Celebrating First Year as Vegans!

We are celebrating our first year of becoming vegan this month! I say "becoming vegan" because it took us almost a year to completely give up all animal foods and products. We had to learn how to shop and cook new foods, and are still learning where to buy non animal products for clothing, shoes and personal care and cleaning products too. It's definitely a process. I ate eggs up until about Easter last year, and had my last fish on our trip to the coast last October. (honestly the fish did nothing for me anyway, which is weird because I used to love most fish). Im not sure I wouldn't eat some salmon, if I knew who caught it, and knew it was fresh and not from a factory farm...and it died humanely...we'll see. But other than that, we are full on vegans now! We just feel so good knowing we are no longer contributing to the unneeded pain and suffering of any animals (or at least doing our very best to prevent it!) We feel great too--our clothes fit good, no more bowel problems, less headaches and allergies and way less anxiety! I also get way more excited about meals and the food is always delicious and satisfying .

We had a great Thanksgiving this year at our house! Well, the food was amazing anyway...I was very nervous the day before when we were cooking and expecting alot of Jamison's family to stay with us. I just get that way when I have to play hostess! I want everything to be really nice and warm and inviting and yummy! This is what we cooked:

Maple glazed sweet potato scones, spinach dip in a sourdough bread roll, olive and pickle tray, chickpea cutlets, roasted lemony potatoes, wine, holiday salad with spiced pumpkin seeds and pomegranate, creamy pumpkin penne with sage and toasted pecans, pumpkin pie, chocolate pumpkin bread pudding, chocolate peanut butter cups, and...vegan irish coffees. MMMMMM!! My sister also brought garlicky green beans and Tuaca Apple Pie hot drinks, and Mom brought her famous sweet potatoes that she veganized and they were better than ever!

Everything was absolutely delicious and we all had a great time. We're hoping that all the delicious food wowed our families and maybe even changed their thinking about what they want to eat! We are eating vegan everyday, but it seems even more important to be conscious during our family celebrations. Jamison and I have decided on a new tradition for our family: since we want to celebrate love and gratitude during our holidays, we want to have only (cruelty free) vegan goodies to eat in our house for our celebrations, and anyone who wants to celebrate with us is welcome!Personally, I feel so good about how we are being so much more conscious in our purchases. I know that turkeys are among the most abused and tortured animals out there and even sparing one is something (imagine if everyone made this choice!).