1. There are animals in foods you had no idea had animals in it.
Vitamins have animal by-products? Get. Out. I remember hearing these rumors throughout the years of all the things that have bizarre things in them but it turns out they are true, and I just never cared. For example, gelatin is made from crushed and boiled farm animal bones and connective tissue. Jello never sounded so good.
2. I know next to nothing about how to cook some very every day items.
Here are a list of things that I had no idea how to do two weeks ago that I can now successfully complete without a Google search first: stem and wilt chard, chop cilantro (Do you only use the leaves? I think I knew this at one point but couldn't remember. I decided the answer was yes.), use a blender for food processing and not margaritas, and bake without dairy. Here's something I was ver rarely doing but is a must now: reading a label for ingredients rather than calories.
Don't get me started on the seasoning aisle. I cannot tell you what a majority of the spices and herbs taste like, dried or fresh. Basil - amazing. Curry powder - love it. Majoram - um, what is that? Coriander - that's actually dried cilantro. Mind. Blown. I have no idea what difference it makes in a recipe whether I use it fresh or dry. There's a lot of ground to cover there still.
3. Why wasn't I eating most major food groups before on a regular basis?
It's embarrassing how few types of leafy greens I can identify and recognize by taste. I just had to Google where mustard greens come from or if they come from the same place as mustard seeds and what comes in a yellow container in the condiment isle. I don't believe so. I haven't tried to cook them yet, but that day will come.
What are lentils and what do they taste like? I have a bag that I need to cook still and I will shortly find out.
It's intriguing that depending on how you are raised, your culture or family may not embrace certain foods and you may never receive exposure to them until you're almost 30 and trying to become a vegan.
4. I like the idea of knowing exactly what is in my food.
Reading labels has opened my eyes to how awfully I was really eating when I thought I was being pretty good to not cook obviously unhealthy things, like fried chicken or mashed potatoes. I was so quick to buy things in a jar or a can because they are easy to make. I didn't realize how much this was hindering my knowledge of food and my cooking skills.
5. Oreos are vegan.
I haven't purchased Oreos in about 5 years, but there's that nugget.
6. There is so much meat on the menu at Morton's Steakhouse that the only item on a vegan menu is water.
Trevor has been great and decided to try the vegan thing with me and finally told his co-workers about this venture. He had a work dinner at Morton's the other night and decided to eat salmon because there was literally nothing else on the menu that could work for a vegan diet without being "that guy." Someone made a comment about him being "that guy" at dinner who has some crazy, whacked out order that makes the waiter roll his eyes and makes himself look like a total douche. Or he could have made up this story to make it sound like he really hated eating that delicious maple-glazed filet of flaky goodness.
7. I don't really miss or crave meat, eggs or cow's milk.
But I do crave dill Havarti and goat cheese. Vegan cheese leaves something to be desired. Especially on a veggie burger at a cookout. A pizza topped with basil, sliced heirloom tomato and crumbled goat cheese sounds pretty swell.
8. Fresh-squeezed orange juice is amazing when you squeeze it yourself. It takes 6 oranges to produce one 12 oz. glass of OJ.
Here are photos of some other tasty things I've cooked so far. (Disclaimer: I'm aware that some OJ is vegan, as are some tortilla chips. I actually just Googled this and it turns out some brands have fish oil for Omega-3s. But I had a giant bag of oranges and a bag of tortillas from the chilaquile that I didn't want to go bad, so I improvised. I was pretty proud of myself. Also, because I know exactly where these foods came from.)
Rainbow Chard
Vegan Blueberry Muffins
Tortilla Chips out of Mission Corn Tortillas with a little bit of EVOO and salt...YUUMMM
Black Bean Chiliquile from the Moosewood Low Fat Favorites (Almond Cheese Does Not Melt!)
This is a black bean burrito with a bean dip mix from Ann Esselstyn: Black beans blended with salsa and cilantro. I had it for lunch but had cut up a mango and decided to mix in the mango with the dip, and I'm glad I did. Had the bean mango dip with my homemade tortilla chips, and it was heaven! This was also my first attempt at sautéing chard and the stems. The stems are so good! I just used EVOO and garlic on the fly, and the leaves were pretty bland. I did some Googling and saw I should use lemon juice to perk up the flavor.
I look forward to trying to learn to cook new things, like eggplant and crispy kale chips!
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