Did I Mention That We've Gone Vegan???

It might be time to change the name of this blog, since two-thirds of our family are now eating a vegan diet. Well, strict vegans probably wouldn't include us in their midst since we still wear leather shoes and have no plans to get rid of the leather couch or strip the upholstery from the cars. So just suffice it to say that we now eat a plant-based diet. The two who now eat no meat are my hubby and me; the kid thinks we're crazy and still isn't willing to give up the pork. Yet. (Insert scheming mom icon here.) So the bacon reference is now kind of inappropriate. I'll have to think of something clever, although "Bringing Home the Tofu" just doesn't seem to have the same zip to it.

We got to this place out of an ever increasing need to improve our ever increasing waistlines and to hopefully reverse the health problems that have been piling up in recent years. A chance encounter of the tail end of a show on PBS led me to Dr. Neal Barnard's "21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart." I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their health. Dr. Barnard has a gift for simply and thoroughly explaining the way your body processes the food you eat. And he seduces you into trying a plant-based diet by offering you a 21-day trial run, giving you an out if you find you can't hack it. But if you're like us, what you'll probably find is that you enjoy it much more than you thought you would. And you'll feel better. And you'll lose a little weight. And your skin will feel smoother, and you'll throw out all those bottles of Tums in your medicine cabinet.

Granted, we started out with the advantage of over 16 years experience of using dairy and egg substitutes, which has been a tremendous help. So overall, this has been much easier than I would have thought, and it's actually more fun not planning our meals around meat. We regularly shop the local farmer's market, and since we live in a semi-tropical climate, we'll have fresh local foods well into the fall season. I'm experimenting with all kinds of things, so I'll try to post the best ones. Last night, I made veggie lasagna, and another new favorite is tomato pie. I'm still perfecting them, so that'll come later.

In the meantime, check out Dr. Barnard's website. Who knows - you might just go vegan with us!