Yeah! We got our Reverse Osmosis water filter installed today! Thanks Dad! This is something that I've wanted for awhile and although I know it doesn't remove ALL toxins from the water it's better than what we were doing before---nothing.
I also went grocery shopping yet again today. I feel like this is the most stressful part of "greening" my house. I really didn't have a problem switching to vinegar and baking soda for cleaning products, removing all the bleach and other chemicals from under the sink and changing soaps (although I've recently backslid and am using not-so-green products to save money), but the at the grocery store...I'm a mess. I think my problem is that I know where I want to be, but getting there is my most challenging problem. I want to eat whole foods. Nothing processed, just REAL food. A la Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma really changed the way I look at food!). It's just that I'm up against a little resistance from the family. I stopped eating meat when I was pregnant with my third child and I'm SO happy I did. I really feel uncomfortable feeding meat to my family, knowing what may have been fed to that animal or injected into that animal or how it was prepared what kind of living conditions...anyway, I want to stay away from meat. This of course creates a huge problem in meal planning. I don't eat meat, #3 doesn't eat meat, #2 is fickle, but generally will not choose meat. #1 is old enough to understand what a "vegetarian" is and will go for awhile not eating meat, but the truth is, he likes meat. Especially those meats that are the worst for him; ham, pepperoni and hot dogs. My husband could be Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. He is NOT on board with my push to remove meat from our diets. And there lies my grocery problem. Each week I plan two meals a night, one with a meat and one without. This of course is difficult to shop for as well as frustrating to prepare. I do my best to make meals that are kind of both--tacos, pasta, stir-frys, but it doesn't always work--especially when I find myself substituting "fake" meat for the real meat in a recipe. This is totally the opposite of what I want to do--eat REAL food. So, as part of my quest, I'm always on the lookout for healthy, vegetarian recipes. Suggestions?
This blog is a journal of how I'm working to make my home greener and healthier for my family. From cloth diapering, to organic shopping to discussing vegetarianism with a 6-year-old, I'm hoping to continue to motivate myself to push ahead in my journey to be as green and healthy as the 6 of us can be.
How does your husband feel about beans? We're not vegetarian, but we do at lease one vegetarian meal a week, and it almost always involves black beans or chickpeas. My husband hated chickpeas and was deeply suspicious when I first started cooking with them, but spices -- saffron, red pepper flakes, etc -- won him over. And if I make black beans burritos with homemade salsa and some cilantro and lime in the rice, he actually prefers that to meat these days.
ReplyDeleteI think you should go ahead and make your vegetarian meal and let your husband grill meat for himself (and #1 if he wants it)on either an outside grill or a George Foreman grill. Would that work?
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