On becoming vegan, hiking, oh and Vegan Beef Stew...

How goes it? I have been seriously reflecting on my life lately. Luckily, you get to read a little about that..or you can scroll on down to my fabulous recipe. It's your choice. I promise I won't judge.

I guess I have just been contemplating my path to veganism, and how that has changed my entire life. I believe that going vegan also helped me transform other areas of my life as well. My transition to veganism began in June of 2008. Prior to that, I was a typical meat eater, I loved the stuff! In fact, I had spent the ten years prior to that trying to do the low-carb diet over and over, and failing again and again. I had never considered going vegan as a path to weight loss. We had a couple of friends that were vegan, and I even ate at their house once. As I ate my veggie burger I thought "Well why don't they just eat "real" meat?". But then things changed. This is what I think of as my "epiphany". We were all gathered for a cook out. I had just polished off a grilled chicken breast, and about a 1/2 pound of steak tips. One of our vegan friends had brought over some of those Tofutti ice cream sandwiches, Key Lime flavor. Of course I tried one, what the hell right? Well I was shocked to discover I loved it! I looked at the ingredients, and it was only 90 calories! Then I just started bombarding our vegan friend with all sorts of questions. How do you get protein? Did you not enjoy meat before going vegan? What the hell do you eat? Etc etc. I imagine I drove her crazy. She suggested that if I was seriously thinking of going vegan, to watch the documentary Earthlings. I just kept thinking to myself, if I cut out meat, eggs, and dairy, how could I not lose weight? Well the next day I ordered Earthlings on PETA's website. I bought my first half gallon of Silk, and was surprised to find that it wasn't too bad! A few days later, Earthings came in the mail. I had heard from our vegan friends that it was extremely graphic, so I was terrified. But I watched, and I made my gf watch it with me. It opened my eyes, really really opened them. After that, becoming a vegan had little to do with weight loss, and everything to do with never putting another living being through a horrible life as well as death, for the sake of taste.

It was difficult in the beginning. Luckily my gf decided to go vegan as well, so I didn't have to worry about having that stuff in the house. The difficulty was with me choosing way too many processed foods (veggie burgers, veggie dogs, Tofurkey etc) and less whole foods (veggies, grains, beans etc). I had never been a huge vegetable lover, unless you include potatoes and corn lol. But slowly, I started trying different things, and fell in love with new veggies, like asparagus and eggplant. I also fell in love with chickpeas, and quinoa. And even though weight loss was not the only motivation for me anymore, it certainly has paid off. I am now approaching my two year anniversary, and I have lost 125 pounds. I am exploring this newer, healthier way of life with a frenzy! I go to the gym 6 days a week, and always do something active on Sundays. Yesterday we hiked for over two hours in the Lynn Woods. I love how my body responds to activity! I still have a way to go, but I will get there! Becoming vegan has truly changed my life for the better. People are always patronizing me..."Oh you can't have that fat-filled pizza or that poop-burger? Poor thing!" They feel sorry for me! Well I eat well people! I love being vegan, I am NOT suffering! I promise...I mean, have you looked at my blog? Just sayin'! :-)

Despite the propaganda, you do not NEED meat for protein, nor do you NEED dairy for calcium. Educate yourself, you would be surprised. I get loads of calcium from my rice milk, greens, and tofu. I get tons of protein from my rice milk, tofu, beans, TVP (textured veggie protein, found in things like Boca "beef" style crumbles, and other meat subs). The list goes on and on. You CAN thrive on a vegan diet, I promise! And because you can...why would you willingly contribute to the death of billions of living creatures every year? Not to mention, you are killing the planet. According to a report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent?18 percent?than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

So there you have it, now on to the recipe. So beef stew was something I simply adored before going vegan. I never thought I would be able to enjoy it nearly as much. Well this is not the first time I've been wrong. A good friend and neighbor made a similar stew for us for our annual Beef Stew Night in October, and she used seitan chunks for the "meat". It was amazing! No one could believe it wasn't meat, even our non-vegan friends were raving over it! So this is my take on that recipe, and I hope you open your mind and give it a try, and love it as much as I do! I used seitan chunks (for more info on what those are, try Wikipedia), and you can make your own, or buy a package at Whole Foods, like I did:

Vegan Beef Stew:

8 cups water
1 small can tomato paste
1 tsp thyme
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 russet potatoes, chopped into chunks
4 carrots, sliced into rounds
1/2 Vidalia onion, diced
1 cup dry red wine
1 package seitan beef-style chunks
1/2 package (about 5oz) of sliced mushrooms, I used baby portabellos.
1 cup frozen peas (no need to thaw)
salt & pepper to taste

Bring your water to a boil in a large dutch oven. Once boiling, add the tomato paste and the thyme and cayenne, and stir until dissolved. Next, add your garlic, potatoes, carrots, onion, and red wine. Bring back to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the veggies are tender. Next, add your seitan chunks, mushrooms, and peas. Let the stew simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I really think this helps it taste better. I don't like my stew too hot; I want to taste the flavors, not burn my tongue! Serve with hot garlic rolls...sooooo good!!