Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What Shall We Eat?

We have been talking for quite some time about giving up meat.  Following Alan's cancer scare, we started researching ways to decrease an enlarged prostate.  We learned that red meat can often lead to prostate enlargement.  Then, a few weeks ago, Oprah had Kathy Freston on her show -- the author of the Veganist -- so we ordered the book from Amazon.  After only reading the first couple of chapters, we decided to give it a try.  We have just completed our first meatless week and can honestly say we have not missed meat in our diet -- not yet anyway.

At first, we wanted to go straight Vegan -- a totally plant-based diet, with no dairy whatsoever.  We purchased soy milk.  After tasting several, we settled on "Silk Light" -- 100% lactose and dairy-free.  For cheese, we purchased "Veggie Shreds" and "Veggie Slices," with pepper-jack flavor. We also bought "Earth Balance" -- a non-dairy, natural buttery spread and "Almond Butter"   to replace our hydrogenated oil peanut butter. 


So far, we "think" we are more vegan than vegetarian, but we realize it will be difficult to stay away from eggs.  Of course, there is egg substitute, which I used this morning in our pancakes, so it is possible to cook and eat without eggs, but deviled eggs is a holiday tradition and I may not be able to pass them up.  Of course, we both know there will be times when we may not stay totally true to the vegetarian lifestyle, but hopefully, those times will be few and far between. Also, for breakfast, we tried veggie bacon and sausage -- which we will not purchase again.

There are a couple of categories under the term "Vegetarian."  

     1) Semi-vegetarian may include fish or poultry on an infrequent basis; 

     2) Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian eats eggs and milk products:

          (a) Ovo-Vegetarian eats eggs but no dairy
          (b) Lacto-Vegetarian eats dairy but no eggs.

It has only been a week without meat, so we're still trying to figure it all out and certainly have a lot to learn.  We went out to eat with the kids after church on Sunday -- buffet at Pizza Inn.  We ate a salad and asked for a veggie pizza, which they made for us -- so we had both veggie and cheese pizza.


We've had both veggie burgers and veggie chicken patties and liked them both.  Most days we've had salads -- similar to this one we had for lunch today with lettuce, spinach, broccoli, pico de gallo and topped with various nuts and dried fruit, along with wheat crackers smeared with Almond butter.


We have had fruit smoothies most days as well, with all kinds of fruit, such as strawberries, blueberries, mango, pineapple, etc -- frozen with no sugar added.  We have not had a problem finding something to eat, but like I said previously, we know we still have a lot to learn.

Moving on...there have been two more sets of baby goats born this week -- 2 females and 2 males for a total of 6.



They truly are fun to watch as they romp and play.


Today Alan caught sight of the two adult males butting heads-- guess they were tired of the females getting all the attention.


"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?  In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."  Job 12:7-10

May God continue to bless our voyage, as well as our family and friends near and far.

        

5 comments:

  1. Those baby goats look so adorable - how fun. I admire your determination to do what's best for Alan's health. Hope it works well for you.

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  2. The older I get, the more I like meatless meals. Don't know if I could give it all up, though. I do love bacon occasionally. :)

    It seems all baby animals are cute! Except for pelicans, that is. :)

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  3. All that you have done to educate yourselves and implement what you're learning is impressive. Good for you!!

    Is goat milk fudge part of a vegan diet? :-)

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  4. Those baby goats are just too cute. I would like to give up meat, red mainly, but not sure the Hubby would go along with that, and it is not only hard fixing two seperate meals, but very expensive.

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  5. Really great post and good for you for giving all of this a try! My wife (Ellen) and I essentially went meatless a few years ago. We found that it’s really red meats that we stay away from (makes us liberal vegetarians I guess). We continue to eat fish, and the occasional Chicken and Turkey. If you haven’t yet, try the Boca Burgers, they are very good. The “Flame Broiled” is our favorite. There are many other Boca like items found in that section too. Like many RVers, we typically do our shopping in Walmart, they have a good selection. Regarding Soy Milk, we have found that we prefer the “Vanilla” variety and we do not care much for the “Chocolate Milk. Also, we think the Walmart brand is very good. When we have the opportunity, we purchase the “Aldi” brand, it’s even better. Good luck and stay with it, it will become easier for you.

    John
    relaxedrush.blogspot.com

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