The Truth: What I REALLY Eat!

Every now and then, one of my students has whispered conspiratorially to me, “So what do you REALLY eat? Do you actually eat the way you’re teaching us, or do you sometimes just have to go out and grab a steak?”

So I guess it’s time to “fess up.”

No, I don’t go out and grab a steak, but I usually DO eat differently from the recipes I demonstrate!

There . . . I’ve said it.

Now I’ll tell you how I REALLY eat!

Actually, I eat very, very simply.  I only cook a real recipe about twice a week, and it’s often soup. So all those recipes I’ve shown you how to make . . . I rarely make them myself.  I like them, but my usual diet is much simpler.

So here’s a typical day’s eating at our house:

​Breakfast: The same basic menu every day. First we eat a plate of a variety of different fresh fruits, depending upon the season. This morning it was cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, cherries, and peaches. (Yummy! ! !)

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​We follow the fruit with a plate of vegetables. We steam red cabbage and kale together in the same pot, and eat them together with a little vegan Parmesan on it. The cabbage and kale are SO GOOD together — the sweetness of the cabbage really compliments the stronger flavor of the kale.

Our third course for breakfast is cooked multi-grain cereal with banana and ground flaxseed on it. Charlie makes a big batch of the cereal about twice a week, and we just reheat as much as we need each day. (Yes, this is a big breakfast, and we never tire of it!)

So the only thing that varies in our breakfast is the fruit, depending upon the season, what’s available, what’s on sale, and what’s really tasty.

About once a month or even less, we make whole-grain blueberry pancakes with wild blueberries we pick and freeze every fall. We serve them with real maple syrup — no butter or margarine. (We often still want to eat some greens before the pancakes because we love them!)

​Lunch: We always have a very large green salad, with lots of interesting veggies and sometimes fruit, beans, or cooked yam cubes in it. We eat this with one of our delicious homemade, creamy, oil-free salad dressings. I make about 3 different dressings throughout the week.

We often have a small bowl of soup or something else I’ve made ahead with our salad. I usually make a hearty bean or vegetable soup about twice a week, and we alternate between the 2 soups. Many times I make a huge pot of soup and freeze some to eat later. Makes it super simple to always have good soup around.

​Dinner: Looks a lot like lunch! We eat another huge green salad with loads of tasty ingredients. I always make enough salad at one time for 2 meals for us. Sometimes it stretches to 3 when we have more of something else that day.

​During summer gardening season, we also eat a lot of steamed, just-picked veggies. This week we’ve had broccoli, zucchini, beet greens, Swiss chard, and collards. Sometimes I stir-fry them together, using just a little water or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, (no oil) or I just steam them and we eat them separately, with a little of our vegan Parmesan on them.

I also made a big pot of spaghetti this week, which we alternated with soup for dinner. I had some sauce left after the pasta was gone, so I layered it with some steamed greens and it was delish!

Sometimes I cook a yam or potato to add to the dinner salad and veggies, or I put chili over the salad, and top with hot, vegan “Cheesy Sauce”(see the FREE VIDEO box on the right), salsa, and fresh cilantro for a “burrito bowl” which I demo in my Yes To Life Nutrition & Cooking Course.

Burrito Bowl

Broccoli, Cauliflower & "Cheesy" Sauce

Dessert: About once a month I make a dessert. It could be baked, like Yummy Yam Bars, or a frozen fruit sorbet (in the VitaMix). This summer I’ve made rhubarb cake because we have LOTS of rhubarb growing in our yard. Otherwise, we always have fresh fruit around to enjoy if we want something sweet and yummy.

Yummy Yam Bars

Raspberry Sorbet

Well, that’s it!

When I am just in the mood to do more cooking, I’ll make something more involved. Might look through my many recipes books to get an idea, and then use it as a jumping off point for making whatever suits me at the time.

So I spend very little time preparing food. I make many things up in advance, and at mealtime go into the kitchen, heat the soup, add the avocado to the salad, set the table (out on the deck when the weather is great!) and enjoy a very simple, super nutritious, and absolutely delicious meal 3 times a day.

My clients have remarked about how helpful it was to them to actually experience how simple this healthy eating can be, and they’ve been able to easily incorporate it into their own lives.

I don’t want to discourage you from making more involved recipes if you feel like it! That’s just fine! I do it occasionally myself. But just know that you don’t have to. Healthy eating can be very simple and very delicious. Many of the other nutrition and cooking instructors I know do much the same as I do!

Okay . . . so now you know the truth. I hope it will help you simplify your meals, if you want to, and you can enjoy making more involved meals just when you feel like it.

Now it’s your turn!

Is healthy eating simple and easy for you, or does it feel hard, complicated, and too time-consuming?

Can you share any tips you’ve discovered that make mealtime easy?

Write your comments, questions, and tips below!

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