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My Big Fat Vegan Recipe Post…

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Spaghetti Squash done two ways…This is a teaser coming up on another post!

I know I am a day late in getting this blog out…Between catering a moving party (Welcome to Charlottesville Michael, Jolene, and Ben!) and social networking to get a decent buzz going on my blog, it’s been a busy past few days.  It was so busy in fact, that it was pretty nice to take a break from blogging and catch up with cooking new recipes (in hopes to share the recipes very soon!)  and also reading Sweetness Without Sugar so I can give it the review it definitely deserves.  I have had a few people ask me here and there if I would ever come out with my own cookbook, and my answer is “Probably not”.  There are so many great vegan cookbooks out there that for me to put one out there would be like “peeing in the ocean”.  I personally feel that my strong point is cooking another author’s recipe and possibly modifying it to make it healthier or maybe cooking something as a homage to my favorite vegan cookbook authors, Sarah Kramer and Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  I had the opportunity to meet Sarah Kramer a couple years ago in DC (she’s seriously a down to earth sweetheart!) and hopefully in September, I will be able to meet Isa at the DC Veg Fest and hopefully snag an autograph for my collection.  With the way this summer has been, I feel that I’m checking things off my vegan bucket list and one of them was to make a healthier Mousakka that I am more than happy to share with all of you.  The other is a modified Frozen Coconut Cream Pie that I saw online that may not be low fat but it is free of refined sugars.

Now on to the Mousakka…The original recipe I used called for a ton of Olive Oil which doesn’t quite sound healthy.  But my local Farmer’s Market is filled with zucchinis and eggplant that it’s hard to not think about making a Mousakka especially when you can get everything so local and cheap!  This casserole dish is great for the whole family or when you want to serve dinner to a few guests without the fuss.  This recipe came from researching over 5 separate cookbooks so it’s too hard to give credit where credit is due so as a result, I am calling this my own 😉  The preparation of this dish takes some time but it is TOTALLY worth it!  What I normally do is make everything except for the topping a day in advance and then keep in the fridge until showtime 🙂 This version actually tastes a lot like the one I had in a Turkish Restuarant called Temel in Fairfax, VA a few years ago….

Robin’s Healthy Vegan Mousakka
1 medium eggplant sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thick
2 medium zucchinis sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thick
2 large baking potatoes sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thich
Sauce:
1 large onion chopped
4 garlic cloves, sliced
28-oz. can low sodium crushed tomatoes (if not low sodium, omit the salt from recipe!)
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Topping:
1 pound of silken tofu (***do not use Mori-Nu or any in the aseptic packaging! Use the plain one in the refrigerator aisle alongside other tofu***)
1/2 cup of pine nuts OR raw cashews
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon of arrowroot OR cornstarch
2 cloves minced garlic
a generous pinch of nutmeg
Directions:
First thing you need to do is take your eggplant and sprinkle both sides generously with salt.  Set aside in a colander or towels and allow them to sweat ideally for 15 minutes.  Once the eggplant is “sweated” you want to rinse those slices very well as to not get too much salt in your dish.  While the eggplant is sweating, this is a good time to make your sauce.
In a large saucepan or a deep skillet, take the chopped onion and sliced cloves of garlic and water saute (instead of using oil) until the onions and garlic become translucent.  Then add your crushed tomatoes, oregano, sea salt and black pepper.  Simmer sauce for about 10-15 minutes (it’s up to you!).
The next step is to layer your veggies and sauce like a lasagna so you take a 9×13 casserole pan and layer the potato slices in the bottom of a baking dish, and spoon one-third of the tomato sauce over them. Then layer eggplant, one-third of tomato sauce, zucchini slices, and finally the rest of the tomato sauce.  Preheat oven to 375°. Cover with a baking dish lid or foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Towards the end of your baking time you will want to prepare your topping.  Using your food processor (or a blender) you will want to blend the nuts with the lemon juice.  Ideally, it will form into a gritty paste.  Then at this point you will want to add the tofu, arrowroot (or cornstarch if using), garlic, and nutmeg.  Blend until smooth and add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the casserole is finished baking then you are ready to top with the sauce.  Pull the dish out of the oven and pour tofu mixture over the casserole and bake uncovered for roughly 30-45 minutes until the top is browned like this…
Looks like lasagna but tastes like heaven!
I know you have spent all of your time on this fine casserole but make sure you cool the pan for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving…
The final product….Time consuming but sooooo worth it!!!
Since I gave you a great recipe for Mousakka, it would be a crime to not give you a recipe for dessert.  Recently, it was too hot to cook anything, let alone dessert and as luck would have it, I ran across this recipe for Frozen Coconut Creme Pie, courtesy of Meet the Shannons.  This recipe is quick and easy and I happened to have a lot of the coconut based ingredients handy since I sometimes tend to go on a raw food kick from time to time.  This version I made on a whim but I managed to get rid of the white refined sugars but I had a hard time cutting back the fat as this recipe basically comes out like an ice cream pie and without the fat content, it would have been mush in a pie crust 🙁  Hope you guys can take this recipe and run with it like I did and I look forward to seeing any modifications you make to this recipe but here’s my take on it…
Perfect for a hot day!!!

The Real Vegan Housewife’s Version of Frozen Coconut Creme Pie
1 graham cracker crust (I used this brand as it has no refined sugars and is vegan!)
1 package of silken tofu (I’m pretty sure I used Mori-Nu)
2/3 cup of Sugar in the Raw (found in every store on the planet!)
3/4 cup of Raw Coconut Butter (the recipe also says you can use vegan butter or margarine but I needed to drain my pantry!)
1 1/4 t of Coconut Extract (I prefer this brand over any out there!)
1/4 teaspoon of Agave Nectar
1 cup of shredded raw coconut
a pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon of coconut milk
1 Tablespoon of cornstarch

Set your oven to 350. Spread 3/4 cup of Raw Shredded Coconut evenly over a cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Remove when the Coconut is lightly browned and toasted. (keep an eye on your coconut during this step as ovens vary!)

In your food processor puree 1/4 cup Raw Shredded Coconut. Then add Sugar, Coconut Butter (or vegan butter), Coconut Extract, Coconut Milk, Cornstarch, Sea Salt, Agave Nectar and Silken Tofu to your food processor, blend until it is smooth and creamy. Pour into your Pie Crust and evenly sprinkle toasted Coconut over the top. Put in the freezer for 8 hours.

The result should look something like this once it is finished…

Just a bit of fair warning…After slicing, you may want to wait a few minutes to allow the pie to soften slightly 😉

Hope you guys enjoyed my recipe post and I look forward to sharing more with you soon!!!  Any reviews of my recipe (both good and bad!) are also most appreciated.  If there’s anything you want me to veganize or anything that is already vegan that you would like for me to make healthier, please feel free to email me or drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter…Until then “Bon Appetit!” 🙂

Showing My Gratitude….and My First Giveaway!!!

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Thank goodness typewriters are a thing of the past!!!

I think it’s pretty obvious to myself that the past week or two on this blog has been pretty amazing!!!  When I first started this blog, I had a vague idea of the direction I wanted to go, but once I took on my very first project with the Engine 2 Diet it was like my blog was telling me how to move forward.  Luckily, my blog has always had one goal in mind…to reach out to the vegans and non vegans out there and show them how easy, affordable, beneficial, fun, and healthy a vegan diet can be. The responses from all of you have been great and the support from my friends (both old and new!) has been amazing.  Every day I am motivated by each of you to keep blogging and sharing with you my journey and what I know (or what I am learning!).  And for all of this, I want to thank you and for those readers I have never met, I hope our paths cross one day so I may say it to you personally 🙂

Ever since Rip Esselstyn promoted my page recently, my audience has grown a great deal (Thanks Rip!).  Not only am I getting readers from all over, but even locally some people have taken notice.  Because of this, I recently held a contest to get at least 100 people to “Like” my Facebook page and promised a giveaway and I am definitely not one to back down over 120 “Likes” later.  My next goal is to hold a free giveaway for every 100 “Likes” and for those who follow me via Google (you see the icon on the far right hand side of the page), I will do a giveaway for every 100 people until I reach 1,000 people on each page (Facebook and Google).  So basically, you have 2 ways to join future giveaways and you potentially have 20 giveaways you can be eligible for.  I’m not really big on “geek talk” but basically my goal is to have 1,000 “Followers” on Google and 1,000 “Likes” on Facebook and for every 100 people on each site, I will have a giveaway.

Since I am just starting out and all of this is pretty much courtesy of yours truly, if anyone wants to donate giveaway items, please email me and we will work out the details.  I am willing to promote or plug any item as long as it is 100% VEGAN (this means no leather, honey, or animal testing, etc. of any kind!)

Now on to the GIVEAWAY…

I’m not technical when it comes to photos but you get the idea 😉

This particular item is VERY personal to me…If I was Oprah, this would definitely be one of my “Favorite Things” that simply makes my life easier (and healthier!).  This is the original Silpat baking mat that has more uses than I can even think of.  If you wanted an oil-free way of baking, now you have your chance!  This does great with cookies, marinated tofu, roasting veggies…the possibilities are endless and best of all, it’s reusable and the one I own is still going strong after 3 years and I have a feeling I’ll still be bragging about it for a very long time!  In order to get your chance in winning such a great product, all you have to do is “Like” my Facebook Page if you haven’t already.  If you have already joined on my Facebook page, you are already eligible!  The drawing will be done at random and to keep it fair, I am letting Random.org help me pick my winner.  The drawing will take place on Tuesday morning and I will be announcing the winner a short time after…Therefore, if you haven’t joined my Facebook Page, you have a short time to do it now!

After all this excitement, I also want to let you know that I have 2 books in the works that I will be sharing/reviewing with all of you in the VERY near future.  The first one was mentioned before, titled Sweetness Without Sugar by Wendy Vigdor-Hess and the other (the new announcement!) Unprocessed by Chef AJ
who is the founder of Healthy Taste of LA.  Both of these books should be really exciting and I can’t wait to designate my husband to take better photos of the things I create from these books 😉

Until then, I wish all of you GOOD LUCK!!!

"Where’s the dough???" My Engine 2 Diet Saga…

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Clara Peller’s famous words were “Where’s the Beef?” but I wonder what she would have said had she been vegan…

So here I am on Week 2 of the Engine 2 Diet…I have literally cooked my way through a majority of Rip’s book during this 28 Day Challenge and I find myself in the Pizza area of the recipe section of his book.  Let me just start by venting a little bit…Rip sucks when it comes to providing a pizza crust recipe 🙁  I have all these toppings but nowhere in sight is there any guidance when it comes to making my own “E2 Approved” doughy foundation to support my attempt at an Italian creation.  His only advice is to buy a store bought pizza crust and lists a few brands that he prefers.  I just cannot rationalize spending three bucks on premade cardboard that tries to pass off as pizza crust when I can easily make one at home for literally pennies!  Being the savvy person that I am, I looked online on multiple recipe sites to look for the perfect whole wheat pizza dough.  Now this is where the frustration starts…


Let me first start off by reminding some of you on what the Engine 2 Diet entails.  In brief, it’s no white four, no white sugar, no white pastas/bread/rice, no processed foods, very minimal oil, no meat, and no dairy products.  In addition, for every 200 calories a food product has, it cannot exceed 1.5 grams of fat.  It sounds restricting but it wasn’t until I tried to make a simple cheeseless pizza.  So my discovery took me in two directions…The best reviewed whole wheat pizza crust recipes included a mixture of both white and wheat flour.  Well, that’s not something I can do during my 28 Day Challenge.  Then I found recipes that did not include white flour and the reviews went something like… “The crust was hard as a rock” or “My dog even refused to eat it” or “I have eaten poster board better than this!”.  You get the picture…

So amongst the many roadblocks, one suggestion was to use whole wheat pastry flour.  For starters, that stuff comes in measly 5lb bags (or smaller!) and they are not very cost effective for a simple pizza crust.  Instead, I save that flour for something more special…like brownies. So here I am with a 10lb bag of whole wheat flour and no way to use it for pizza crust.  Upon further sleuthing I found a couple constructive ideas but I discovered that wheat gluten (yep the same stuff they use for seitan!) can be thrown into the wheat flour to make the dough more pliable and thus, resulting in a pizza crust that doesn’t give you the sensation of eating glass…So in my mission to spare anyone the grief that I went through to get to this point.  I am providing you the VERY first recipe in this blog.  I’ll admit, this is not New York pizza by a long shot and could use a but of tweaking, but for a pizza crust that would make Rip Esselstyn proud, this will definitely do the trick.  I also provided poorly done photos that I took with my iPhone 4, just so everyone gets an idea of the step by step process.

So without any further delay….

Robin’s E2 Approved Pizza Crust
Ingredients:
1 cup lukewarm water
1 Tablespoon of raw Turbinado sugar  (Sugar in the Raw)
1 envelope of yeast (not fast rising!)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon wheat gluten
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (if using table salt, you might want to cut the amount in half)
Directions:
Mix the sugar with lukewarm water until somewhat dissolved.  Add yeast and mix.  Wait 10 minutes.  During this time the yeast will “proof” and once those 10 minutes are up, you should notice a bit of foam on top on the mixture.  If there is no foam, your yeast is probably dead (or expired) and you will have to repeat again.  This is vital!!!  In a large bowl, combine the wheat flour, wheat gluten, and sea salt.  Then add proofed yeast mixture to dry ingredients.  I prefer mixing with your hands because your hands can give you a better idea on whether or not your dough is too wet or dry.  The dough should feel somewhat grainy but have a little (not like regular pizza dough so don’t get too picky here!) stretch to the dough (probably due to the added wheat gluten).  Once thoroughly mixed, your dough should look something like this:
Place a wet towel over your bowl with the dough and let sit for an hour until the dough has doubled, which should look something like this:
Dough so awesome that even my toes wanted to share the photo op!
Once the dough has risen, you will want to stretch/roll/press (whatever suits your fancy!) the dough into a standard size pizza pan (not the jumbo one!).  Let the dough rest in the pan for 10 minutes.  This will allow the dough to rise slightly again which is what we are looking for.  From there, you want to add your sauce, toppings, and any herbs you might want to use.  I used low sodium crushed tomatoes as my sauce and topped with peppers, onions, artichoke hearts, and pitted kalamata olives.  As far as herbs go, I used dried basil, oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flake, and freshly ground pepper and I baked the pizza at 425°F for roughly 15 minutes (check the crust every 5 minutes or so to prevent the potential of burning!).
The end result is a pizza with a crust that kind of reminds you of toasted wheat bread…

So there you have it…my first official recipe.  I never thought it would be something as simple as pizza crust but this was a desperate time and I figured that there were others who were in the same rut.  I would love to get feedback on this recipe along with any modifications you made because this recipe probably could use a few in order to turn it into perfection.  I’m definitely open to suggestions and a great place to start is putting in the “Comments” section below….

Why Vegan??? A tale of a couple who only wanted to do better…

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Take a moment to look at this couple…this is definitely the happiest day of their lives and little did they know, this was only the beginning.  Now take another glimpse of this photo…the last thing you would think is that this typical, attractive couple would be vegan in a matter of months after this photo was taken.  And you may ask yourself “Why?”  Well, sit right back and you’ll hear an interesting tale of how veganism became a way of life for this family and how they hope to inspire others just by being themselves 🙂

It all began roughly around mid August of 2008.  I wish I remembered the exact date but that’s irrelevant to this story…Anyways, one afternoon I took the day off of work (I believe it was due to a doctor’s appointment and I had no intention of going back to work afterwards) but Chuck recently introduced me to Hulu and I was fascinated with the fact that I could watch any show I wanted whenever there was nothing good on TV.  Yeah, I love the old “idiot box” as much as I love shopping 😉  While looking for TV shows to watch, I came across a TV series called 30 Days that was hosted by Morgan Spurlock.  I loved Super Size Me and figured, this should be right up my alley.  After watching a couple episodes, I was intrigued…maybe slightly hooked.  Then I came across an episode from the show’s third season titled “Animal Rights.”  Back then I knew enough about the topic but not so much on the vegan lifestyle so this episode really opened my eyes in no way ever before.  About an hour later, Chuck comes home from work and I told him about the show I just watched.  Out of curiosity, he decides to watch it with me.  His response afterwards was (and we both can still remember this moment verbatim) “I can do anything for 30 days!”  To him this was a challenge and coming from a man who is proud war veteran having served in Afghanistan, he’s had his fair share of challenges.  To me, it was about doing what’s right, not just for my health but also for the animals.

The first thing Chuck did (god bless him for this one!) was to go online and research more about veganism and also to find recipes that would not intimidate a first timer…The food was probably the easy part.  From day one he fell in love with VegWeb.  The website had reviews from average folks like him who enjoy cooking a good meal as much as eating it 🙂  The hard part was looking at graphic images that I will spare the details and just tell you to Google “Factory Farming“.  One thing for anyone to consider is that approximately 99% of the meat we consume in the US comes from factory farms.  Regardless if you claim to buy “organic” or “free range meat” the USDA standards for those are soooooooooo lax (unless you know these farmers personally and feel confident that they go above and beyond standards which is rare) that you might as well buy the cheap stuff that was exposed to drugs and unnecessary cruelty…

Now stating the terms “drugs and cruelty” might have shut off a few ears so I am going to take a moment and not sound like a walking PETA ad.  This is not the tone I want to set for this blog because I am not a paid employee of any animal rights organization and if you want more details, feel free to go to an organization that is near and dear to both Chuck and I called Compassion Over Killing.  They are not about the shock factor, celebrity glam, or showing scantily clad women in lettuce bikinis (sorry guys!) but they do get things done by hosting non-intimidating (and very fun) events to get the word across and also encouraging food companies and restaurant chains into becoming more vegan friendly.  I’m sure there are other great organizations out there as well, but to me this organization gave us the tools we were looking for and because of that, they have our full support 🙂

Now back to the story at hand…

The first vegan meal we prepared was sooooo delicious that from that point on, we never looked back.  I think at some point we discussed after our 30 day challenge that we would go back to eating the meat and ice cream in the freezer until it was gone (to not be wasteful), but that plan flew out of the window and Chuck’s parent’s probably had enough non-vegan food to last them a few months!!!  Telling our family and friends about our choice to go vegan was in my opinion, similar to what I would think of one’s “coming out” would be like…

“This is no surprise…you always loved veggie pizza over meat lover’s when you were growing up.”– Chuck’s parents

I’m sure at this point, I got a decent chuckle out of you…thus, it’s safe to say the rest was history!!!

Now in conclusion (and on a different note!), I just wanted to end this post by letting you know that although I am not aiming to be famous for this blog but I definitely want people to follow my crazy life.  You’ll notice on the upper right of this blog there is a nifty “Follow” icon that kinda has a Google logo attached to it.  Just click on it and the rest is easy 🙂  I am open to comments on my blog as well so I know what my audience is thinking.  Also if you have friends who might get a kick out of a new up and coming vegan blog, just refer them right here…it’s that simple.  As I gain more followers, I really would like to liven it up and have giveaways selected by yours truly (this should be soon I swear!).  And always, if you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment or email me.  By the looks of the events in my house this afternoon, I definitely smell another blog post in the works within the next day or two :p  Have a great evening!!!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Raegan!!!

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Raegan’s dinner etiquette at its best 😉

I know I am a day early but hey…She is practically the center of my world as I know I am with hers as well.  I often get asked about being a vegan parent and if Raegan is also going to be raised vegan.  Why wouldn’t I raise her vegan???  I personally find it to be the dumbest of all vegan questions in the book!!!  However, I do see one side to these questions…when you Google “Vegan Parenting” it’s pretty limited.  Then there are some parenting sites that only talk about food (not baby food!) and it just goes off the subject that really matters…how to raise your vegan children in non-vegan situations…

I know that every person is going to be different in their style of parenting…That’s a no-brainer.  Some moms go above and beyond to make their child’s clothing, toys, etc. while other moms aren’t into the DIY projects (make no appologies!) and will spend countless hours online finding a pair of cute baby shoes that are leather free.  Both ways, no matter what kind of vegan mother you are, it’s not an easy task.  Also, some vegan mothers have to deal with day care while others (like me) stay at home.  Still, both scenarios are going to raise some non-vegan situations and to me, it’s always like that monkey on your back, but it doesn’t have to feel that way.

Looking back in May of 2010, when the fertility specialist confirmed I was pregnant, I went to the OB/GYN to start my journey into becoming a mother.  The first appointment was the one I dreaded and yet it ended so well.  My worst fear was having some nurse bash me for choosing to stay on a vegan diet but surprisingly enough, the nurse looked at me as I was the role model of a perfect prenatal diet.  She didn’t have to explain to me about the hazards of eating fish, deli meats, and certain cheeses.  Therefore, I just made her job sooo much easier 😉  The eating part was easy…However, the prenatal vitamins were another issue.  If your OB/GYN’s office is anything like mine, they push the free samples of prenatal vitamins which usually contain gelatin capsules or fish oil (even the ones that claim to be “vegetarian” are not even close to vegan friendly!).  I understand that most supplement capsules contain gelatin but come on, fish oil?!  Excuse me, didn’t I just get the lecture about consuming fish and the risk of mercury?!  Why isn’t a non-veg mother asking these same questions too?  Apparently, the fish oil is for the sake of DHA….Well, let me tell you a bit about DHA.  The origin of DHA is from microalgae and when taken directly from microalgae (as opposed to fish) you are receiving it in the best form possible (In other words, the same way fish are getting it…They didn’t magically wake up and start making it themselves!).  I am not a doctor (nor am I licensed to give medical advice so no lawsuits please!) but before I became the vegan housewife that I am, I was working in healthcare and from my experience in the field, sometimes things make sooooo much sense but yet no one catches on for one reason or another.  If you live near any healthfood/vitamin store you can easily obtain (even if you live out in “the sticks”!) vegan-friendly DHA that is both affordable and high quality.  You can take it along with any vitamin you choose to take (I am sensitive to vitamins so I just used a children’s gummy vitamin along with a DHA Supplement).  During my pregnancy, I will admit, I heard the dumb questions about if I was going to stop being vegan while pregnant.  Let me think here…I can understand that if I was smoking, drinking heavily or popping pills for my amusement that someone would ask me if I was giving up something that was not benefiting me, but being vegan has done nothing but give me great benefits so why wouldn’t I want to give those great benefits to my own child??? 

Moving forward to exactly 6 months ago when I was delivering my child, I was faced with several non-vegan situations.  For starters, no matter how well you plan or how savvy your hospital is, you’re going to run into a situation where the only food they can provide you is fruit because everything else contains dairy or gelatin (yeah, they still serve that nasty stuff!).  This is when you start using the term “Daddy Duty” and also grabbing your closest friends to sneak in the vegan contraband just so you can survive the hospital stay.  All while this is happening, your baby arrives and is greeted into the world with a bunch of (far from vegan) immunizations. 

I know immunizations are a hot topic to any mom (not just vegans) but going back to my healthcare experience, I have to admit to myself that there is a difference between overdoing it and finding balance.  The best advice I can give to you is know exactly what your child is getting and if you don’t understand the necessity of that particular immunization…ask!  And if you don’t get a decent answer, refuse the service until you find someone who can properly explain it to you.  I can’t stress this enough!!!  Just remember that every little service that is done in any medical setting requires your verbal and/or written consent (unless in dire situations!) and if you see anyone doing something you never authorized, raise hell and if you’re still not satisfied- file a complaint!  Most doctors and their staff will tell you that the best patients they have are the informed ones….so be as informed as possible!  Furthermore, immunizations are never classified as “vegan” as they often come from animal products like eggs, but most of the immunizations were tested on animals before they were ever given to their first human recipient.  Sadly, the FDA still requires animal testing on practically everything so there’s not much anyone can do right now when it comes to “animal free medications/immunizations”.  I know as a vegan and a mother, this sometimes leaves a guilty feeling inside until I am reminded that the true vegan motto is to “Be the best vegan you can be.”

Now having a child in my arms who is healthy, happy and loved is probably the best reward I have to being vegan and raising a vegan family.  I try my best to not sweat the small stuff and once Raegan is old enough to communicate, it is definitely my responsibility to educate her as to why her mommy and daddy chose to raise her as a vegan.  I am confident that she will catch on very quickly and might even grow into being quite the activist 🙂  Both her mommy and daddy are not ones to back down from a good debate so I’m thinking she’s going to be a natural when it comes to telling anyone within distance about veganism.  It reminds me of an old quote:

“You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car…” -Harvey Diamond

I agree with many activists who say that eating animals is taught…I never seen a toddler go into a barn to kill a chicken just so they can have dinner.  To them, dinner is what their parents feed them.  No matter if you are vegan or not…you can’t help but agree along with me…Dinner to a child is what you feed them (so please feed them well and avoid those golden arches and other lookalikes no matter how convenient it looks!).  Now on the same page here, every child at some point will ask you where certain things come from….and usually the reaction to meat is always the worst.  I went vegetarian at 13 when I FULLY realized (you know-when you see that first blue vein across your meat…) that the steak I was eating was a cow’s muscle and that just did it for me.  Then I eventually went vegan along with my husband back in late 2008 once we both were informed about factory farms and how we both wanted no part in it (I’ll give you the full story another post!).  So to me, getting the message to Raegan is going to be the easy part…Just teaching her how to deal with the public is going to be a challenge.  But nothing in this life is easy, especially if you know what you are doing is right.


The best thing I have now is a VERY small network of local moms who are vegan…I found them all online originally and it’s amazing how quickly I have become good friends with each one of them.  One of my friends in particular, is such a godsend to me (and I hope she knows who she is!) when it comes to raising a vegan child as she has a child that’s 3 years old so she’s a couple steps ahead of me which definitely works out to my advantage 😉  She’s definitely a woman who can write a novel about vegan parenting and I go to her for just about everything and she always has the best answer!!!  But having a network of other local vegan moms is essential for survival and if you cannot find vegan mothers who live close to you, then go online and find other random vegan moms out there (or follow my blog or email me).  I promise you’ll be amazed with the information you learn along the way, no matter how creepy stalking Facebook for vegan mothers seems 🙂


These past 6 months have gone by so quickly that soon enough, I will be posting about Raegan’s first birthday!!!  For now, here’s to wishing a Happy 1/2 Birthday to “My Queen”.  May I provide her with the knowledge and love it takes to mold her into an exceptional, compassionate human being…