Friday, February 21, 2014

A New Direction...but not Fanatically

Nothing huge.  We are just deciding to adhere to a more whole foods, plant-based diet, starting now.

I can't quite get my mouth to say the word "vegan", because I'll never be a true vegan in the sense of "I don't consume anysinglethingthatevercame from an animal.  I love a great steak.  I love chicken.  I love bacon.  Cheese.  Butter.  Eggs.  (Not giving up cheese or eggs--and I'm not apologizing for that either.  Fight the fights you can win, people.)

We have always gardened and tried to raise as much of our own food as possible, and we have been gradually phasing out the additive-full, processed products from our pantry and fridge, because we know it's the healthy thing to do...as hard as it is!  Whole wheat bread, raw honey, lots of fresh veggies, etc.  But it's time to commit to it more strongly, for our health.

So.

I just bought a vegetarian/vegan cookbook, and our family is going to take the next step towards greatly limiting our meat and dairy consumption, for our health.  Gradually, though.

I'll never be one of those all militant vegetarians who announces to everyone, everywhere, within the first few minutes of meeting someone, that "I'm a vegetarian.  I don't eat animal products.  Did I mention I'm vegan?" Everyone just wants to slap them (*hint hint* vegans...), but I love my family, and if this will help us live longer and avoid heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and the high cholesterol that runs in our family, then so be it.

Pray for us. We have a freezer full of COW and two pigs, right now...and we are a "meat and taters" kind of family, even if they are organically grown, so even though it's the right health choice, I'm having a hard time convincing myself that oh sure, I can learn to love kale...

Ummm.    Ok

I'll keep you posted.

8 comments:

  1. Can I suggest a cookbook or two? Food Matters by Mark Bittman for one. I suggest this because his approach is not to cut out meat, but to make the ratio of grains and veggies to meat much higher than what many are used to. And I was 100% vegetarian for awhile, and I loved Laurel's Kitchen cookbook. There was a time when I thought I'd never eat Brussels sprouts, but now I love them roasted with lots of garlic. I also love beets now (again, roasted). Personally I'd be happy to never touch meat again, but it almost always falls on me to cook for others, and they want meat. I tried going vegan, but I find that miss eggs too much at breakfast, plus I am a bit of a cheese addict. But look into raw, whole milk. Apparently it has less baf cholesterol and more "good" cholesterol than pasterized and homogenized. It tastes better, too, IMHO. I could chat about my favorite cookbooks all day long, I love them. I could suggest a whole list if you let me.
    Try growing your own kale, and picking it as baby greens. It's as tender as baby spinach, the stems haven't gotten large.
    Good luck, but with your garden, I don't think you will need luck.
    You are right to take a balanced approach. I mean, oreos and fritos are vegan. But, probably highly processed. I'd rather bake the occasional batch of home made chocolate chip cookies or buttery cupcakes once in a while. I use King Arthur Flour's whole grain baking cookbook, and no one notices the difference.

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    1. You sound like my kind of cook! That's exactly the way I feel about our diet, too. I'm not willing to cut out eggs and cheese, and probably won't be cooking with almond milk or anything. I just want to have a healthier..whole food approach (for us). We actually have lots of kale and swiss chard still in the freezer from the garden last year, so I'm going to start pulling out more of that.

      I am exactly on the same page with you. I personally don't care if I have meat, though I do love a good steak or chicken dish, but I'm fine with like once a week. No way I'd say I'm never having meat *again*, especially our organic homegrown stuff. I cook for a meat lover, though, who unfortunately has hereditarily scary-high cholesterol. We've been staying away from processed foods more than ever--I have never been much for "store bought" stuff or packaged foods, because of how I was raised, but it always feels like we can do better. As it is, ALL of our meat and vegetables are raised by us, and we have our own eggs. We have friends who we used to get fresh milk from, but they quit for awhile. Because of dairy intolerance, too, we're trying to curb dairy, but we all love cheese and yogurt, so it will probably just be *less* of those things and, like you said, a more heavily weighted diet towards grains and whole foods.

      I own so many cookbooks that I literally don't have cabinet space for another one, but if you have a few like you mentioned that are more in that *direction* (rather than strict vegan) that'd be awesome. You can email me direct at itsalongstoryblog@gmail.com. I did just order the Forks Over Knives Cookbook. I have so many vegetable recipes available, but I'm interested to see a cookbook that presents them as the *main* event rather than the *side*. I'm excited about getting healthier, bu I don't want to freak us all out by going cold turkey off all the things we love and are SO used to eating. :P

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  2. Wow..that's awesome

    I've tried to like kale..I really really did. I don't like kale.

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    1. Me either... or bok choi or collards. My kids do, so that's good, and I did find a really good recipe for homemade ravioli with Swiss chard last summer. But that's about the extent of it.

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  3. Good luck! I'm trying (tryyyyiiiiiing) to eat healthier as well and bring the boyfriend over to the veggie side. It's hard when you've spent the last 9 years of your life surviving on pizza and sangria ;)

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    1. Try...being in a hunting/ meat-raising family of meat lovers!!! Agh. We're doing better bit by bit. Bought a gorgeous Italian vegetarian cookbook tonight, and Back to Eden, and I'm starting garden seeds this week, so there's hope.

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  4. Found you via "Hacker, Ninja.." I don't think I could ever give up bacon. Or chicken. Or Steak. But trying to reduce all the chances of all those diseases is the way to go! :) I can't figure out how to pass on my blogsite so, Honeydidyouseethat.wordpress.com

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    1. Welcome! It's going slow, and I would say we'll never be true vegetarians because we love meat, but just a thoughtful healthy take on increasing the veggie to meat ratio.

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