Living More Sustainably: Vegetarian one day a week

I fully admire those that can live a zero waste existence. It’s certainly something to aspire to. I am just not there yet. However, I really believe that if a whole bunch of us start with just some small changes it will have a massive environmental impact.

Starting over a year ago now we have been implementing changes in our home to try and live more sustainably. Interestingly, I started implementing a lot of these and didn’t mention it to Hubby to see if he noticed and commented on it or if the change bothered him. None of the changes we have made so far have phased him at all.

I thought I would share one of these every now and then. If you like the tip feel free to implement it. I know these are not new ideas. I am just sharing what small changes I have been able to easily incorporate into our lives to make our family more environmentally friendly.

Vegetarian one day per week.

This is a great example of something I started to implement without Hubby even noticing. I did this at the same time I started meal planning. This was a beautiful change to make hand in hand. Not only is eating meat free once a week good for the environment, but meal planning reduced our weekly food waste and grocery bill significantly!

I did this for over a month before asking Hubby if he’d noticed we were eating vegetarian at least one night every week. He hadn’t noticed that, but he’d been liking the meals and the organisation of meal planning. It actually saved us a lot of time over the week as we were not having that daily “what do you want for dinner?” discussion and then spending time rummaging through the pantry for options hahaha. He actually got into the process and is now much more involved in our food choices and also dinner and food preparation YAY!!!

Here’s the thing… this doesn’t have to be a complicated meal. Often this is my simplest dinner of the week. Very often I combine this with pasta night. At the moment we are both loving the Rana range of pastas particularly the Ricotta & Spinach Tortellini and the Pumpkin & Roasted Onion Ravioli. Even better when I score the family pack on sale as this gives us two nights of dinners. Especially when I chuck in some brocolli and mixed vegies. My 11 months old loves these pasta dishes as well, she doesn’t eat pasta in other forms apart from these and lasagne so that’s another bonus for us.

Honestly once you look at a couple of vegetarian meals it is a lot easier than the pressure that people put on themselves to create incredible dishes. Yes, you certainly can do that. OMG there are some amazing vegetarian and vegan dishes out there, but there are also some quick fixes.

Loving the Wildly Good range for a quick healthy vegetarian or vegan meal!

Wildly Good Falafel bites in a yum salad bowl with sweet potato waffle fries YUMMO!!!!!

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Healthy Oat Fruit Bars

I have been experimenting with Oat fruit bars/slice suitable for baby led weaning for my 8 month old who is lactose intolerant. We are trying to build up her tolerance a little by including very small amounts of lactose in her diet, but let’s be real, many of these types of things have dairy. So here’s one I have messed around with that made up a LOT of slice, she LOVES it!!! It also freezes great and I like it with a coffee or tea too, so bonus!

Ingredients

3 cups of rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/4 cup A2 milk
1 1/4 cup oat milk
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup of finely chopped dried prunes
3/4 cup of finely chopped dried apricots
1 mashed overripe banana
1 grated granny smith apple
2 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced oven). Grease a slice tin – I use two medium sized ones as this is what I have.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Pour into slice tins. Bake in oven for around 45mins. You can check it’s done when it is firm and springs back to touch.
4. Once it has cooled you can cut and serve.

Notes

• This makes a LOT. I wanted this so I could cut into baby sized pieces and freeze. If you want a more normal sized amount you could halve everything, but I also did not want to waste half an apple and banana.
• I used prunes and apricots, but you could replace these with any dried fruit.

Fatigue…

Man, I am sooo tired this week. I feel like I need to nap all the time. This PCOS & IR stuff is balls for your social life that’s for sure haha. I finish work and get home and it seriously feels like a massive chore just to put together a decent meal.

Then naturally as the week goes on the fatigue gets worse and so I make worse choices for dinner. My inner monologue the other night kinda went like this:

If I was a good daughter/wife I would cook up some Salmon with a beautiful walnut salad for everyone. Yeah… but god damn I am so tired and I would have to go down to the fish market and to the supermarket to get the stuff for the salad. Hmm… maybe there is some chicken breast frozen in the freezer… there isn’t, but there is leftover crumbed fish and chicken pies. Mmm chicken pies… that would only take a few minutes of prep then I just have to wait for it to cook. Yeah let’s do that. Woohoo dinner sorted. THE END.

Yeah, not the best. The problem is the naughtier you eat the worse you will feel each day. Because it is an evil freaking cycle that we put ourselves into. I will fully admit the fault is mine. I have to figure out a way to cope with this fatigue so that I can exercise and eat healthier, I just have to.

You know it is true!!!

My new job is not far from the mall, one bonus of this is that I can walk to the mall during my hour lunch and buy the stuff I will need for dinner. So I have started doing this. I also try to avoid the naughty rows of the supermarket whilst there. Sometimes I will go with other people so I am guilted into buying the right kinds of things hahaha. Pathetic I know, but it works so well.

I know that I need to overhaul my eating habits again because whilst some of the changes I have made are now habit, I am starting to slip on other ones. Luckily I am not working this weekend so I am hoping I can work on a plan then. I know that pre-planning (and not buying sh*tty food) in the first instance is the best way forward for me. I think I will have to schedule meal planning time of a weekend.

I am also trying to link in my News Years Resolution of trying something new to a healthier lifestyle. Coming soon will be Shepherd’s Pie with cauliflower mash instead of potato and perhaps even making my own hummus – LOVE HUMMUS 🙂

What new things have you tried on your journey to a healthier lifestyle? Good or bad, I would love to hear about it!