I’m Alix, the face behind Cashews & Cauliflower. I am a busy mama of 2 wild boys with a passion for cooking and eating plant based food. My goal is to show you how easy and accessible it is to make plants the main attraction at meal times and every time in between! (Because snacks and dessert, right?!)
Hey! Thanks for stopping by. I'm Alix and I'm hoping this site will offer some insight into how easy it can be, and IS, to eat and live a plant-based lifestyle. I plan to include recipes occasionally, my personal meal plans with grocery lists and information about my grocery budget, and general tips and information from my perspective as a vegan mama and wife! But first, let's get personal...
I LOVE plants. I love to cook them. I absolutely love to eat them. But it wasn't always that way! I grew up on the Standard American Diet. Meat and potatoes. Potatoes and meat. In my senior year of college my best friend introduced me to Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Then I watched Food Inc. and my eyes were opened to a world of sickness and suffering I had been completely ignorant too. I wish I could say this was enough for me to ditch the animal products but I was in college and convenience won out over most things. It wasn't until I moved to North Carolina that I really started making changes. I dabbled with veganism for several months and again, it didn't stick. Fast forward again another year or so (around 2012), I was newly married and training for a half-marathon. I had done some research and learned that skipping the meat and dairy could help improve recovery time between runs AND clear up my skin. This time I stuck with it for a while, I felt the best I had ever felt, and even started a little blog about my newfound love for plants! I slowly started loving vegetables I had previously disliked and there was no going back. I eventually starting eating dairy again but meat was long gone from my dinner plate. Let's fast forward one more time! About a year ago, with my second baby brand new, some postpartum pounds I couldn't seem to shake, and some bad numbers from a blood draw for my husband, we committed to a strictly plant-based lifestyle yet again. At this point I had been a vegetarian for about 5 years so it wasn't all that difficult. What I also didn't mention is that my lifelong issues with digestive problems had completely resolved and considering the amount of pain and discomfort this caused me, I had--and have--no plans of returning to eating animal products. My husband, who once said he could NEVER give up meat, is now happier and healthier than he has ever been as well (he is about 90% plant-based!) In fact, within 30 days of eating plant-based, his cholesterol dropped 70 points! 70! In 30 days!! The proof, y'all, is in the vegan puddin'.
Now, I can't forget to mention the animals and their treatment for our consumption. It was for this reason that I initially started exploring cutting out animal products. I think it was Sir Paul McCartney who said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." I think this is so true. At the very least I think it is our responsibility to learn where our food is coming from and at what cost.
If you're curious about the plant-based lifestyle for whatever reason, I encourage you to do some reading and research for yourself to see if it would be a good fit for you. Here are some good places to start:
There are a million more books out there on the topic of plant-based eating and living and if you look on Netflix you'll find some really great documentaries as well! I hope you enjoy this little slice of the internet that I now call "home" for this here blog of mine!
