Why Vegan? Gingersnap sammiches, that's why.

So, welcome to my blog, thanks for coming.  I've been kicking around the idea of starting a blog for almost a year now, but I'm a bit of procrastinator.  But here it finally is.  I'll be sharing recipes to hopefully encourage people thinking about going vegan, or at least considering limiting their consumption of animal products and living a more compassionate life.  It took me a long time to finally get here, and I thought I'd share a bit of my story on my first post, but before that, gingersnaps.  The snaps above are from Vegan With A Vengeance, with a lemon filling (just store-bought vegan icing-shhhh!) that I made to take over to friend's house.  My friend's mom is decidedly NOT vegan, but she adored these cookies-so much so that she gave me $20 for bringing them!  Unsolicited, so I donated the money to a dog rescue.  It cracked me up-I love showing people that being a vegan is not all about eating sticks and twigs.

So anyway, why am I a vegan?  I was a vegetarian for a long time, but I was in that same type of "vegans are weirdos" mindset.  I didn't like tofu, and I thought buying "cage-free" eggs and other "happy" animal products was ok, plus how could I live without ice cream, seriously?  Well, that changed in September of 2011.  Long story short, there was a flood in the town I was living in then.  In that town was a small "zoo".  In the zoo lived two bison.  Their enclosure flooded, and they drowned (one of them was "euthanized"-shot-before it could drown).  Many people in the area were outraged...including a lot of people who ate meat.  I was really very sad about it, but it struck me as really hypocritical for anybody who ate animals to be upset about this, and I was all full of indignation and ready to post a rant on Facebook when I realized that I was no better than anybody else, when I ate and used products that I knew also led to animal suffering and death.  So instead I went vegan.  I don't get all uppity with people about it-I ate meat for nearly half my life, so I don't think I have a whole lot of space to criticize other people's food choices, but I do take any chance I get to show them that there are so many delicious plant based foods available today that eating meat really isn't necessary.  I know having the choice of what I'll eat is a huge luxury that I don't take for granted.

I'm planning on posting some easy Meatless Monday recipes to try and goad omnis into giving this a try every once in a while, and I'll also be posting some more adventurous fare for current vegans, too.  I hope you enjoy it, please let me know what you think!