healthy.

A month ago I cut almost all dairy out of my diet. Not a true vegan, I'm still eating butter on occasion and foods with milk ingredients in them. I thought it may help Sofie with her colicky days and sensitive tummy. I've always been a healthy eater, being a vegetarian now for 19 years (!) and really enjoying cooking and trying new recipes. I read cookbooks like they're novels.

A month in, and I've never been eating healthier. Until recently I had never eaten kale, I tried it two or three times but was completely intimidated by it and turned off. It has quickly become a staple in our home and I'm eager to try new recipes with it. I've also always wanted to be drinking 'green' smoothies with crazy ingredients like spinach and garlic and swiss chard, but again, have been completely intimidated. But I've just taken stock of what I've eaten in the last 24 hours and am kind of amazed and impressed with myself. I'm also shocked at how relatively easy it is to incorporate vegan recipes into our lives. I have two great cookbooks that I would recommend to anyone, 'Vive Le Vegan' and 'Get it Ripe', my husband is a superstar at whipping up some of the recipes in there. Having a newborn has kept me from cooking.. a big adjustment for me. But I sit and feed her while M. makes us dinner and that's pretty nice too. So I just wanted to share some of the yummy stuff we've been snacking on:

last night's dinner: soba kale noodles from Get it Ripe and a thai cucumber salad from my friend Alexis' blog (not vegan, but you could omit the fish sauce. also we don't have dulse powder or arame so we omit that)

breakfast: 12 grain bread from Juliens with almond butter

snack: leftover soba noodles from last night & a ' green monster' smoothie

lunch: vegan protein burrito (I added 2 handfuls of kale)

snack: black bean dip & nachos

dinner: sweet potato & black bean burritos with cumin brown rice. this is my recipe that I've adapted and fine tuned. They are one of my favourite things to eat.

I feel like my body is sucking up every ounce of goodness and nutrition and I feel great putting all of these healthy and whole foods into not only my body, but Sofie's as well. Because I'm not sure if you've noticed, but breastfeeding is going very well for her. She's a beefcake. A delicious one.

Happy Eating!