I'm coming out!

I really hate to admit this. But, um, well.....I am a vegan. And I know very well that vegans are loathed more than Nazis in this culture. But it is WONDERFUL! I am so happy about the whole thing - the food, the non-killing thing, the health benefits, the community, how everytime I read nutrition articles it seems I am doing the right thing - all of it! If only I could make the world vegan! Ahhh! Sigh! But here I will cover only why I LOVE TO DO IT IN THE KITCHEN!

1.) You don't have to have two cutting boards for meat and vegetables. You don't spread salmonella all over your kitchen when you crack open an egg or debone a chicken. Sounds so horror-movie-ish to “DEBONE”.

2.) You can toss everything in your compost pile (you know how they say don't place meat or dairy in a compost pile, no problem!) You don't have cute critters tear open your garbage bags either.

3.) Messing with dead animals is just really really gross. Shudder. Touching, squeezing, kneading and hacking into dead and rotting corpses. Fresh meat is stiff with rigor mortis...your tender beef is softened with time. Think of it...AGED cow flesh means OLD cow flesh.

4.) You never forget to thaw out dinner. Tofu or tempeh is ready and waiting for you in the fridge and all your veggies are in lovely bowls on the table. Cans of beans ready for a mere rinse, and pastas a few minutes till al dente.

5.) Vegan food is naturally so beautiful. You do not need the obligatory sad piece of parsley or chives to pretty up the assortment of beige and brown food on your plate. The food is already beautiful colored and certainly needs no further adornment.

6.) You have so many options! Now, I realize it does not have to be this way, but something about being a vegan prompts people to try so many more foods than the average omnivore. There are so many types of grains, rice, beans, vegetables, herbs, spices, fruit, nut and seed oils, etc. that most people scarcely have heard of. Trust me - long term vegans know them well.

7.) When you want to cut fat in baked goods, you use vegan egg replacers instead of egg whites. What a cruel thing for a charming critter like a chicken to be tortured for 36 hours to make an egg for your consumption and then for its yolk to be then thrown down the sink!

8.) When you go on picnics, the food does not spawn generations of bacteriological and fungal goo. Vegan picnic food is SO much better at staying deliciously edible in a cooler. Vegetables, noodles, pastas, beans, grains, potatoes with vinegars and oils make lovely stay-fresh and satisfying meals on the go. Try taking your run-of-the-mill egg-ridden mayonnaised coleslaw and potato salad, fried chicken food out on the beach on a hot day...heaven help your intestines!

9.) You can shock your guests. How lovely it is to have your doubting pals come over dreading the lack of animals that will be presented to them – only to shatter all their notions of bland unsatisfying “you are hungry again in an hour” misconceptions about how vegans eat. I love that look of happy and curious wonderment _”WOW, this was GOOD!” …followed by the inevitable….”Are you sure this is vegan???”

10.) You learn how to cook. You REALLY learn how to cook. When you can’t rely on recipes on the back of the condensed cream-of-mushroom soup (hack, hack) to make dinner, you learn the true skill of cooking. And what a beautiful joy it is!