crazy in Your Kitchen

If you adopt a plant-based diet, you may find yourself preparing meals at home more often than you once did. People have asked me how I manage it all, so I thought I should do a post about how to keep your kitchen organized and to not go crazy in your kitchen when living a plant-based lifestyle.


This is how our fridge typically looks at the beginning of the week

Appliances and Gadgets to the Rescue
Modular food storage containers - We have purchased these high quality Rubbermaid containers as well as these 16 cup food storage containers from Walmart and they are great for storing very large quantities of food. I will caution that they are fairly cheap and don't last as long as some nicer sets, but they are so cheap that we find their temporary usage still worth the value. We even hold onto the cracked containers and use them as a lettuce crisper, or to hold bread and other things that won't leak. I also recommend purchasing pantry food storage containers, such as the OXO "Pop" containers or other canisters for storing rice, beans, pastas, flours, and other grains. You can also hold onto glass containers to re-use for food storage.

Instant Pot - We highly recommend the Instant Pot. It's a pressure cooker that is capable of cooking brown rice in about 15 minutes and dry, un-soaked beans in less than 30 minutes. We also use it to steam potatoes for mashing, but it could seriously be used for a dozen other purposes. The Instant Pot has dramatically improved the efficiency and reduced the hassle in our home kitchen. We even considered buying a second one to cook more than one item at a time. The price may be steep, but I assure you it's worth every penny.

Tortilla Press - We LOVE Mexican food. It's one of our favorite cuisines to eat plant-based. But since Michael has a gluten sensitivity and we want to avoid all added oils, we don't want to use store-bought tortillas. So we set out to make our own fresh homemade corn tortillas (but you could make wheat tortillas if desired). Our first discovery was finding masa harina flour to use. It's sold very cheaply at HEB, has only two ingredients (corn and lime), and you simply add water. Following the package instructions, we Michael attempted to press the tortillas using the bottom of a pan. He'd be the first to tell you: that gets really old pretty fast. So we then decided we needed to purchase a tortilla press. After some research, we decided on this bad boy. It's so easy to use, you are more likely to over-squish your tortillas than under-squish (totally legit terms).

Blender - We bought this Vitamix, but you certainly don't have to have a Vitamix to follow a plant-based diet. Yes, it's extremely handy and economical to be able to make my own oat flour, brown rice flour, millet flour, ground flax and chia seeds, as well as sauces, gravy, soups, and smoothies. But a good regular blender can do most of those things well enough, with just a little more effort involved. If you do decide that you want a Vitamix, you can look into a refurbished model on their website because they still offer a pro-rated warranty (their regular warranty is 7 years).

Food Processor - We purchased this 9-cup Cuisinart food processor. I'm sure you can get away with a lower-priced model, but this was a good moderately priced one with great reviews. We bought it over 2 years ago and it still runs well. If you do get a food processor, don't be like me and completely ignore the shredding and slicing discs for over a year that came with it. It works great for slicing and shredding carrots, zucchini, squash, and cooked potatoes (for making hash browns). Plus I use the regular blade for making dips, sauces, hummus, and finely chopping or pureeing things.

How to Stay Sane When Working in the Kitchen
Fresh, Frozen, or Frequent? First you need to decide whether you and your family like to have meals that are prepared fresh every day, or whether you're okay eating leftovers throughout the week. You also need to decide how many fresh versus frozen/canned ingredients you will use. For our family, we don't mind eating leftovers, and we try to opt for fresh ingredients over frozen or canned, but we will happily use frozen or canned ingredients if it will mean saving some stress or time for a given week. It's important to voice all your expectations and concerns before planning meals.

Don't shop and cook in the same day if you can help it - I enjoy cooking, but I don't enjoy having a marathon day of working, grocery shopping, unpacking from the store, washing produce, and cooking all in one day. Plan ahead, and break up those tasks during the week until you find a routine that works for you. I do my grocery shopping on Friday evenings, and then use Saturday and Sunday to cook and prepare meals for the week. Depending on the meal plan for a given week, I may end up having to cook something else during the week, but I try to prepare as much as I can ahead of time on the weekends.

Wash all your produce at once - Since I shop on Fridays, I strive to wash all my produce for the entire week as soon as I get home, or at least by Saturday morning. It sometimes takes me up to an hour to wash and store everything, but I have found that it helps the food to stay fresher longer, plus it's clean and ready for me to grab from the fridge when I need to cook it.

Buy and store things in bulk that you use often - What are the food items that you find yourself always running low on, wishing you had quicker access to, or enjoy eating the most often? You should consider purchasing those items in bulk and storing them in large containers in your pantry. For us, we eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast, and our flour of choice is oat flour that I make myself in the Vitamix. That means that we need to always have a lot of dry oats on hand. We purchase a 25 lb bag from a local store once a month, and I store them in large cereal containers.

Plan your meals for the week based on your schedule and stress level - If you know you have a busy week ahead, don't take on a challenge of making something that's new or time-intensive. Pick something that's filling, easy, and delicious enough to get the job the done. Some of my high-stress go-to meals include: baked potatoes with salsa and a side of veggies, veggie rice stir-fry, herbed potatoes, or a simple soup or chili.

If you need help, ASK for it - I'm probably speaking mostly to the ladies here, but seriously, don't be embarrassed for asking for help. I'm guilty sometimes of not asking for help because I want all the glory and praise of having prepared a decadent magazine-worthy meal. But that's just me being prideful and selfish. And it's much better for the whole family if you just ask for help to keep your sanity and a pretty smile on your face.