Hi everyone! If you’ve been following along on my Instagram stories (my Instagram handle is @emilylucillesanders for those of you who don’t follow me!) this week you know this post was coming. For everyone else, welcome to my first weekly recipes post! Throughout the month of January and hopefully the rest of the year, I am hoping to cut (or seriously decrease) certain foods from my diet. I am not following a program like Whole30 or Paleo, but I am simply just trying to make better choices for my overall health.
For me, I feel like dairy is probably the biggest food group I am focusing on removing, but I am also taking trying to limit sugar and grains. I feel like grains are tricky because some people treat lentils, beans, quinoa as grains, but as a vegetarian (technically a pescatarian but pretty picky about fish too), I get crazy amounts of proteins from those types of food. When I do eat grains, I will be making sure that they are full of either fiber or protein. Am I going to freak out if I go to a restaurant and something is cooked in butter? No. Am I going to try and avoid cheese plates at all cost? Yes. To me it’s about making the obvious, better choice when it comes to cutting out certain foods out of my diet.
For now these recipe posts are going to just consist of links to recipes for dinners that I’ve made. My breakfast and lunches are going to be somewhat boring. For breakfast I will most likely be sticking to a dairy-free yogurt option like Kite Hill or SO Delicious, oatmeal or fruit. For lunches I will be sticking to the GG Crackers (full of fiber that helps to keep you full!) that I have mentioned on Instagram stories before with either almond butter and fruit or avocado and then a salad. If you are interested in my weekly breakfast/lunch menu let me know in the comments below and I can put together another post.
Okay now for the weekly recipes. The links below are recipes that I found on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest here!), in cookbooks, from other bloggers (their blogs, Instagram or Instagram stories), or on other websites across the internet. If I made any tweaks or swapped anything out I will mention that under the recipe link. I am going to try and cook dinner at home at least 3-4x a week. Typically Bill and I will go out on Friday and Saturday for food, so I don’t usually plan meals for those nights. I really hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I enjoyed finding them, trying them and sharing them with you…
No. 1 — Pinch of Yum’s Creamy Spinach Sweet Potato Noodles with Cashew Sauce
This recipe was great. A few things to note with this recipe… Unless you have a large, tabletop spiralizer like this one, I don’t recommend trying to make these noodles yourself. I have a tiny spiralizer that is great for zucchini, but it did not do the trick for the sweet potatoes. I suggest buying pre-spiralized (is that a word?) noodles for this recipe. I’ve seen them before at Whole Foods, but they were sold out when I went to buy them hence me trying to do it myself. For this recipe I swapped out baby spinach for kale and I loved it. Also, this cashew sauce is the easiest thing I’ve ever made and it is DELICIOUS. You will only use half of what you make for this recipe, so I saved the rest of it and have been dipping veggies in it and putting it on top of falafel and it is so, so good.
No. 2 — Colorful Recipes’ Crock Pot Black Bean Lentil Quinoa Chili
I came across this recipe on Styled Snapshots’ Instagram stories and immediately bookmarked it. I was saving this recipe for a lazy Sunday, but then the bomb cyclone hit us in Connecticut on Thursday, and I knew it was the perfect time to whip up this chili. I love this recipe because it contain beans, lentils and quinoa which are great sources of protein for me as a vegetarian. The other reason I love this recipe is because it can be vegan based on the toppings you decide to add. The recipe suggests toppings like avocado, Greek yogurt and cheddar cheese, but I just topped it with avocado so that it was dairy-free. Seriously it was so delicious and we’ve been eating it for lunch and snacks the past couple of days!
No. 3 — Meatified’s Lime & Coconut Cauliflower Rice with Salmon and Veggies
One of my biggest weaknesses in life is Chrissy Teigen’s Sweet and Salty Coconut rice from her Cravings cookbook. I dream about this rice and when I make it I will finish every last bite of it. When I made the decision to cut back on grains and sugar, I immediately knew I was going to need to find a substitute for Chrissy’s rice in my life. I searched Pinterest high and low for coconut cauliflower rice recipes and landed on the one linked above. I tweaked this recipe slightly because I didn’t use the unsweetened shredded coconut and I didn’t add the lime zest or cilantro (we are not huge cilantro people in this household). I decided to pair this rice with salmon and some broccoli. For the salmon I didn’t use a recipe I just marinaded it in garlic, soy sauce (I wanted to use coconut aminos but forgot to grab them at the store!), a little bit of honey, salt and lime, and then baked it in the oven. I threw some broccoli on the side and this meal ended up being great. I would definitely make the rice again. If you don’t have a food processor, or even if you do, I recommend picking up a bag of the pre-riced cauliflower at either Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods because it makes life so much easier.
Are you trying to eat healthier this month/year? If so, what are some of your favorite recipes?