One Small Step for Vegans, One Giant Leap for Me

This morning I finally wiggled my big toe in the vegan waters.  Admittedly, I doubt I'll ever convert to fully vegan, maybe not even fully vegetarian, but I think I'm headed toward "ovo-half&half-retain the seafood-vegetarian".....with maybe a once-a-month juicy burger.  I'm sorry cows.  :(  (Haven't eaten red meat other than ground beef in decades, except a handful of times as a polite guest.)

Now that might not sound like a big deal to you, but I've virtually given up cheese (wow, was that hard) and drink soymilk, not cow's milk, and never liked yogurt anyway.  The "half&half" in that title above stands for the Half and Half without which I just cannot drink my coffee.  But I don't drink more than a cup or so a day anyway, so the few tablespoons of Half and Half daily I figure isn't a huge deal.   

Ok, you're smirking at my description of the kind of vegetarian I'm labeling myself.  Then let's just say I'm going to learn more vegan and vegetarian dishes (and I do have tofu and tempeh in my fridge as we speak!) but still believe in the nutrition of egg whites (I don't eat the yolks) and the calcium and good stuff in salmon (wild, not farm-raised...yes, I try to be cognizant of mercury levels) tuna, grouper, with a little shrimp thrown in for more good protein.  (I've read in studies -- oh no, not more studies -- that even though shrimp is relatively high in cholesterol, shrimp produces significantly lower ratios of total to HDL ("good") cholesterol and lower ratios of LDL ("bad" cholesterol) to HDL cholesterol than eggs. In addition, in people who ate shrimp, levels of triglycerides -- a form in which fat is carried in the blood -- decreased 13%.)

Enough with my explanations and on to my first venture:  "Fronch" Toast.  (With the stale French bread I brought home from a dinner out a few nights ago....well, it wasn't stale at the dinner....oh, you know what I mean....anyway, stale French bread works best.)

Stop laughing.  I told you I only dipped my toe in.....we're not going for BBQ Pomegranate Tofu or Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff right out of the gates.

And it does use soymilk and chickpea flour (no eggs) in the recipe. Oh, and I bought pure maple syrup from the local Cracker Barrel, no preservatives.

Tofu to come................................