Starting Out

Eating the nutrarian way is a bit of leap.   The farmer wasn’t interested – he likes his meat, his cereal with milk and his chocolate/cakes/biscuits.    The firstborn wasn’t interested either – if it’s not cereal, pasta, lasagne or corn chips with salsa it wasn’t going to cut the mustard there.  Of course, part of that could be that he’s also a teenager!    And the twins (currently preteens) weren’t interested either, taking cues (of course) from the farmer and firstborn.     (Although I’m working on Twin 1 as she has tastes a little more like her mother!)

So, it was me against a household of not interested people who wanted their meals to remain just as they are thank you very much.    As I have had some health hiccups in the past (one of them being gluten intolerant), I’m acquainted with making separate meals so mentally prepared myself to get back on that track.

The one thing I found was that eating the nutrarian way, at least on the 6 week plan, was pretty easy.  The guidelines were clear and easy to follow and as the food was mostly fresh, preparation time was minimal.

As I mentioned in my introduction,  I live quite a long way from any large supermarket and even my small local supermarket is still 25km away.  So making do is with what’s in the pantry is a big part of my life in the kitchen!  Add to that my rather dismal gardening skills which equals a defunct veggie garden, although I do have a small orchard which I am endeavouring to spend a bit more time watering so I can fully enjoy its summer bounty.

As a guide, should you wish to embark on this plan, you should have in your pantry some

*dried beans (eg. lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas etc)

*canned beans (as above, preferably low salt and with the least number of additives/preservatives – if you don’t have any in your pantry get some!  If you only have the regular variety, then rinse them well before using).

*fruit

*tinned fruit, in juice, no added sugar

*fresh vegetables, particularly leafy greens

*frozen vegetables

*brown rice

*rice cakes (100% brown rice, no additives, preservatives  - most unflavoured brands I’ve found meet this criteria)

*herbs, spices (no salt added spice mixes)

*balsamic vinegar – buy a good one if you haven’t one in the cupboard, they’re much sweeter!

*salt reduced soy sauce or salt reduced tamari

*walnuts

*ground flaxseeds aka linseed meal.

Now, even the most disorganised household usually has most of these things (well maybe not the dried/tinned beans, perhaps not the salt reduced items and probably unlikely to have the ground flaxseeds) and as I only get to town once a week, fresh fruit and veg can be a bit tired looking, but I did have SOME.

Consequently I read the book and started immediately :)

The easiest way I found to eat was basically:

Breakfast:

3-4 pieces of fruit, cut up.  A handful of walnuts and/or 1 tblspn of flaxseed sprinkled over the fruit.

Lunch:

Salad made with whatever fresh vegetables I had to hand – lettuce (preferably cos, also called romaine lettuce), carrots, beans, snow peas, alfalfa sprouts, tomato etc.  A good drizzle of a good balsamic vinegar.  If I didn’t have the nuts in the morning, I’d often add them to my salad.

Dinner:

Stir fried vegetables – a mix of fresh and frozen.  Onion and mushrooms are especially good for you.  Saute in a little water and for flavour I added a little salt reduced tamari.  Then add  1 cup of cooked beans and 1 cup of cooked brown rice.  

Occasionally I would feel like eating something akin to a sandwich so instead of a salad I would basically assemble it on rice cakes with a little avocado, and forego the rice with dinner, although these are 'processed' and so shouldn't be the first choice.   Plus, as I started in winter I did make a lentil soup for dinner a few times - filling and tasty.

All the cravings went away after about a fortnight and my tastebuds have become acquainted to how food tastes without salt, oil and sugar!