If a whole new way of life based on tasty veggies and fruits, bright colors, and prevention and recovery from disease sounds like something you’d like to embrace in the new year, getting to know Meg Wolff is a perfect start.
Wolff is a local author who will be appearing at Portland, Maine’s Longfellow Books on Thursday, January 20th, discussing her latest book, A Life In Balance: Delicious, Plant-Based Recipes for Optimal Health. She is a cancer survivor and devotes her time to promoting healthy foods and recipes that contribute to wellness and disease prevention. A blogplanted the seed for A Life in Balance, a vegetarian cookbook which includes a wealth of recipes from the author and other well-known authors and chefs that present macrobiotic and vegan cooking in delicious and accessible ways.
Plants That Change Your Life
Wolff’s recipes range from black bean and cornbread casserole to pasta dishes, but plants are at the heart of this Maine resident’s guidelines for eating toward health and healing. She feels strongly that a diet based on whole plant foods – that means eating primarily whole grains, beans & vegetables, no processed foods & sugar – is the path to healthy living, and credits her largely macrobiotic lifestyle to better health following two grave cancer diagnoses. Part of her message is that diet can dramatically increase your quality of life, especially for those with a life-threatening disease, and plants, rich as they are in healing compounds that fight cancer, are the conduit.
They also make for delicious, colorful dishes that are hard even for confirmed carnivores to resist. Of course, we love Wolff’s passion for wild blueberries; blues grace the cover of her new book, and she is an advocate of using them in delicious ways, including in fruit salads, cakes, and vinaigrettes. You can read about her anticancer breakfast at the Huffington Post. It features a breakfast staple – oatmeal – and it’s no surprise she suggests topping it with Maine wild blueberries (or sunflower seeds for protein).
Get a Taste of the Plant-Based Life
If you have a casual interest in going plant-based, you can start with Wolff’s blog – its spectrum of foods and science-based information about health will reel you in. You can also get your plant-based diet fix from her website if you’re interested in dipping your toe in the plant-based life: start with Squash & Carrot Ginger Soup, Gingered Chickpeas, and some painless principles for making polenta and sautéed veggies. All are so delicious and robust with hue, you’ll consider your new year’s resolution for a rainbow-colored plate all but achieved.
Meet Meg Wolff at Longfellow Books in Portland on January 20th.