Here...have an apple!

I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.  No, I am not a vegetarian as I do, indeed, love seafood of any kind and will eat poultry.  Dairy products and other "animal-based" foods such as honey are not fully stricken from my diet either.  I just really like my fruit and veggies!  My daughter, however, has been a vegetarian for most of her life.  It all started back when she was diagnosed with ulcers and she has stuck with the diet plan all of these years.  This has agreed with her as she is quite healthy.  Still, this morning when trying to figure out a healthy breakfast for my daughter and son-in-law, I have to admit that I was in a bit of a quandary.  Robbie is easy to cook for..just throw together something simple and tasty and he is a happy camper.  Elizabeth is normally just as easy but this morning was a tad different.  "I am a vegan now so I cannot have a lot of these things.  Hmmmm?  I pondered what to cook for a vegan!  Well, I had broccoli..that should work!  Emmm...not for breakfast, maybe.  We went down the list of possible ingredients trying to find something that would be pleasing for her diet and that of two hungry guys..Robbie and Michael.  Michael teasingly asked if she could eat sausage!  Just a hunch, but I think that might not be on a vegan's wish list.  I was about to offer her an apple when we hit upon a brilliant idea!  We improvised and made pizza!  Breakfast pizza is good..right?

First, she and I concocted a most hearty, albeit, non-vegan pizza for the guys.  Pizza dough was partially baked then liberally spread with scrambled eggs, hash-brown potatoes, sausages and a good helping of mozzarella cheese.  Since the all of the ingredients were precooked, the actually bake time was not long.  The cheese really just needed time to melt!  The guys raved over their breakfast pizza!  While this made us happy, we were still hungry!  It was time to make a vegan breakfast pizza for Elizabeth and me to share! Instead of the egg and sausage type breakfast, we opted for a fruit pizza with whole wheat dough.  Once again, the dough was partially baked but we topped ours with sliced peaches and blueberries.  These were peaches that I had canned so they did not even contain sugar!  The juice was thickened and used as a "sauce".  This was all topped off with a layer of sliced almonds and a good dusting of cinnamon.  Wow!  Our pizza looked so enticing!  Even the guys were saying if they were not so full from their meat and egg laden pizza, they would have eaten ours!  Hmmmph!  How do you like that?  None-vegans wanted our breakfast!

I had no idea how hard it must be for vegans to find stuff to eat.  In reality, their diet should be the easiest.  How hard can it be to find non-animal based foods?  It is difficult to say the least.  Almost every pre-packaged food has some ingredient that would fully blow a vegan diet.  Even things like gelatin, "non-dairy coffee creamers and sugar have added things that make it a no-no for a vegan.  I am not sure that I would have the will power to stick to this type diet nor would I have the patience to read every label!  I have nothing but respect for those that do and wish it was easier for them to find products that fit into their diet plan. In the meantime, Elizabeth...Here, have an apple!