(My Grandfather's farm)
This is an issue near and dear to my heart. My grandfather was a dairy farmer and we lived next door. I practically grew up on that farm, as did my brothers, who worked for him. The cows lived long lives, they grazed all day long and were happy to come back into the warm barn at night. Looking back I remember one small farm after another in our area that went out of business and we were always told it was because of the big, factory farms. My Grandfather stayed in business and prospered but so many others weren't as fortunate. I guess all these years I've had the idealistic image of my Grandfather's farm as the idea of where my food came from. Sadly, overall, this just isn't so.
My husband is on board with making more vegetarian choices for the family but not going completely meat free. So we are looking into ethical, local sources for eggs, dairy & meat. We now have eggs delivered to us weekly from our dear landlady who has a chicken coup that rivals the size of her house. We call them happy hen eggs. Since we need less, because I'm not eating them or baking with them, it is very affordable. Friends have come forward with local sources for beef. A possible future goal is to buy a freezer and make bulk meat purchases which are cheaper in the long run. I want my family to make their own choices about how they eat. I won't force my ideas on them. However I am going to cook mostly vegan and they will get the fringe benefit of this.
So, I have been vegan for two weeks now and am really amazed at how liberated I feel. I never enjoyed cooking meat and if anyone mentioned the animal that the meat was from I would lose my appetite. Rather then center our meals around chicken, fish or beef, I am now centering our meals around a new veggie or grain and much more variety. Somehow it has opened my thought about cooking and eating and I'm enjoying cooking & meal planning now. I love the new flavors I'm experimenting with. It seems as if plant based food has more "pow" to it, lovely combos of flavor and spices so that the palette & appetite is absolutely satisfied. So far I've made, veggie burgers that my sons now prefer to meat, creamy potato leek soup, falafel & hummus wraps, pesto quesadillas, black bean soup, vegan Alfredo pasta made with lemon and avocados, delicious cookie bars, and much more. In short, I'm having great fun with it and my family is enjoying the new flavors too!
It's so important to know where our food comes from and what we are voting for with our dollar. If you're interested in watching the above mentioned films they are both available to watch online. If you are interested in all the new recipes I'm trying please check out my "Vegan From Scratch" Pinterest board. Also if you have any tips on going vegan, stories of your journey, opinions on the films, recipes, resources, fav vegan blogs etc., I would love to hear.
Until next time...
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This has been a topic of discussion in our family as well. I am an ovo/lacto vegetarian and have been most of my life. I only eat organic cheese and we buy our eggs from a friend's organic farm. My parents became vegetarians when I was 2 so I don't think I ever developed the enzymes to digest meat. My husband is mostly vegan only eating fish once or twice a year. The kids are ovo vegetarians but are now showing an interest in trying meat. I can't bring myself to watch those films or read the articles but I know that the meat industry is cruel and I want no part of it. I let my family make their own decisions about foods (like my parents did for me) but like my mom, I won't buy meat or cook it. I look forward to reading about how you feel and seeing your new recipes! If you are stuck for a recipe let me know, I may have one that we enjoy.
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~ joey ~
PS. Did you see the "solar wood etcher" that we saw at a Market we visited recently? This would work well in your parts, not on driftwood of course! ;o)
Deletehttp://madebyjoey.blogspot.ca/2013/07/a-visit-to-salt-spring-island.html
Wow, so neat to hear about your background Joey. Being veggie must be so natural to you since you grew up that way. Just went and pinned some of your recipes. I have to try that maple popcorn!
DeleteI'm eager to follow your vegan-journey. Could use some inspiration over here. I've tried to eat more vegetarian for a pretty long time, but occasionally fall back into old habits, especially when I'm stressed and fall behind on planning our meals which happens quite often especailly in summer time when you don't want to spend as much time cooking and when you want to bring food on outings. Vegetarian and vegan demands more planning and preparing which I sometimes find hard to cope with. But I'm trying.
ReplyDeleteHi Anneli, I responded to you below. I wanted to add if you're up for it. There's a lecture by Gary Yourofsky that is really good. I can't say I agree with all he says about health but he changed my thinking about food and why we eat what we eat. He's quite a radical (He reminds me of a no nonsense trainer.) but I found him really helpful, maybe you will too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4
DeleteThank you. I'll watch it imediatelly!
DeleteIt does require a bit of planning. A friend gave me some good advice she said, make a large pot of grain or beans and use it throughout the week. So I've been trying to do that. The first week it was black beans so I made black bean soup, black bean veggie burgers and black beans and quinoa with lime and veggies. The next week it was lentils. This week it will be pinto beans. So I envision tacos and quesadillas,with avocado and green salsa. Anyway, maybe I'll write about meal planning. It will help me to keep up with it too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your good advice. I'll try that. Today I've cooked a package of green lentils. I often make one dish out of a whole package to put what's not eaten the particular day in the freezer. But often we end up eating the same dish for several days instead. My freezer is quite empty on vegetarian dishes right now. Today I made a dish for one more day, a vegan dish, indian lentilsballs, that at least half of the family likes, my youngest favorite + put cooked lentils in the freezer. I've also got chickpeas, mung beans and kidney beans in my pantry to work with(not sure if the translation on google turned out right on these beans...)
DeleteI'm looking forward to your meal planning.
And here's the recipe, I just put it in google translate so it might have come out a bit awkward as it always does with google. you have to translate from swedish dl. One cup is 2,4 dl
Delete2 onions, finely chopped
a few tablespoons of oil for frying
6 dl water
2 vegetable stock cubes (I try to avoid these and I'm planning to do by own in the future but until then...
4 dl red lentils (I used green)
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped (frozen are fine)
4 dl breadcrumbs or leftover bread is a better choice
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 pinches of cayenne pepper
2 pinches of black pepper, ground
1 teaspoon salt
Fry the finely chopped onion in a little oil in a saucepan. Once it is soft, pour down water, vegetable stock cubes and lentils. Reduce heat and cook for luring in about 15 minutes. Pour off excess water and then pour down the lenses in a bowl. Do you use red lentils, they are just touching / mash down with a ladle. Do you use green lentils are the easiest to mix the fast in a food processor. Then mix the parsley, bread crumbs, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. Roll into balls and fry in oil!
We usually eat it with fresh vegetables and a yougurt based sauce (but that's not vegan.
Thank you Anneli this sounds so good. Sounds like it's similar to falafel made with garbanzo beans. I bet we could make the yogurt sauce with soy yogurt. Do you deep fry it? or just saute in oil? Yes, I like the freezer idea. Would be nice to have a variety of meals stocked for times when I don't feel like cooking.
DeleteI noticed the lovely vegan recipes coming by on Pinterest! I'll be following you and will try to incorporate some of them in our house, although we are a long way away from becoming vegan. . .
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I feel the same way. I'd like to give up meet altogether but it's very hard with a family of meatlovers. In the summer with lots of fresh veggies from our own garden around it is easier though. Can't beat the taste of fresh homegrown foods. We bought side of longhorn grass-raised beef last year. The steaks were kind of tough but the rest of the beef was really so much better than anything you could possibly buy at the store.
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