Low carb, soy free, veganism.

We decided a few years ago to step away from meat in our diet. It was not really a difficult transition save for the lack of actual cheese (food of the gods) and the move to “cheez” (nothing like cheese).  Frankly, after several months that one thing drove us back to more of a vegetarian lifestyle than vegan, though for our egos we called it “modified vegan”.  

  

We are animal lovers and honestly when you look at a doe eyed cow can you really think about what happens  to them for your eating “pleasure”?  The last time I saw a truck load of turkeys on their way to market I was sick thinking about what they were suffering, stuffed in the truck with no room to move.  I have to say that wing flap-age from birds in general freaks me out, so while there is no love loss between me and birds seeing their treatment while on the way to their death was a bit much.    

I am not struggling with the renewed plan to return to full on veganism.  However, on a theory level, I am struggling with the technicalities of it.  Why?  Because this time we will remove soy products from our vegan diet  as we have concerns about the safety of eating lots of soy products. There are potential medical reasons to lower carbohydrates too.  

Have you done a search on vegan+soy free+low carb lately?  Well, there are recipes, but to me it feels that it requires many hours in the kitchen.  Recipes anyone?  I find many soups but one does not live on soups alone.

 

I am totally on board with the plant based diet being the means to good health.  I better be since I basically believe pharmaceuticals  to be the spawn of the devil.  Raw foods are probably the easiest route but after a period with that, one needs the use of a dehydrator of some sort to infuse variety into the diet; though I suppose a low (115°) oven would suffice.  I shouldn’t be too unenthusiastic about that since I have not as yet tried to dehydrate anything; well there was that one day that I didn’t drink enough water…. 

So with renewed vigor we are back to our vegan ways, this time without tofu and higher carb foods. I will occasionally post a recipe with pics, see the first below. Black bean soup and cheez. 

Cheers!

Black Bean Soup

2 cans Black Beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup salsa of choice (I used fresh sweet onion and artichoke this time but any salsa will work)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp. ground cumin
Blend all ingredients to desired consistency. 

Transfer to sauce pan. Heat to simmer.

Toppings of choice. (chives, cheez, vegan sour cream, hot sauce, etc.)

Cheez recipe can be found at:

 

http://www.vegangela.com/2011/10/15/homemade-vegan-cheese/

Good stuff.