I am still about 2 weeks short of going 4 months since changing my diet and eating habits. It’s been a wonderful change that has benefited myself, wife and to a lesser degree my son. Along with the blood work results trending down, my weight it down nearly 30 pounds and I have been walking and lifting weights more than I have done in the past. As of yesterday my wife was down 11 pounds, but hasn’t adhered as strictly as I have. I am fine with that, for the most part she eats what I cook but has come to find a favorite in these last few months.

Never before did I think we would be buying 20 pound bags of potato or 10 pounds of sweet potatoes. I didn’t think I would be search for the best deals on bulk foods, such as nutritional yeast, beans and rice. Yet as soon as I find the best way to store these items I will make the plunge and buy in bulk. I was surprised to see Costco carrying a 25 pound bag of brown rice and a 20 pound bag of pinto beans.

Potatoes have become our “new meat” at the dinner table. I know that sounds a bit strange, but this ingredient can used in many dishes in a variety of ways. My wife used to enjoy eating my turkey & spinach enchiladas. When I change my way of eating, giving up meat I was able to find a enchilada recipe that used potatoes as the meat filling. Much like the turkey recipe, I would saute garlic and onion with some vegetable stock or broth and then add the chopped, boiled potatoes. Add in some spinach and cover with sauce. It’s a quick and simple recipe.

This has been the staple of our diet for the past few weeks, my wife cannot get enough of the potato enchiladas I have been making. I could use a change, unfortunately I don’t have the time to cook 3 different meals a night to feed the family. I have been scouring many vegetarian and vegan web sites and started to collect a fair numbers of sites that I will hope to use in the future. Unfortunately cooking on the McDougall program is a different than a cook claiming to be vegetarian or vegan. Many of these recipes still use a fair amount of fats, including olive oil. I have found that the case with a few vegan cookbooks I have recently purchased.

As I have mentioned before, this is a challenge but a welcome one. I have been fairly successful making meals that are relatively quick and easy and taste good. I know many I talk to about the way I eat have a misconception I am stuffing my face full of salad. That could not be further from the truth. I have yet to be hungry since I changed my eating habits and if I do get hungry, then chances are I have missed a meal. This has been too frequent at work, as I do not take lunch and hesitate to spend any money to eat out.

Tonight was a bit of an experiment. I found a recipe online for sweet potato burritos. The wife’s comment was “interesting taste.” I guess these won’t be able to replace the potato enchiladas. Still these burritos had a nice flavor that could easily be modified or spiced up to your liking. It also included onions, kidney beans along with cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, mustard and soy sauce. I know, it doesn’t sound good, but it was. Recipe soon.