With a blog title like Mama Eats Plants, you can expect Amanda Forcella to promote a plant-based diet. A mother, writer, doula, and sustainable living advocate based in California, Forcella has adopted a low-waste, vegan lifestyle. Through her blog and accompanying Instagram page, Forcella encourages her followers to live a slow, intentional life.
“We all deserve to be free, to be happy, to be nourished both physically and mentally,” she writes on her blog. As part of her goal to live in harmony with nature, Forcella sticks to seasonal and local food, and offers well-timed recipes on her website. Those include hits like her gazpacho (perfect for August) and peach tart (just in time for July).
“Health is wealth and while I don’t mind spending more money on high-quality food, it has been our experience since switching to a whole foods, plant-based diet that our grocery bill has drastically lowered,” Forcella noted in an interview with Golubka Kitchen, where she talked about her shopping habits. “The way I buy food is to first buy everything I can at my farmers market—these are local, fresh foods and are way cheaper direct from the farmers than from a Whole Foods or other grocer,” she says, explaining that she buys almost all of her vegetables and fruits there, plus things like nuts, bread, olive oil, and soaps.
“Then I buy other items at my local co-op to fill in the gaps: usually things like grains, tofu, dried legumes, seeds, spices, cocoa powder/chocolate, and teas. Our staple foods are generally very low cost: potatoes, beans, squashes, oats, quinoa, rice, seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread for the kids, and seeds (pumpkin, sesame, chia, hemp, and sunflower are our favorites).”
Things Forcella avoids are: cookies, crackers, plant milks, plant yogurts, chips, juice boxes, candies, cereal, plant meats/cheeses, or really any processed/snack foods. “Instead, for snacks and lunches, we simply eat whole foods,” says the blogger.
According to Forcella, her healthy diet also affected her mood and even skin care. |My herbal infusions have made such a difference in my skin and hormonal health (completely tied together for me),” she shares. “Eating plenty of raw, seasonal greens and making sure I get enough fats, especially seeds like hemp/flax/chia, makes my skin feel and look best.”
Follow her tips and tricks for a more balanced lifestyle:
