Monday, July 26, 2010

I'm celebrating my three week "vegan" anniversary

Hello again, sorry it's been so long, my name is still Natalia however I can now proudly say I haven't eaten a dead animal for four years and 4 months, and I haven't eaten any animal products e.g. dairy and eggs in 3 weeks!

So my boyfriend moved out, back to the cold south to finish his Phd. This gave me an exciting opportunity to explore the so called "too extreme" vegan diet. My original intention was to become completely raw vegan, however being the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, this proved too difficult even for me. After a major shopping "fail" at the farmers market, I decided a vegan diet would be an interesting experiment instead of raw, well until Summer comes anyway.

As a vegetarian I figured that transitioning to a vegan diet would eventually be a natural progression that I'd eventually delve into. Living with someone who is still a meat eater, though 99% vegetarian (e.g. does not eat any meat in the house) meant it took me longer to take the jump. However, I'm starting to feel confident that before long I will be cooking up all sorts of delicious meals that not only will you not miss the meat, but you won't miss the dairy either. Making everything I cook, completely cruelty free!

So far it's proving to be a culinary delight, I'm discovering all sorts of new healthy secrets and tricks in cooking. One delightful trick I discovered which is great for vegan baking, is that "apple sauce" or "stewed apple" in my case can be used instead of "oil" which is often a reaplcement for butter in vegan cooking. Now how exciting is that?!! I tried it out in blueberry muffins and also in my super chocolatey chunky cookies. They both turned out devine, however I think I'll use a little more next time, just to add some extra moisture.