The family of vegans disappear…..

Sniff! Sniff!  A moment of silence for The Family of Vegans.

After 10 years of being a vegan (someone who avoids all things animal be it dairy,egg,meat, fish…etc.) family we can no longer claim to be vegan.  Yes…we have come to the dark side.  The side of flesh…(well…charred or well boiled in my case)…and chicken embryos and breastmilk of the cow….and we’re ok with it all. 🙂  Before those 10 years I had been an official vegetarian (I titled why I didn’t eat meat) since high school but had always HATED eating meats although I tolerated chicken when forced to eat it.  My entire life has been basically meat free….until now.

We became vegan overnight because I had done a lot of research over cancer and since Ben and I basically have a family tree where the oddity is the 1 without a form of cancer I figured we needed all the help we could get.  So…while Ben had became a vegetarian (he had been a hunter when we married) only 2ish years before that he agreed with the research I had discovered.  After becoming vegan Ben’s sinus issues cleared up, he lost 20lbs in 1 month! (snot head), and we noticed Rhea’s dark circles under her eyes went away and she seemed so much more energetic.  Later an allergy test would confirm she was allergic to dairy and a host of other things.

The years passed fine and dandy until I became pregnant with Sunshine.  I became allergic to soy.  I couldn’t tolerate even a wee little bit.  It wasn’t a pretty sight at all.  After Sunshine was born I thought yeah! tofu!  (I missed my tofu steaks!) but within minutes….oh boy.  I thought…ok…soy milk though!  But nope…it was also going through my milk and bothering Sunshine…derh! I became allergic DURING her pregnancy….makes sense.

So…after 2.5 years of doing lots of nut butters and getting SO SICK of them we decided something had to change.  So I looked into adding raw milk as I’d read how folks with dairy allergies could handle raw but not the pasteurized stuff.  Surprisingly…not one of us had a reaction.  None of the normal “oops…I used cows butter not soy in your mashed potatoes!” reactions of headache,nausea,vomiting, and other ickiness happened.  I was surprised and kinda happy as it doesn’t taste bad but is nice and VERY filling!

Normally our family of 5 orders 2 veggie pizzas with all the veggies but no cheese and it’d be GONE along with the bread sticks…but with cheese on a pizza?!  We can’t eat a whole large now!  A medium with bread sticks is plenty!  (Lot cheaper too!)

So…drinking dairy…then…I started to worry what if we became allergic to the raw dairy?  There wasn’t much more food…but…. there was chicken.

We talked it over…agreed with our allergy rates we need more protein sources.  So, I bought a chicken.  It was organic and free range and expensive as HELL!  I brought it home and looked up in GNOWFGLINS and some other natural food/whole food sites chicken.  Boiling a whole chicken seemed the easiest and less messy thing.  So…in the crock pot it went after I washed it off (There wasn’t any directions saying to do this but it seemed like something you should do.  Does anyone else do that?) and popped it in the crockpot early in the morning on high with some rosemary.

All the directions said the meat should fall off the bone and it’d be done.  So…I boiled that chicken for almost 2 days straight until I spoke with one of the Weston A. Price food meetup people.  (PS. they need a vegan guide to becoming a meat eater ’cause that whole ‘Nourishing Traditions’ textbook they call an easy simple cookbook are full of crap!)  She LOST it giggling! 😉  Apparently, the meat will fall off the bone when you pick it UP…no one mentions that!  I have a feeling my chicken story will provide LOTS of giggles because our raw milk farmer thought it was hilarious when answered how it was going with the new way of eating.)

So…into the kitchen I ran after she assured me that 38 hours was more than enough for the chicken to be done.  That sucker was HOT!  She’d said to pick the meat off the bones (dude…it was HOT!!!) and normally you would then make a broth out of the bones by boiling them again but as long as they had gone…that probably wouldn’t happen.  I thought about putting it in the fridge to cool but didn’t know if that meant bacteria would grow quickly or what so I dealt with the heat.  Luckily, I know I’ll never be fingered as a jewel thief by my finger prints because they were all burnt off. (I’m researching the Hope Diamond now to start my life of crime and mayham!)

After picking it apart…and dude…what’s up with the brown/grey long bulby like thing that I think is a heart as it was around the lung area..?! I thought…ok…now what?  They don’t address this in any of the books.  They leave you just sitting there burning your fingerprints off.  But, I remembered mom would take and pop dumplings in her chicken broth with the meat and she’d make chicken N dumplings.  Dumplings…fine…I’ve made Unchicken N dumplings that were DELICIOUS!  No problems!….Chicken and Dumplings….whole other matter.

I know you carnies think tofu is like cardboard but OH MY GOSH!  There wasn’t even much rosemary scent!  It was horrible and tasteless and BLAND!!!!  I added a bunch of salt to our dinner but BLAH!  I ate a bowl only because I refused to have 15 bucks wasted but I felt so bad for the kids.  Tyler liked it but I think he was excited to just be eating meat. (I’m worried about the cats….he’s mentioned setting traps for things!)  Rhea tried to eat but Sunshine…the girl said…uh… no.  No exclamation…a fact..a statement.  No.

Also…what’s up with all the fat?  I thought chickens were LOW in fat…that’s their whole claim in why they’re better than pork and beef right?  Holy crap if that’s tons LESS it’s no wonder the American world is as round as a plate!

So the chicken was nasty and I had also bought a turkey as I want to give the kids a ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving like what my mom would have made but….shesh…I experimented with the chicken and yeah…we know where that journey ended.

So!  Despite drinking raw milk and trying the chicken oh and we’ve tried eggs too I’m pluggin’ along determined to make it.  I SO love eggs!  I made devil eggs and they were good.  I have to say that I miss my veganaise (vegan mayo).  Miracle whip…hello…try the sugar bowl and mayonnaise…supposedly there’s a difference between the two?  What is it ’cause they both taste like sugar and even more sugar.  But, I REALLY need some serious help. 

My plea to you….

Help a southern gal get some southern recipes.  Mommy died when I was 12 weeks pregnant with Tyler so I can’t ask her.  My dad has her recipe book and while he’s ‘willing to make me copies’ he hasn’t and it was hard for him to even offer to make copies despite me asking to take it to make copies.  (Am I out of line here or should a daughter have her mother’s recipes?  I originally had it but after he got married his new wife wanted a good recipe to make the cake dad liked….I gave him the book believing he’d give it back after copying the recipe.  He’s had it ever since.)  I have been craving some pecan pie and now that I have added in eggs and milk…I want my mommas food for the kids. 

If ya’ll be willing to share great recipes and even if you know of a fool proof way to cook a turkey or hey…wanna make a vlog so a newbie can follow along? I’d appreciate it and I’m sure my children would too.  🙂 

I’d share pictures of the chicken and the chicken n dumplings I made but…for some reason there’s a green tinge to the pictures and they look really nasty! 😉 …that and for some reason I can’t get them off my phone.

And if you’re interested check out GNOWFGLINS for ways to cook whole foods and other things.  She also has e courses like the “sourdough ecourse”.  It’s really cool too in the fact it’s a pay what you can course.  Every month Wardeh has a thank you video of something after you’ve made a donation.  Last month…crock pot soap.  It’s AMAZING and super dupper easy.

How I wish one of you out there would come and be my teacher!  Any takers? 

So please! please! don’t forget to share your turkey cookin’ know how, recipes for pecan pie and other thanksgiving and southern food recipes.  I’ll share how successful….or not…I am. 🙂  I’m making a practice run Sunday morning for Thanksgiving…here’s hoping.

Honey