I chose to take the plunge. I informed my (mostly)supportive husband that I will no longer be cooking with ANY animal products. He pretended to have an intense love affair with the 7 different kinds of cheese in our refridgorater, and asked if we could still have our pizza night tomorrow that we had been planning. I told him sure, since we invited someone over, but I won't be making it or eating it. He's getting Papa Murphy's. My old favorite.
But alas, if I can get all the ingredients together for a vegan pizza recipe that I found online, I just might be persuaded to make one myself!
Let me start my blog with a background on my life leading up to my decision that I made about 6 hours ago to finally committ to this....
Having been born and raised in the good old Mid West, I've been taught a certain way to eat. AWFUL!
Roast every Sunday. Hotdogs for lunch so many times in my childhood, I can't even think about it without shuddering. Fried Chicken at my Grandma's house (but I'm not going to lie, it was soooo good. Finger lickin' good, even). Meaty Lasagna. Pork Chops. Meat Loaf. Steak and Potatoes. I could go on and on and on...
I will mostly blame my grandparents. We ate at their house probably 3 times a week. They had a wonderful garden, and on some days in the summer, the entire table would be a smorgasboard of fresh veggies straight from the garden. It was amazing. But I was a kid, and didn't appreciate it. I thought tomatoes were distgusting. I detested fresh green beans. OK, I digress. But all those delish veggies were being cancelled out by meat at almost every meal and the BEST PIES, Cakes, desserts you can think of. All made from scratch, and with love. I loved my grandma's cooking... But the look on her face when my Mom and oldest Sister told her about a new book they read, The China Study, and how they were cutting back on meat to 10% of their diet was not a look you saw often. The most predictable question from my Grandma followed. "How will you get your protein and calcium?"
Beans and vegetables was not a good enough answer for her.
I still wasn't on the wagon at this point. I was a teenager. I ate what people gave me. I grew up, moved away, lived on my own, ate cheap food, ate out, whatever.
My first personal awakening in regards to eating meat came at 19. I was enrolled in Massage Therapy School. I loved it, it was like learning about a whole new world. I was learning that our bodies are amazing and have the power to heal themselves if we will treat them right. But we didn't really talk about diet or eating habits. However, one day, I found myself in our Human Anatomy Class. We were in the local University's Cadavear lab. It was so creepy. In a dimly lit basement with Madonna Music playing in the background, I saw my first dead body. It wasn't like I thought it would be. I thought I would look at an entire body laying on a table. But it was various organs an muscles laid out in different parts of the classroom, all dissected and sectioned out so you could see the layers of the different body parts. I was oddly fascinated, and a little bit nauseous.
I walked up to a back muscle that was laying there. I took one look and instantly thought, "looks like a steak." Then I thought, "EEEW! A steak is a cow's muscle!"
Then I went home and couldn't eat for the rest of the day. I don't think I have ever tasted a steak since, and have had red meat probably less times than I can count on one hand in the past 5 years. But I still didn't really care about not eating all animal products.
Fast forward 3 years after Massage Therapy School. I am married now, and the one in charge of grocery shopping and feeding myself and my husband when he was home. He is in the Army, and was gone a lot at the beginning of our marriage. But when he was home, he drank a LOT of milk! And Whole milk, too. I thought that was gross, but I bought him his thick creamy milk, and I drank 2% thinking that was better. But I only ate mine on cereals or cooked in other things. He drank glassfuls a day, thinking it would help him build muscle, he is a very slender man. But all it got him was diarreah every day. I finally made the connection, and promptly switched us both to soy milk. My first step.
Then I started not wanting to touch chicken breasts because they were slimy, and I hated the smell of cooking hamburger. I finally started asking my sister and Mom about the China Study. I believed what they told me about it because it was exactly how I was feeling. (Truth be told, I have still never read the book, but I feel like I know the point of it and agree, so I don't want to spend hours reading it!). Anyway, I started making more beans and vegetarian dishes, but would make a chicken dish once a week, and still bought deli sandwich meat, especially for my husband... But as I became pregnant, once, then twice, I pretty much craved vegetarian food the entire time. It wasn't really a point of discussion. We liked our vegetarian foods, but we still ate CHEESE, SOUR CREAM, and other toppings and dressings. That's pretty much where I was at yesterday. You mostly vegetarian meals, but with all the dairy products.
Also, around New Years, my Sister told me that she was doing a 90 day vegan challenge for herself. She is the oldest, and an over achiever, at that! So I kind of rolled my eyes at her for being so dramatic, and I didn't volunteer to take the plunge with her. But I have been thinking about her doing that quite often, wondering how it's going, but not wanting to know... And why is that? Because I was afraid that she would lecture me about how unhealthy I was? (She never has) Or because we just had a "sisterly spat" a few weeks ago? (No, I'm mostly over it).. I think it was because I knew I wanted to really take the plunge deep down, but I didn't want to "follow" her. I wanted to do it on my own accord. And that's how it should be, really. I don't want to do anything because some one else wants me to.
So this morning, I spent hours reading so many vegan blogs, and I became inspired. I have no idea what half of the ingredients to make their beautiful foods are, but I hope I can learn. Tonight, I made a completely boring, but completely vegan dinner. We had pinto beans made in the crock pot, and cilantro lime rice topped with chopped tomatoes and guacamole. It was filling, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty when going for seconds on my rice. My 2 year old loved it, and my 9 month old ate table food for the first time. He hasn't really liked real food till tonight, so I take it as a good omen!
So tomorrow, I am going to toss all of my non vegan food...I'm kind of scared at how much food I will be throwing away. I thought about giving it away, but after watching some videos on the meat industry and how we come to have that food in our houses, I didn't want to give it to anyone else. I want to trash it!
We also happen to live in the middle of nowhere, in a pretty rural area. The next big City is about an hour and a half drive, but there is a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's. So I plan on hitting them up tomorrow and getting started. I have menus to plan and I am so excited with all of the blogs and recipe ideas I have found. I am making this blog separate from my family blog, because honestly, I want to experiment myself with no pressure or questions or comments from anyone that I know in real life. When I get a better grasp on my new life, I will definitely be sharing it and trying to make it look yummy and easy for any family to do it. I am just not ready to be judged over it. And usually, I don't care if people judge me, but I just want to do this for myself right now, and where I live, I know people are not going to be very supportive. That's why I started this blog.
Tomorrow, I will post pictures of all the animal products I am throwing out.. If anybody reads this and wants to make a prediction, that would be funny! I am predicting 35 items..but that might be too much... I will be going through my entire pantry and fridge and reading every single lable.... Can't wait to replace everything with vegan food! YAY!!!!!!
Wish me luck,
Wannabe
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