Xta has asked for more info. And Kim has thrown down the dreaded gauntlet-like..."you aren't making Veganism appealing what with the BOOGER tea...." or some such comment that was worded better and with less sarcasm.
Ladies, sit back whilst I blather a bit.
Veganism, boiled down is this (and this is my understanding, no doubt someone may quibble) you don't eat stuff that comes from things with faces or with mothers. (Not to be confused with MOTHER i.e. the Booger tea).
So. Meat, dairy products including milk, eggs, butter, cheese, etc. and honey are no-no's in the Vegan lifestyle. And Vegan is a lifestyle not a diet. Most people choose to be Vegan out of respect for the creatures whom others eat or harass for food. I bought a Vegan cookbook at a thrift store and later went online to see the reviews. While paging through the book I was surprised to see fish recipes but shrugged it off. The reviewers DID NOT. The reviewers were NOT AMUSED. And it gave me another layer of how seriously folks take this lifestyle.
We, however, are maybe better called....hmmm... well, click here and you can see all the options. http://www.ivu.org/faq/definitions.html I guess we'll go with Strict vegetarian (or Pure Vegetarian) when it is all said and done. When our month of Pure Vegetarian eating is finished. We will proudly call ourselves flexitarians.
Our goal is to try and to explore the benefits of being as animal by-product free as possible to see what difference it makes in our lives. When the next month rolls around and we are faced with graduation parties and wedding season, none of us are going to laser stink-eye holes through each other if we succumb to wedding cake. Our digestive tracts may punish us enough. I, personally, think I will remain pretty much meat and dairy free. Once I find the magic balance of plant proteins and am able to make items that taste delicious (to me) I really will have no reason to go back.
The cake thing is that there is likely butter, eggs and or/milk in the cake or frosting. Rumor has it (I've heard but not looked for myself) that Oreos and Fritos are Vegan i.e. made with non-animal products. This doesn't necessarily fit the goal we are going for. : ). Kind of like the guy who got his stomach stapled and lost 200 lbs and lived off Coke and Cheetos because he only had so much room in his tummy pocket, and he didn't want to fill that pocket up with anything but those two little vices he'd grown to love.
As far as Booger Tea, Kim. That's just an extra bonus activity. That falls into the category of fermentation. Which is one we've barely looked into but are intrigued with, it's up there with raw. Both have terrific benefits but are also things that will take a lot of work and time to look into. In the interim it makes for a great ice breaker though (and fun to write blog posts). Really. And I have to admit that the gross out factor is way fun for me. And as crazy as it sounds, I kind of like the shot of Booger Tea to start my day. Gluten free and Paleo eating are items I've run across that I'd like to explore a bit more, too. And then there is the word macrobiotic which I've seen pop up and don't have the first clue about....
As for what we ate today. I ignored a lot of junk at the office and felt good about being a good girl and snacking on my orange, salad and leftover pizza.
Tonight I made potato casserole (pictured) with organic potatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and a little quinoa covered in a bubbly "cheese sauce." The "cheese sauce" was made of cashews, water, lemon juice and nutritional yeast. I need to tweak it a bit and will post the recipe when I get the creation to the taste and texture I'm happy with. (I didn't think the potatoes were soft enough and it was tangy enough that I think I need to add less lemon juice.) Rob and 24 loved it....and I liked it quite a bit....but...there are a few tweaks I need to make before I post the recipe.
Four days Vegan and I have no issues with feeling deprived.
My poor husband has had the flu, so no doubt, the only deprivation he's feeling is the three days he lost to his personal plague. It was cute because he'd come out of his feverish fog and stumble around for food other than what we had for meals and actually ask if said item was on the approved list. So he managed to be a Vegan Zombie over the weekend.
The birthday parties were cake. (or cake-free in our case.) 24 and I left the sick man home and attended. But first we ate lunch at home. I carried Larabars in my purse in case someone needed to pull me back from the edge.
We have a menu for this week. And a plan. I'll tell you, I'm looking forward to Farmer's Market season, though. And am so glad Trader Joe's came to the metro area. You might want to buy stock if you are looking to invest in a company because I'm probably singlehandedly keeping them in the black.
Today we had Vegan Naan Quinoa pizza. I need to tweak the recipe for the Naan and will post that when I get the buggar perfected.
I also have been working on my manuscript like a good girl. Three days in I've written or rewritten two scenes and edited a few more. Nice feeling of accomplishment.
And we unearthed
the Kombucha. And unearth is a good word because this little nasty mother is other-worldly. The Kombucha tastes fine....think raspberry vinegar shots and you'll have a good idea of what we are drinking. If Rob ends up on antibiotics then his body will thank him for the extra Kombucha probiotics. The Kombucha mother is, seriously, one of the most disgusting things I have ever encountered. It is solid and gelatinous and waves from the big glass jar as it eats the sugar in the tea preparing another batch.
I had a few moments of Vegan-deadline panic last night.
I am content to eat oatmeal for dinner. My husband has not really ever been that kind of guy. So I always had a few tricks up my sleeve. Since I'm generally okay with no meat on my plate I could cook up something for him and whichever of the meat-eating kids who happened to be here to scarf down and make dinner for myself and/or the non-meat lover kid out of the sides. And I had a habit of planning ahead. When meat was on sale I'd grab several pounds and prepare it then freeze it in dinner size portions. So I almost always had a plan A or plan B that kept everyone fed...not gourmet style...but without the need to rely on hunger-induced fast food runs. The kids also helped out by learning to cook and survive on what was available. I'll never forget my hero, Toad-Boy the Leftover Annihilator, and 19's omelet-in-a-bag phase.
Tonight Rob came home wondering what the "last meal" would be and I palpitated. Since it was last meal it should be special, and I was thinking functional and getting the leftovers gone. Oops.
He ended up feasting on the last three eggs in the house and two slices of leftover venison pizza (I know...uck). And the refrigerator is looking "out of my comfort zone" empty. Now what? So I spent a decent portion of after "dinner" surfing for meat-style vegan recipes for the weekend and feeling not at all prepared for this big task. Oy. I did make, portion out, and freeze a big batch of quinoa for quick meal options. And brown rice is cooking as I type this. The brownie recipe I tried seemed like it should be fabulous. But when the banana flavor overshadows the coffee and chocolate it might be a recipe to rethink.
And then was the issue of cookbook and recipe reviews which are conflicting at best.
How is my husband going to deal with the "hamburger" substitutes I dish up to him til we find a winner. The turkey/green apple burgers didn't go over well when we began our trek toward healthier eating...could a bean or mushroom burger actually win him over?
This quandary will test his motivation and stick-with-it skills. And my kitchen skills to the maximum.
Tomorrow begins two interesting and challenging "projects."
One. The Me Project book I reviewed a bit ago sparked some interest in tackling something that needs to be tackled. So. For 21 days I have committed to working on the book I'm writing with my buddy. I am writing the voices of an elderly lady and a 30-something male police officer. Yeah. A little out of my comfort zone. (Yes. I realize I'm opening myself up to a few comments about the elderly lady not being too much of a stretch.)
So beginning April 1st thru April 21st I will be spending focused time on this work in progress. I will be writing and rewriting and reading and learning and stretching.
And the second is even more interesting. We will be Vegan for the entire month of April. We've been into eating healthier and organic and local as much as possible the past three years. This was prompted by the desire to be healthier, but also because Rob was given the news that his rheumatoid arthritis had gotten to the point that he'd need to go on yet another medicine. An injectible. His pain level and the inflammation in his joints have really responded to the changes that we've made thus far. So much so that he doesn't need his break through pain medications. But the disease has not gone dormant and he hasn't been able to remove the big gun chronic meds that scare me the most.
A couple of friends have been really looking into Veganism because of their cholesterol levels and the desire to avoid having to take a medication. One of them has a strong medical background and she's digging into the science and research regarding animal-free eating. She is convinced. And she feels like a new woman after a few months of animal product avoidance.
Rob is a meat and milk kind of guy. This has been a tough challenge to convince him to give it a try. But he had a flare-up a month or so ago that left him unable to even function for a full 18 hours. Meat and dairy help inflammation thrive. And Rheumatoid Arthritis is not just aches and pains that kick in as we age. RA is an inflammatory disease where the body attacks itself...an auto-immune disease.
One month. He has agreed to one month meat and dairy free to see if it makes a difference in his life. I'm hoping it does. And it's up to me to feed him food that makes him think he's not giving anything up.
Expect to see posts regarding both of these situations because that is where my mind will be in April.
In case you haven't found your own scary for the day. (Thanks, Eleanor Roosevelt for the blog fodder!) Here's one.
You all know I'm a little kinked. As in my children think Geek is a term of endearment. And that I can sit through an hour of a mildly amusing movie and not crack up til someone gets hurt. Then I can hardly control my mirth.
My dad may be one of the reasons that I am who I am. My formative years included many of his physical pratfallish feats which no doubt gave me my inclination to laugh when someone gets biffed. One of his other very endearing traits was to blurt out creative, hilarious insults which often included medical jargon. Since my family has been in the medical field for a few generations my dad's use of medical terminology was something he learned at his mother's knee. My grandma's favorite question was "have you had a BM yet today?" Yes. It's true. And "let your mom carry that, she's already had children, and I don't want you to rupture your uterus."
I won't go into the story about the poor boy who died from awful diarrhea after eating too many green apples. (Sorry, I guess I just did.)
Anyhoo. I was one of the only children on the block who knew the word sphincter, let alone had been called one. Flatus was one of dad's favorites. And let's just say it was used fairly often. If you don't know what it is think four letter f-words but not the queen mother. And then think about beans. There you go. That's the one.
Lest you think of my dad sitting in a Lazy Boy and scratching his beer gut while fumigating the house, nope, that's not the guy. He's complex. Very, very professional and quiet. One peering in from the outside would never know that a crazy, funny man lives within. He's also loves to dive into the Bible and find treasures. I love the heavy duty conversations we have. (He also manages to find a lot of medical comparisons within the things that he learns.)
My Word of the Day text was too perfect to ignore the other day. And it sums up a good portion of my dad. I want to share it with you.
af·fla·tus /əˈfleɪtəs/ [uh-fley-tuhs] –noun
1. inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.
2. divine communication of knowledge.
Origin: Latin afflātus a breathing on, equivalent to af- af- + flā- (stem of flāre to blow ) + -tus suffix of v. action
nuff said?
In the spirit of Eleanor R. and doing something that scares me every day.....
Shopping. Ugh. And these arty heads were definitely awe-ish.
And let me introduce you to our Mother.
We are experimenting with coconut milk Kefir and Kombucha. A mother, and a small jar of kefir grains, came home with us from Minnesota.
The kefir "experiment" has already been "grown" and tasted and was not bad. Not bad at all.
The Kombucha is a whole different "animal" though. If you don't know about Kombucha, you might not want to. But I will tell you that it is a fermented tea. The mother is a colony that feeds off of sugar that is put in the tea in the early stages. I don't know that I'll be able to help in the fishing out of and handling of the mother as she finishes her growing phase and still be willing to taste the tea.
Yes.
Scary.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Eleanor Roosevelt
and an appropriate intro to an April project or two. Stay tuned. : )
