Influencing Others I think I just might have expanded my sphere of influence concerning vegan cooking to Chelsey Croft. Recently, I saw a post on her blog for Vegan Brownies. Well, I could not open this post fast enough. I was so excited for her and I. I was anxious to hear how her experience to create something vegan turned out. I am so glad that she followed through with her promise to make something. I am glad her sister enjoyed them. I do hope that Chelsey tries her hand at baking something vegan again. :)
My journey My journey to learn to cook vegan enough to convince others to give it a whirl was not easy. I had been studying and researching veganism for quite some time. It is real easy to go vegan and not really know how to cook anything. I am thankful that I chose this project as it opened my world of knowledge far more than I thought it would. Not only did I learn to cook I was getting practice using the technological skills taught to me through ECMP 355 by creating a blog to document my journey of learning. It was tough coming up with new and different ways to present my topic of the week in an engaging manner.
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Struggles I encountered a few struggles along the way. First was choosing appealing recipes that I might enjoy. Ambitious as I am I just had to pick ones that were a little over the top - mozzarella, what was I thinking??? However, you know what it turned out fantastic. Not only did I make my own savoury pizza and the peach pizza with a fellow student, but it found itself between 2 slices of bread and grilled a few times. Not shy of being laid out on top of the peach pizza, the cheese willingly lay prostrate on a couple of more pizzas. Yummy!! Next time though, I will not let it sit in the brine past a week or so. Why, well it seemed to become more waterlogged as the weeks went on. Maybe that is fine for real cheese? However, not this cheese.
Another was trying to find ingredients that were, heretofore, unfamiliar to me. I.e. Agar Agar, xanthum gum, kappa carrageenan, etc. Searching the internet for these sometimes turned up fruitless, i.e. lactic acid. However, I did discover that it is used in the brewing of beer through my searches.
In conclusion It has been a very busy 6/7 weeks. Without this challenge I would have been chained to my very limited repertoire of pasta/sauce, oatmeal, salads, fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Now that I am cooking more my children are glad they do not need to 'feed' mom. Who knew!! I have become more adventurous in trying to cook creative meals outside of my own plain cardboard box. Did you know: that a vegan diet is anything but boring? Check out these menu plans with accompanying recipes. Dear reader: would you be willing to go vegan like Oprah did with her staff of 378 for just one week? Up Next: Vegan Banana French Bread
2 Comments
Chelsey
6/29/2017 04:14:14 pm
Tanya all of your meals look so taster and if I was in the city I would have definitely volunteered as a taste tester! You did inspire me to try vegan baking. Although it wasn't as sweet as I preferred I was still pleasantly surprised with the outcome. For me the hardest part was finding vegan ingredients in a small town and it sounded like you had some of the problem too! All the best with your upcoming classes!
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6/29/2017 07:45:12 pm
I am just so glad that I influenced others to try something different. As you try more things and acquire more vegan ingredients it gets easier. I certainly needed to learn what some of these different additions were for. It was fun learning.
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