Introducing PROJECT LIGHT & LEAN

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone rung in the new year as they pleased. I had a pretty relaxed new years eve this year. I visited my partner’s family and shared a delicious meal with them and then I snuggled under some blankets and watched movies while my partner searched his wardrobe for the warmest clothes he could find. He’s off at the Winter Classic today and I’m sure he’s biting his frozen nails off because as we speak the game is tied. Go Leafs Go 🙂 …update, the Leafs won in overtime, woohoo!!!

As with every new year, I hear a lot about setting resolutions. I like to make goals constantly and have therefore never actually made a new years resolution. The second an idea for a goal pops into my head I start working towards it immediately. Sometimes I forget about it halfway through and I never finish it, but such is life and I’m okay with that. Some goals that I’ve made recently (and will try to pawn off as new years resolutions) are:

1.) Stop using canned tomato products (thanks to Eat To Live Cookbook I’ve recently learned that the acidity of the tomatoes can leach the BPA from the can into the tomatoes, yuck!).

2.) Read for pleasure at least three times per week before going to sleep.

3.) Go through each room in the house by April and donate items that I have not used in the last year (aka spring clean before the spring!).

4.) Stretch for 10 minutes every single day.

And last but not least…

5.) Cook my way through Happy Herbivore Light & Lean, which brings me to the real purpose of this post:

I own a lot of cookbooks and I rarely cook from them. I want to change this partially because I want to enjoy recipes others have created and partially because I don’t want to say goodbye to my cookbooks because of goal #3. The idea to cook my way entirely through a cookbook and post about it came from Healthy Girl’s Kitchen who is currently cooking her way through the Eat To Live Cookbook. I have been LOVING her posts about the recipes and it inspired me to try something different. And dedicating a significant amount of time to cook my way entirely through a cookbook and post about my experience is definitely something I never thought I’d be doing. I’ve even decided to label it as a “project” so I’m more likely to actually finish it and not forget about it once I’m half done 🙂

Therefore, today I introduce you to Sift, Stir and Savour’s first project: PROJECT LIGHT & LEAN. Between January 2014 and April 2014 I will be cooking each and every recipe from Lindsay Nixon’s Happy Herbivore Light & Lean. In case you’re not familiar with Lindsay Nixon’s work, she cooks 100% plant-based with no added oils or refined sugars. Find out more about her by visiting her website. I will be posting my experiences and reviews according to each chapter, so during the first week, which will be next week, I will be reviewing the Breakfast chapter. The following week I will review the Muffins & Breads chapter and so on. The plan is that each week I will review a chapter so the project will take 13-14 weeks. Some weeks I may not get through a whole chapter and some weeks I might get through more than a chapter. It will depend on how many recipes there are. In case you’re curious, here are all of the chapters in the order that I will review them:

• Breakfast
• Muffin & Breads
• Sandwiches, Tacos & More
• Hearty Burgers
• Bowls & Wraps
• Soups, Stews & Savory Pies
• Salads & Dressings
• Pasta, Stir-Fries & Noodles
• Satisfying Sides
• Dips, Snacks & Appetizers
• Desserts
• Do-It-Yourself
• Fitness Workouts

I should also mention that I will only be reviewing the recipes that are naturally gluten-free or can easily be made gluten-free. I’ll be letting you know how I converted the recipe to gluten-free (if it wasn’t already) and how it turned out. There are actually only a handful of recipes that I don’t think I’ll be able to make gluten-free (I don’t know how to substitute for vital wheat gluten) so that’s pretty exciting!

I also plan to post about my partners opinions of the recipes. Although he eats most of what I cook, he does prefer to add meat to his meal. I’m curious about what recipes he will like, what recipes he won’t like and what recipes he’ll only eat if he adds some meat. I can’t promise that I’ll have his review for each recipe because some recipes I’ve already tried and he hasn’t been interested in trying and some recipes I made when I was away visiting my family over Christmas.

So, that’s the projects. I hope you enjoy it. I will still be posting original recipes when I have the time AND 5-Ingredient Mondays will still be running…however, I’m making a slight change to it. Check back in on Sunday for those updates 🙂

xoxo Erin

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