Days 210 through 219

Ten days of no writing and I've enjoyed the vacation. Although I love to write, I don't ever want to be one of those people who just writes anything in order to accomplish a task. In fact, I like to attack all assignments with purpose. For example, walking is really a great activity, but I struggle unless I'm walking with purpose. So, while others might like to take a walk after dinner to simply enjoy the night air, I'm much more capable of enjoying a walk if it's to the local news agent for a copy of the evening paper. Sometimes my purpose is just to rest.

The past 10 days have been devoted to learning as much as I can about how to be a healthy vegan. I've checked out four cook books from my local library:

"The Inspired Vegan" by Bryant Terry

"Vegan Diner" by Julie Hasson

"Big Vegan by Robin" Asbell with photographs by Kate Sears

"Vegan Eats World" by Terry Hope Romero

I've always thought of myself as a good home cook, but now I have to learn to be a healthy home cook. It isn't easy, but it will be worth it. I'm actually not finding it difficult to eat a vegan diet. What I was hoping is that it would be just as easy to shop and prepare vegan meals. For the most part I do believe that it is a matter of learning some good tricks and how new products like tofu and non-dairy milk perform. I hope that the books above are going to help me!

For the time being, I'm eating very simply and my goal is to add two new recipes each week. Last week I made Vegan Lasagna. It was really good, but it made too much. My family is not wild about leftovers, so besides learning to veganize foods, I have to also make sure I don't prepare too much at any one time. Although I can usually read a recipe and know by the ingredients that it will be good or not, I'm not always a good judge of whether it will be too much food or not. Practice will make more perfect.

There is great creativity required in putting together a new and healthy lifestyle. My goals are simple and I'm convinced that if I'm able to keep them this way I'll be successful, one small step at a time. At the moment, it really is all about the food and eating. I really want to get to the point where I don't think twice about ingredients that are not vegan.

So, that's the update from my neck of the woods. It's getting close to time for supper and I would like to enjoy some quiet entertainment for the evening. Until tomorrow (or whenever I know I have something to say) Godspeed, Voyagers!!

The gift of a dozen roses from my husband and son on Valentine's Day, 2014