DINNER:

Dinner includes another humongous salad. Leafy greens have to become the main dish at these meal times.

If I make vegan lasagna (from the Fat Free Vegan website) it becomes the side-dish. You eat the salad first, stuff yourself with it. Then you only have room for a small amount of the less nutrient-dense food, like lasagna or pasta or tofu stir-fry (you get the idea).

(photo from http://blog.fatfreevegan.com)

Dinner also needs to include cooked veggies as well. Remember, I’m shooting for 1 lb of raw veggies and 1 lb of cooked veggies a day. I think I’ve gotten close to this goal, but I haven’t quite pulled it off for more than one day at a time. It is a great goal because it is doable, but challenging, and it completely fills you up, but leaves you feeling energized.

And more fruit! Lots of fruit! Amazingly sweet fruit for dessert, too.

Not this kind of fruit:

When I was a kid my parents would try to fool us with dessert. We’d all ask, “Do we get dessert tonight?” My mom is an amazing cook, and her desserts are to-die-for. But my mom didn’t make her famous desserts on a daily basis. So, sometimes they would say, “Yes, it’s a surprise” just to get us to be quite and finish our meal.  Then after we finished our dinner they’d pull out a can of peaches.

LAME.

Now I do the same to my kids, only the fruit I pull out is fresh, and it tastes awesome. To me.

Poor kids. Ha ha.

Now here’s a real fruit dessert:

After the kids are in bed either Joe or I make one of 2 dessert smoothies that I LOVE. A frozen banana smoothie, or a frozen watermelon icy smoothie. These are amazing. Do you want the recipe? I already posted them here and here.

(photo credit for header photo goes to Fat Free Vegan @ http://blog.fatfreevegan.com ; Vegan Lasagna Recipe too; I LOVE this website and definitely recommend it!)