A TRANSITION TO VEGAN COOKING

Well, to start off, my cooking techniques have been strange through the years, so changing my ingredients in cooking to Vegan isn’t a big deal to me. It just adds more interest to my already unusual cuisine habits.

I was a health food nut in the 60s, teaching my little ones that yogurt was ice cream, giving them Tiger Milk Bars instead of Snickers, and sneaking chopped carrots into foods where they didn’t belong. It all went great until they started school, then their little friends had to go and spoil all my training. They loved the food I fixed because they didn’t know any better, but were too embarrassed to eat it in front of their peers, so eventually I succumbed to a semi-American diet, at least for their lunches. Their friends would complain when coming to our house that there was nothing good to eat. What is tofu? Why isn’t there any candy or good cereal? This mama was not of your normal American variety. So it isn’t a big deal for me to change to a diet different from what the average American would eat.

On my attempt to become a Vegan cook, I had to do it gradually. Some can jump into it all at once, but I have friends who had to accept me to be even more unconventional than I already was, so it has taken me a little longer than most. And you have to admit that being a Vegan is in the lower percentile of the American population, so it isn’t too popular for those who love eating flesh. I had to take baby steps. Now, in preparing meals, I have been adding vegetables and fruit into anything I cook or bake. I try to do it as discretely as possible, especially when serving my husband, and guests. It is a joke now as to whether I have put tofu into anything they are eating. They are always wondering what the ingredients are in my dishes. And sadly, I have yet to convince anyone that comes over for dinner to come around to the Vegan lifestyle. At least it hasn't stopped people from coming over for dinner. :)

I find baking is the easiest transition. I have always used applesauce, etc. for egg replacement since I have high cholesterol. And anytime the recipe asks for milk, I just use soy or rice milk. I have always used oil instead of butter, and in the past, most of my ingredients have had no animal products. Now there are so many books out with vegan recipes that it is quite simple to serve cookies, breads, cakes, and pies that are vegan.

The hardest part for me is changing my taste buds. I have never really been a vegetable/fruit lover. I forced myself to eat that part of the meal, so I would add creamy sauces and cheese to vegetables to make it more appetizing. I guess cheese was the hardest for me to give up. I have now, however, developed a taste for Vegan Cheese and I love it. At first I didn’t like the texture but now I have grown ‘accustomed to her taste’. It is like a delicacy to me. I have also never been a big fruit eater. These days I realize how many different apples there are to choose from. I am now a connoisseur of the apple. It is the same with tofu. I used to buy tofu already prepared in dishes as I didn’t really know how to cook it to my liking. But with all the help from my vegan friends on Twitter and Facebook, I have acquired some fantastic recipes. Tempeh is another food I had never tried. Now I am a convert. I can honestly say that meat is the farthest thing from my mind when I am hungry.

There are a lot of cookbooks out there on Amazon.com. I use primarily vegetarian cook books and just substitute animal ingredients for the vegan ones. To anyone just starting out with the vegan diet, spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You have to. This way of eating takes more time then the quick fix foods or a Big Mac. You need to wash and cut your food. So just turn on the TV or radio, have your computer handy for conversation while the oven is on, and start cooking with purpose. I am lucky as my kids are not living at home, so that makes it easy for me. I only have a husband to contend with and he seems to be coming around just a little into thinking it ain't such a bad idea. And besides, he doesn’t cook so I have an advantage here.

To a Veganite, the more raw the food the better. I still have to cook my food….as I said, little steps. I am also not much of a juicer, I like the crunch and sensation of a pear, and apple or a carrot. In time I hope to acquire more of a taste bud for the raw, but in the meantime I have accomplished a great deal on my road to vegan cooking. Each of us must find our own personal way to incorporate this new passion and make it fit your lifestyle without impediments.

To be continued….

Here are some of my favorite Vegan Recipe materials:

Vegetarian Times
Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm
Great Chefs Cook Vegan by Linda Long
Simply Delicious Vegetarian by Carla Bardi
Vegetarian Cooking & Vegetable Classics by Roz Denny and Christine Ingram
100 Great recipes Vegetarian by Vicki Smallwood
Homestyle Vegetarian by Bay Books
Vegan Cupcakes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero
How it all Vegan by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer
Tweeters: happyherbivore and chic_vegan