Replenish

Once you have removed the "bad" from your fridge and pantry, it is time to restock with the "good".

A great way to start is to head to the bookstore (or the library).  Cookbooks not only give you inspiration for eating healthy, they usually have a section about staples to have on hand in the pantry.  Hit the Vegan section and look for titles such as Vegan Planet by Robin Roberston and ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthias (from Victoria).  Raw recipes are also great for you (some require a lot of time to prepare - go figure) and Brendan Brazier (from Vancouver) has written several books including The Thrive Diet.  Vegetarian cookbooks are also a great starting point if you remember that there is usually a lot of cheese in the recipes.  The Enchanted Broccoli Forest is a vegetarian classic by Mollie Katzen and many of the recipes are easily modified to become vegan - including my family's favorite, Sweet Potato Pie on page 130.

An easy way to eat healthy is to eat ethnic foods.  Many countries in warmer climates have lots of simple, healthy food.  Some examples are China, Ethiopia, India, Japan, and Mexico.

Now that you have some inspirational recipe ideas you'll need to find a local store or farm that sells the ingredients.  Victoria is blessed to have an almost year round growing season and local farms, but for those wanting around the corner shopping there are the summer farmers markets where the farms come to you.  There are also a few great home delivery companies like Share Organics and SPUD if you don't want to leave the house.  But if you do want to venture out there are several great grocery stores such as Fairway Market Quadra at Hillside (super Asian section), Lifestyles Market (great bulk staples), Market on Yates (the place for really weird ingredients), Planet Organic (expensive but great selection),  and Thrifty Foods in James Bay (the best Thrifty's Organic section I've seen).

When you get it home, what are you going to store it in?  Plastic can leach toxins into all that great food.  I suggest considering glass containers.  Costco sells three sizes of rectangular glass containers with plastic snap lids (Lock & Lock).  I also bought a few cases of wide mouth mason jars in different sizes and they are working really well for me.  Of course, there is always the recycled glass containers from juice or condiments.

Finally (I'm such a nag), get rid of your microwave.  Really, if you are going to spend money on organic fruits and vegetables so that you aren't adding chemicals and toxins to your body, why would you want to radiate and kill the goodness that they are meant to provide.  It takes just about the same amount of time to heat things up in a pot on the stove.  Plus it will give you a shelf for all your new cookbooks!