A Vegan Adventure

If you were to tell me two weeks ago, that I was going to become a both a vegan and a blogger two weeks from now, I would have said "Bullocks!" to you.

I grew up in somewhat of a menagerie; dogs, cats, birds, snakes, degus, guinea pigs, ferrets, fish, hamsters, rats, gerbils, walking sticks, venus fly traps - you name it, I had it - walking or crawling on four legs all over the house. I grew up with an affinity for animals and nature. My border collie Danny is my very best friend. I prefer to spend my time outside.

But despite my love of animals, I also had a taste for animals up until the end of my undergraduate degree in university.

Bless my professor of Social Issues in Communications class. He told each and every one of his students to pick a topic they have always wanted to study, but had always been afraid to study. I picked animal welfare. Then, he told us that we could spend the semester studying it, and create whatever project we wanted out of it. My group chose to create an on-campus awareness and outreach club on factory farming. And so we did. It was the best class of my undergraduate career. It changed my life.

During that semester, I became pescatarian. Since then, I always knew that I would one day transition into full vegetarianism and I 'aspired' to be vegan one day too. But I was too busy enjoying cheese and chocolate and eggs bennies to be serious about it.

Fast forward two years to one month ago. I watched the new Hollywood movie Julie & Julia. Mmmm .. the joys of cooking and eating! I like eating. But I know nothing about cooking.

Fast forward another week, and I hear that the National Geographic has announced that 90% of the big fish in the ocean have been depleted, and that if we continue consuming them at this rate, they will be gone by 2048. So I knix out fishies from my daily menu.

Fast forward another week, and I come across Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet in a bookstore. Once I started reading it, I could not stop. I got in about 50 pages at the bookstore, and practically drooled over her recipes right into the book! She made veganism seem simple, and cooking seem like fun! I bought The Kind Diet the next day.

Now, I am on day 10 of my Vegan Adventure.

I really like reading other vegans' blogs to get tips on the topic, so I thought I'd create my own to share what I've learned. I am hoping to fill up this blog with an array of recipes, from simple to exotic, and always delicious. I also want to share information that I have found through websites and friends. I want to try out vegetarian and vegan restaurants as well as grocery and health stores and to let you know what I think of them. I want to share tips and ideas, and jokes too. I want to let you know what I think of the recipe books that I have read and the various ingredients and brands that I have sampled. I also want to make more vegan friends!

Peace & love

Jewely