What I Do, To Prepare.

Well. This should show you how dedicated I am to this project:

I”m actually going to be starting on Sept. 1st.  And why is this so significant? Doctor Who starts at 9pm, right smack middle of my cooking time. Yeup. The things I do for culinary adventures, I tell ya.

But what I am doing to prepare for the project is just go through the recipes. Prepare myself to what to expect, what things I need. (e.g.: I am going to be making mini pot-pies. I’ll need ramekins. She calls for a culinary torch. I am not going to buy one of those. Despite my love of all things kitchen gadgety – I do not trust myself with fire. Fire Bad, Tree Pretty (and a Cookie, if you know where that is from).

We’ll ignore the fact that I got a popcorn popper just so I can make the popcorn recipes. It was on sale for 8 bucks, you’d buy one too. 
I am also making my Bulk grocery list. That is to say, the list of ingredients that I need to have in my pantry for the next few months. This is two-fold. 1: So I don’t forget to buy it when I’m making … well whatever, and 2: to keep my weekly shops much more inexpensive.

So it’s really simple:

A Quick Read
Lists
And preparations.

Why I’m Vegan

Or – How I went from loving chicken to eating no-cluck cutlets.

 

Ah. The big question. Why am I vegan? (There are a lot of people that I know who wonder this all the time). Why on Earth did I become vegan. Was it political? (No). Was it ethical? (No – well not at first). Religious reasons? (No – well not at first). What would move an eater of meat, a drinker of milk, someone loved. loved cheese to give it all up.

 

Well the short answer is two-fold

• I discovered a really good blog via my friend (Oh She Glows). and I loved all her recipes, and I liked what she was saying about having a plant-based diet, so I decided to do it for a few months.
• eating animal products/byproducts was making me really ill. So I gave it up

I grew up in a pure omnivore family. Mom was a hard-core vegetarian (She’s a pesco vegetarian i.e.: she eats cheese, and fish. Or she used to. I’m not sure anymore). And Dad ate meat. So depending on who made the main meal, determined what I ate. (Mostly then – it was vegetarian). However I had this epic love affair with milk. Epic. (And I hate using that word). My father needed to buy 8lbs bags because I would have a litre of milk on my own… per day.

And let’s not even begin how I was a very bad girl and had a love affair with milk with Cheese.

When I was in University however my statistics professor ranted on and on about how evil milk was. (ergo, I wasn’t a big fan of him. Forget the fact that I can barely do 2+2, and I was in  statistics class. The man was debasing milk!). But he gave us a challenge to give up milk for a month and see how we felt.

So I did. Then went right back to drinking Milk.

Then I moved to Korea. This is where the birth of me becoming pesco pollo (No red meat, but everything else was fair game). I couldn’t eat Korean food, (well food for them). and I couldn’t drink milk and cheese wasn’t really good over there. And I discovered cooking with vegetables and I really didn’t miss it very much. (The milk). When I came back after my year term , I never went back.

Oh. and Living with two vegans kind of helped things along.

(My milk of choice now is Silk So Delicious Almond Milk – Unsweetened). While I still ate yoghurts and cheese, I was all about the Almond milk now. (I do miss good yoghurt).

Where I live now (Alberta) is the home of Canadian Beef. It’s like Canadian Texas. So naturally this is when I decided to give up most meat up. This corresponds with discovering Angela’s blog Oh She Glows. I was mesmerized that I could have delicious, gorgeous, yummy food that didn’t come from a box, wasn’t used with a (lot) of processed foods, and there wasn’t any typical baking ‘necessities”

• Milk
• Eggs
• Butter

to have a great meal. To have a great baked good.

So for four months I made meals from this blog (and I was losing weight. The weight loss was due to working out really hard – but as weight loss is 80% kitchen, yeah, it went hand in hand). But living in a dorm and having very little time, I went back to meat. But it didn’t agree with me. Almost a year and a half of not eating chicken (very often) barely eating fish, to going back to it, didn’t agree with me.. At. All. (Not having an oven or other vegan appliance necessities made it hard.

And, just the more I read the more I felt that no longer eating animals, and their byproducts was for me. So May 1st 2012 (the day I moved in and went grocery shopping), I went from vegetarian to vegan. Yes, sometimes I lapse. (Not eating chicken, but the ‘byproduct’ part – always check your labels). but I feel better. My stomach feel better, and I feel healthier.

Just to clear things up:

• I don’t eat mounds and mounds of processed food – or rather, I eat about the same amount of processed food as people who eat meat do.
• Technically I’m vegan for health reasons (My body can’t handle animal). But this doesn’t mean I’m not human. I love cookies. I love pies. I love saucy sauces, and delicious comfort food.  A lot of people seem to think just because one eats plants and etc, it means you give up .. well… really good food. Not so with me!
• Just bringing it up now: Yes I eat soy in all forms. (Miso, soybeans, tofu, tempeh, soymilk, sour cream, cream cheese, creamer). The soy products I buy are from the organic health food store. I cycle form soy, beans, and seitan/gluten.
  
  
• Oh. I like wheat. I like wheat-meat. (seitan/gluten). Yes I know that it can cause belly, and issues and whatever, but that’s okay with me.
• Never fear. I do get my calcium. (spinach, kale, tofu) my b-12 (nutritional yeast + supplement) and biotin (supplement). I don’t take a general one a day (I always try in January but I barely remember to take the stuff I need to. And lets not even get started on if I get my protein or not.
  

While I didn’t start being vegan do the typical reasons, I do believe them now. But whatever your reasons the way you eat is your reasons, as I have mine. 🙂 Mine is just veganly delicious. 🙂

Who Am I, What Is This, What Does It All Mean?

Oi. I hate the very start of blogging. You have to get all ‘intro’ stuff done. 🙂

Who Am I?

I’ll refrain from all the cheesy jokes that can pop up. I’m Liv. And I’m vegan. And I love to cook. (and I love reading, cross stitching, Doctor Who and a myriad of other British television, and a plethora of other things). I’ve got a great sense of humour (I love lame  jokes) and.. well other stuff will pop up I guess.

What Is This?

This is my blog. (that was so easy!). But it’s not just a blog – it’s a cooking blog. That is going to focus on  Vegan Cooking from Vegan Cookbooks (and blogs). While I love to cook, I am not super adventurous, so while I do sometimes come up with great cooking ideas, if you are expecting recipes – sorry 😦  However, expect lots of foodie pictures, and breakdowns of cookbooks (e.g.:  if serving sizes = what it suggests, if cooking time is what it expects, if there is a lot of modifications). SO it’s not just a Julie/Julia project (where I cook through the cookbook), but more of a research project. (Also, it accomplishes a few things)

• Justifying the cost of me getting more cookbooks
• Using the cookbooks, rather than reading them like books
• Getting REALLY good yummy num-nums

What does This mean?

Well hopefully, it shows you that vegan food can be delicious. That you can have a great meal without needing to add animal byproducts, and vegan food isn’t all about packaged foods and all that other stuff. And that it can be easy (for the most part – or at least, the hard work is worth it.

If after reading this blog and you decide that veganism is for you – yay! If not, but you are tempted into trying for more Meat Free Meals yay! If I entertain you. Yay. If none of this is impressing, well thank you for reading this, and.. I guess i’ll see you..later? 🙂