At 9 o’clock on most Friday nights, there’s only one place to look for John and me: in front of our TV, watching Shark Tank :) Perhaps not as hopping as your Friday night plans, but we adore this show, and love to talk about it with anyone who will listen! Today, y’all are my captive audience :)

We started watching in the second season, in 2011. I was headed to a conference where one of the sharks, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, was the keynote speaker, which sparked my interest in the show. By the time the conference rolled around, we were hooked! At this particular conference, attendees are randomly split into small groups for dinner with the speakers. I practically levitated out of my seat when I found out I was one of eight dining with Barbara! Our dinner lasted about four hours (!), and she was so genuinely interested in what everyone did and the market segments they operated in. (As a side note, I’m not surprised that intense curiosity is one of Barbara’s defining character traits – I think a desire to continuously learn is a mark of most successful people. It’s something I noticed about Martha Stewart when I attended a taping of her show a few years ago.)

For those who aren’t familiar with it, the show features a panel of potential investors (sharks) who consider offers from entrepreneurs (of varying levels of success) seeking investments in their businesses or products. Many investors leave without a deal, some partner up with one investor, and a few, with more than one. As the show has become more popular, even just appearing on the show without getting a deal can cause a huge spike in orders.

I actually really like all of the sharks for different reasons – Kevin’s curmudgeonly ways crack me up, Mark can be surprisingly emotional, and I have a personal connection with Barbara – but if I had to choose, I think Robert, “the son of an immigrant factory worker,” is my favorite.

Aside from the fact that I L-O-V-E entrepreneurs and seeing people go after their dreams with total passion (cheesy? yes), my favorite part of this show is the products and businesses being pitched. A few that have stood out to John and me:

Favorite entrepreneurs:
Simple Sugars Scrub (loved this 17-year-old gal’s passion!)
M3 Girl Designs (wildly successful mother and two daughter team)

Products we’ve actually purchased:
Clean Bottle (water bottle that unscrews at both the top and bottom for easier cleaning)
Freaker (one-size-fits-all bottle insulator made in the USA – this guy was also one of THE most memorable entrepreneurs we’ve ever seen)
Gobie (water bottle with a built-in filtration system with “flexflo” technology)

Products we want:
Spatty (miniature spatula designed for getting the bits out of makeup/lotion bottles)
Bambooee (reusable bamboo towels on a roll – machine washable!)
Revolights (bike lighting system that illuminates in 360 degrees)

Products I’m proud to have known about before I saw them on Shark Tank:
Lolla Cup
Freshly Picked Moccasins
FuzziBunz cloth diapers
Mo’s Bows (we featured him in Southern Weddings V5!)
Nearly Newlywed

Most memorable:
I Want to Draw a Cat for You (John and I catch ourselves singing his little song to ourselves from time to time)
Copa Di Vino (this guy went on twice with his premium wine in a glass, and he was quite the character)
Billy Blanks Jr. Dance With Me DVD (Billy and his wife had a really emotional segment, and they initially left the tank without a deal – until Damon chased them down and worked something out.)
Rent a Goat (enough said)

If you don’t watch Shark Tank, I’m afraid this post might sound like total gibberish to you – but if you do watch it, I hope it brought back some good memories! If you fall into the latter camp, I would love to hear about your favorite product or entrepreneur, if you’ve ever bought a Shark Tank product, and if you have a favorite shark!

I’m not sure how typical this is, but when John and I moved into our house (about a year ago), we made very few immediate changes or improvements. We wanted to live with the space for a bit, and we also wanted to let our budget adjust to a mortgage vs. rent! Until last month, when we added handsome black rockers thanks to my in-laws, our front porch looked pretty much the same as the day we moved in:

It’s a pretty good place to start, so I can’t complain! (Aside from the heavy dusting of pollen – thank you, North Carolina.) We love the haint blue ceiling, the columns, and the generous proportions. We don’t love the lack of privacy or the color of the front door. We would love for this to be a more comfortable space to hang out (it is one of my 60 Before 30 goals!), so we’re hoping to make a few improvements over the next few months. My inspiration:

A few of the things on our to do list:
— Paint the front door
— Add a planter with fern beside the door
— Hang string lights
— Add a side table between the rockers
— Build a trellis and plant something climbing for more privacy
— Hang a swing (!!!)

As you can probably tell, the swing is most exciting to me. John, however, is worried that hanging a swing will compromise the integrity of our porch roof (…?), so I have a little more convincing to do before I get the green light.

Most intimidating to me on this list is painting the front door – it just seems like such a big change! If it were you, would you go with poppy red, haint blue, or glossy black?

I’m usually good about posting my monthly goals on the first of the month, but so far, May has thrown me for a loop! I had my post pretty well written but not quite ready on April 30th; I left it in draft thinking I’d do a last check and hit publish the next day. Instead I was up most of the night with what felt like food poisoning, stayed home from work and slept for most of Thursday, then hesitatingly got on a plane (RDU –> PHL –> PVD) Thursday night to fly home for an award ceremony for my dad. I was within ten minutes of Providence on my second leg before we were turned around due to fog, in the Philly airport until 2am, slept in a hotel for two hours, then caught a train to southeastern Connecticut at 5:15am, arriving at 9. Whew!! At least I could sleep on the train :)

Let’s hope the rest of May goes a bit more smoothly! I did so-so on my April goals, but that didn’t stop me from being ambitious with my May ones…

To recap, my April goals:
Set an appointment with an allergist
Break out calligraphy supplies and do something with them
Pick strawberries
Make final reservations for our California trip
Purchase a spring/fall jacket
Send out invitations for two showers (invitation number one has been printed and cut – waiting on addresses before I send!)
Fulfill one of our Easter traditions – paying for the car behind us in a drive-through line! (Yikes – we forgot!! Going to find another opportunity soon.)

May goals:
— Install a rain barrel
— Take photos of our house and post a tour on the anniversary of our closing
— Set an appointment with an allergist
— Address shower invitations with newish nib skills
— Hang art in the kitchen

If you’ve posted your monthly goals, I’d love to take a peek!

Friends, thank you for your thoughts on part one! I heard from a few of you in the comments and in person that it sparked conversation, and I love that – not only because now you’re in the same boat as me (ha!) but because I think what we eat is a worthwhile thing to think and talk about. So let’s continue!

One thing that frustrated me about Forks Over Knives is that it included very little practical information – like, what a FOK-approved meal might look like. This post will be my attempt to fill in the gaps, at least relative to our life.

Let’s start with a few resources we’ve found helpful. Some of our favorite clean and whole recipes have come from A Couple Cooks, Naturally Ella, and A House in the Hills. We also like Pinch of Yum and Cookie + Katie. Since we’re looking for recipes that can be made for dinner on a regular weeknight when we get home from work, we need them to be both realistic and delicious, and these folks have come through time and again.

To get even more specific, I’ve sprinkled twelve of our favorite recipes throughout this post. More recipes we’ve liked are here, and recipes we have our eye on are here!

Greek pita sandwiches; sweet potato, kale, and corn chowder; broccolini fried rice; panko crusted fish tacos, spiced red lentils and rice, grilled sweet potato tacos with lime crema

There are a few foods we’ve had in heavy rotation during this transition. Number one is sweet potatoes. In addition to being really good for you, they are one of the best substitutes for meat in that they’re substantial, filling, and can take on lots of different flavors. They also take a long time to go bad, are inexpensive, and taste about the same year round. We eat them a LOT.

Almost every night we eat a salad with spinach, arugula, and sometimes kale. We often add cashews, pumpkin seeds, and sometimes cheese (feta for John, goat for me). I love our dressing – a basic vinaigrette we make (3 Tbs. olive oil, 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar, and 1 Tbs. mustard – shake it/store it in a mason jar).

We’ve cut out a LOT of pasta at home, substituting brown rice noodles, homemade vegetable noodles (just ribboning carrots, sweet potatoes, or zucchini with a peeler), or brown rice.

We’ve also switched or added a few specific products:
— Tropicana OJ has been replaced by the Whole Foods 365 brand 100% Florida orange juice thanks to this article.
— Coconut oil often replaces butter (though not always).
— John’s twice daily Coke Zeros are now Honest Fizz root beer, a can of Steaz, or water.
— The only ingredients in our peanut butter are now peanuts and salt.
— I’ve switched to KIND granola bars as a snack.
— I do drink some whole or 2% milk; it now comes from a farm in the next county over – the same one where we go for ice cream (I’ve even taken a tour!). It’s available at our Whole Foods.

We definitely have more changes we’d like to make (for example, I often eat buckwheat waffles or granola for breakfast, and I’d like to start making both myself), but it’s a process.

Also, just as a reminder, we are still eating sugary and processed things on occasion! Our belief is that if we feed our bodies a regular diet of the good stuff, it can (sparingly) handle the bad stuff. Because sometimes the bad stuff is delicious :)

Black bean tostadas with avocado salad; spicy peanut sauce with brown rice noodles; garlicky kale and white bean stew; carrot noodles in peanut sauce; black bean soup with cumin and jalapeno; sweet potato burritos with avocado salsa verde

One question Whitley asked on my last post that I wanted to address was this: “I think one of the things that scares me most about “clean” eating is the perception that it’s more expensive. Have you found this to be true?”

I’m glad she asked, because I have a few thoughts about this! First, though the amount of our food budget has not changed dramatically in this transition, I would not have been surprised or particularly upset if it had. For other things I care about, I expect to pay more for quality, so naturally, I wouldn’t be surprised if better food cost more. In the long term, when taking quality of life and healthcare into account, I expect it to be far less expensive than other ways of eating.

Michael Pollan also points out in The Omnivore’s Dilemma that the percentage of the average household budget allocated for food has steadily decreased over the past few decades, at the same time as food has generally gotten less nutritious. We’ve become accustomed to getting more for less, but in order to pay for the things I care about (happy animals, sustainable and Earth-friendly farming practices), I am willing to pay more (and readjust/make room in my budget accordingly).

As someone who truly believes in the power of free market forces, I believe that we are casting a vote with every beep of the supermarket scanner. With my dollars and my choices, I can tell Whole Foods and Walmart and every brand they stock what I want to see more of. The thought almost makes me giddy! :)

However, even though important, I know that’s probably not what Whitley meant, and so I’ll answer the other way, too. Our biggest expense has always been and still is wasting food – letting meat go bad before putting it in the freezer or using it, leaving lettuce to wilt, or buying a jar of something and only using a teaspoon before it expires. Sticking to a weekly meal plan greatly helps with this, as does regularly taking stock of our pantry and refrigerator – and keeping both neat and organized so that things don’t get shoved to the back and forgotten.

Second, though we do about half of our shopping at Whole Foods (most of our vegetables, and packaged food we can’t find elsewhere) the rest is done at Walmart. We’ve found that many (though hardly all) brands we could buy at WF are available at Walmart for less, including Stonyfield, Annie’s, and Kind. We also tend to buy bananas and root vegetables like garlic, potatoes, and onions at Walmart because the quality is comparable (unlike more perishable things like fruit or tomatoes). So, being smart about where we buy helps keep our costs down. The 365 brand at Whole Foods also offers some great savings.

It’s not new advice, but things tend to taste better and cost less when you buy them in season and, if possible, when you pick them yourself. Berries, of course, are the perfect example – we love picking strawberries in the spring and blueberries in the summer, both of which we can do ten minutes from our house.

Since we only eat meat about once a week now, we can afford to buy happy animals and still have some savings left over to soak up other new expenses. Depending on what your current diet is, some of those expenses might be new oils, spices, or other ingredients you haven’t used before (like coconut oil and tamari for us!).

To finish, I wanted to note that one thing we are excited to explore more is buying local. The pastoral section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma really inspired me on this point, with its description of Joel Salatin’s farm (which some of you might remember from Food Inc.). A few weeks ago we bought a chicken at our town’s farmer’s market that had hatched, was grown, and then processed the day before about ten minutes from our house. We bought it from the person who did it. Joel suggests this site and this site for finding other local sources for sustainably raised food (in addition to farmer’s markets!).

Whew! I’m glad we’re at the end of this post, because now it’s your turn: I would love to hear your go-to resources and recipes for clean, whole, and easy recipes! Thank you in advance :)