So, my mother has read this book – The China Study, and it convinced her to switch to a vegan diet. I, of course, am going to switch to a vegan diet too because I live with her and… well… it sounds kinda like something worth doing. I do want to read the book, but from what my mother has told me there are serious negative health effects of eating animal products. And there are powerful interests keeping the relevant nutritional studies out of the public maelstrom of information. Nutrition and intrigue – what more could you want? Anyway, the last few days have been spent finding new recipes and especially yesterday, preparing the pantry for a switch to a vegan diet. My mother has found a new appreciation for a book I bought back when I graduated from college – Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen: Healthy Meals for You and the Planet. This book uses a pressure cooker in a lot of the recipes and – it’s vegan! So yesterday we went to buy a pressure cooker and the one we wanted wasn’t available in our area, so we drove to Birmingham to shop there. First we went to Makarios for a quick late lunch. I had a cup of lentil soup, a hummus and tabbouleh sandwich, and french fries. This was great food. I was eating this food and realized that I was enjoying it at least as much as the last time I had lobster. Now that was a revelation.
Anyway, after we ate we went to look at vegan cookbooks at a big bookstore. We got a couple of books. One book we got – Everyday Raw Desserts, I am particularly looking forward to trying out. I find the raw food movement funny. I don’t know why. I’m not dedicated to raw, but I’ll try the deserts. They have some chocolate deserts too! But, I have to loose a little weight before we go all crazy with the deserts. I know I can gain weight on a vegan diet – I can gain weight on any diet. The point is to become more healthy, so I am trying to not eat too much even though there is so much good vegan food out there.
After we bought our cookbooks, we went to buy the pressure cooker. And then, we went to the Whole Foods Market to buy some groceries – things we can’t get here at home. We have a full week of cooking ahead of us. Anyway, we had gotten most all out food and we found ourselves looking at the flowers at Whole Foods. My mother asked if we should get some irises – would that be fun? And I thought of all the fun I could have taking pictures of these flowers, so I said it would be fun. So, we got some and I had fun with them. And, that’s the picture at the top of this post.
Tonight we cooked a butternut squash and yellow dal soup. It was fabulous. We got the recipe from Aarti Party on the Food Network. I like Indian food, and this was just great food. I started thinking about a class in Atlanta I have next week and how I could arrange to eat this soup and some of the other things we’ve been eating while away for this class. I thought about the food I usually have while taking these classes, and it didn’t appeal to me the way this soup did. I think I will take some food with me. It will be difficult to eat and stay on this diet while away from home, but I will try.
For some reason, the idea of eating a “plant based diet” really appeals to me. I don’t know why. I’ve always had leanings in that direction. Just being a vegetarian wouldn’t cut it, and quite frankly the religious or political reasons for being vegan don’t really speak to me. I’ve always sort of scoffed at people who try to explain why they are vegetarian or what have you. But at this particular point in time I am looking forward to eating – and I haven’t really felt that way for a while. There are some things I will miss for sure, but I have to focus on eating very good food and how healthy I will be.
