dabbling in the raw

One of the things I miss about living on Vancouver Island is a great little raw food restaurant in Qualicum Beach that we would visit every once in awhile.  Being vegan, we are not used to having a wide selection of foods in restaurants and subsequently we generally avoid eating out.  A raw food restaurant is like winning the chow lottery for us.  So much selection!  Plus we can usually find kale chips to take home for later, the most oddly yummy snack food ever.

Lately I've been craving raw food meals such as we had on the island but there is nothing close by even vaguely similar.  Trying to prepare raw meals at home, I admit, I'm pretty overwhelmed.  Raw snacks, of course, we do all the time. It's called an apple and a handful of almonds or a smoothie.  But to do the soaked, sprouted, dehydrated and stacked, it's truly a whole new way of preparing food.  Like relearning what I thought I sorted out more than twenty years ago, what with the stove business and not boiling things over.  Plus, oddly enough, I just don't have the appliances to make most of the recipes in a raw food recipe book and I can't seem to bring myself to neither spend money nor fathom where I will put a gianormous dehydrator in our tiny home.

Still, I have been dabbling.  My great love and crutch is bread.  While I adore my sandwiches and toast, I am aware that I am eating way too much of it and, frankly, my tummy isn't happy about it either.  Substituting something raw for my bread snacks without feeling let down by a lack of soft, yummy accessible carbs is my great challenge.  My inital attempts with rice cakes and lettuce leaves wraps left me empty but fortunately, by turning my attention towards raw foods, I've found something as good or even better.

One of the easiest ways to get a raw snack fix that isn't trail mix or a salad, is to wrap stuff up in a nori roll.  We make veggie maki often but it was a bit of a revelation that I could use nori sheets to hold together just about anything I like.  Often the result isn't very attractive and my rolls look are lumpy and misshapen without the rice filler.  They'd get almost any sushi chief-in-training fired on the spot.  But they taste pretty fine and we eat them rather than spend time looking at them.

For anyone else looking for a filling snack, the trick I've found to a satifying nori roll is to use a fibrous vegetable, something sweet, a savory spreadable, a bit of sharp and protein (this is my version of the five flavours).  My favorite combination to date is broccoli, walnuts, onion, dried cranberry and hummus. 

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has been eating raw foods and how you've untangled the strange and wonderous world of raw food prep.  My busy mama brain just can't comprehend any big changes, but to make small ones that only require a sharp knife and may be a blend is right where I'm at.

me be vegan part 1: being a weirdo

1Hey all, before we get going with this post, I want to let you know that I seem to have a gremlin in my computer and my computer shop turns out to run by complete #$%$^$%^#s, so I am without a reliable machine for 5 to 8 weeks. I will do my best to continue with regular posts, but I can't promise anything right now. On the bright side, without having the computer to distract me I've already got a new pattern worked out and several recipes. With time, I shall share!

Another thing, a disclaimer actually, is that this post is a response to an emailed question about becoming a vegan family from a reader. If you are not thinking about becoming vegan or even care about it in anyway, feel free to skip. Or you could read for information, the same way I always read knitting books without the least intention of making a single stitch. It's always good to know a bit more about the world we all share.

Cheers!

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I am a conventional person.  Like Julia Child.  Have you seen the movie Julie & Julia?*  One of the best parts of the movie was when Meryl Streep, playing six foot two Julia Child, announces herself a 'conventional woman' and then stands up, emphasizes her clearly unconventional height.  It was well done and a brilliant reminder that what we consider normal is really only the familiar.

For really real, though, I am pretty conventional. I want what everyone else wants: food, clothing, shelter, and safety.  And also meaningful work, a feeling of community, to be close to those I love, a bit of fun.  As I go about my day there is nothing I do that strikes me as being unusual.

Lucky for me, the holidays are here (ish) and all the visiting with family and friends is going to remind me that I am not as normal as I think I am.  I turns out, in comparison even to kin, I'm a bit of a freak.  And about as far away from Julia Child as I can get. 

Don't tell me you haven't noticed.

Being a weirdo doesn't bother me in the least.  Neither does being the anti-Julia.  Especially since I sometimes receive emails from lovely people asking how they too can become freaks.  

I remember reading somewhere, some time ago, that about four percent of the North American population is vegetarian and about one percent is vegan.  This seems like a small percentage, vegetarianism being of lesser frequency in the general population than schizophrenia as I have been reminded, but it still means over twenty one million North Americans tonight are choosing their evening substance with a desire to make positive change for animals, the planet, or even just their own health.

I have been vegetarian for fifteen years and vegan for nine of those years.  My husband has been vegan for eight and our two children have never consumed animals or their products.  Being vegan is as natural to me as breathing, but for people considering veganism, it seems to be a daunting lifestyle.  The bodies of livestock animals are as intertwined with our lives as our families.  We can't get away from them without some major changes to the way we think and live.

Change, even desirable change, is stressful.  On stress scales, good events like the birth of babies are scored as high as divorces.  Becoming vegan is a big step.  Make no mistake there.  But as stressful as it is, is can also be a joyous transition and, I found anyway, unexpectedly freeing.  Instead of your dining choices reduced and restricted, you have now the opportunity to explore worlds that you would not of consider when your menu was based upon food coming from four or five different animals.  How rich and wonderful the world of plants is!  There is much out there to discover now that there is room on your plate.

The most frequent question I encounter from non-vegans is what the heck do I eat anyway?  The answer is almost everything.  Most food is vegan and it takes a special effort to create an omnivore's meal.  At least if you are cooking at home.  There are many wonderful vegan cookbooks out there and with the wide range of faux meat products available plus having a few ideas about how to substitute eggs and milk in baking, almost any traditional recipe can be veganized. 

The second most frequent question is how do I do this with a family?  My response is, how could I not?  Children require nutrients and calories, all which are readily supplied with a vegan diet, but even more so, children require to know what their parents value and a framework for meaningful living.  When they are older, they will more than likely reevaluate and make their own minds up as to where they stand.  Excellent.  Having been raised with critical thinking and strong values means they will already be comfortable with determining what is important to them and how to be true to themselves instead of being swayed by the crowd.

For the nitty gritty of veganism, I will have to come back another day.  There is lots of information out there for the actual nutrition stuff, almost every library out there has a copy of Becoming Vegan, and you can order family specific guides like Raising Vegan Children in a Non-Vegan world online.  I would like to share some of the daily veganisms I do with the kids and in the kitchen that have taken me a bit of time to learn but are ingrained into my everyday life.  Like how to live without cheese and what to do when offered non-vegan candies while out in public.  A girlfriend's guide to veganism, so to speak.

Until then, for you lovely becoming vegan families, try half a banana instead of an egg in your holiday baking and know that dark chocolate and candy canes are vegan, so go for it.



*I just finished watching Julie & Julia last night (every movie I watch takes at least two sittings, seeing how I usually run out of time before I run out of story). Last week, I read Julie Powell's book, and now, I'm desperate to find some time to actually read the blog that begun it all. I, for rather transparent reasons, love when bloggers make good.