Holiday Success!!

 

 

     I am happy to report I made it completely through the holiday season while remaining an organic vegetarian! If I can do it than anyone can.

   I have mentioned previously that traditional holiday food is not my forte as it is bland to my taste buds that were raised eating traditional Mexican food, and meals made by my foodie parents. You can imagine my excitement when my uncle announced they were having Mexican food for Christmas Eve dinner. Not only do I love Mexican food for its flavorful properties that excite my pallet, I also love that it is simple to make a vegetarian option with Mexican food. 

I have currently been taking my own like meals to family events, I find out what they are having in advance, cook my own organic option and bring it to the dinner. For Christmas Eve dinner I wanted to be able to contribute, I already had an awesome Mexican rice recipe that I had found on food.com, I turned it organic and made it my own. I cooked a pot of Mexican rice and was able to make my own Mexican rice nachos! They were delicious, the best part was I had enough rice to share, as well as enough left over to make another plate of nachos for Christmas dinner at Moms although mom made a traditional Christmas meal of ham and all the fixings!

           

  I didn't show up to Christmas dinner empty handed either. I made a delicious chocolate trifle I had made previously for different events. I took the recipe from Betty Crocker, turned it organic, created it completely from scratch, and made it my own. I am extremely proud of it as this was the first time I had made it completely from scratch. It was a hit!
 

With only one minor skirmish... (its not the holidays without an argument)  everything went off without a hitch.  I was able to stay true to my organic vegetarian lifestyle while still participating in all holiday activities.  The hardest part of the year to have a lifestyle that is different than most, I made it through with ease!

  I have been under the weather this week and was unable to make a trip to the grocery store.   The particular grocery store I frequent is  almost 19 miles from my house so often getting there is a task in itself.  Luckily the town I live in has a store with organic options, options are limited yet organic none the less and perfect when in a bind.  I am what my Dad calls a "food hoarder" as my Mom does some of the things I do as well, I like to call it "semi-prepping".  What this means is when I use one of a particular item in my pantry, I replace it with two.  I cleaned out my pantry of all non-organic food in late September 2012 and have been working on refilling it with only healthy organic options ever since.  I am happy to say it is almost back to where it was before donating all the non-organic food!  Back to the semi-prepping, I do this for a multitude of reasons one being inflation,  it is less expensive for me to purchase two now then it will for me to purchase one six months from now.  Another reason and a biggie is convenience, I can cook virtually anything anytime without having to run out to the store for ingredients.  I am always prepared, even if I am unable to make my bi-monthly trip to my favorite grocery store.

  My stocked pantry came in very handy earlier this week,  I had some over ripped bananas I did not want to go to waste.  I found a banana nut recipe, turned it organic, made it my own and in less than an hour I had banana nut muffins without having to run to the store for ingredients or even get out of my pajamas!

  Making things from scratch is not hard at all,  I think the list of ingredients can sometimes be intimidating for people.  Just take it one step at a time!

  Four months now and I am still an organic vegetarian,  I have to admit it is getting a lot easier.  I can't wait until spring/summer for all the wonderful fresh produce.  If you are just starting your journey to vegetarianism, an organic lifestyle or whatever you lifestyle choices may be, there will be bad weeks, as well as good weeks, one thing I can promise is it DOES get easier and you CAN absolutely do it!!