I eat meat.
I also married a vegan.
I also married a vegan.
This aspect of our lives is not without it’s own share of complications. We have both had to make accommodations for one another’s dietary doctrine. However, neither one of us views this compromise as a challenge or hassle.
Since we HAVE to share a kitchen, I guess we'll just have to get along...
Maintaining this harmonious coexistence is actually easier than it might seem. We just don’t try to fix what isn’t broken. I married my wife because of who she is as a person, so why would I try to change her? Why would I decide to spend the rest of my life with her if I didn’t accept her for who she is from the very beginning? She feels the same, and this acceptance is key.
We also refrain from judgement, at least for the most part. Do I make fun of her silly raw vegan dehydrated flax crackers? Of course I do. Who wouldn’t? But, I also understand that eating weird, healthy food is something that’s important to her. On the other side of that coin, when I eat something with bacon on it, she shoots this little look of disgust that I’ve come to both love and accept. That’s just part of who we are; a couple of ornery, sarcastic pessimists.
Jenny, pondering the vastness of her vegan talent and wisdom.
The vast divide in our dietary choices also grant us near limitless potential for us to teach one another. I’ve learned a whole slew of nifty vegan cooking tricks, and she’s learned most of my tricks when it comes to preparing animal proteins. As chefs, this give-and-take has almost certainly expanded our repertoire , and that’s always a good thing.
Logistically speaking, our family is all over the place. Jenny and I have both started new diets, which means there is a regular vegan, a raw vegan, a vegetarian, and a low-carb dieting meat eater living under the same roof. Dinner time has grown more and more complex over the last couple of weeks, but I relish the challenge. To make things a bit easier, we almost always default to vegan food when we cook dinner. Now, given the recent changes, this has become a little bit harder to do, but the primary philosophy remains.
Thankfully, because of all of the neat tricks that Jenny has shown me over the course of our relationship, I am able to make sure that the vegan food that we all eat is very enjoyable. In fact, I would argue that it’s easier to eat vegan food now than it has ever been. There’s a clever replacement for almost everything that you would eat as an omnivore, and they are usually pretty delicious. One thing is certain; vegan food doesn’t have to suck.
Only one of these dishes isn't vegan, but you wouldn't have known if I didn't tell you.
When I used to think about vegan food, I largely wrote it off as living a life of eating salads and tofu. I never dreamt of eating a vegan “sausage” and “cheese” kolache. I didn’t think that I would be eating a spicy “chicken” sandwich, or enjoying a “bacon cheeseburger” that is similar enough to the real thing for me to not even bat an eye. There are vegan replacements for popular candy bars, “hostess” products, “cheesecake,” and the list goes on and on. Even vegan butter is shockingly similar to the real thing. And for the products that don’t have a direct replacement, there are simple workarounds that fill in the gaps almost completely. Do you need buttermilk for some biscuits? Add a small amount of apple cider vinegar to plain, unsweetened soy milk. Does your cookie recipe call for eggs? They can be replaced with a simple slurry of potato starch and water. Granted, these vegan “hacks” aren’t always perfect, but they can certainly work in a pinch, making a vegan lifestyle very easy to maintain, which certainly makes it easy for me to cook dinner for everyone.
As we have been slacking on the recipe portion of the site, I promise to start posting some more dishes that aren’t poutine. I can’t promise that they’ll all be vegan, but I will certainly do my best to highlight some of the aforementioned tricks.
-MC