Let me start all this with a question!

Do you think that you could, if inspired with delicious looking recipes, incorporate a few plant-based meals into your family repertoire each week?

I have really been excited to share with you my New Years’ resolution to start a more plant-based diet, and just wanted to wait until after Christmas to blurt it out. I want to share it with you because it is a bit of a change for me and my family and will shape things here at the blog this year!

I want to give you a little backstory and a definition of what plant-based looks like for me.

This started back on the 20^th of September 2019, when it felt like the entire globe was recognizing, marching and having a discussion about climate change and the absolutely dire state of this planet. My children were talking about it, their classmates were protesting and I watched millions and millions of people worldwide trying to think about how they could alter our environmental path. That is when I had a bit of an epiphany.

It is wonderful to show up and discuss or protest when you believe in something. It’s great to like posts on Instagram and repost articles on facebook or tweets or whatever- but outside of awareness, it does not actually do anything to change circumstances. What could I actually DO that would make a change? I recycle. I compost. I try to remember to turn the lights off and unplug appliances when I am not using them. I have made the move away from single-use water bottles and switched all of my Tupperware to glass. I think about it. I am conscious of it- but sometimes it is difficult to see how I, as one person, can make a difference in the black hole of what is happening to this planet. It’s overwhelming, it’s scary and sad and all of those things that make it much, much easier to play a bit of the ostrich and bury my head about it.

But when I look at my girls and imagine the grandchildren that I may have, I want to believe that there will be a healthy planet filled with opportunities for them here. So that means, I have to start thinking about what I can do that is different from what I am already doing in order to do my part.

The answer for me, as one person, is to eat more plants.

My younger brother started talking about meat reduction for the environment with our family two years ago, and as with lots of things, sometimes it takes me a while to wrap my brain around it! One of the things that I have recently learned more about is that the livestock sector (think meat, poultry, eggs, fishing and dairy) is generating as much greenhouse gas emissions as all cars, trucks, ships, and planes combined.

What has become clear for me over the last few months is that eating less meat and dairy and eggs is crucial for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet. I am starting that lifestyle, along with my family this January 2020.

So, I will put it out here again: Do you think that you could, if inspired with delicious looking recipes, incorporate a few plant-based meals into your family repertoire? Maybe move to a meatless Monday? Or make a veggie chili instead of beef? Small changes that could add up?

I actually did 6 weeks of eating plant-based this fall and felt great- then the Holidays showed up and you know how that goes! As I go into the new year, I want to re-visit plant-based, but create a lifestyle that is sustainable and still has me excited about eating and creating food. You know that due to allergies I have not had dairy or eggs in about 7 years- so that is not hard for me- but cutting down on meat and adding more plants has been a whole new challenge for me that has been kind of exciting from a recipe developers point of view!

I am not a Vegan. I am not selling you on being vegan (unless you want to be of course!) But I would like to work towards being primarily plant-based. What that looks like for me is eating a plant-forward diet. Or more simply put, more plants, less meat!

However, sometimes if I go out to eat, I may want sushi or crave a burger. If I go to a dinner party and they made meat, I will probably eat it. But at home, for the most part, I want to work towards eating a lot more delicious plants and getting my family doing the same.

The kids are thrilled about this. The beauty of children is how fresh and possible everything is, right!? While the girls and I started to get interested in this idea, I had to ask myself how I could ever get meat and potatoes Pete on-board. Then totally unrelated to what I was thinking about, he watched a documentary called Game Changers (Netflix-if you have a lazy afternoon or evening it is worth a watch!) It is definitely geared towards men and athletes and approached plant-based from a very different marketing angle. I know that people feel differently about what it presents, but what I do know is that it got him curious enough to consent to this and get kind of excited about it.

This is obviously the summed-up, abbreviated version of what we are exploring here. There is more back story that includes Pete’s blood pressure and a long family history of colon cancer on his side that is best combatted with plant-based fiber. But we are excited about the potential to make a difference when things feel so hard to combat. We are excited to try new dishes and discover new pleasures in a slightly different way of eating. I am freshly inspired to think about ingredients in a very different way.

Do you want to try with me? Do you want to try for the month of January?

Of course, all of the traditional recipes are still here, and I will continue to cook meat or fish sometimes, but this year you will see quite a few more veggie-based recipes here while I explore what this looks like for us.

I know. I know that this is a pebble on a mountain of an environmental problem. But it matters. And I want to believe that we all have it in us to make a difference with just a few small changes to the way that we are living our life. And when it comes to food, there are a million ways to enjoy it, and that includes lots of delicious dishes that are not based in meat. So if partaking in those types of dishes more often can help to make it so that my future grandchildren have a healthy planet, now THAT I can handle!

Please feel free to let me know how you feel about this, if you are thinking about things like this, or if this whole idea is interesting to you. If it’s not, that’s ok too. We all make choices for ourselves, (as we should!) and I hope you will be respectful of what we are thinking about and check out the plethora of new recipes I will be sharing!