Who Says the Brits Can't Cook

(Yes, this is repost. I inadvertently posted this morning instead of saving a draft, so if you read this mornings post skip past the first three paragraphs -- there are some minor edits, but the content remains the same.)

First off, let me apologize to anyone I may have offended with that statement, but when I was growing up in New York it was common "knowledge" that British Cuisine was an oxymoron. Bangers and Mash, Salisbury steak, Toad-in-the-Hole, Steak and Kidney Pie; none of these are particularly appealing to me, and so I had written off British Cuisine as something that I wouldn't partake of.

I have recently changed my mind about that. While I can't say that any of the dishes listed above could ever entice me to give up my vegan life, I have stumbled across a few cooking shows that have caused me to re-think my ideas on British Cuisine.

In my pre-vegan days, Nigella Lawson always had something tempting to offer on her TV show, Nigella Feasts; not to mention her sensual treatment of food. Her show always made me want to eat something. There are a few things I remember seeing her prepare which could be easily converted for the vegan diet, and some that were vegan. Nigella's website (link above) has a recipe index, but it appears the recipes are submitted by visitors to the site. I haven't gotten my hands on any of her cookbooks, so I can't discuss whether her recipes cook up well. But everything looks enticing.

Yesterday I caught a program called "You Are What You Eat" on the BBC network. There is some considerable discussion on the web as to whether Gillian McKeith is legitimate... her science is suspect and she seems to be a snake oil peddler. BUT, the show is entertaining and inspiring. It starts with "Dr." McKeith secretly watching the client for a week or so, then piling up what they've eaten for a week. It's absolutely astonishing to see what people will put in their mouths. Then she barks at her clients and teaches them a bit about nutrition. And they live happily ever after by the end of the show.

I'm not sure that it's something I would watch regularly, but it did inspire me to do some googling, and this link is what inspired me to write this post. I spent considerable time on this site, it's clean and well designed and very informative.

And finally, they have vegan recipes (just click on the vegan option). So, who says the Brits can't cook?

I Miss Milk

I know there are all kinds of reasons not to consume cow's milk. I've embraced a vegan diet. I drink soy milk, rice milk and almond milk these days. Even though we were drinking fat-free milk in our house prior to this vegan thing, I understand that cow's milk may not be healthful. Not to mention the horrors of the dairy industry.

But nothing beats a tall glass of real milk to go with warm chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven.

I simply cannot drink a glass of soy milk. I can put it over my cereal and it's an ingredient in many of the meals Jane prepares. But I cannot drink a plain glass of soy milk, or even almond milk. The rice milk is sort of like Horchada (a mexican rice milk concoction that's sweetened and there's a bit of cinnamon too), but unless it's doctored...

I miss cow's milk.

3 Months In

Today is our 3-month Vegan Anniversary. We started this journey on 07/07/07. It's been an interesting journey. To date, I've lost 15 pounds without any other attempts at losing weight. That's right - no exercise. Jane's lost 5 pounds. That's really exciting. We're not thinking about what we're putting in our mouths from a "diet" perspective, so we're not feeling deprived. Maybe we should bottle this stuff!

There have been the occasional bumps in the road for Jane. She's the cook and has had to learn how to change her thinking when it comes to "what's for dinner." And our staples have had to be re-learned. But we live in southern California, and have some really great year-round farmer's markets, so getting our hands on good fresh produce has never been a problem.

Our biggest issues have involved eating out. We've found that quite a few restaurants don't have anything on the menu for a vegan to eat. But we've found a few vegan friendly restaurants and when we're out with our non-vegan friends or associates we've gravitated towards Italian food. It makes for invisible vegan eating. We don't need to explain our dietary choices to anyone because there is always the option of pasta (whole wheat, of course) with marinara sauce and grilled vegetables. No one looks at you cross-eyed if you skip the cheese. Easy. We just hope Grassroots re-opens soon (they are closed due to fire damage).

Anyway, after three months we both feel fine. There's been no difference in our energy levels and we believe we're healthier. We'll actually be reporting on that in a future post. We've got our annual medical check-ups coming up in late November so we'll see if our new way of life has some hidden benefits as well as the obvious one of weight loss. We expect to be reporting good things.

How it all Vegan

As I mentioned in my last post. My wife is making us over as vegans. She's got every disease known to mankind in her gene pool and we're hitting our middle-aged stride. There's breast cancer, colon cancer, brain cancer, bone cancer and now liver cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc. So, even though we're both relatively healthy, if sedentary and a bit overweight, she wants to ensure she doesn't hit the genetic jackpot if she can avoid it.

We're both doing OK ourselves, but with this last bout of relative cancer, she freaked out, and so now we're vegan. To be quite frank, I'm kind of surprised. Her biggest joy in the epicurean world has been ice cream, followed closely by chocolate. And we both enjoy the out-of-home dining experience. But, in the division of labor in our household, she is the cook, which makes her the pack leader. Where she goes, I follow...

Lately Jane, my wife, has taken to borrowing books on various health topics from our local library. The latest book, "Dr. Neal Barnard's Program to Reverse Diabetes Now" was her main inspiration for veganism, diabetes being one of the more prevalent diseases in her family tree. Dr. Barnard proposes a low-fat vegan diet to help prevent diabetes, and his anecdotal evidence was quite compelling.



Couple that with her increasing distress at how meat products get to our table, it was a sure bet that we'd be vegetarians at the least. I mean, this woman practices the catch and release program with any insect that makes its way into our home! No matter what stage of sleep I might be in, if there's a spider in our house, I have to escort him out.

Hopefully all this healthy eating will pay off. As I mentioned yesterday, I've already dropped 8 pounds without an ounce of effort on my part. I sure can't complain about that!

Lane

Gone Vegan

Hello World

I'm a 40-something married man. Up until one month ago, I was a carnivore. At that point, my wife decided that we are going vegan. And since my wife does the cooking, I agreed.

Do I miss meat? No. Am I hungry? No. Am I getting enough protein? Yes. Oh and by the way, in the past 4 weeks, I've lost 8 pounds..... and I haven't done any exercise. She tells me that's next.... I Love My Wife!

The only difficulty that we've encountered thus far has been eating at restaurants. We love to go out to eat. We still can, but our choices have been dramatically limited. For instance, we went to one of our favorite salad restaurants. We thought salad, vegan? No problem, right? Wrong! We weren't able to order off of the menu! Every salad contained some sort of animal product -- meat, cheese, etc. Not to mention their famous, wonderful zucchini bread is now completely off limits (eggs, milk, butter) However, we have have found several options that are working well for us.

My wife also found several great vegan cookbooks at the library. In future posts, I'll let you know my favorite meals.

Lane