The Potluckatarian

When you make a decision to change your lifestyle in order to have a positive impact on your health like I did, there are bound to be some situations in which you are forced to make some difficult decisions. I have written before about the changes I have made in order to be a more active, healthy person. One of those decisions is the choice to avoid meat and dairy products. I have said before that I am not a vegan or vegetarian, because I want to have choices. If you are a self-proclaimed vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, glutenarian, or whatever you are, whether by choice or by force, you understand as well as I do, there are some sacrifices that come along with living a lifestyle void of cheeses (oh how I love cheeses) and meat. It can be challenging to take a vacation in the U.P., for instance, where, at times, the only vegan option on the menu consists of ketchup and saltine crackers. This is where I draw the line at whether or not I’m going to give in and just have the dang pasty, meat and all. Nowhere on earth is it more difficult to be a something-arian than at a church potluck. If you are the member of a church like I am, we gather together around food, usually potluck style, frequently. And it’s not just food. It’s really good food. I have been a potluck attendee my entire life because I have gone to church my entire life. When I have that Chinette plate in my hand and I’m shuffling along the potluck line, faced with the likes of tuna macaroni salad, taco salad, cheesy potatoes, and ground beef chili, I’m weak. Very weak. I scoop the turkey and dressing casserole on to that sturdy eco-friendly plate convincing myself that I’ll just “eat around” the turkey, but knowing full well that it’s not going to happen. I feel like a failure to all that’s good and vegan. “But God put those animals on this earth for us to enjoy!” they say. Tell that to my intestines that struggle to digest it. I try to be strong, but when I’m staring down a crockpot full of homemade macaroni and cheese the spoon beckons and I obey. As I cleaned my plate at the most recent potluck luncheon, I promised myself a meat and cheese detox starting at 1:00 pm. So maybe I’m a potluckatarian. Care to join me? I’ll be sitting in front of an empty oval Chinette plate, looking guilty, and full.

Brussel Sprouts? I Just Can't Go There.

For some reason this post is publishing weird. I know it's distracting, but I can't figure out why it's doing this, so hopefully it won't bug you as much as it's bugging me! Must be the brussel sprouts.

I love to cook. I will try to cook almost anything. Over the years I have learned that things I thought tasted bad (broccoli, peas), are actually good when cooked properly. I love websites like Pinterest and apps like Yummly, on which I can spend hours pinning or “yum’ing” hundreds of recipes. This summer I have been trying to use my CSA veggies that we get from Bluestem Farms to try new things. Roasting vegetables has been one way that I have been experimenting with unfamiliar foods like radishes and beets. I have really been stretching the limits of my culinary experimentation even when it has come to using ingredients like tofu. But there is one food that I simply cannot CANNOT bring myself to experiment with and that’s brussel sprouts. I have seen recipe after recipe of brussel sprouts happily adorning salads and as delightful side dishes with wonderful looking sauces. But to me, brussel sprouts are that evil bitter tasting side dish that sat on my plate until bone cold at 9:00 at night while I waited out my mom’s “You will sit there until you clean your plate” command. But brussel sprouts seem to have become popular these days. If you look on Pinterest or Yummly you can find pages of recipes for them. I have been vehemently against cooking them until I started watching some cooking videos from my favorite healthy cooking guru, Dani Spies. She is a blogger and YouTuber who has all kinds of instructional videos and recipes. When I have an ingredient I don’t know what to do with (e.g. Hakurei Turnips) I will usually search her site and see if she has posted anything about them. One day in particular I kept stumbling across recipes for roasted brussel sprouts. Curiosity overtook me and I thought “maybe?” As I started watching the video I got this bad feeling deep in the pit of my stomach and I quickly paused it like one does when getting to the scary “Don’t open that door!” part of a horror movie. After about a half-hour I returned to the video and with an upset stomach and determination I watched the remainder of the video, “How to Roast Brussel Sprouts” and watched Dani tell me how to make these evil little demons into delectable morsels. As she nibbled on the completed product she said “This recipe is sure to make anyone into a brussel sprout lover!” They actually looked somewhat tempting, but as to whether or not I’ll actually get over my brusselsproutphobia is yet to be seen. Like I said, I’ll cook almost anything…almost. 

P.S. Just in case you are a BS lover (I couldn’t resist) here is the recipe:

http://cleananddelicious.com/2013/02/27/video-how-to-roast-brussels-sprouts-a-clean-eating-recipe/

Adventures in Veganism

After reading the title you are probably thinking one of two things, "Well it's about time she came to her senses! Hopefully she will convince others to go vegan." or "Has she lost her mind? Now she's going to try and get us to give up meat!" Actually it's neither of those. I haven't joined PETA and I'm not going to change the world, one carrot at a time. At the recommendation of my doctor I picked up a book by Rip Esselstyn called "The Engine 2 Diet." Rip is a firefighter/world-class triathlete who is introducing others to the vegan lifestyle (which he calls a plant-based diet) and basically has a 28 day challenge, hoping that that the end of the 28 days you will be so much healthier that you will never call a cow "dinner" again. I honestly have never had any interest whatsoever in becoming a vegetarian of any degree. I love meat, poultry, and cheese so much that I don't see any reason to let them go. Besides, I live with 3 staunch carnivores who are definitely not going to join me in any diet altering experiment and have made that quite clear. However, in the interest of getting my digestive system in proper working order, I could do it for 28 days, or so I thought. I read the book and thought "hmm this won't be so bad." Well, I'm here to tell you, it's a lot harder than you might think. I decided to give up dairy first and enjoyed a delicious veggie sub, sans cheese for dinner that night. Wow! this won't be that hard. But the next morning I blew it when I had to put milk in my coffee because I had nothing to replace it with. The next thing to go was meat. That first day went pretty well until Tom made these amazing chicken wings that I couldn't resist. I felt a little weak trying to survive on just fruit & vegetables for lunch so I added eggs back into my diet. I'm getting better at making food choices, but still have some trip ups. One day while waiting for my veggie pita at Roast & Toast I munched on some cheese popcorn. Halfway through the bag I asked Tom if powdered cheese on popcorn would count as dairy. Dang. After a few weeks I am adjusting to my new life without foods that I once thought I couldn't live without. While I have still have no desire to learn to cook with tofu or watch as my family devours a Thanksgiving dinner without me, for now I will make a go of it, expecting a few moments of weakness now and then. I think I may be more of an egg-eating vegetarian who enjoys the occasional bag of cheesy popcorn. And no, I won't try and convince you to join me.