Craigslist and healthy vegan food: changing life around

By Ashleigh Prince

out&about is my personal journey of discovery asking questions and getting more informed. I want to share my findings with you so we can travel the journey together.

A few things happened this week that I wanted to share.

One is my mother moved from Idaho to Washington State, Kitsap County. While we were talking on the phone, she mentioned she needed to have my brother come by to get the boxes and take them to the dump.

I had just been exploring Craigslist, with the idea to sell some stuff I had decided to rid of while spring-cleaning. What is old for one person is brand new to another.
You could say I had Craigslist on my mind. So I suggested to my Mom that she put them on Craigslist for free and see if anyone would reply. I got some push back, that she didn’t know how to use Craigslist, no one would want her boxes, etc.

I was disappointed but they were her boxes. At least I threw the idea out there. The next day I got a call, Would I be willing to put an ad on Craigslist for her? Of course, within 10 minutes I had the ad live and the next day, I received an email in my inbox requesting the boxes.

Frank was his name, and he and his son came by and took the boxes off my mom’s hands. He’s even coming by to the take the rest after she finishes unpacking and he offered to bring her a bottle of red wine. Mom says he is Italian, so it’s got to be good, she said.

I really like reusing rather than recycling whenever I can. It was good for her and great for him. Why use boxes once and throw them away? Pass them on! You might get a great bottle of wine.

The second thing, I found this awesome show called, ‘Raw. Vegan. Not Gross’ on Tastemade channel, on AppleTV.

Each episode isn’t very long but it’s fun and more importantly, informative and helps me to create new dishes with the ingredients I already have. Cooking is something I am learning, it’s been several years and it’s not always something I look forward to. Finding a show where I can get new ideas, be inspired, was divine timing.

Confession: I started to fall back into some of my old habits, happens when I get really busy and I don’t feel like I have time to cook. I ate some sugar, and other more processed foods and I just wasn’t feeling very good. So, I had to get myself back on track. It’s a lot about organization, thinking ahead of what ingredients I’ll need, making sure I have the kitchen stocked and on the weekends, making a bunch of dishes that will get me through to mid-week.

This past weekend I made a carrot soup, butternut squash soup, brown rice, black beans sauté. Several mornings I started my day with a fruit and protein smoothie. It has gotten me to my mid-week goal and I’m already feeling more energy and glad to be back on my game, feeding myself nourishing foods. I know where the ingredients come from and that no chemicals are residing in my food. There are enough chemicals to deal with in our day-to-day, I don’t need them on my plate, headed for my body.

So check out Laura Miller on Raw. Vegan. Not Gross, even if you eat meat, she’s cooking up some fun, adventurous and delicious looking dishes, that anyone would enjoy. À Vôtre Santé!

Cheers,