It all began about three months ago. Andy comes home from work, having recently finished reading "
Born to Run", decided that we should not eat meat anymore. I agreed immediately, and made our first vegetarian dish. A couple days later we were looking up healthy vegetarian tips, and we came across a vegetarian athlete list, with a short bio for each. One cyclist had put in his bio, that he became vegan after reading "
The China Study". So naturally andy bought it on his kindle!
One thing led to another (
Brian Reagan joke 1:27) and we no longer consume animal protein!
We both have our own feeling towards being vegan: Andy wants to be healthy and fit, but really doesnt have feelings about animal cruelty. I also like being healthy and fit, but also feel like cows, chickens, and ect. don't enjoy being in a cage or standing in the same small pin for their entire life.
The kids seemed to be okay with it at first, then we hit a rough spot, after they were getting to much "auxiliary" food from friends and church activities. Now we are doing quite well, Pierce loves every thing we put in front of him, River (thinks she)HATES mushrooms, but will eat almost anything we feed to her... like actually feed it to her, like she is a baby. This is more than irritating, but at least she is eating.
My dear sweet husband is so awesome. He wants us to avoid animal protein, but is concerned that we dont receive enough nutrients through a vegan diet, so after researching he found the "green smoothie" life style to be the perfect compliment to our current eating habits. This was met with a tiny bit of skepticism(mostly from me)... "You expect me to drink THAT!?!" of course a bunch of spinach thrown in a blender with a banana and some water, does not sound to appealing, and believe you me, it doesnt look appealing either. So for two or three weeks, dear sweet husband got to drink his smoothies ALONE! Then a break through happened, he got this amazing gift from his awesome mother-in-law, enter the blendtec stage left. (i only say left because i am a democrat) this crazy blender doesnt really deserve to be called a blender it will do anything, including getting me to drink those GREEN smoothies, also a little bit of peanut butter will go a long way.
I have gotten a lot of questions about being vegan, and since i am still a greenhorn(yet another killer joke) i really dont know how to answer them, so i have decide to record a weeks worth of food that the family chef (she is terrific by the way) whips up for us.
So here it goes!
Starting with FRIDAY
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Indian spiced challah bread Donuts!! (five minute bread, had to replace the egg with flax and water) |
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Super Spirulina Smoothies, in super hero cups |
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Love the mess he makes :/ |
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Andy made this one up for afternoon snack, it had carrot greens so it was pretty stringy |
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Curried cauliflower and chickpeas over basmati rice |
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cookies for dessert from HERE, they were scrumptious |
SATURDAY
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Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal |
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Sunrise mango smoothies!! |
Indian Guru for lunch, you haven't lived unless you've eaten at Indian Guru
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Dirty rice |
Sunday
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this with some rice milk and a banana |
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Choconana peanut butter spinach smoothie!! for after church snack
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Left over dirty rice for lunch
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Korean hot pot, kinda like fondu, sooooo stinkin' delicious |
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Braided Challah bread for Desert |
MONDAY
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Banana Spelt pancakes |
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Peaches and cream dream |
WEGMANS for lunch... wegmans is so cool, there is a really spacious lounge area up stair, and the cafe serves vegan food, so when we go shopping the kids and i sit up stairs while i feed the baby, they watch tv and play with the toys and hubby shops, and sometimes we trade off, if the kids get restless. Fridays at 7 they have Movie night. They put on a kids movie on the projector and set up chairs and a play mat and the kids really like it, and we can get our shopping done then.
Dinner was bean burritos, and portobello tocos... it was game night with some friends, so i forgot to take pictures
TUESDAY
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what is left of Chocolate chip oat meal, a bit indulgent,
but we had some chips left over from cookies... pierce had two serving of it |
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a pretty throw together lunch of peanut butter and banana rolls, fruit and granola(river already ate most of the grapes) |
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An after school snack, whats left of the challah bread with some Spiced honey maple sauce, my own personal recipe! |
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This dish has appeared on my blog before, ziti and roasted cauliflower, it is just so dang good!!! |
WEDNESDAY
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Banana nut Oatmeal (the nutty flavor comes from flax (yummy Omega 3's) |
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Lunch pack up for our long trek to the foot doctor... Orange ginger couscous and dried fruit, compliment of my hubbs |
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Post doctor smoothie... GREENYA COLADA, as i am putting this one together river pierce and i are singing "you put the lime in the coconut" :) |
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Candying some pecans for our.... |
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Endive pear salad... every so often i come across a recipe that I really really dont want to eat, for instance vegan chili(which my family begs for now) this sounded great, and anything with endive makes me happy, it was from a new cook book wich always makes me a little nervous, but how can you co wrong with pear. Candying the pecan smelled amazing the pears were delicioso i tossed every thing together then added the grape seed oil !!!!WHOA!!!! is that smell coming from my salad!?!? why does it smell like that? So i put on a happy smile for my kids and reluctantly stuffed a fork full in my mouth... it was good... no great! |
THURSDAY
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toast with vegan butter, peaches, and pierce throwing a fit (finished bearded beanie in the corner right their) |
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Spent most afternoon julienning vegetables, and mixing fillings in preparation for |
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SUSHI!!!! wooohooo
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And that, my friends, is a Week in the life of a vegan!!
I must add a disclaimer here, we as a family are not 100% vegan all the time... our philosophy is to eliminate animal protein the best we can, and if something nonvegan slips in every now and then, it shouldn't be a problem. When we are eating as a family or in our house, we eat 100% vegan, but in order to symplify life and not be difficult friends, when eating at church functions or at friends houses, we will just not eat meat. If anyone reading this is really interested in our reasoning behind eating vegan, you should either read the books listed at the beginning of the week, or you can watch 'Forks Over Knives'
That is All