How to Go Vegan or 4 Variations on a Theme

It happens in the hallways at Butterbean's school. Someone will slide up next to me haltingly whisper, "I heard you went vegan...", or "Is it true?". I know how they feel. It's so hard to imagine that a Hoosier, a red-blooded American girl from the land of milk and honey would - well- give up milk and honey. Except that it is true and it was easy and it feels great.

Truth is I was never much of a meat eater. When I was a kid my mom would make the best smelling pot roast you can imagine. My mouth would water for hours as the aroma of slowly caramelizing food would waft from the oven into every crevice of our home. When the meal was served I savored every bite of the sweet moist carrots and the candy-like onions. I could never get enough of the melty luscious potatoes. The beef? A side show. Just an anchor for the rest of the meal.

There are lots of different ways to try going vegan. I think of it as eating more fruits and vegetables and not as giving up animal products. Dip your toe in the water - you'll find something that works for you. And if it doesn't stick- what's the worst that comes of the experiment? You ate really healthy food for a few meals?


1.  Vegan Before 6 -  Mark Bittman, the New York Times food writer, adopted a way of eating he describes as VB6, as in before 6 PM. He has a new book coming out at the end of April describing his process. Should be a good read.


2.  Dip Your Toe in the Water - Meatless Mondays - Meatless Mondays means just that - don't eat any meat on Mondays. The rest of the week - do your normal thing. The thought is that if each of us would take meat out of our diets one day per week - we could do ourselves and our environment a lot of good.  Once you had the Monday thing down you could move on to your own version of meatless Tuesday, meatless Wednesday - pretty soon you're up to an entire meatless week! Meatless Mondays are an idea promoted by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

3.  All In! - Clean out your pantry and make a clean break. This is the total transformation described in Forks Over Knives (you have seen the movie haven't you?) and by the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine. For some of us, throwing out the cheddar cheese and the turkey burgers is the only way to make it happen.


4.  The Gradual Transition - This is what we did. No links to clever websites here. As we used an animal product up, I didn't replace it. Out of butter? Time to buy the vegan margarine. No more ground turkey? Time to load our tacos up with yummy rice, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa - nothing missing here. As the chief cook and grocery shopper for a 7-year old boy and a really sweet (and hungry) husband, a gradual transition seemed the smartest way to avoid resistance to the changes and unhappy eaters. It also gave my vegan cooking skills a chance to catch up.

I'll throw a little John and Yoko in here and say, "Give Vegetables a Chance".

Now We're Cooking

I am often asked about my favorite cookbooks. I have owned hundreds of cookbooks through my cooking life. I can trace my growing up and the evolution of my food education through my collection of cookbooks.

From my grandmother, I inherited old cookbooks put together by the ladies of the First Baptist Church in Dyer, Tennessee. The spiral bound pages are filled with gelatin molds and entrees that include fatback as a staple ingredient. In my 20's I worked through my anxieties by making fluffy white biscuits using gorgeous books by Nathalie Dupree and Miss Daisy King.  I have a couple of decades worth of Southern Living Annual Recipes. (2001 is my favorite!) When I began baking bread a few years ago, my thoughtful husband bought me Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. This was a precious way of letting me know that the endless hours that I spent in the kitchen were not going to ruin our marriage. Oh, and that he likes bread.

I always write in my cookbooks as I use them. I note adaptations for the next time I make a recipe, like, "remember to add a 1/4 tsp. salt", or I scratch out where it calls for anise. (I can't stand the flavor of anise.) Sometimes I remind myself to halve a recipe next time because we will never eat 2 gallons of Gumbo z'herbes, or I decide to double it because it makes a great meal to have in the freezer for those over-scheduled days.

My life has changed, our tastes have changed, and the birth of my precious Butterbean 7 years ago brought a new importance to the foods that I choose and serve, but one thing has remained constant. Cooking and cookbooks bring joy to me and the people that I love. I think when I die, they should throw a party around the stove and cook through all of my favorite recipes. That would be a great send-off.

Here are 3 of my current go-to cookbooks. Check back in 6 months, they will probably have changed.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman: I love this book. It's my first touch point for any random ingredient. Find a butternut squash in the bottom of the pantry? (Not that that has happened to me recently.) Check out the index and you'll find 16 recipes using butternut squash. (I ended up baking it, mashing it with maple syrup and serving it as a side. Yum.) Need a new twist on salad dressing? He's got 17 recipes for that as well. Not including the vinaigrettes. The cookbook is well thought out, easy to follow and, at heart, Mark Bittman is a home cook. If a recipe is easy, he says so. If it's more difficult, he tells the reader that and tells you if the work is worth it or not. Fair enough.

Forks Over Knives- The Cookbook by Del Sroufe: My current passion. I've been working through the recipes in this book page by page. Two nights ago it was the Breakfast Rancheros on page 55. (Yes, I served them for supper.) Tonight I'm planning the Sweet and Sour "Meatball" Stir Fry on page 221. I appreciate that all of the recipes in this book are oil-free. Let's face it. I'm a  girl from the mid-South and my taste buds were covered in bacon fat and Crisco for the first 35 years of my life. I figure a recipe must be amazingly well constructed if it can taste good without pork drippings.

And yes, I do still crave bacon. Cooked in a cast iron skillet. Served between layers of flaky white biscuits. On a cracked china plate at my Grandmother's kitchen table. Topped with homemade pear preserves.

Weelicious by Catherine McCord:  These recipes are designed to be served to babies and toddlers, but the recipes are full of healthy, delicious foods. The serving sizes are small, making them perfect for snacks, appetizers or small desserts. I baked the Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes on page 244 for the 1st grade Valentine's Day party. They were a hit and I felt good that I had gotten 40 kids to eat beets.

Since you're here, why don't you tell me about your favorite cookbooks. Maybe you know one I can't live without? Happy cooking!