Once again Happy Healthy New Year 2012!
You may notice that many of the recipes on this blog contain animal products - but generally not dairy, or eggs. To begin with this was due to our need to avoid these common allergens. However - when your life is already free of these plus the myriad of other allergens listed (and counting) there at the top of my blog - it's really not a far stretch to vegetarianism. After all I was already buying mostly organic, free range, grass fed, local products.
Truth be told - at the beginning of our allergy journey I was practically devastated. No dairy? No eggs? No peanuts? .....but I (we) adapted. Then came the shocker that gluten was also to be removed from our menu. Wait... what? Gluten Free too? I went from being a great cook and baker to completely dead in the water in a very short time. However again we learned to adapt.
I began by trying to figure out how to create the things we were all used to eating both culturally and socially. It took some time - but I got pretty darn good at developing my own recipes to compensate for the loss of the old favourites. Thus you have recipes like my Jambalaya and Chicken and Dumplings.
Recently the movie "Forks over Knives" was brought to my attention. A family member was encouraged by their MD to seek out this movie and related materials. They in turn encouraged us to view the movie. We did. We big chefs also viewed it a second time - sharing it with our young kitchen assistants. I suggest everyone view this movie! (FYI it's family friendly - but does show a little surgery.)
I was already concerned about sustainable agriculture and various food production issues. I was already cooking for a large family with a long list of allergens. The kitchen was already void of most processed foods. Now I have a new challenge.
Being faced with this new challenge- I embarked on a new adventure. January 1 of this year our kitchen went completely animal product free. Hello plant based diet!
I will still be posting recipes I created prior to this life change, and I won't be deleting any of the previous posts. Also I will from time to time expand my suggested product list to include specifically vegan and or vegetarian items - which will also conform to my no allergen and GF list ♥
I wish you peace, love, and happiness and a happy healthy new year!
♥Pea the Prima Bloggerina
vegan, vegetarian, forks over knives,
