I should have known better.
I gave Bill a humerous book on healthy eating that I thought he could check out in his very few minutes of down time every so often. It contained, inter alia, scathing accounts of dairy products, egg production, and horiffic accounts of factory meat production - more than anyone would ever care to know. Next thing I know, we're vegans. I should have known!
The source concludes that vegan eating is THE only way to fly. You can imagine, for someone in love with butter and cheese, that this is not my favourite news. I can do without meat quite easily - and did, for years. I love a great steak every so often, although it is increasingly important to me to purchase meat that was raised and fed properly, and humanely exited from the planet.
Vegan eating is going to be literally and completely different. No butter. No cheese??? I won't even be able to re-read my own blog this month. But, in closing one door (even for a while) my goal is to force myself to find alternatives.
I remember reading that fish don't have feelings. They don't have a cerebral cortex, so somehow eating them seems less cruel. If it can't ever feel sadness, or know its own name, it must be OK to eat? I've learned that fish are often teeming with mercury from the water, and fed on mercury-laden fish. (Tuna and Salmon are huge creatures, who feed on lots of small creatures to reach their ultimate weight, so "you are what you eat" is important to them, too) See "Remy's Law", October. The fact that farmed salmon are fed things that would never occur in their natural diet (like corn) as well as given a dose of food dye to make their flesh look "pink" was enough to turn me off of that, too.
I used to think that shellfish and mollusks were a completely feeling-free choice too. Until Sally and Jerry (the trained conchs at the Conch farm in the Turks and Caicos Islands) rolled out of their shells to give Harrison a look, and to do a few tricks!??!! Anything that can do tricks, and has a name shouldn't be delicious.
More than ever before, the sheer act of eating is a landmine of challenges.
E-Coli. Suffering. Factories. Antibiotics. Profit margins. Hormones. Cancer.
It seems that over the past 50 years we have taken the sheer joy out of eating, and replaced it with other stuff that is just not good.
So - the vegan experiment!
We are going to skip all animal products for the month. No eggs, butter, milk, meat or fish. And it is going to be HARD for me.
But, like any challenge, it offers insight and possibility.
This morning, instead of an egg sandwich, I browned some tofu in a bit of coconut oil, added some hot sauce, and nesled it on some bread smeared with dijon mustard. It was "exceed-my-expectations" fantastic. Harrison's nose led him to the kitchen where he promptly took a bite, declared that it had the same texture and consistency of egg, and walked off with it! When he returned, he asked "Could tonight be tofu night?"
Cool kid.
He totally deserves the best possible fuel for that adorable growing mind. The 30 days in November will be dedicated to healthy eating, research regarding my own habits in the kitchen, and striving for the healthiest fats, carbohydrates and proteins combinations that can exist in a busy family kitchen.
Tonight is Monday, so my Red Beans and Rice consisted of the tomato vegetable soup from last night used to steep a cup of red lentils until thick. Lentils smell like chicken soup when they are cooking, and that surprises me! Red beans and green onions are rounding out the pot. It is a gorgeous dish with a lovely, homemade smell. I've been reading a book on the couch as it simmers.
I survived the day with almond milk in my coffee (and there is NO WAY ON THIS GREEN EARTH that I am going to give up coffee). I had a veggie sandwich at work, a peanut butter and banana sandwich for a snack and a V8. I feel impossibly energized.
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