One Small Change for March - Food Choices

Did I say I would get this post done this weekend? Hmmm, that was silly of me. The weekend seemed to have other plans, very nice ones, not involving the computer, (except for just a bit of vintage fabric browsing, and a bit of homeschool lesson planning)...

So our March small change is not really small at all for us, as you may have realized by now we put a lot of though into our food choices, we always have, and now some big changes are happening. I do realize there may be other families whose goal is to move to closer to a vegan diet, and here we are doing the opposite. Kinda funny. Food choices are so personal, I am certainly not saying that what we do is best, I do wish for everyone to have good healthy food from this earth to feed their bodies, we are trying to do what we believe is best for our own family. (My post here last week explains a bit of where we are at now, and this one here really starts at the beginning.) You may also have realized by now that I tend to ramble on and on about this, (can you just imagine the conversations we have here at home, or the thoughts swirling around in our heads), so now I am going to try to be somewhat brief...

What we are no longer purchasing...

Margarine! You know, the earth balance stuff that is supposedly good for you because it is non-hydrogenated, etc... long before I became concerned with our consumption of various vegetable oils I was greatly distressed by the plastic tubs it came in. This was the first thing to go from our refrigerator. I could not bring myself to buy another tub of it at the store! So we bought organic butter instead. Of course it still comes wrapped in paper and in a box, still too much waste in my opinion, but until we can be making our own someday, this is what we will have to do.

Soymilk. Whatever size carton it comes in it is still totally un-recyclable. Again, I could not bring myself to purchase another box. So for now we are buying organic, whole, unhomogenized milk in glass bottles. We trade in the used bottles when we buy more. I am in the process of looking into raw milk sources in our area, fortunately there are some...

Soy yogurt. Not something that we bought regularly anyway, but a good example... there are at least 10 to 15 ingredients in plain soy yogurt! Or we could eat yogurt that is only one ingredient. This we will definitely be making for ourselves soon!

Speaking of dairy, I am going to help Sara with goat chores on the farm this season. After babies are born and mamas are ready I will be helping with the milking and everything! We hope to learn a lot over on the farm this year!

More things we aren't buying...
Vegan mayonnaise (yes, veganaise tastes really good, oh well...)
Vegan cheese. We didn't buy this much either. (Neither the cheese nor the mayonnaise have been replaced with the real versions. I'm sure we will never buy mayonnaise in a jar. Not too sure about the packaged cheeses either.)
Canola oil. I have been buying only olive oil and butter. Sometimes I am using palm shortening for baking. Good cause it is organic, non-hydrogenated, etc... very bad cause still in big yuck plastic tub. Need to stop using it, but if I baked with only butter right now it would be way too strong for us, we are still adjusting to these new tastes.

Things we are still buying but cutting down on...
Tofu and tempeh are the big ones here. We especially like tempeh, and need to keep in the good protein sources, though of course we eat a whole lot of beans too!

I suppose eggs would be a good substitute for the tofu. We are working our way towards eating them, but some of these changes are happening slower that others. We want to eat them, but wow, this is all pretty crazy for us, it's like we aren't sure how to go about it... I have found a local source for free range, organic, soy-free eggs though. Yay.

We are still doing well with our original small change, food packaging. Haven't even bought a box of crackers in several months. Though still haven't made our own either. Crackers and tortillas are on my list of things to make soon.

We are comfortable with our decision to no longer be vegan, and we are making steps towards what is an ideal diet for our family. We would prefer to be eating eggs from our own chickens, to be milking our own goats, but for now we are making the best choices we feel that we can. We could not wait to make these changes, so this is were we are starting.

One of the craziest things about this all though... I became vegan when I was barely 20, anything I can remember ever cooking has been vegan... I sure learned how to be a good vegan baker... now I feel like I am learning to cook all over again! Fun. I am up for the challenge!