The Beginning

"I'm thinking about going vegan for 30 days, to see how I feel," my husband announces one evening about 2 months ago.  He had just finished reading  Eat & Run, and was curious to see how a vegan diet would affect his health, ultra-marathons and the recent stress fracture to his leg.  He wondered if weight loss from a vegan diet might put less pressure on his leg  

My first thought upon hearing this announcement was, "you have fun with that."  For several reasons, I initially didn't want to get involved.  First of all,  I had finally gotten to a place where I could make a decent number of meat-based dinners that were healthy (or so I thought), affordable, and most importantly, the whole family would eat most of the time.  Now I was going to have to start all over, learning how to cook without meat.  With 4 kids to take care of, another to baby-sit, and a household to manage, how was I going to have time to learn vegan cooking?  

The second reason I was initially not crazy about the idea of ditching my meatloaf and chicken fajita recipes was my incorrect ideas about what plant-based cooking entailed.  Visions of tofu and soy milk danced in my head.  Yuck.   
My final reservation was what I pictured I would have to give up.  Giving up meat was not much of a concern, but cheese?  Ice cream??  Milk chocolate???  I don't think so. 

But then a few things occurred to me.  First of all, I want to support my husband and his ideas and goals.  Second, I realized that I could see this as a challenge.  If for even a second I am telling myself "I can't do that", then I want to squash that thought. I also remembered that I like vegetables.  A lot.  Maybe I could find recipes that were veggie based and didn't involve tofu.  And I did.  Lots of them.   

Finally, it occurred to me that the way I eat doesn't have to be all or nothing. My husband has been a pretty strict vegan for the last 2 months.  However, I don't consider myself a vegan.  It's a pretty strict label, as you might be aware. I follow a plant-based diet.  It's mostly vegan, but if I am craving some cheese or chocolate, I indulge a little.  But my goal is to eat as little of animal products as possible.  To base my diet on plants.  

So what follows will be what I have learned.  Recipes, nutritional information, and a little of this and that.  And maybe I can help you to see how delicious vegan food can be and how great it can make you feel.