Semi Veggie Girl

There are many things that people don’t know about me despite my life being something of an open book and the fact that I wear my heart on my sleeve. For instance, I can not stand it when someone touches me whilst I’m eating. Seriously, that may be my biggest pet peeve. When I sit down to consume food, that is what I plan to do not hold hands, not play footsie, and let me be clear about one thing, you may lose an arm if you decide to rub my back. I know what you’re thinking, “her husband is one lucky man!“. He IS regardless of my “quirks“!!! 😊

On a larger scale you may not know that I never knew my biological father. He left my mother when I was a year and a half and my sister was only three years old. A few decades later my sister sparked up some curiosity about his medical history and researched him finding out that he had passed away many years earlier. He died from heart disease at the age of 43. So knowing this I am pretty terrified to not repeat history and get myself in shape and healthy, despite years of drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and perhaps experimenting with some other things. I like to pride myself in having this knowledge as my main motivator of losing this stubborn weight and getting heart healthy but to be completely honest it’s not. My very best friend Courtney is getting married in less than seven weeks and I am the maid of honor. Yep, me making a speech in front of 200 people. Sounds wonderful if you have enough confidence in yourself and I will!! Getting off topic…

Back to the heart disease that is a bit too close for comfort in my life. I was flipping through Netflix the other night and came across a movie titled “Vegucated“. It was a documentary about three people embracing a vegan lifestyle for six weeks and seeing how it helped their health and any other aspect of their lives. Let me tell you that I am not easily swayed when it comes to dropping my meat. I have been toying with the idea of doing the paleo diet recently. Yes, I loved meat that much. Not so much anymore. The statistics were overwhelming of the power of vegetarianism (veganism also but I’m just not willing to give up my coffee creamer). Instead, I have decided to incorporate a lot more vegetarian meals into the majority of our diet. We are eating probably three times the amount of vegetables that we were before and as for protein, the beans are where it’s at people!! The weight is dropping off, I feel fuller for longer, I don’t have as many cravings, and I really don’t miss the meat all that much. I had my one cheat day this week and ate turkey burger sliders with a side of buffalo cauliflower. I used to think that incorporating vegetarian meals would be boring and difficult to do but I am loving them! The movie also did show the treatment of the animals that are raised to be eaten and yes, that was HIGHLY disturbing to watch but I’m not going to preach about it. This is a lifestyle choice for everyone to make on their own. I can back up all of the recipes I’ve tried so far as delicious and I’m including one here with my own ideas and twists from the original. I may continue to add more recipes as time passes since I will continue to make these meals for myself and my family to enjoy so in the meantime let me introduce you to:

Mexican Style “Meat”loaf

Original recipe from skinnyms.com

ingredients

•1 tablespoon olive oil
•1 small red onion diced (I used 1/2 yellow onion since that’s what I had on hand
•1 (15 ounce) can of dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed well
•1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed well (I didn’t have any so I doubled up on kidney beans)
•1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chili peppers, hot or mild, drained
•1 cup whole kernel corn, unsweetened (I used one whole can sweetened corn because that is what I had and didn’t want a small amount of corn left in my fridge)
•2 teaspoons dried oregano
•1 teaspoon chili powder (I used 1/2)
•1 teaspoon cumin
•1/2 teaspoon black pepper
•sea or kosher salt to taste
•1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
•1 1/4 cups Panko bread crumbs or any breadcrumbs of your choice
•1/2 cup shredded cheese
•1/3 cup no sugar added BBQ sauce (I used what I had in the fridge and eyeballed the amount)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large skillet add oil, turn to medium-low heat and sauté onions until tender, about 4 minutes. Add kidney beans, black beans, green chili peppers and corn, continue to sauté until beans soften up, about 3 minutes. Add oregano, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper, stir to combine.

At this point I used my potato masher and gave the bean mixture a quick mash.

Combine in a large mixing bowl bean mixture, bread crumbs and cheese. Lightly spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, add bean mixture, shape into a loaf. Bake for 30 minutes, add barbecue sauce and bake 1 additional minute. Remove from oven and allow to set 5 minutes. Cut into 8 slices and carefully remove each slice with a spatula.

If you have kids that are going to eat this I would recommend omitting the green chili peppers!

I know this blog wasn’t always about me and my lifestyle but since this is a big lifestyle change I wanted to share in my excitement and also share some of my new favorite recipes. I hope you enjoy and maybe you’ll end up having one meat free meal this week?!