I am often asked what were the steps and or process from meat eater to vegetarian, vegetarian to vegan. First thing you have to do is make a discision that you want a different lifestlye. My thoughts had noting to do with wanting to lose weight. Most people want to go vegan or vegetarian because they watn to lose weight. I was on a spiritual journey and wanted to feel closer to the Universe. To do that I had to remove death from my body and input life and living things.
My first step was a process of elimination. I started to remove certain meat groups. I never was a beef eater so that was the second group to remove. Pork was the first many years ago. I substituted turkey for all the beef option in my meals. The next group was poultry. So now I am preparing meals without pork, beef, and poultry. It really wasn't difficult because my mind was set on a sronger connection to the universe and eating animals just didn't feel right. My last thing was seafood. That was hard because who doesn't love fried fish,sushi,oysters, and ofcourse crawfish am I right? Lol. Well even that was time to go. The final straw for my spirit body was me going to Pappaduex and ordering my usaul oysters on the half shell with all the fixings! I prepared the oysters,ate 2 and almost threw them back up. I laughed to myself, finished my drink, payed my tab and left. That was the end of seafood for me! My spirit body said no more.
Now on this spiritual journey and me try to build a stronger connection with the Universe,I was doing yoga and meditating and clearing old thoughts to change my mind, and working within. At this time there were not many vegetarian or vegan options or restaurants that catered to this lifestyle. So I had to get cookbooks and figure out how to cook for myself and insure I am full and not malnurished. What suppliments should I take? How often should I juice? What's the best juicer? Protien supplements etc.
Juicers at this time were big and super loud. Those things sounded like a train was coming through your house.Lol To top it off you had to pre prepare your friut and vegetables the night before, and all the roughage was trashed, let's not get into the clean up. What a mess. So now using a ninja juicer thtas smaller and less loud. Taking supplements like B12 and multi-vitamin from Total Life Changes. More options are now availbale 5 years in for vegetarians and I got it all planned out and easy flowing for 10 years.
Cheese and eggs were the last and final thing to get away from. Eggs were next. Even though eggs are unborn baby chickens, it doesnt really register in your mind. More and more It hit me this is an unborn baby, and I couldn't eat those eggs anymore. My next thing was that good 'ol addictive cheese. My thought process for cheese was the animal doesn't have to die to give me cheese. Being vegetarian for so long was because cheese was the hardest to walk away from, I loved all the cheese! Plus those vegan plant based cheeses were gross. Did I say gross. Gross. How can you eat all your favorite foods without cheese? Believe me, it is possible. You relize, as I did. You don't need cheese. Plus the cheese alternitives like nutritional yeast flakes make all the difference.
So now the vegan journey. Being vegan you have to prepare and make most of your own sauce, meat alternatives, and get creative in your meal options. I didn't know how I would move forward. For me I signed up for the first year with a meal plan. They sent me fresh produce and recipes. It became super easy and I made making those meals an event. I love every minute and looked forward to making these meals. If you don't know where to start I used and still use Purple Carrot. It's affordable and the meals are delicious. Feel free to check them out and see if it works for you.
Two years in I started to get creative and started tweeking meals that I enjoyed with meat and put a plant based spin on it. Hense cooking with S Lynn was introduced.I started making treats and revivisting my favorites like gumbo, enchiladas etc. I hope you enjoy my spin on some of these traditional familial recicpes.
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