I have a new project....

We are going vegan. Shhh, don't tell my family. 

I've almost finished reading The China Study and I am fired up and ready to make a change! The science and research is too hard to deny. Now that I know what I know I can't NOT make a change. I'm looking at food in a whole new way. 

I feel I'm giving my children the gift of good health by starting while they are so young, but actually they are leading the way. We gave up milk a year or two ago due to Maren's sensitivity to it. We drink almond milk and we all love it. My smarter-than-smart 5 year old became a vegetarian when she met a vegetarian/vegan friend in her kindergarten class (the same one who has the crafty mom.) Roma stopped eating meat at home so of course Maren followed her lead and I went with it as well. But now I'm taking it to a whole new level. 

I think the hardest part for my kids will be eliminating dairy, especially cheese. (Although, I am burning cheese pizzas in the oven as I type....) But I'm sure it can be done. We aren't eating cheese as much as we used to, which is good. Eating out will be a challenge, but we don't eat out that often.

The biggest challenge for me will be the work involved. It's going to take a lot more preparing and cooking to make creative meals that my kids will love. And I'm going to have to read and research about this new world of veggies. It's easy to not eat meat, but it's not as easy to make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need and staying away from pre-packaged food. I've become kind of lazy in the kitchen. I guess I'm going to have to get to work and keep telling myself it's for our health. 

I've already found a couple websites (Vegan Yum Yum, VegNews, VegWeb), some cookbooks and an iPhone app, so I'm well on my way. I've also gotten my kids hooked on Banana "Ice Cream." It's just frozen bananas, almond milk, cinnamon, oat bran (for added fiber), and a little agave or honey. Just blend until the bananas are smooth and it's the consistency of soft serve ice cream. We've been known to eat this for breakfast....yum!