There are three things people keep asking of me these days…
- Recipes
- Update on our omnivore experience regarding our health since blogging about our not being vegan anymore here
- Foods we are eating
1) Recipes… they’re coming as you might see from the increased posting I’ve been doing. If you have special recipe requests (vegan, raw, or omnivore), I’ll try to hook you up… just tweet to me (or email) the kinds of recipes or cooking skills you’d like to see on my blog.
2) Our health and wellbeing… is awesome. Without going into a million details, I’ll share the few things that I’m consistently reminded of as to changes since adding high quality animal products back into our diets.
- Skin – I’m still in awe every time I look in the mirror (although I shouldn’t be now that I know I was missing certain nutrients while eating vegan and now I’m not). My skin has its natural tone back, it’s blemish free consistently, and the aging aspect of my skin has incredibly improved. Being vegan for so long really took its toll on my skin, and not just the skin on my face, in spite of trying to have my vegan diet be top notch. I have a ridiculously simple beauty routine as well. Happy doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel regarding my skin.
- Monthly cycle – My period is textbook perfect. Seriously perfect. Nuff’ said.
- Body composition – My formerly saggy butt and knees look fantastic and the rest of my body has filled out in great proportions such as my arms and legs. I’m thrilled with the results. I look so much healthier and people continue to comment on it.
- Teeth – My teeth have continued to feel strong this year. No problems or sensitivity like I experienced while vegan, in spite of top notch oral care.
- Fertility – Although I’m not pregnant, I feel extremely optimistic that we could conceive on our own this time. Kamea is just about weaned and we’re ready to give it the ol’ college try. I’ll keep you posted.
- Kamea and Greg are thriving as well.
3) Foods we are eating… as you can see from some of the recent recipes we have a mix of omnivore and vegan and raw recipes happening. Pretty much everything we eat is made from scratch and we rarely visit restaurants.
Here is a list of the high quality animal products we’ve been eating (in no particular order):
- Grass fed and grass finished meats including bison and beef. Update (08/25/13): we tried a few different companies for beef / bison to see which we liked best because our goal was to order 1/8 of a cow at a time. This greatly reduces the price per pound. As such, we have gone with Alderspring Ranch and have an 1/8th of a cow in our freezer. It’s organic, 100% grass fed and finished, and dry aged.
- Pastured organic (soy free) chicken.
- Pastured organic turkey though turkey is not my favorite so this only makes an appearance once in a great while.
- Wild caught king and sockeye salmon and roe.
- Shellfish including oysters, crab, mussels, and clams.
- Canned sardines, crab, and small tuna from these companies specifically linked – I’m not big on canned food but I make an exception for some very carefully sourced canned fish.
- Pastured organic eggs from a local farmer (or when not available, we buy Vital Farms at Whole Foods).
- Grass fed butter (salted and unsalted). I experiment with various brands I find at Whole Foods, but I am most fond of Straus European butters because they have the highest fat content, they’re the most yellow gold in color (a testament to its nutrition), and they have an outstanding reputation. Now, that being said, I’m still experimenting with whether butter is regularly in our diet, but it seems great so far, especially in Bulletproof Coffee.
- Raw grass fed (aged) cheese (hormone and antibiotic free and organic principles if not actually labeled organic – I research each and every company I buy). We don’t eat this often, but on rare occasion we have it. I’m still deciding whether it’s going to be in our diet. We seem to tolerate it well.
- Grass fed organ meats. Organ meats are completely bad-ass in my opinion, so we try to have them once every 7 to 10 days. So far it has only been grass fed bison and beef liver, and I’m working on liking it. This week we’re exploring grass fed beef tongue and next week it’s bison heart. I will share recipes in the future. These are waaaaay too nutrient-dense not to have in our diet. I also have bison kidneys and turkey liver in my freezer, but I’m still hiding from them as I haven’t been brave enough to play with them yet. Their day is coming.
- Homemade broths. Mostly grass fed beef or bison, but sometimes pastured organic chicken. As of last week, we’re experimenting with Upgraded Collagen. I thought Greg might benefit from it since he doesn’t drink as much bone broth as I do and it’s easy to add to his shake. I also like the convenience of it for travel or for times I don’t have broth. Grass fed collagen, whether from homemade bone broth or a product like this, is great for beauty and joint health.
- That about covers it… Again, this is a list for animal products; obviously we eat plenty of veggies and some fruit, nuts, and seeds, etc.
PS. I also plan on sharing all the tools with which I’m equipping my kitchen girl cave, as well as some posts sharing the common breakfasts, lunches, and dinners we eat. I’ve been asked for omnivore food journals, too, which I’m adding to the blog.