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real food. real life.
The Food We Eat - A Change for Life
Welcome to my food blog! My name is Adele and I’m a 30-something teacher living in Nova Scotia, Canada with my husband, daughter, and dogs. I’ve created this blog, mostly as an online resource for myself, but for anyone else, too, who's seeking healthy, delicious food ideas. All recipes on this site are plant-based, soy and refined sugar free, with many gluten-free and oil-free, too. Simple recipes with simple ingredients with simple prep work. No need in making it complicated, otherwise, if you’re like us, you won’t want to do it!
How we got here:
I guess it’s important to note first that I’ve always loved cooking. However when I say cooking, I definitely don’t mean the kind of cooking we do now. I mean the kind that only requires s simple opening of a jar, or a tearing open of a package of seasoning or sauce. Or better yet, and all too often, the kind of cooking that requires picking up the phone or reading a menu. My husband and I felt we never had enough time and energy to make real meals at home. It seemed much easier to eat out, order in, or whip up something packaged. We were quite content living this way, being thrifty when needed but also buying ingredients we thought were tasty and delicious.
Everything was tasty and delicious, but my body was starting to disagree. I was feeling overly tired, bloated, suffering from headaches and continuous indigestion. I was on this cycle of continuously working out and never losing weight. I started to adjust my diet, trying soy milk and other things that I thought were better for me, but it continued to make me feel sick. I decided to get it checked out. So, after a couple visits to my physician, I was given the diagnosis of having IBS, with no real explanation or support in what I should or shouldn’t be eating. I wasn’t satisfied with this solution, so I sought out a naturopath. Sure enough, within a couple visits, my results showed that I have developed severe intolerances to dairy, soy, and refined sugar. If I wanted to feel better, I had to make big changes to the way I ate and WHAT I ate. I was told that soon after eliminating these foods from me diet altogether, I would notice immediate improvements to my health.
Well, our first reaction was, of course, "what else is there to eat?!" Surely I was going to starve myself into feeling better it seemed. And that seemed ridiculous and unachievable. I was in major panic mode. But we headed to the grocery store, for our first visit post-diagnosis, armed and ready to read ingredient labels and find food I could eat. We would give this a good strong try. We had a lot of work to do, but we were determined to try and make it work, while living our lives as normal as possible.
First thing we did was stock up on food I could eat: replacement items for sweeteners like maple syrup, agave, coconut syrup; non-dairy/soy items like almond milk, Earth Balance soy-free buttery spread, basics like oil based mayo, fruit juice sweetened jams and cereals, coconut aminos in place of soy sauce; and finally, stocking up on new regulars for us, like oatmeal, organic and plain rice cakes and chips, frozen fruit, lots of fresh (organic if possible) fruit and veggies, etc. My husband was eager to try this new lifestyle with me, however, to be fair, we hung on to a few favourites for him, like ketchup, :).
Next, we cleared out the cabinets of food we no longer would be eating, like packaged meals, seasonings, sauces, etc. First thing we noticed after this was that our pantry was half the size! Most of our food was now fresh, not canned or packaged. As the months went on, we were learning how to cook more and more things from scratch, meaning we were using and maintaining items like flour, oats, grains, beans, fruits, and veggies. From this, we were also starting to realize that our grocery bill was actually cheaper than before. Proof that going organic isn't necessarily more expensive. We were mainly buying bulk staple items, instead of multiple one-time use items.
Where we're at now:
Fast forward 10 years later... We love it. At the start of our journey, we had little to knowledge of what we were eating or where our food came from. It also brought us a fully plant-based kitchen, which wasn't on our radar before the change. I felt better within weeks of eating that way and never looked back. My husband also felt great. It was working for us, our budget, and our planet. We kept up on researching recipes and cooking ideas from the internet, cookbooks, etc. We've both transitioned to a completely plant-based lifestyle, with ease. Once we fully embraced caring about what was in our food and where it came from, our passions soared for local food, backyard gardening and preserving our own food, making everything we could on our own, loving to really taste our food, and taking care of ourselves and our planet.
This all started in May 2012. It’s been quite a journey. We have changed our food lifestyle forever. We know more about food than we ever thought we wanted to know. We’ve learned things about food that we couldn't believe we didn't know before. We’ve learned how to cook with real, wholesome ingredients and the multiple ways you can use them to create awesome meals and snacks. We’ve learned how to achieve a stable healthy eating lifestyle that tastes good and feels good. We also hope that living this way will give our kiddo all the tools she needs to choose to live a healthy, happy life and that we are around to experience it with her.
Above all, we’ve learned that we can make healthy, homemade food while leading the same busy lives (or even busier now!) than we were leading before. It really hasn’t been that hard, but it has required us to take it on fully and be open minded. It was an all or nothing kind of deal, and I am very happy we took it all on!
I hope you will feel at least a little inspired by our story. Check out some of our recipes and try one this week. Educate yourself and take control of the most essential ingredient to your healthy life - the food you eat.
How we got here:
I guess it’s important to note first that I’ve always loved cooking. However when I say cooking, I definitely don’t mean the kind of cooking we do now. I mean the kind that only requires s simple opening of a jar, or a tearing open of a package of seasoning or sauce. Or better yet, and all too often, the kind of cooking that requires picking up the phone or reading a menu. My husband and I felt we never had enough time and energy to make real meals at home. It seemed much easier to eat out, order in, or whip up something packaged. We were quite content living this way, being thrifty when needed but also buying ingredients we thought were tasty and delicious.
Everything was tasty and delicious, but my body was starting to disagree. I was feeling overly tired, bloated, suffering from headaches and continuous indigestion. I was on this cycle of continuously working out and never losing weight. I started to adjust my diet, trying soy milk and other things that I thought were better for me, but it continued to make me feel sick. I decided to get it checked out. So, after a couple visits to my physician, I was given the diagnosis of having IBS, with no real explanation or support in what I should or shouldn’t be eating. I wasn’t satisfied with this solution, so I sought out a naturopath. Sure enough, within a couple visits, my results showed that I have developed severe intolerances to dairy, soy, and refined sugar. If I wanted to feel better, I had to make big changes to the way I ate and WHAT I ate. I was told that soon after eliminating these foods from me diet altogether, I would notice immediate improvements to my health.
Well, our first reaction was, of course, "what else is there to eat?!" Surely I was going to starve myself into feeling better it seemed. And that seemed ridiculous and unachievable. I was in major panic mode. But we headed to the grocery store, for our first visit post-diagnosis, armed and ready to read ingredient labels and find food I could eat. We would give this a good strong try. We had a lot of work to do, but we were determined to try and make it work, while living our lives as normal as possible.
First thing we did was stock up on food I could eat: replacement items for sweeteners like maple syrup, agave, coconut syrup; non-dairy/soy items like almond milk, Earth Balance soy-free buttery spread, basics like oil based mayo, fruit juice sweetened jams and cereals, coconut aminos in place of soy sauce; and finally, stocking up on new regulars for us, like oatmeal, organic and plain rice cakes and chips, frozen fruit, lots of fresh (organic if possible) fruit and veggies, etc. My husband was eager to try this new lifestyle with me, however, to be fair, we hung on to a few favourites for him, like ketchup, :).
Next, we cleared out the cabinets of food we no longer would be eating, like packaged meals, seasonings, sauces, etc. First thing we noticed after this was that our pantry was half the size! Most of our food was now fresh, not canned or packaged. As the months went on, we were learning how to cook more and more things from scratch, meaning we were using and maintaining items like flour, oats, grains, beans, fruits, and veggies. From this, we were also starting to realize that our grocery bill was actually cheaper than before. Proof that going organic isn't necessarily more expensive. We were mainly buying bulk staple items, instead of multiple one-time use items.
Where we're at now:
Fast forward 10 years later... We love it. At the start of our journey, we had little to knowledge of what we were eating or where our food came from. It also brought us a fully plant-based kitchen, which wasn't on our radar before the change. I felt better within weeks of eating that way and never looked back. My husband also felt great. It was working for us, our budget, and our planet. We kept up on researching recipes and cooking ideas from the internet, cookbooks, etc. We've both transitioned to a completely plant-based lifestyle, with ease. Once we fully embraced caring about what was in our food and where it came from, our passions soared for local food, backyard gardening and preserving our own food, making everything we could on our own, loving to really taste our food, and taking care of ourselves and our planet.
This all started in May 2012. It’s been quite a journey. We have changed our food lifestyle forever. We know more about food than we ever thought we wanted to know. We’ve learned things about food that we couldn't believe we didn't know before. We’ve learned how to cook with real, wholesome ingredients and the multiple ways you can use them to create awesome meals and snacks. We’ve learned how to achieve a stable healthy eating lifestyle that tastes good and feels good. We also hope that living this way will give our kiddo all the tools she needs to choose to live a healthy, happy life and that we are around to experience it with her.
Above all, we’ve learned that we can make healthy, homemade food while leading the same busy lives (or even busier now!) than we were leading before. It really hasn’t been that hard, but it has required us to take it on fully and be open minded. It was an all or nothing kind of deal, and I am very happy we took it all on!
I hope you will feel at least a little inspired by our story. Check out some of our recipes and try one this week. Educate yourself and take control of the most essential ingredient to your healthy life - the food you eat.
