My plant-based journey, plus a snapshot of meals for the week

As I’ve mentioned in my “about me” section, I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life, barring a few blips here and there over the years. I was even a strict vegan for one summer when I was 16 – but that was partly because I was trying to improve my health and experiment with different diets.

About a year and a half ago I went vegetarian again with my husband Andrew, but still cheated once in a while. To me I didn’t really think about why I was vegetarian and what I was doing, but just that somewhere in the back of my mind I felt that it was wrong to eat meat.

After I came back from my annual pilgrimage to Tucson for Christmas, something changed. Not only was I completely dedicated to being a healthy vegetarian, but I was starting to see all animal products as unnecessary. I started researching different recipes, tweeting, blogging and connecting with others in the same boat, and in this short period I have learned why it is important to really know where your food is from, how it got to your plate, and what it is doing to or for your body. I can no longer pretend that a piece of chicken breast is just a healthy, harmless piece of food on my dinner plate. I can’t turn a blind eye to the horrible things that happen in the food industry, and what that same industry is doing to trick us into thinking meat isn’t harmful to us.

It makes me angry.

But here’s the thing. It’s taken me all this time to get here, and I have to remember that it’s been a long journey. Everyone is on their own path and hopefully, if they are open to seeing the world as it is, they’ll come to a healthy, cruel-free way of eating in their own time. And I’m not saying I’m perfect. I still eat dairy and eggs on occasion but I’m trying my best to eliminate them as much as possible.

But anyway, what I really started this post for was to talk about my meals for the week (whoops!). Since cooking solely plant-based meals at home during the week, I’ve become so inspired and really enjoy making new, exciting meals. There are few things I find more enjoyable than pouring a glass of red wine, pumping up some good music and getting busy in the kitchen. This week I tried a couple recipes out from my new Isa Does It recipe book, and one I adapted from a recipe online. Hopefully this will inspire you too!