My real food journey has been an amazing experience to date.  I have met so many interesting people and learned so much about food and our bodies along the way.  I have been surprised over and over to discover that people have been put in my life right as I need them.  I have heard this called “divine connections.”

 

Lydia from Lydia’s Flexitarian Kitchen is one of these divine connections.  Since she is a sponsor of Juggling Real Food and Real Life, I have the opportunity to talk to you a little bit more about her and what she means to my family.  Bloggers and their blogs provide information, encouragement, and friendship.  Lydia is all of this and more to my family.

 

My daughter is now nine years old.  When I started my family’s real food journey a little over two years ago, we talked a lot about food and  the reasons why we were making such drastic changes to the food we were eating.  My daughter listened and was willing to make changes and more importantly……..she started to listen to her own body.  She started to eat less and less meat.  When I asked her if she didn’t like something, she would respond that it was fine, but she just didn’t feel like eating it.

A lot of little girls go through a “vegetarian” stage when they discover that meat comes from animals.  Although my daughter loves animals……….this is not the reason she decided to change her diet.  She explained to me in her little girl terms that she just feels better when she doesn’t eat as much meat.  She is not making any animal rights statements or putting on a show.  She really is just listening to her body.

 

So………what does this have to do with Lydia you ask?  I’ll tell you………Lydia is the person who put a name to this way of eating for us.  Flexitarian is eating a mostly plant-based diet, but mixing in some meat.  I love how Lydia puts it “Food for plant loving omnivores.”  At last we had a name for my daughter’s way of eating and that made it OK for both of us.  It’s amazing to me how empowering a label can be.  My daughter is not a vegetarian so there is no need to harass her if she decides to eat a hamburger once in a while and since she is a flexitarian, I know that I need to include alternative protein for her most of the time.

Lydia has so many great recipes and has really helped me to develop my plant based cooking.  I was raised as a meat and potatoes kind of girl, so meals without meat are all new to me.  I devoured Lydia’s Five Weeks of Flexitarian Eating and learned a great deal about the flexitarian way of eating.  I learned to encompass more legumes into our diet and found that my daughter loves black beans and refried beans.  What I love the most about Lydia’s recipes is that they are made with really delicious ingredients.  I serve her dishes to my whole family. My carnivores will even eat them…….as long as I don’t remind them that they are meatless dishes.

Lydia is an official Meatless Monday blogger so check in every Monday for new recipes.  She also hosts Real Food Fridays which is a great place to find a variety of new recipes for your real food journey.

Whether you eat meat all of the time or some of the time, I encourage you to check out Lydia’s blog.  You will find a wide variety of recipes…………many with an international flair.  You will also discover a great friend.  Lydia has always answered any questions I have had and has helped me to understand that I am not being a “bad parent” just because my daughter doesn’t eat meat at every meal.  I can never thank her enough for that.

Have you listened to your body and made eating decisions based on what you heard?  Have you ever heard the term “flexitarian”?  Do you know anyone who is a flexitarian?

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