I should put this in the “About Me” section, but I figured I’d give it its own little bit of space on my site here. So…

I’m a vegetarian living with a vegan, soon to be two. In the interest of being able to include everyone in meals and not have that hassle of having to cook three or four different things to feed everyone, I’ve been cooking all of my recipes vegan style for about two months now (12/9/09). Most people give me weird or sympathetic looks when I tell them this, but in reality, it’s been really exciting for me, since the whole time it’s been a challenge to make the changes and keep the taste.

So far it’s been a success! Scoob (vegan #1) has been super pleased as well as my non-veg boyfriend, Samu. I started cooking more often when I started dating Samu, who has an unfortunate addiction to fast foods and has very limited kitchen facilities at the moment. This sparked my mothering instincts and I began to explore cooking more. After a few tips and lessons from my roommate, Freedom, I found that I had the confidence to try things and by watching, reading and researching have expanded my knowledge and abilities to create deliciousness. I’ve also found that since I’ve become more social and developed a group of people who are willing to try my experiments without making me feel terrible about my (possible) failures has inspired my cooking and motivated me even further. It seems like I’m trying something new every day as a result.

A big part of the transition has been finding adequate and flavorful replacements for ingredients as well as trying to avoid simply using the, at times, very expensive/salty/fatty substitutes in the market today. I try to use very little of the meat substitutes since they’re normally very very high in sodium, and I try to keep a low sodium goal for all of my dishes. I’m a big fan of potato or mushroom additions or just flat-out omitting the meat.

With Scoob around, I’ve been able to pick up all kinds of vegan tricks and tips to keep flavor there, but spare animals (and calories normally). Between Scoob and the Internet, I have an endless amount of information coming in and aiding in my creation of new dishes.

Since my switch to vegan-friendly cooking, I’ve been considering going vegan more and more. The only real things holding me back are eggs, which I’m learning the substitutes for, Parmesan cheese and bleu cheese, my dearest cheese loves. Given the challenge, Scoob has endeavored to find me replacements for these and help me along the path to vegan eating.

That being said, I don’t want to be super preachy. I’ve found that I feel better and am medically more healthy than before when I was still eating meat and animal products, but for some people that may not be the case. I just want to share what I’m learning as I go and my feelings about it, since this is my blog and see where it goes from there.

I do have a few pages listed under the veg tab with information on vegetarianism/veganism and sites with resources to get started on the veggie way. I put those there in support of my eating habits as well as a simple click-through resource for anyone curious about veg stuff. I’ll be putting an FAQ up as well, and if anyone wants to contact me and ask questions or offer comments i welcome them and will try to respond as best to my ability.

~Shy