Holy hiatus, Batman! That was a long pause!

Badum-ching!

Sorry about the lull in posting (for, uh... months) for anyone who reads this! I think I just got too busy to keep up with the blogging because of a little thing called graduate school. That may or may not have been the culprit. (It was.)

Well, with a new year came enlightenment on how we want to live our lives in the most healthy way possible, even more so than what this blog was supposed to be about in the first place. Now, not only am I still experimenting with fun, healthy recipes for the kids, but we're on our way to being as vegan as possible.

Yes, vegan. Cue up the "dirty hippie!" and "friggin' weirdos!" comments now. I'm sure they are being said. I don't care. :)

We've been eating completely vegetarian since 1/1/13. You could say it was our New Years resolution to cut out most animal protein (courtesy of "Forks Over Knives," an awesome documentary that we recommend to everyone). By "most," I mean that we weren't omitting dairy and eggs. Phil said that he would still eat meat occasionally, like when it is offered to us by a host or something like that.

But, thanks to Netflix and it's endless supply of informational documentaries, we have changed our tune even more after watching "Vegucated."

I don't remember the last time I cried so hard that I got a headache. The animals in this country are so mistreated. I saw a quote on Facebook, and I don't remember EXACTLY how it went or who even said it (though I'm sure a quick google search could find that out for me) but it went something like this:

"Animals don't live to die for me to live."

It's true. I don't believe in God, but I'm fairly certain that if there is one, he didn't put these animals on Earth for us to mistreat, torture (branding, castration without anesthesia, cram into tiny cages and sear their beaks off, etc.), genetically alter, and so on and so forth.

I don't claim to be any authority on this stuff. As I'm typing this, I have Yves veggie corn dogs in the oven, and they certainly aren't vegan (they have eggs and whey in them). I say "mostly" vegan because I don't think I will cut out products that animals didn't have to be killed for, but I'm going to make damn sure that they didn't suffer in order for me to have it. There are farms that treat their animals with respect and only milk them when they have milk, instead of medically inducing them to ALWAYS be producing milk. There are farms where chickens can lay their eggs and then go about their business-- not have to be crammed into a coop and spend their lives, miserable, poppin' out eggs until they die. I am going to try to make sure that our dairy products come from farms like THAT, even if it costs a lot more.

Here is one big thing we have noticed with this change in diet-- it's a LOT cheaper than before. Not only have we cut out (I'd say) 95% of the pre-packaged crap and overly processed foods, but we buy FRESH produce a few times a week, and still save money with groceries. It has been a little pricey stocking up on meat-replacers (for when we have that craving... it's not a daily thing), but we have probably a couple month's worth of that stuff in the freezer now, if not more, and we won't have to worry about that for a long time.

David and Gwen don't even know that their diet has changed. They still get the occasional chick'n strips with their sweet potato fries (a la Gardein), that taste AWESOME. They already love beans and veggies, and I'm going to trick them with crispy tofu tonight in their stir fry.

Note: I know that too much soy is bad. David has a small cup of chocolate soy milk every day, and Gwen doesn't even drink it. Never has drank milk in her life so far, and I don't see the necessity of adding soy milk to her diet at this point, either.

My mom gave us a mandoline at Christmas, so I will be slicing/dehydrating zucchini and eggplant (which I need to acquire a taste for) for lasagna noodles, and I have the recipe for vegan pasta that looks excellent. We also like rice and rice noodles-- no issues there.

Lunch is ready, so I'll post more later. We're already healthier, though-- feeling great, losing weight, and saving animals! :)