It has been a while since we were gluten-free and vegan. We stopped when I was pregnant with our 3rd child and I felt like I needed much higher fat/protein meals. Since then we have had our 3rd and 4th babies and are ready to get back on track with eating gluten free, vegan, and much more whole foods. We have kids ages 3 1/2, 2 1/2, 1 and 8 weeks and we know we want their diets to be rich in brightly colored vegetables and fruits.
As we have started to ‘clear out’ the kitchen of cheeses, meats and sugar I find myself making exceptions and not staying on track. This is fairly frustrating and I know I have a long way to go to get my pre-baby body back and going vegan/gluten-free is the way to get there. Cheese is just sooo tasty and meat on pizza is so easy to order.
We are going to Seattle for the weekend with my husband on a business trip and I know that we will not stick to it while we are away from hom but I am hoping to be back into the swing of things by next Wednesday. I have decided my way to conquer will need to be through some meal planning. I need to get my creative thinking cap on and plan out our next month of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner’s so that we can be excited and not cheating all the time. Cheating is for losers and we are winners. So here is to health, happiness and a lot more energy!
I just picked up the book Feeding the Whole Family. I have been getting recipe’s from the book off the internet but I figured I should probably own the cookbook if I liked it so much. supposedly it i has great kid-friendly recipe’s and can be gluten-free and vegan or easily modified. I guess we will have to see – I haven’t even gotten to open it yet! I don’t normally buy cookbooks and if I do I buy Gluten-Free emphasis cookbooks so this is a whole new adventure for me. I am really excited to start reading it this next week. Bastyr’s Website pulls a lot of recipe’s from her book and I have liked everyone that I have tried thus far. More reviews to come of future delicious meals!
After a delicious breakfast of oatmeal and peaches yesterday, just about everything went downhill. I had a Mom’s group to be at by 10am and ambitiously thought maybe I would walk there with the kids (about an hour walk) but then Emmy’s nap went long and that went out the door. Then I thought to be economical and take the bus and walk back but we missed the bus too. So then we are in the car, being your typical consumer, when with a little planning and forethought I could have actually made my morning goals. Uhg.
We arrive at the Mom’s group and everyone was supposed to bring something ‘brunchy’ and I thought to myself to bring sausages, not because I was going to eat them but because they were still in my freezer and I am trying to find creative ways to work the meats and dairy out of the kitchen/our home. So I cooked up those once-tasty little guys and brought them with me. They were very well received but by the end of group – while Emmy is screaming and I am desperately trying to get out the door – the sausages are not finished off. So there we are in the car, again, with those smelly, amazingly smelly, little buggers. I down 4 sausages and hand the 5th to my daughter who is making hungry clucking noises at me.
I immediately feel guilty and ashamed at my inability to control myself. I had packed snacks! Why didn’t I eat them? Being a Gluten-Free Vegan makes you very hungry a lot more often (eating about 5-6 times per day vs. 3 times if you are eating meat and dairy with high protein counts). We all got home, took a nap and felt a lot better. It was a very discouraging moment but I learned I need to bring a Gluten-Free Vegan option to the Mommy deals because it is not likely that anyone else will and I do like feeling included instead of having to dig out my personal baggy of nuts. We’re human and we like to fellowship over food, good food, mine just needs to be Gluten-Free and Vegan. More inspiration for next time – two weeks to plan till the next Mom’s Brunch.
I have been gluten-free for about 4 years now and am just embarking on a vegan lifestyle as well. I have a 15 month old and a 3 month old (born on the same day one year apart!). They are amazing kiddos and I am really looking forward to making meals that my 15 month old likes too! I was a vegetarian before I found out I had Celiac’s Disease and now want to get back to a more meat/dairy free world since I really loved it before I had Celiac’s. We are however going to encorporte fish into our diet as Omega-3′s are so important for brain development for all of us but especially my kids. Yea for healthy breastmilk!
My first project is to embark on a challenge to find 30 Gluten-Free and Vegan Dinners that are Kid-Friendly. I plan to post all of the recipes online to share with those of you who are trying out the same kind of diet. Maybe this diet will help me loose some of this baby weight I am so ready to be rid of!
