I'm not vegan. Not yet anyway. Probably someday. I switched out dairy milk for almond milk years ago, use coconut oil for cooking and as a butter substitute on popcorn, and I eat meat and cheese sparingly(mostly only when it's free). So I'm not far off. And then last Sunday, I set out to make some mushroom soup. When I noticed that all of the ingredients I had were totally vegan, and the soup turned out super well, I thought, "Neat!" and endeavored to see what else I could make, because I'd been under the impression that being vegan was kind of hard. It's not. It's particularly easy if you like soup. I've made tomato soup, spicy mushroom soup and quinoa and black bean chili(Yum). I made nachos with Daiya cheese(reminded me of the nacho cheese you get from 7-11) and Tofutti's sour cream substitute. I bought some Gardein crispy tenders and made wraps with salsa and veggies, and I just finished a delicious breakfast consisting of smoked tofu and veggie scramble with hashbrowns. This is just in the last week. All totally vegan, super easy, and SO fucking tasty. And I feel great. Anyone close to me knows what a little bitch my stomach usually is, but cutting back on or cutting out all of those animal products has my little tum tum feeling so happy. (☋) <----This is my tummy.
Not to mention the offloading of guilt and shame. I spent a bit of time on a commercial dairy farm last year and the experience haunts me every time I eat cheese. Those cows are treated like crops. They get impregnated, and then have their calves sold, and then they're forced into a machine every day to get milked by robots that attach to their udders. They stand around all day in their little stalls, and never get to go outside. Remember in Firefly when River says "They weren't cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky, and they remember what they are"? These cows NEVER get to be cows. They spend their whole lives waiting. They're pumped full of antibiotics(yum, yum, that's in your milk now), but they still inevitably get sick from the conditions, and when they do, or when they stop producing enough milk, they're slaughtered. They don't even get to retire to some nice grassy pasture to live out their days. At no point are they treated with any kind of respect. And that's just dairy cows. These aren't even the animals used for the grotesquely exorbitant meat consumption in our society. It's sad, cruel and unnecessary.The only essential nutrient you cannot get from sun exposure and a varied vegan diet with tons of whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables is vitamin B12, which is easily supplemented. Just one vitamin.
Anyway, I'm not saying everyone should go vegan RIGHT FUCKING NOW, I'm just saying, hey, maybe think about it, maybe cut back on your animal product intake, see how you feel(betcha it's a whole lot better). I know I was raised to think that if there wasn't meat with every meal, it wasn't a real meal. You probably were too. The propaganda the dairy industry has been cramming down our throats our entire fucking lives doesn't help. Do your own research. Experiment(I always recommend experimentation. Bow-chicka-wow-wow). Try out some alternatives. It's not as hard as it seems.
That is awesome, we are trying too. I was vegan for a while, many years ago, and some of my fave meals have since been yummy vegan foods:
ReplyDeleteMash tofu with a blob of peanut butter, a dash of soy sauce, chopped green onion and some flour to bind it all, then bake like drop cookies and eat with steamed veggies, rice and sweet and sour sauce (crushed pineapple, soy sauce, flour or starch to thicken.) SO GOOD.
Also, plain tempeh cubes sauteed with onions and mushrooms and gravied and poured over mashed potatoes is just as yum as any meat version. I usually get flake pastry shells and fill them with steamed spinach and pour that over the top of them also. It is so savoury and yum!