Ewww! Vegan! Nasty!

  Not to offend any of my vegan friends with the title but that is the response I receive when word gets out that a lot of my food is prepared vegan-friendly.  To set the record straight, I am not vegan.  Seafood is something that I do enjoy! I do, however, prepare and enjoy a lot of vegan dishes.  You see, Elizabeth, my daughter, IS vegan and I love having her come to dine with me so I cook.  I enjoy cooking whether it be meat-based (for Mark) or vegetable-based.

  One of the things that I find almost comical is how people (non-vegans) react to vegan prepared foods. A lot of folks come to the Little Bayou House and, more oft than not, I will ply them with food.  It seems to be a southern thing.  When someone visits, we shove food at them. Anyway, visitors usually are tempted with some freshly baked goody. "Here!  Try this!" is usually met with rave reviews.  "This is so good!  I love home-baked apple/blueberry (or any other fruit) muffins!"  Once the visitors are on their third or fourth muffin, I will casually mention that the goodies are vegan.  The look on their face goes from one of pure bliss to almost sheer horror!  How in the world can something taste so divine one minute and the next become most unpleasant?  I am then questioned as to what makes it vegan.  "Well, the muffin (for example) has no eggs, butter or milk and is made with molasses instead of processed sugar."  While slowly returning a half-eaten muffin to their plate, the visitors then say something such as the following. "Then is it just flour?"  Oh, come on now, folks!  Just because a bread has no animal products in it does not make it inedible! I still put a lot of tasty things in the batter and you just said the first three muffins you ate were delicious.  

Vegan stir-fry that Elizabeth and I enjoyed for supper!

  Elizabeth and I eat our tasty vegan dishes with a sort of smug satisfaction.  We know that these are a lot healthier for us than what we used to eat.  We feel better and look better!  (Eating vegan truly does help with the diet!  Both of us just passed our annual physicals with flying colors!)  Plus, we have the added benefit of being able to eat more!  Since no one else is going to taste our "nasty, vegan food", there is more for us!  

 

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!