As I look back at the meals I've cooked and the fun experimenting I've done so far with all these new vegan ingredients, I keep thinking about the stereotype society has about vegetarians and vegans. One of the most common reactions people had when I said I was going vegan was: "What are you going to eat?????" People think that the only options vegetarians and vegans have are salads, steamed vegetables, and bowls of fruit. Then I started tallying what I've had so far. Things like red velvet pancakes... homemade spaghetti sauce... homemade pizza... chili... fruit smoothies... chocolate chip cookies... homemade whole wheat sandwich bread... I dunno, but this hardly sounds like deprivation. And did it taste good? Well, none of it had anything coming from an animal, so it's not going to taste the same. But with some ingenuity, and the right combination of spices, herbs, and aromatics, it tasted pretty darn good. That's the beauty of cooking from scratch - things come out tasting just the way YOU want them to taste (unless they don't come out at all).
Another thing I was noticing is the change in kitchen cleanup. For almost 3 weeks I haven't had to worry about chicken "juice" on the cutting board or the faucet handle, I haven't had to make sure I wash my hands after handling chicken, I haven't had congealed grease spatterings or spills to clean up on the stove or the counters, why the nastiest grease I work with is olive oil! I can eat raw cookie dough without the paranoia of the raw eggs in it. The vegan kitchen modus operandi is way cleaner. And it smells cleaner, too.
Time for a dessert smoothie. :-)
Thanks for all the info and recipes. Your chili looked great and so did the pizzas, but I really don't have that much time to work on many things from scratch. I try my best! One thing I wanted to mention, I don't like how some Vegan meat-less/meat-look-alike products (fake "pork product" sausage-ham-bacon, ready made stews, frozen meals, even "cheese") have "not so healthy" ingredients. Have you noticed that? Some Tofutti products have Hydrogenated Oil!!!! Have to read those labels.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, keep up the good work, you are an inspiration :)
Even if just _one_ thing from scratch is better than none at all. :-) Actually, I haven't tried any of those products because they seem a little too processed, so I've been steering clear of them, at least so far. I'm making seitan, then using tofu, tempeh, TVP and beans as the main meat substitutes in my meals. The cheeses I've used are Galaxy's vegan sliced american cheese and Daiya (I tried a cream cheese substitute but didn't care much for it). Thanks for the warning on the Tofutti products, will definitely pay attention. Yeah, my grocery store trips take a loooong time now, having to read ingredient lists a lot more now. :-) Thanks for your nice words. :-)
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