Ryan and Forks Over Knives

So, as I had mountains of laundry to fold while the boys were at school one day, I put on a newish documentary that I saw on Netflix. I love watching the food documentaries like Super Size Me, Food Inc, King Corn, and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I hadn't heard of this one, but knew right away that it was a winner. Ryan was working from home and had his office door open. He kept popping in because what he heard was interesting and ended up bringing his laptop into the living room to work from the couch. He said that after 10 years of being with a vegetarian, this documentary had finally presented information in such a convincing way that he was ready for a real change.

Of course, part of our pre-nup ;) was that we would would not have meat in the house, but every since moving to SLC, he has been eating out for lunch every day. Not only that, but having plenty of eggs and dairy in the house was part of our compromise and any snack food that I would buy with the intent to last a long time, would disappear in the late hours of the night.

Well, after watching Forks Over Knives, he went to a doctor to get his blood work done. It was no surprise that his bad cholesterol was horrible across the board. He talked with the doctor about being vegan for 100 days to see if he could turn them around before resorting to the likes of Lipitor to keep him alive.

I'm ecstatic about the prospect. Of course, I think it is more compassionate for the animals, more responsible for the environment, and healthier for his body, but the most important thing is having a husband for me and a father for the kids for a long time. Hopefully, he will stick to it and see results. The hardest part is meal planning amazing dishes that satisfy him completely and remove the temptation of a quick run to Chick-Fil-A!

Here are some recent examples:

Couscous with salad (red leaf lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sunflower seeds) and portobello steaks and caramelized onions (grilled with Vegetarian Times BBQ Rub and a blackberry bbq sauce). This was delish!

This was tabbouleh stuffed in pitas with cucumbers, tomatoes and hummus. Also yum! 

I loved this salad of spinach, pears, cranberries, raisins and candied walnuts. I ate crazy amounts of this salad!

I've been trying out a lot of different waffle recipes. Finding one that doesn't stick or collapse, that isn't gummy and gooey and that tastes delicious hasn't been easy, but we'll get there! I've used bananas and flax seed as egg replacers, but I need to get applesauce and an actual egg replacer to try out. I think it would help if I ventured away from oats as well, but I'm trying to encorporate oats into every breakfast to help get the cholesterol down.