Vegan blogs

Last summer, I decided to go vegan one more time. Not really a huge jump, as I've been a vegetarian since 1972. But in the past, my few attempts at moving totally away from dairy and eggs had not been successful. With the opening of VegiTerranean, Akron's first vegan restaurant, I felt the time was right to try again.

You may be wondering how I managed during this past year. For the most part, veganism was easy to achieve. Vegetables, fruit, grains, pasta and lots of soy in all its manifestations were my staples. During the school year, I did lots of vegetable stews and soups in the crock pot, so I didn't have to do much food prep after a long day of school plus rehearsal.

I bought some vegan cookbooks to augment my collection of old favorites (Soy Not Oi!), but the most helpful source of vegan recipes turned out to be Google. Every time I had craving for something I used to fix that might have once included eggs or cheese, I'd simply type in vegan plus macaroni and cheese, for example and get a wealth of vegan possibilities. It's much easier to cook looking at a recipe on a computer screen than hunching over a cookbook.

The only problems I had with veganism were away from home on trips to places I'd never been before. I will confess to putting actual dairy cream into my coffee when soy milk was not available. Sometimes at celebrations, I simply ignored the fact that the birthday cake was probably made with eggs and milk. But generally speaking, restaurants will have a vegan option, even if it is only a Bocca burger and a salad.

I'd like to recommend a new recipe I just found online this week at Two Silly Vegans blog for chocolate chip raspberry scones. I had some fresh organic raspberries that I wanted to do something with, so I Googled and arrived at this recipe which I promptly tried out. Soy yogurt provides the binding agent. This recipe also uses a small amount of sugar, and as I halved the recipe to begin with, that turned out to be 3/8 cup. I used whole wheat flower and vegan chocolate chips and they turned out great!

Once I realized that people actually blog their vegan recipes, I did a search and compiled a new vegan blog roll for your convenience and mine! Just scrolling through these blogs gives me all kinds of new ideas for creating interesting and tasty new vegan meals.

So if you have been thinking about going vegetarian or vegan, why not give it a try? You'll be doing the planet and your body a huge favor. And oh, by the way -- a new scientific study shows that vegans and vegetarians live longer than meat eaters.