Adventures in Whole Food, Plant-Based Nutrition [Non-GMO + recipes]

This morning has been CRAZY chaotic for us. Then again, so has the last few years of our lives. We're starting to realize that life is crazy and we need to be at our best in order to keep up! 

It seems like every time we try to implement a new plant-based nutritional concept into our diet, we realize one more facet we forgot to consider.

Most recently our surprise came from soy milk. We figured any brand and kind would be fine. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Most people don't realize but some soy milks are sold at discounted prices because they're made with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's). If a carton of soy milk doesn't say non-GMO then you can't be sure what's in it. As my husband put it, the GMO soy milks (and other products) are "frankenfood". If you're concerned about a soy milk or food that you're consuming The Non-GMO Project keeps an up-to-date list of suspects and many companies, proud of their non use of GMOs, list "NON-GMO" right on the packaging!

After running around doing price comparisons at our local grocery store and natural foods store, we were ready to get our munch on, the plant-based way!

We came home and made:
Plant-strong sandwiches
Oil-free "hummus"
and Pearled Barley and Sweet Potato Pilaf

Yum!

We gobbled up the sandwiches before I could get a picture, but they were stacked like this:

Plant-Strong Sandwiches
Two slices 100% whole grain bread
hummus spread
cucumber
baby spinach
roma tomato
alfalfa sprouts
mushroom caps
orange bell pepper
avocado
cracked black pepper
dill pickle slices (on the side)

They were delicious, but needed the dill pickle slices to add some moisture, as the bread was on the dry side.

Then I got busy on our variation of Forks Over Knives  Healthy Hummus

Hummus-like Spread
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and rained
1 can beans, rinsed and drained  we used pinto, to keep the "hummus" look, but you can used any kind
3 cloves garlic
1 lemon, juiced
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. Bragg Liquid Aminos
1/4 C. vegetable broth

I literally just mixed this up and it is awesome! It's light, tangy and is going on everything this week!

And then for dinner (yes, there's still more deliciousness and I'm cooking as I type, so you're getting a raw account of how this goes, first time!) I made Forks Over Knives recipe called...

Barley and Sweet Potato Pilaf
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Personally I feel you can never have enough garlic, nor does it matter if it's minced well, because garlic is rockin' no matter what
3 1/2 C. vegetable stock
1 1/2 C. pearled barley
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 C. tarragon, minced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
salt and pepper to taste

 

Throw the onion in a pan and sautee for 5 ish minutes you don't need any oil!
Add garlic and sautee a few minutes more, adding small amounts of water if needed
to keep onions and garlic from sticking to the pan... instead of oil

Add vegetable stock and barley and bring to a boil
Cover and simmer 30 minutes

I used this thirty minutes to clean up my mess and finish prepping the potatoes, tarragon, and lemon

Add sweet potatoes and cook 15 more minutes, or until barley and potatoes are fork tender
Add taragon and lemon juice + zest
Season with salt and pepper to taste

Voila!

P.S. - If it sucks, cover it in Sriracha (that's what we do!)

P.S.S - I just ate a big bowl of it, it does not suck.

Enjoy!