V.E.G.A.N.

For Mother’s Day, my daughter had a lovely, quiet day planned with a few favorite things.  Lunch at a favorite Vegan restaurant, watching a movie together and making popcorn chicken.  Everything was fine with our plans until we couldn’t find an essential ingredient in the popcorn chicken.  The recipe she found required TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) chunks.  All we could find were granules.  Since we didn’t have this ingredient by Mother’s Day we made a different meal for a somewhat disappointing dinner.  Undeterred, Julia kept searching and found a delicious, simple recipe yesterday.  We tried it right away. Picture with recipe from  HappyHealing.com This time, the recipe called for extra firm tofu that you first press, then break up and dredge in a batter before pan frying.  While our first effort was not as aesthetically appealing as the picture from the recipe, the flavor was outstanding and the texture was very nice. ...

It was about a year ago that my daughter asked me if we could be Vegan.  As a pragmatic single mother, I told her we should look into it.  As a highly intelligent teen, my daughter, Julia, told me she already had.  She then proceeded to show me some websites and started telling me all about what Vegan is and why she wants us to do it.  She was very prepared with her arguments and evidence to back it all up.  It became clear right away that this is something she is passionate about and I've learned never to ignore someones passion for something they believe in. Almost convinced, I started to look into different foods, recipes, meals and menus that we could incorporate into our lives.  I also researched the dietary needs for a Vegan to be sure we would be getting enough proper nutrition.  As a Diabetic with high blood pressure and stomach trouble I had to be double sure this was a good way for us to go.  It wasn't an easy or quick decision. The ...