Our friend Jodie over at the Valley Independent Sentinel has decided to give veganism a try! She's committing to one vegan meal a day. Please wish her luck.

I'm dipping my toe in the vegan waters.

For health reasons -- to cut down on my cholesterol intake -- I've decided to eat one vegan meal a day.

This blog post marks the start of my journey -- from a place where all my meals are formed around meat, to a place where variety, healthfulness and flavor are king.

I'll admit I'm intimidated. It never occurred to me how much of the food I eat includes meat or eggs. (I'm lactose intolerant, so I've already cut out most dairy.)

But I'm determined to lower my cholesterol and broaden my diet, so I'm committed to making this work. Publicly stating my intentions is one way to make sure I stick with it.

You've probably heard of partial vegan diets like Meatless Mondays or vegan before dinnertime.

Mine's a little different, but with the same reasoning. It's not easy to quit cold turkey (sorry about that pun!).

And I still want to enjoy favorites like seafood.

Also, I love the traditional Polish meals my boyfriend's mother whips up everyday. Pierogi, kielbasa and stuffed cabbage are part of their culture, and I want to continue sharing those meals with them.

So this approach gives me lots of flexibility and lets me ease into a new diet so I'm more likely to stick with it.

I'm in what I like to call preparation mode.

That's the stage where I take out every vegan cookbook in the library, try out some recipes and have long talks with some old vegan friends.

While I'm in this mode, I've been eating vegan breakfast: Cereal or oatmeal with soymilk and fruit.

I've thrown in a couple vegan lunches too. (See photo of the grilled veggies I put in a wrap Wednesday afternoon. Eggplant, roasted peppers and spinach sandwich was Thursday's lunch.)

I'm armed with two great cook books: Veganomicon and Everyday Vegan. (I apologize in advance to the other Shelton residents thinking of becoming vegan this week. These two books appeared to be the entire vegan collection at the library.)

Veganomicon has great chapters on how to cook certain vegetables, beans and grains. Everyday Vegan has an excellent introduction explaining the vegan diet, and other tips to eat healthy foods.

Wish me luck!

In my continuing efforts to find new vegan dishes to cook, I've begun warming to the idea of recreating some old dairy-based favorite with vegan ingredients. This was something I'd purposely stayed away from in the past, because I was skeptical it could be done well. Things like fake meat products have always skeeved me out, and I figured fake cheese would be no better.

But, partly in an effort to please my dairy-loving husband, I decided to try making vegan mac and cheese today. My recipe, from Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Cookbooks, required a remarkable assortment of ingredients to try to mimic that cheesy flavor we all know and love. There was nutritional yeast, of course, as well as white miso paste, turmeric, onions, paprika, soy sauce, mustard, cayenne, and soy milk. It certainly looked like mac and cheese, at least the bright yellow kind that comes in a box. I tasted the sauce before pouring it over the macaroni and sticking it in the oven, and it seemed too thin, with a flavor that wasn't even close to "cheesy."

After 30 minutes in the oven, it looked a little more appetizing. The sauce had absorbed partly into the pasta and thickened. The verdict? It tasted pretty good, though I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fool anyone into thinking it was actually mac and cheese. It grew on me as I ate it, and I think I might even make it again (or perhaps look for another vegan mac and cheese recipe to try).

I had more success this afternoon with a veganized dairy favorite. A friend tipped me off that Cafe Romeo in New Haven had begun offering vegan strawberry gelato. I rushed right over. Yum--two thumbs up. The nice man who served me also happened to be a vegan, and we started a conversation about some of our favorite vegan products and restaurants. He also told me Cafe Romeo serves vegan pizza, which I'll have to try soon.

Inspired by what I saw (and tasted!) Friday night at the all-you-can-eat vegan dessert buffet, this morning I made a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies. I used a recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and boy are they delicious!

Just like with the chocolate cake I made a few weeks ago, the recipe called for some odd ingredients (tapioca flour?) and techniques that had me a little worried while baking. The batter was delicious, but very soft and sticky, so it wouldn't form properly shaped cookies. But everything smoothed out in the oven, and they came out great!

I find vegan baking really fun because of the creative ways recipe authors use to get around eggs and butter. It's fascinating to watch a mixture of soy milk, oil and tapioca flour work its magic and turn respectable cookie dough.

Let's see what my co-workers think tomorrow when I bring them to the office bake sale.

On Friday night, I attended an all-you-can-eat vegan dessert buffet (=heaven??) at Fuel coffee shop in New Haven, a benefit for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in New York.

All the desserts were provided by Little Vegan Monsters, a small New Haven based company. There was a huge selection of cookies, cupcakes, cakes, breads, etc etc. I was so impressed with the quality of these baked goods.

Since going vegan, the thing I've missed most by far are baked goods. The event Friday gave me hope that delicious baked goods are still in the picture for me--I just have to work a little harder to find them.

Also this weekend, a vegan friend kindly gave me an extra copy of her book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I've heard very good things about this book, and can't wait to try some of the recipes. Many of them are complex, and a little intimidating, but I'm thinking about trying one for a bake sale we're holding at the office this week. The stakes are high to impress an office full of skeptical omnivores. I'll let you know how it goes.

And if anyone knows where I can find the Little Vegan Monsters' recipe for chocolate chip cookies, I would be very appreciative.

This weekend, I got a chance to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time: cook a big vegan meal for my family.

I've been immensely enjoying cooking--something I was never very good at--since becoming a vegan. I have two wonderful cookbooks by Robin Robertson, and love picking out new recipes to cook each week for my husband and me. On Sunday, I decided to prepare dinner for my parents, grandmother (whose birthday we were celebrating), brother and husband.

I was excited, but also a little nervous. Certain family members who will remain unnamed have expressed skepticism about my vegan diet, so I felt some pressure to impress.

For the main course, I decide to cook something I'd made a week earlier with success. It's called seitan en croute, a mushroom-based stuffing with wine and slices of seitan inside a puff pastry. Delicious, except I wasn't a fan of the seitan (wheat gluten), and was pretty sure my meat-eating family wouldn't be either. So I decided to leave out the seitan and add some chopped walnuts to the stuffing.

I also made some simple roasted asparagus, and small red potatoes with caramelized shallots on the side.

I left myself most of the day to prepare this meal, so I wouldn't be rushed and mess it up. It miraculously all came together at the right time, and I think it was a big hit! My dad, a talented cook himself, called it "gourmet." Even my not-so-adventurous-eating little brother tasted a bite of the (non) seitan en croute and proclaimed it pretty good.

Since it was a birthday celebration, I also decided to try baking a chocolate cake. I've had mixed results in the past with vegan baking, so I also purchased my family's traditional Carvel ice cream cake beforehand in case the vegan cake didn't turn out well.

The cake recipe was completely bizarre. First, you made a mixture of flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, sugar, oil and soy milk, which was like a very dense brownie mixture. It was a struggle to spread it across the pan. Then, you made a second mixture of cocoa powder, sugar and hot water, which you poured over the first batter. As it baked in the oven, the two layers combined into something of a normal cake. Fascinating. As for the taste... it was okay. I think my mom put it best when she said, "It's like Passover cake. You know, good for Passover cake."

I was so happy to have the chance to share my new love of vegan cooking with my family. I'm excited to host future vegan gatherings!

Thought I’d share with you a piece from Slate that I found interesting.

Writer Christopher Cox explains that while he is basically a vegan in that he abstains from meat, dairy and eggs, he has no qualms about eating oysters.

“Biologically, oysters are not in the plant kingdom, but when it comes to ethical eating, they are almost indistinguishable from plants,” Cox argues.

He explains:

”Oyster farms account for 95 percent of all oyster consumption and have a minimal negative impact on their ecosystems; there are even nonprofit projects devoted to cultivating oysters as a way to improve water quality. Since so many oysters are farmed, there’s little danger of overfishing. No forests are cleared for oysters, no fertilizer is needed, and no grain goes to waste to feed them—they have a diet of plankton, which is about as close to the bottom of the food chain as you can get. Oyster cultivation also avoids many of the negative side effects of plant agriculture: There are no bees needed to pollinate oysters, no pesticides required to kill off other insects, and for the most part, oyster farms operate without the collateral damage of accidentally killing other animals during harvesting... Moreover, since oysters don’t have a central nervous system, they’re unlikely to experience pain in a way resembling ours—unlike a pig or a herring or even a lobster.”

I found Cox’s argument very compelling. If I didn’t find oysters completely repulsive (I never enjoyed any shellfish back in my meat-eating days), I might even be okay with eating one as a vegan. I think it’s important to examine why we choose to eat, or not eat, something, rather than just adhere strictly to a set of dietary rules. For example, though I abstained from eating honey during my three-week vegan trial period, I’ve begun eating it again from time to time because I just don’t have the same objections to it as other animal products. (I’ll admit that I need to do some more research on this, though).

Cox touches on the topic of identity in his story. “Because I eat oysters, I shouldn’t call myself a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. I am a pescetarian, or a flexitarian, or maybe there’s an even more awkward word to describe my diet. At first I despaired over losing the vegan badge of honor—I do everything else vegans do—but I got over it."

This is something I still struggle with. As I previously explained on this blog, I decided to eat predominantly vegan, but make some occasional exceptions for special occasions, traveling, social events, etc. Over the past month and a half, I’ve broken the vegan code a few times, and always felt uneasy about it. Last week, I had a whole ice cream cone to myself. Rocky road. I made a conscious decision to drive to the ice cream shop and get it. It was delicious. I felt very guilty.

I’ve also take a bite of my husband’s pizza, and eaten some packaged bread with milk as the very last ingredient. Do these actions cause great suffering or contribute significantly to global warming? Probably not. As I wrote before, I believe that if 98 percent of my food choices are good ones, then I’m doing just fine. But by making these exceptions, I can’t help but think of myself as a “bad vegan.” The other day, I thought maybe it would make me feel better to call myself a vegetarian who mostly avoids dairy and eggs. But that doesn’t seem quite accurate either. And as Cox said, I’ve been somewhat enjoying wearing the vegan “badge of honor.” I’ve mostly gotten over my fear that people would view me as weird or radical for being a vegan, and feel proud that I’ve made such a worthwhile commitment. So I’m going to try to keep my “cheating” to a minimum. But I think I still want cake for my birthday next month (hint hint).

Randall Beach has a story in today's Register about a debate between Yalies and PETA over the great meat-eating question.

PETA, Yalies meet on meat
By Randall Beach, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — Is it unethical to eat meat? Is it immoral? A roomful of Yalies who listened to a passionate debate Wednesday night appeared to be equally divided on the subject.

The opponents, who clashed on a stage at Linsly-Chittenden Hall in front of about 100 spectators, were Bruce Friedrich, policy vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and two members of the Yale Debate Association.

An organizer of the event cautioned the audience that it’s considered bad form to applaud speakers during such debates. Approval was to be shown instead by pounding hands on the small desks at which people were seated.

There was a great deal of pounding, both pro and con.

Friedrich began by stating that “living an examined life” challenges a person to make serious ethical decisions. He said if you care about global poverty, the environment and cruelty to animals, you should not eat meat.

He showed parts of a video, narrated by Alec Baldwin, showing chickens crammed into cages, stuck in their own excrement. “Eating chickens is eating misery,” Friedrich said. “You may not be slitting their throats but you’re paying somebody to do it for you.”

He added, “What it boils down to is a short-term pallet preference; we eat meat because we enjoy it. You weigh this against environmentalism, global poverty and cruelty to animals.”

Steven Kryger, a Yale senior, began by charging PETA adopts “silly” positions, such as opposing testing of animals and seeing-eye dogs. “I think we care enough about blind people that seeing-eye dogs are justified,” he said.

Kryger also asserted that animal testing has saved countless human lives through medical advances. As for animals such as chickens, Kryger said they “are incapable of abstract thought and lack self-awareness. This determines who deserves ethical considerations.”

“I love my bacon,” he said. “I love my steak. Should I replace it with tofu? That’d be really sad. Meat makes most of us really happy. We’re not evil or unethical. Human beings deserve more consideration.”

Grant May, also a Yale senior, said ending meat consumption would destroy local farming. He added that if farms were shut down and pigs, chickens and cows set free, “they would get run over by cars or eaten by birds.”

“They would not even exist,” he noted, “but for the fact that we have raised them.”

Friedrich said raising masses of animals under such conditions contributes to water pollution, water shortages and global warming. “I suggest we have a moral imperative to try to reverse that trend.”

Friedrich said if you agree setting a cat’s tail on fire is unethical, you should believe causing any animal to suffer is unethical.

Kryger replied, “I’m not sure a cat’s tail burns. But if it led to a medical advance that saved lives? In that case, I’d probably do it.”

Contact Randall Beach at 203-789-5766 or rbeach@newhavenregister.com.