Vegan Voluntarily

First of all a word of thanks to everyone who has been positive and supportive with regard to our deciding to remove the dairy from our diets. Thank you. *sketches curtsy*

It’s a fact that human nature despises change, and many people react almost with hostility to changes in the lives of people they know. Especially in this case, those of you who reacted with doubt and …well, let’s leave it at doubt — that reaction to someone going vegan is thoroughly understandable. You know why?

Because of The Reputation. Vicious Vegans, God love ’em, are some of the most maligned and misunderstood eaters in the world, and mostly it’s their own fault. Almost everyone has heard of the apocryphal Vicious Vegan, the person who whines and sighs loudly at parties about there being nothing to eat, the person no one wants to have over because there’s nothing on earth that one can feed them that will meet with their exacting specifications. Even drinks can be dicey. Imagine the peace of a quiet post-yoga tête à tête shattered: “Honey? That’s an ANIMAL PRODUCT, NO, I DON’T WANT THAT IN MY #!$*?%&*%*#@ TEA! How many times do I have to tell you: I’m a vegan!!!“

Worse, the Vicious Vegan tends to proselytize, loudly and painfully, like a PETA member at a fur festival. Nothing like having someone discuss veal farming with you in detail to help you lose your appetite at a party.

Even if we know and love vicious vegans like that, and we do, we assure you: we want no disciples, we will do no proselytizing. We don’t expect anyone else to become vegan. What people eat is deeply, deeply personal, and…frankly, our addiction to all the gorgeous cheeses in this country is why we’re choosing not to eat them anymore.

Think of it like… um, a 12-Step Program. We admit that we are …mostly powerless over cheese. Ice cream, meh, we could take or leave. Yogurt, whipped cream, sour cream, meh. But cheese consumption in all its variations has gotten out of hand…and onto butt and gut. We will still be good hosts and have great food should you ever find yourself at our table. It’ll just be dairy free, but we doubt you’ll notice. (You don’t miss dairy in Thai food, do you? All right, then.)

There’s that segment of the population who believes that going vegan is peddling some kind of New Agey nonsense, and that it makes no difference to your body what you eat. Um. We actually don’t have many — any? — friends who believe that, but we also respectfully nod in the direction of any of you who believes that in their heart of hearts. We certainly hope it’s not true, and truly expect some positive changes to come in the realm of weight and heart health as well as allergy freedom, joint and muscle flexibility and other changes. Spending time with the yoga and chiropractic crowd, we’ve heard the refrain that our food should be our medicine. Here’s to just eating more veggies and taking fewer (expensive!!!!!) pills.

Much like when people become vegetarians, some friends have mentioned concerns about mineral and vitamin intake. We will not be calcium deficient because we’re not eating cheese. Kale packs a great big punch of calcium, and we love it. There’s tofu and soybeans, garbanzos (chickpeas), almonds, broccoli and white and AP flour, of course, has added calcium. Our soymilk is fortified with the same vitamins in cow’s milk (or dairy milk, as it’s called here), so that’s not a concern for us either.

Many people find difficulties in cooking and baking for vegans because of the amount of weird — and expensive — stuff to get from specialty stores. Because we’ve been in the process of moving away from eggs for awhile now — simply because I grew up with chickens and was never fond of the smell — we already know the flax or linseed trick of using 1/4 c. ground linseed as a substitute for 2 eggs in a quick bread. We’ve never used egg replacers or any other kind of specialty item — however, we’re looking forward to experimenting with a few things in our local health food store, as we have time.

Food experimentation is one of those things that non-foodie people either greet with wry amusement or weariness. We’re all busy — and it seems like a whole lot of work to reinvent the wheel, come up with yogurts and salad dressings and substitutes for things that are already right there and available. While on one hand, that’s true, on the other hand, exploring new ways of preparing great food is one of the inexpensive and mostly harmless hobbies we have, and we’re excited to be sharing new recipes and remakes of old favorites with you soon.

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