Foodie? Me??

My friend Courtney recently referred to me as a foodie. I was surprised at first, but then I thought, yeah, maybe I am!

Recently, Troy and I made the decision to become mostly vegetarians. Actually, it was mainly my decision, but Troy is willingly going along with it (what a great husband!). Since I began feeding Ian solid foods I've read A LOT of books on nutrition. We also watched the movie, Food Inc, which I highly recommend. The wealth of information I've gathered inspired me to make some changes in my life, one of those being drastically cutting down on meat intake of any kind. I was toying with the idea of becoming completely vegetarian, but I realized that 1) my convictions aren't quite that strong and 2) it's not a realistic lifestyle for me at this point.

For me "mostly" vegetarian means that I won't cook with meat at home, but I will partake of meat in limited quantities when invited over to friends houses or when eating out (which we don't do very often). Another thing we've given up is milk, and we're limiting dairy. Again, my reading convinced me that milk isn't as good as I once thought, so we're drinking almond and soy milk. (Almond milk is delicious, by the way).

For those of you wondering how it's possible to cook without meat, it's really not that hard! We eat lots of beans (for which there are hundreds of varieties), whole grains (quinoa, rice, millet, amaranth, steel cut oats, barley), sweet potatoes, lots of veggies, and a limited amount of tofu. It's fun to try new recipes, and it's cheaper not buying meat. We joined the local CSA (community supported agriculture) and we get fresh vegetables weekly from that.

I'm not writing this to tell you all wonderful and "green" I am (or whatever), but just to share this lifestyle change we've made in our house because it's now a big part of who we are. These changes aren't always easy. Of course, I'm not perfect, and eating is one of my favorite things to do in the world. My weakness is ice cream and frapuccinos, so I indulge in those more often than I should. But as a woman who has struggled with my weight and overeating for most of my life, I'm feeling really great. I'm 10 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight, and I just feel better in general.

I don't love cooking all of the time, but I definitely enjoy trying new things with new ingredients. Is that what makes someone a foodie? Here are some of the good one's we've had in the past couple of weeks (let me know if you want any of the recipes):

Barley Casserole
Meatless enchildadas
Tofu manicotti
Sweet potato and lentil stew
Honey baked lentils
Moroccan couscous with squash
Cauliflower soup
Pinto bean stew
Split pea curry

And for anyone interested, here are the books I've been reading:
Disease Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right
In Defense of Food
Food Rules
The Kind Diet