Whole Food Plant Based Diet

Grape-nuts have 90% of you daily iron and that is a great way to start the day. The lunch leftovers were from a dinner I made this weekend: Costa Rican Style Spinach, Potato, and Black Beans. It’s a go-to quick dinner where you sauté 1c chopped onion and a couple cloves of minced garlic for a few minutes in vegetable broth and then start opening cans. Dump in a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis, a can of sliced potatoes (drained), and a can of black beans (drained and rinsed). Add in a tsp of cumin, a TBSP tomato paste and 1/2 cup water. Boil or simmer for 10 minutes until thickened then throw in 4-6c spinach leaves and 1/4c chopped cilantro and some hot sauce for 3-4 more minutes. Viola! Serve over rice or with crusty whole grain bread. I just put the leftovers onto some greens and added some corn for lunch today.

After lunch it wasn’t the best nutrition today because what is not pictured is the Oreos and Coke Zero. And while these are vegan they are not “whole food”. These are my coping vice because this weekend the news cycle had me despondent. It wasn’t the events per se, but rather knowing we had planted zucchini seeds all over. and then watching the looks and words of disbelief when zucchini sprouted up and grew. The disconnect made me feel like maybe the world has gone slightly mad. When you plant zucchini, you pretty dependably grow zucchini. And if this is not a vegetable you like, then yes, I suppose it is tragic, but not surprising at all. Sad that it was not realized to be the wrong seed in the first place, perhaps. Sad beyond words.

For dinner comfort food was still top of mind so Mexican was our jam. I like to look at the “sides” on a menu and see what I can do. Tacos sounded good so I asked for the 3 tacos with black beans instead of meat. They were delicious.

During that dinner I finally found words to talk about my great sadness. It must have been the tacos. And then we took a walk outside.

Probably I should have tried tacos, talking, and nature before Oreos, but some days you sail smooth, being the change you want to see, and some days you just hold on during the choppy ride while waving an Oreo wildly in one hand.

I should tell you that I love airports. Airports and Pilot gas stations are fascinating to me in their variety of offerings and intersection of different people. Where else can you chat with someone from another country and someone from your favorite college, see families in action at all ages and stages, witness grief and glee, buy a bobble-head or a shot glass, AND get your nails done all in one hour?

At the airport I love the spiritual practice of looking at the people around me, imagining their stories, and trying to see them like God might see them. Today I also walked around with Turnpike Troubadours playing in my ears and laughed as my fast walk started to turn into a walk-dance combo. But who cares?? It’s the airport!

It’s all fun until I start to get hungry. NOBODY wants to witness me while hangry (Ask my husband about that…or then again, please don’t.) So, to get down to important and earthly things, what am I going to eat??

When I switched to a whole-food plant-based diet I didn’t want to focus on what I “couldn’t” have, but instead I focused on what could fuel my body and my mind well.

The truth is that before I changed my diet, all the edible things were available to me. And, still, all the edible things are available to me. I just choose differently. And so a fun scavenger hunt was born.

I do pack a few simple meals or “lunches” in my bag. I have always been one of those people who, when traveling, become weirdly food insecure. Chances are there will be a Walmart somewhere nearby the places I go (or the Kenyan equivalent), but put me on a plane and I pack food like we might be going on an Arctic expedition.

So today I made some lunches out of some lentil curry and black beans I had left-over or had pre-made. (Picture above) Throw in some greens, tortillas, tomato, farro, hot sauce and fresh fruit…and the person on the plane looks at you enviously as they munch on their pretzels!

I have also previously packed raisins, tangelos, peanuts, soy-nuts, or edamame. Once someone in LaGuardia security took my hummus, but the food otherwise makes it through security just fine.

In the airport I look for nuts without added sugar and oil, these amazing pickles, these fruit bars from Starbucks (4g of fiber) and other great snacks. I try to avoid added oil and sugar as an ingredient because this adds up quickly as I travel and I end up not feeling the best.

On this particular trip I was reminded to also pack my grace alongside my plants. I was boarding the plane when I noticed we had a female pilot. It wasn’t until I squealed to the welcoming flight attendant, “We have a girl pilot!!” that I realized I should not call her a girl-pilot. I am perhaps the most sexist feminist I know. I blame being a child of the 1980s. It was a confusing time. I saw the flight attendant extend me some grace for my comment and I packed that grace in my appropriately sized carry-on to pay it forward. And, just so you know, this particular pilot was a bad ass. Truth.

So it turns out travel is just like the rest of life lived eating a whole-food plant based life; it’s an adventure, needs a seasoning of grace, completely possible, and fun!

What do you like to pack for the plane and the airport?