It’s Michele Truty. I’m 37 and have spent the last 2/3 of my life cutting out animal-derived ingredients and products, starting that fateful day I caught a little piece on TV about the making of hot dogs. It’s been a slow and steady process—1980s Chicago, land of brats and lead-belly pizza, made vegetarianism a rough path—but I’ve been vegan for five-ish years.
As a kid, I didn’t know of the evils of factory farming. It just wasn’t an issue while I was growing up. Thanks to my mom, I was brought up anti-fur and anti-veal, but that was the extent of it, really. But I made the connection between the cow at the petting zoo and the steak on the plate, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. My dad swore it was a phase and I was just being stubborn. That’s a 20-plus-year phase and counting.
I am not willing to eat beans and rice every meal. Food for me is more than a way to ingest nutrients. I love eating and I’m really good at it. And I want that food to be as enjoyable as possible. Never a fan of meat, I don’t do the fakey beef, sausage, or ham thing. And having rigid texture issues, I can’t bring myself to eat hummus, soft tofu, or most cooked beany things. You might think that limits me a bit, but there’s so much else out there that I get by just fine.
I’m hitched to a guy named Tom. Also from Chicago, he grew up eating German. He wasn’t a vegetarian by any means when we hooked up 13-ish years ago, but he’s slowly come along for the ride and now he is vegan too. He’s deathly allergic to tree nuts, so you won’t see any recipes using them on this site.
I love the pictures. It actually makes me hungry, and not for meat. Keep going.
No tree nut recipes? What is this, Russia?
It’s Keeptomalivia. It’s also Keepmichelealivia, so there will also be no mango.
I’m still on my “phase” too!
I too have had a long journey from meat eater to vegetarian to new vegan and I’m also hitched to a guy who’s deathly allergic to nuts. I just wanted to say that I love reading your blog!
I just found your blog today. Plan to visit again.