September 26, 2012 – Girl for Animal Liberation

Recently, a blogger I follow (Somer), branched off and started her own blog: http://vedgedout.com which is a fabulous blog. If you click on her Why Vegan? Page, you can read about how she changed her health and consequently her life, by adopting whole foods, plant-based diet. Somer doesn’t necessarily refer to herself as a vegan per se, because as she writes, “…many vegans are compassionate, but don’t eat healthily.” However, “after feeling remorse” and being “horrified by the treatment of animals intended for consumption”, she is, essentially, a vegan.

Recently, in my August 17 post entitled B.R.A.T. I blogged about my stomach issues and how I came to the realization that maybe part of what’s going on is the result of straying from my macro diet over the summer due to being all-consumed with my fixer-upper house. I wasn’t necessarily eating bad foods; however, I was eating foods that mimicked my non-vegan days. One example is the August 7 post: Naughty Vegan Polenta & Seitan Parmigiano (or casserole if you prefer).

The reason I am mentioning this is because Somer is correct, some vegans do tend to eat poorly. They desperately cling to and in turn try to mimic all their non-vegan recipes instead of embracing a new and creative way to eat. Take for example: Bubba burgers or Garden Burgers. The only time you’ll catch me eating either of these is if I am attending a cookout and the host was kind enough to buy them (although full disclosure: I generally decline invitations to cookouts – it’s not my thing. Sorry!). When I decided to become a vegan, after having been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for years, I made a commitment to follow a completely different diet, one that was macrobiotic (btw, a macrobiotic diet isn’t synonymous with vegan). I purchased several macrobiotic books whose focus was vegan. I quickly grew fond of the macrobiotic way of eating because I believe in its principles, one of which is to eat in accordance to the seasons. [FYI: This is why I am very excited about fall. Fall macro dishes tend to be cooked slower, with larger chunks of root vegetables (Mmmmm) which are my absolute favorite. I also love apples and fall is the time for apples, especially my favorite: Honey Crisp and its close second: Elstar]. What this means is, come winter, you will not see me eating tomatoes, blueberries, watermelon, strawberries or any other fruit (or vegetable) that was flown half way around the country. If it’s not in season and local, well then I will not be eating it.

Now, with all that said, sometimes even GiRRL_Earth has a hankering for something from her non-vegan/macro past; which is why I created the Polenta/Seitan Parmigianino. The only other recipe I have created, which mimics my non-vegan past is Nachos or in this case, Vegan Nachos. Why nachos? Well, nachos were a big thing in my household (and Azz sure do love his nachos). Before I became a vegan, we used to make our nachos with the following ingredients: Tortilla chips, 1 full block of Habañero Cheese (manually grated) jalapeños and Mrs. Renfros’s Habañero Salsa (YUM!) but now that I am a vegan, I make nachos using the same ingredients minus the habañero cheese. I also like a little fresh cilantro sprinkled on mine.

The last time I made vegan nachos I took a picture with my iPhone (a lousy photo at that!) with the intent to blog about it, but I had forgotten. It was only after reading Somer’s about page that I remembered.

Below is a photo of my vegan nachos. I have also attached a photo of the ingredients. When I first went vegan, I discovered Daiya cheese and thought it was the closest thing to real cheese a vegan could get, but since then, I have found a better vegan cheese that melts like the real thing and it is called Galaxy Foods. Can I just say the stuff is Ah-May-Zing! Now mind you, I don’t eat this stuff very often because even though the cheese is not made with cow’s milk, it’s still processed and is considered “junk food”. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel lousy after a movie/nacho night. My body cannot handle that style of eating anymore so despite Azz enjoying his nachos on a weekly basis, I limit mine to every once in a while.

So without further adieu. Behold my vegan nachos (please excuse my old/outdated kitchen in the background. As I said, I purchased a fixer-upper and I have yet to tackle the kitchen yet.)