Thursday, August 11, 2011

Start at the Beginning

Hello. My name is Marla and I am a vegan.
Why am I vegan? Hmmmm . . . I suppose because after a while I was asking myself why I was not vegan.
The journey began almost 6 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child –my daughter.  Suddenly the idea that what went into my body mattered. It mattered to make my unborn strong and it mattered so I could be the best mommy I could be. From that moment I started eliminating things from my diet. It started small with things like extra salt and grew into anything with preservatives, food coloring, nitrates, and excess sugars. Two more children later and my family ate what I felt was a good diet . . .no . . .  a great diet. A great diet that contained dairy, meat and eggs and things were fine . . . . not great but fine.
Then my oldest son got sick. He was about a year old and got a nasty cough that lasted over a year. We went through many missed play dates, rounds of antibiotics, and anxiety brought on by hopelessness and frustration. He was finally diagnosed with asthma and put on four different medications – two of which were steroids. It was awful.  Giving two nebulizer treatments a day plus pills and syrups got confusing at times since the different meds were for different things. The doctors were treating his condition I was curious to know why he had the condition.
Using my mother’s intuition I asked for my son to get tested for food allergies –the Doctors obliged but did not think it necessary. They tested him on air pollutants because that is what they thought and for good reason I suppose.  I could not explain why I suspected dairy except that my son seemed “weird” after he drank milk. He got the blood test done and it was positive for dairy and negative for everything else. Shortly after that test is when he had his first full blown anaphylactic reaction. We cleared the house of dairy and were forced to opt out of many social events. It sucked.
Here is where the big leap happened. In searching for dairy free treats (birthday cake, cookies, and etc that were “safe” ) I kept coming across not just dairy free but vegan recipes. These vegan recipes were yummy and in most cases better than the “normal” recipes. I also ended up having a blast hunting down the special ingredients. I loved telling people that my creations were vegan. I mean I loved it - “Why yes that is a moist delicious brownie . . . . The secret ingredient is tofu!”.  It brought me purpose and excitement. I had found a passion.
After cutting dairy my husband and I noticed that we each dropped 10 pounds. We also found that we had more energy and were not getting sick as often. We wanted to take it further and I cut out egg. We still ate meat and it was backwards cutting out dairy and egg first.  My husband and I both had clearer heads and more even tempers –we just felt good. After a short discussion and a few trial meals we decided we would be vegan. We went our first week and even found our craving to snack was going away –our bodies were full and nourished.
We are not looking back even when my son’s allergy goes away.
We are vegan for life. This is the beginning.


The recipe I have chosen is my first success –the vegan recipe that launched a hundred more. I love this recipe because you can make it without having to get anything special from the store. You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry right now.
Birthday Chocolate Cupcakes
From The 1997 Joy of Cooking (page 932) –altered into cupcake form
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup + 2 tbls sugar
6 tbl unsweetened nonalkalalized cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients

Combine wet ingredients and add wet and dry together

1 cup cold water or milk substitute (I used hemp milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or vegan margarine/shortening (like Earth Balance)
1 tbl white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla

Spray 18 cupcake papers and place in muffin tin. Fill ½ full with batter. Cook at 350 until done about 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted come out clean.

Frosting
veganized recipe from Mom

1/4 cup vegan shortening (like Earth Balance)
1/4 cup vegan margarine (like Earth Balance) or vegan cream cheese (like Tofutti)
3 cups powder sugar sifted
1 tsp vanilla 
Mix together
add soy/rice/hemp milk by the tablespoon to loosen consistency if necessary


Wait for cupcake to cool completely before frosting.

ENJOY!

2 comments:

  1. I ate some of those cup cakes, and I was so surprised when I realized how good they were.

    I am not a vegan, give me a chili cheese dog any day. Though I have tasted some of the vegan recipes that Marla has prepared and I must say, " I did not miss meat with my meal", they were so tasty and filling. Has any one ever tasted a vegan mushroom ragout? It is better then great.

    As I grow older my health becomes of greater concern to me. Eating healthier has got be a goal that I must face going forward.

    Big Eddie V

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  2. Yeah! Been vegetarian for 13 years. My young boys 2and and 4 year old only eat limited meat and mostly eat veggies, rice, beans. Some of their favs are tofu scramble, quinoa, hummus, ect

    Thanks for sharing your success.

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