The Background
Lately I have been having this urge to cut on my meat consumption. I am not vegan. I am not even vegetarian. For 27 years of my life all I can remember is parents feeding me meat, eggs and dairy and me picking up their eating habits. I never questioned it. Until about 2 years ago when an unexplained itching began. Then the occasional general itching turned into permanent itching spots that wouldn't cease unless I took a really long ice cold shower. After months of research, the reason turned out to be milk.
Milk? So out of the blue?
My doctor asked me if I wanted pills to ease my allergy (more accurate: intolerance). And I chose to cut milk out of my menu instead. When I did so, the itching stopped within days, the spots vanished in a week. Since then, I never had any trouble as long as I stay away from dairy.
But this diet of mine resulted in something even more strange. I started to notice I am no longer attracted to the idea of eating meat. In fact, as time goes by and I dig more and more in vegen recipes and reasons to not consume animal products, I find myself more and more convinced that this is the way to go.
If it weren't for milk, I would have gone vegetarian a long time ago. But there's still the doubt: would I make it? Would I miss it? I learnt to live without milk (and it wasn't easy in the beginning) due to the fact that I had no choice. Sometimes I miss it, especially the cheese, but I can't think about me drinking milk anymore. What for?
And if I managed to cut on my dairy and be ok (for almost 2 years now!), why insist on eating animal meat, ... when really, there is no logical reason to do so. Why consume it, when I don't even enjoy it anymore? Why contribute to animal suffering, why must a living creature die in order for me to feed, when there is no need to. I can let them live instead.
I will let them live. This is my challenge.
About me
I don't feel ready to go public just yet, since this is my life, my intimacy. But what I can share is: I'm a girl of 27 (or rather: I'm not a girl, not yet a woman), living in the tiny country of Slovenia. I love cooking, sewing, reading and photographing (food especially), though I am lacking time to do each one of it properly (shame on me).
If you would like to contact me you can do so by leaving a comment or writing an e-mail at mlin(.)veter(at)gmail(.)com.
The menu
In the beginning of this challenge I used to document every single thing I put into my mouth, just to stay on track and have some kind of "support" system. At this point (day 30) I find this rather unnecessary, so instead I publish new recipes and highlights. If you're just starting on a vegan challenge yourself, keeping a diary is a good idea, but a weekly menu plan is even better - this way you know exactly what you need to buy and have less desire to eat other things since you need to stick to the plan in order to use the food you bought.
In my cooking I don't use animal products, except for organic eggs. I might cut that some day but so far I don't have anything against such eggs, if consumed on occasion. Organic or free-range production in our country means something totally different than in the USA. We're a tiny country and 70% of our country is covered in forest. So that leaves little space for any mass production. There is the existence of battery cages, of course, but when you buy from a small farmer, their hens are many times actually free and peak on corn and grass. Plus, I have an aunt that rises 6 hens, of which each one produces an egg a day. That means, in a week she has 42 eggs and her family as grateful consumers. And you just don't get better eggs than that, especially when you also know first hand what they are fed on and that no one abuses of them.
