Spring = Back to blogging

Yep. Its been a looooooooooooooong winter. My nephew was born, I got laid off. Started finding a lot of old friends on Facebook. Had to deal with Unemployment, making sure I have insurance, and enough money to pay my bills. Lots of paperwork and scared my severance would run out before the unemployment checks started coming in.

During the switching of gears, I found I had more time to shop and cook, which turned out to be a really good thing. I was still having gastric issues (leftover from years ago) and thought more natural foods would be a good place to start really finding out why after eating I was bloated and had "popcorn" stomach. I loved Trader's instantly, even though they of course don't have everythinggg. Now between that and Market Basket (with an occasional trip to Whole Foods), I was starting to find a lot of different foods.

Now, I had entertained going full vegan a while back, but not even being a full veggie, I had to slowly wean off all the animal products. I had actually started buying cruelty and animal free household products before I stopped eating meat. I started doing more and more research on dairy and was realllly grossed out. My conscience started eating away at me, as well as knowing that dairy was a huge problem with me being lactose intolerance. But what to do about protein? No meat, and no dairy? I already was off ice cream, yogurt, and milk, but eggs and cheese too? Could I really do that?

Okay. I have slipped a few times on the cheese when I go to restaurants, but other than that, I've been dairy free since New Year's. I didn't consciously make a resolution to stop eating it, but to at least try to. I have found so many other things to eat, and different things that I wouldn't have even tried. I'm on more veggie/vegan websites looking for recipies, and I know I have a long way to go in learning but I am on my way!

And I am no longer crazily bloated and hearing my stomach make awful digestion noises. And I can look Footie and Clem in the face and feel good about not eating any of their cousins. Now if I could just find an easy veggie diet for them...

Woo!


New stuff I've tried:

Veggie Dogs
Trader Joe's Veggie Meats (chicken and beef strips)
Trader's Banana Gluten free waffles
Trader's cheeseless pizza
Veggie cheese slices
Smart Balance Organic olive oil spread (vegan!)