What's On Our Plate

Happy Friday!

Today is officially the last day of school for us. Woo-hoo! We take the next two weeks off before starting some light summer school but praise the Lord, we made it through another year of homeschooling.

I'm pretty excited about this weekend because we're headed to the beach and I can't think of a better place to kick off our summer!  

Before we go, I wanted to share some of the tasty things we've been eating around here lately.

Let's start with the most important meal of the day, breakfast! 

My favorite go-to, quick and easy breakfast is this Almond Butter Avocado Toast. It's packed with so much goodness! Have you ever tried this combo? It may sound weird but I can assure you it is delicious! Especially when topped with some TJ's Everything But the Bagel Seasoning.

These Blueberry Oat Muffins are always on repeat at my house.

Great for an accompaniment to breakfast or for a quick snack.  

Berry Chia Seed Jam is my jam. 😊 So easy to make with only 4 ingredients!

We use it on toast or as a topper to our breakfast bowls.

I'm having fun with these breakfast bowls. You can be as creative as you want to be.  

I've also been a huge fan of making Overnight Oatmeal. It couldn't be easier to throw together the night before and have it ready for the morning. I make a big bowl for the family and we enjoy it for days. This is perfect for our hot weather months. So satisfying and filling. Again, the toppers are endless!

This one has coconut chips, almond butter, cinnamon, and fruit. Yum!

For lunch, this is a Chickpea and Artichoke sandwich. The girls and I happen to love chickpeas and artichokes. This has lemon juice, garlic, and basil. On this particular day, I ran out of fresh basil so I just used spinach. And I don't know about you but I could add avocado to just about anything!

Another one of our favorite lunch salads is a knock off of the Curry Chicken Salad. You know the one with cranberries and pecans? Well, this vegan version uses chickpeas and for creaminess, tahini.

SO GOOD!

I could just eat it as is but we usually put it on a toasted sandwich with fresh arugula or spinach.

Or we sometimes stuff it in pita bread. Either way, it's something we enjoy every week!

I'm also really loving these Nourish Bowls.

It's nothing more than my leftovers arranged in a pretty and colorful way.

This one had brown rice, broccoli, sautéed kale, sweet potatoes, steamed organic tofu and some kimchee. Delectable!

For snacks, give us all the smoothie bowls! We can't get enough of these acai bowls. Our favorite toppings are granola, fruit, coconut, and chia seeds. It's all about the flavor and texture combo.

Here's another green smoothie bowl with goji berries.

Can we just talk about rice cakes? Yes, rice cakes! They make the perfect canvas. These are just plain rice cakes with almond butter, pecans, coconut, honey, and hemp seeds. The possibilities are endless. You can smear any kind of nut butter and add fresh fruit, too. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Respect the rice cake! 😝 

I've been making my own hummus every week because we're using it quite often for wraps and dipping. Plus, with just a few ingredients, it tastes much better than the store bought version. 

Creamy and dreamy!

Easy peasy!

For dinner, I've really enjoyed this Rainbow Thai Salad that my girlfriend, Hailey sent me.

I renamed it because it used to be called Thai Chicken Salad. 😄 I love all the colorful veggies and in my opinion, the mint and mango are the stars!  

I typically mix it all together with buckwheat soba noodles (or whole wheat spaghetti noodles) and this stellar dressing. This will be a wonderful summer salad since all of it is served cold.

Ok, so the first few weeks of our diet, we relied on some packaged "meat substitute" products that are readily available in the supermarket. However, each week, my goal was to get away from those and cook real, whole, plant-based food. There's no shame in using those products as they are super useful when you're learning how to transition. They're not only convenient but tasty as well. During that time, we found TJ's Soyrizo and OH MY, this stuff is good! Now, I try to just use it sparingly. You can see here that I mixed some with black beans and potatoes for a tasty taco filling.  

Funny, I never used to make meatloaf before but I made this Vegan Lentil Loaf and it was super yum!

The leftovers the next day were fantastic, too!  

Of course my family loves their pizza so now, we just make our own. These haven't been cooked yet but here's a photo of all of our toppings before it went in the oven. The key is to sautee most of the toppings for maximum flavor. The girls wanted to try vegan cheese so I added some to half of the pizza. I didn't care for the cheese but the girls said they liked it so it was a win.

However, I did make this Vegan Parmesan and it hit the spot, especially over whole grain pasta with marinara sauce. It's made with raw cashews, garlic, and nutritional yeast. So yummy!

These are just some examples of what's been on our plate lately. I post them here, not really for you but for us to see and remember how we've progressed and what we're enjoying at the moment.

It definitely takes a little more forethought and planning each day and I think it helped that I was already used to meal planning. At first, dinner was a challenge but now, I look at it as a fun and creative way to try something new and accumulate a growing list of our favorites.

I realize that food can be a powerful stronghold for people. Satan thrives on that. I'm talking about overeating, emotional eating, or even obsessing about what we can or can not eat. We're passionate around here but we're not rigid. In other words, we don't freak out if we accidentally ate something with milk, egg, or meat in it. We know there is no magic diet or food plan that guarantees anything or trumps God's providence. In other words, we can strive to be healthy and steward our bodies well but in the end, it's all about God's grace. We pray for wisdom, we make the best choices we can, and we leave the rest up to God.

There is great freedom and peace in knowing that He is the only one who is in control.

Hallelujah for that.

Have a blessed weekend, friends!

A Personal Story: Loss and Gain

Today, I'm sharing about my recent surgery and what's changed in my life because of it. Although my close friends and family are all aware of my story, it doesn't mean that I needed to share it publicly. However, I really do feel like it's a turning point--for not only me, but for my whole family. And, if by sharing, it helps to encourage others to make some positive changes, then I'm all for that.

On March 15th of this year, I had a hysterectomy. But first, let me back up a bit. In June of 2016, I had a partial hysterectomy because I had endometriosis. Endometriosis or "endo" happens when the lining of the uterus (womb) grows outside of the uterus, usually onto the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and outer surface of the uterus. It is a common health problem that is growing everyday and currently affects 1 out of every 10 women in America. In fact, lately, I've even seen a couple of TV commercials warning women about endo.

Let's back up even further. In October of 2015, I came home from a lovely lunch, where I had just celebrated my 45th birthday with my sweet girlfriends. I started to feel a dull pain in my lower abdominal area. At first, I thought it was pain due to ovulation but it didn't go away after a couple of days. The following week,

I made an appointment with my doctor and long story short, after several more appointments, ultrasounds, blood work, and biopsies, I was told that I had endometriosis. In fact, I not only had endometriosis but I also had a large cyst growing on one of my ovaries and scar tissue (from endo build-up) on my fallopian tubes.

I was told that eventually, surgery would be in my future. Happy birthday to me, right? 😕

After much prayer, consultation, and fear (I had never had surgery in my life at this point), I decided to have that first surgery. That was in June of 2016. In addition to the removal of the large cyst, they also removed one of my ovaries and both of my fallopian tubes. My doctor burned off all of the endo she could find (which was a lot). Apparently, even though I had only recently experienced the pain associated with endo, I was told that it was probably something that I've had since I was in my teens. I had spent six weeks recovering and hoped this chapter of my life with endo would be over, but I was wrong.

Less than a year later, the pain returned. The problem with endo is that it keeps growing because it feeds off the hormone, estrogen. And because I still had an ovary (and my uterus), I was still having my monthly cycles. I was back to see my doctor and after more tests, I was told that another large cyst had grown on my remaining ovary- again, a result of the endo. Thankfully, the pain was manageable and only occasional but the main concern was the growing cyst. Had I known that I would be back in surgery 22 months later, I probably would have opted to do the total hysterectomy the first time around but we were trying to be conservative and allow me to go through menopause as naturally as possible-- especially considering I was still on the young side (the average age of menopause being 51).

So, once again, I decided to have another surgery. This time, I could have opted to just have the cyst removed, leaving my one ovary and uterus in tact but after much prayer and consideration, I decided that I didn't want to be in this situation again and have yet another surgery going forward. That's why I opted for the full hysterectomy. I know that may sound drastic to some but I had spent over 2 years, in and out of doctors appointments, and I was ready to move on with my life. I have young children and wanted to get on with living. Even if it meant that I now, I had to deal with menopause. I figured eventually, I'd have to go through that anyway.

So here I am today. Praise Jesus, I'm feeling great! I ended up healing much faster from this surgery than I had expected. However, just a few days after surgery, I shared with my doctor that I was experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, and lack of sleep. Hello, immediate menopause. 😱

To my surprise, she quickly prescribed a pill for that. I'm a person who doesn't like to take any type of drugs. In fact, I did my best to avoid taking any pain meds after my surgery. To top it off, in doing some research about the drug she prescribed, it was an antidepressant and it came with all sorts of side effects. Um, no thank you.

This led me to research menopause and look for ways to naturally manage its symptoms. I kept reading the same thing in the holistic community which was this...

Let food be the medicine.

This made total sense me to me. When God made all the food, He made it good. He created it to nourish our bodies and give us everything we need to enjoy life, live it to the fullest, and even heal. Drugs and chemical medicines have only been around for the last century. And the way our food is processed today makes us highly susceptible to autoimmune diseases and overall health issues. I don't think anyone can deny that America is one of the sickest countries in the world. We have more overweight people and chronic disease than any other population. Why? Because of our diet. The Standard American Diet (or SAD) is rich in unhealthy fat, refined sugar, highly processed, and genetically modified foods. Compare that to the diet of other nations, such as Japan, for example, and you'll see a dramatic decrease in heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and cancer. That's because their diet consists mostly of vegetables and grains, with very little meat and no dairy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discover the correlation between disease and food. Turns out my doctor was just doing her job. She was simply treating the symptom, rather than teaching me how to prevent it.

Well, needless to say, I never got that prescription filled. Two weeks after my surgery, I eliminated all meat and dairy products from my diet and focused on a whole foods plant based diet. And you know what?

I haven't had one single hot flash since then and I'm sleeping much better through the night. Hallelujah! Plus, I've lost those extra pounds that I couldn't seem to lose before. At my post-op appointment, I informed my doctor that I was planning to focus more on exercise and diet, instead of taking any prescription meds. Interestingly enough, while I was there, she showed me the images from my last surgery. We compared them to my first surgery and she was utterly amazed at how very little the endo had grown to other parts of my body. Remember the first time, she had to clean up all the endo because it was so prevalent. In fact, I was classified as having stage 4 endo at the time. She said this time around, she could hardly find any! Her exactly words were, "I felt like I was operating on a different person. The transformation was quite remarkable." She then asked me, "What did you do in between your first and second surgery?"

You guys. I changed my diet! Although I wasn't strictly vegan, I tried to eliminate inflammatory foods like cheese, pizza, sugar, processed food, red meat, and alcohol. I even stopped drinking wine about a year ago (and you all probably know that I loved my red wine). The images from my first and second surgery, along with my doctor's comments served as even more fuel to light my fire. The more I dug, the more I learned. I discovered that diseases could be REVERSED by the power of food. I find that so amazing and fascinating! Isn't God so smart to put the medicine in our food?!

I don't know about you but there is history of cancer in my family. Both my parents had cancer and my father passed away just 2 short years after having been diagnosed at the age of 73. Looking back on his life and eating habits, he enjoyed all the red meat and excessive alcohol. Could that have contributed to his health? Most definitely. I grew up eating the SAD myself- which included all the processed foods, packaged lunch meats, sugar, and lots of cheese. Perhaps this led to my early menses and eventual endometriosis?

My motivation and inspiration to use food as medicine is not only about my health but more about my family as a whole. They are worth it! Morgan and I are considered "older parents" with young children. My prayer is that we can live healthy, long lives, enjoying and engaging with our kids. And Lord willing, we can be around, not only to see our grandchildren one day but to be actively involved in their lives.

We are 7 weeks in from making the change to a whole foods plant based diet (except for Zach). He's a picky eater but we're slowly trying to transition him. Morgan and the girls decided to jump in with me. We all went cold turkey and have never looked back. At first, I'll admit that I was a little intimated by it all. It felt like a whole new education and there's a lot to learn and de-program yourself from. Today, being the one who shops and cooks for my family, I'm feeling like I've started to find my groove and make some good strides. I'm enjoying the discovery of new recipes and I'm learning that every bite of food that I put in my mouth is a conscientious, proactive, intentional decision towards health. And guess what? It's also been very tasty and enjoyable! Vegan food is not all about salads and tofu. Although I love salads and tofu, there is actually so much more real, wholesome, nourishing, yummy food! 

Perhaps what has surprised me the most is the enthusiasm I see from our girls. They're at that age where they are growing in discernment and learning to make wise choices for themselves. They want to be healthy and they can see the value of nourishing their bodies by making conscientious choices. Plus, for them, they are compassionate animal lovers. Truth be told, now that they understand (and have seen) what animals must go through to end up on our plate, it's much easier for them to choose otherwise. I understand that most people don't even think about their food in this way and I get it. I was exactly the same. Most of us were trained from very early on to think of food as just, well, food.

Everyone has different reasons for eating a plant based diet. Some do it for their health, some do it for the impact on the environment, and some do it for their compassion towards animals. I don't share any of this with you to make you feel uncomfortable or guilty in any way. I'm only sharing because I hope someone who is reading this will be inspired to take charge of their health and make some positive changes in their own lifestyle. Whether it be to eliminate meat and dairy altogether or just go meatless one day a week. I hope you research for yourself because there is SO MUCH information out there linking food to disease. Knowledge is power and we all have the ability to empower ourselves and make healthier lifestyle choices.

I think a lot of Americans are OK with taking various prescription drugs and we just accept the fact that with age, comes disease and overall health problems. I've always felt that God was trying to teach me something through this trial, perhaps even prevent me from something in my future. Today, I'm feeling so grateful for this eye opening change. It's been a GIFT and something I probably wouldn't have changed if it wasn't for my endo and hysterectomy.

No doubt, I'll be sharing more about our plant based eating journey in my future posts so consider this your heads up. 😉 In fact, coming up, I can't wait to share some of our favorites foods with you lately!

Lastly, over the weekend, I saw this...

Check out the new food item at our local Costco food court.

If you look closely, the new Al Pastor Salad Salad is made with plant based protein, not meat.

Times are changing. How nice to have options. 😊

Bako & Cougar Buttes

Morgan had a client appointment in Bakersfield last week so it was a great excuse to tag along,

visit family for the weekend and get in some off-road fun.  

Let the weekend begin!

 Visiting the neighborhood park by Ben and Lucy's house.

 I'll take all the hugs from this little man of mine any day.

Cuteness abounds.

 This boy and his love for dogs... Especially Coco!  

 Having a delightful conversation.

 Coco is the best sport!

We also got to go see Christina perform in her high school musical, Beauty & the Beast.

She's the one sitting on the floor to the right.

She played various characters in the musical but her main role was the Enchanted Footstool.

She was fabulous and we enjoyed it very much!

 On Sunday morning, Ben had a race at Cougar Buttes (near Big Bear and Johnson Valley) so we spent the day there, hoping to see him race and cheer him on.

With all his races and amazing finishes, Uncle Ben is now considered an "expert" in his class.

Cool, right?

This little guy was in his element.

 Um, WHY??

 He obviously wanted to see something.

Sister smooches.

 We met some really nice people who had been camping there all weekend and they were so generous to let us play with their cool toys.  

 The rock formations are always a highlight to climb.

 Zach found himself a ramp to climb. 😂

 We also found a chuckawalla.

Our new friends invited Zach into their RV for pancakes and a movie.

As you can see, he wasn't quite sure what to think of "The Land Before Time." 😕  

 He only lasted 10 minutes before he was quickly back outside for a ride with Faith.

 Needless to say, he was in complete dirt heaven all day! #boys

Well, we didn't see Ben race after all so that was a bit of a bummer. I guess the race trail wasn't conducive to spectators. Regardless, he was able to finish the race and did really well.

Yay, Ben!

  Thankfully, we met some super nice people so we hung out with them and played in the dirt all day before heading home.

While in Bako, we also got to visit with Grandpa but I failed to get a photo. 🙈👎  

All in all, it was a short but sweet and fun trip. Always great to see the family!