Eight Months; Gazpacho
2 September 2011
First of all, WOW, we're eight months into our vegan year. Technically, we started in November, so we've been vegan for ten months. It's amazing to me that it's become so easy. People think it's so hard, especially when you have to keep saying, "I can't eat that."
The other day I was at Kim's house and her mom kept trying to offer me food. Kim kept saying, "He can't eat that," because it had butter, or cheese...or fish.
And whenever we get a new product in at Trader Joe's we open it up and put it in the breakroom. Then everyone asks everyone else if they've tried it yet. My answer is often, "No, it's not vegan."
People who aren't vegan, who haven't taken the time to make the transition and feel the benefits (and practiced saying no thank you to food), really don't know how easy it becomes. I really don't have any trouble finding things to eat, and I don't have any trouble turning down food that isn't vegan. People usually feel bad when I tell them I can't eat the food they're offering me because it isn't vegan. But it really doesn't bother me.
Maybe it's because I'm doing this by choice. If I were forced into this because I couldn't tolerate lactose, then I might be unhappy about it. Like in high school when we were forced to read certain books, I never wanted to. But after high school, I started reading all the classics on my own and I loved them.
I recently read an article that quoted Gina Lundberg, a spokesÂwoman for the American Heart Association, saying that a vegan diet is wonderful if people can follow it. "But it's so limited in variety and taste that people get sick of it, and they don't stick to it." Montgomery Advertiser
Ha! Anyone who thinks that has never checked out Indian, Thai, Moroccan or Afghani cuisine. The spices in those foods are not to be trifled with. Not every dish in those cuisines is vegan, but enough of them are. And if bland and boring were things people didn't like in food, how could McDonald's boast "Over 99 Billion Served."
Here's a flavorful meal we ate last night. Sunny wasn't feeling well, so she wanted sick food. But at ninety-five degrees, it wasn't soup weather. Not hot soup anyway. So I made gazpacho. I've lived in Spain, so I like to pronounce the Z as a th sound. But I also don't like to sound like a snob, so I only pronounce it that way in my head.
I got the recipe from the cookbook that came with my Vitamix, but I altered it:
3 c Tomato Juice
â…“ c Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tomatoes, quartered
1 Cucumber, cut into chunks
1 Small Onion, quartered
1 Green Bell Pepper, quartered
2 Garlic Cloves, pressed
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt, Pepper
Throw it all in the Vitamix and turn it up to five for about 45 seconds. Done.
You should be able to make this with a regular blender, too. You want it to be a little chunky.
It was delicious, and it cleared Sunny's sinuses.
