Keen - Unexpectedly Vegan: Tips & Tricks To Making Any Recipe Vegan

Unexpectedly Vegan

Southern Cook Turned Vegan:

Tips and Tricks to Making Any Recipe Vegan

Courtney Keen

Unexpectedly Vegan.

Copyright 2015 by Courtney Keen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

2015 Keen, Courtney

L ets face it: As many advertising and sales people know, you can never be too skinny, too beautiful, or too rich. We all want to want to live longer, healthier lives, and if we can do that without aging, gaining weight, causing harm to the environment, or spending lots of money, that would be great!

Now what if I told you that you could do that? Eating a vegan diet can slow down the aging process, help you lose or maintain weight, shrink your environmental footprint, and you can even do all of that without spending lots of money. I know what some of you are thinking; a vegan diet may be a bit extreme, you love meat, cant live without cheese and God forbid someone take away your Rocky Road ice cream. Its okay, dont worry. Im not asking you to give it all up at once, or even for a lifetime. The good news is that many of you are at least curious about the lifestyle, or already are vegetarians or vegans, since you were brave enough to read a book with the word vegan on the cover. I just hope this book opens you up to trying some new things, and I encourage you to test what you learn by doing a 20-day vegan diet and seeing how you feel. Dont just take my word for it, try it yourselfand who knows, you may be the next unexpected vegan! Here is what this book will cover to help you get started:

• The basics on being vegan and why you should do it

• What being vegan can do for your health, especially if you have special nutritional needs such as diabetes or high cholesterol.

• An overview of typical ingredients used in vegan cooking.

• A list of substitute ingredients to use when following recipes to fit your dietary needs.

• A list of hidden ingredients to avoid while eating a vegan diet.

• Information on how to stock a complete vegan pantry so you can prepare vegan dishes every day without hassle.

• Basic cooking techniques needed to create a variety of satisfying meals.

• How to put together a complete vegan meal while getting the right balance of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for your body.

• Recipes to get you started cooking right away, with demonstrations of how to make any recipe fit your dietary needs.

As you can see, theres a lot of information to take in on how to enjoy a vegan diet. This eBook is designed to teach you everything you need to know.

T heres no doubt that a vegetarian diet, particularly a vegan one, can be great for your health and your waistline. There has been an increasing popularity with healthy food stores, fad vegetarian diets, meatless Mondays, gluten free meals, and the almond milk craze. Let me not forget to mention an increasing number of celebrities who have taken on a vegan lifestyle within the last decade, including Bill Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Angela Basset, Natalie Portman, Mike Tyson, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Silverstone, Samuel L. Jackson, and Al Gore. Even Nelly, Jay-Z, and Beyonc were temporarily vegan. Beyonc used the vegan diet to slim down after having her baby and enjoyed it so much that she is now launching her own vegan home delivery service for those who want preplanned and portioned out vegan meals.

Whether you do it for your health or for moral reasons, to lose weight or just because everyone else is doing it, this eBook is intended to help you find some healthier alternatives and provide you with some tips and tricks for surviving a vegan dietwhether its just for two weeks, 20 days, or a lifetime.

So with that said Im sure youre wondering who I am exactly, and how someone becomes unexpectedly vegan. Well, let me start off by saying I never planned or wanted to become vegan; it really did happen unexpectedly. As a young woman in my 20s I had no health problems, I ate mostly organic, and although I wanted to lose a few pounds, I was not seen as overweight. I was a true Georgia southern girl. I loved my chicken, seasoned my vegetables with some form of meat and just adored cheese. Ice cream and some type of dessert made with sugar and drizzled with butter was a must. I mastered the skills of southern cooking and could turn any dull recipe into something amazing.

One year, after just moving to Texas, a classmate of mine came to visit me for my birthday. I was so excited. She was my food loving friend. No matter when or where, if you asked us if we were hungry, the answer was always Sure, I could eat. So as we were catching up on what was going on in each others lives, she mentioned to me that she had become vegetarian. My heart dropped. I thought about all the good Texas food we would be missing out on while she was visiting. I suddenly began to tell her that this was a dumb idea and asked what the point of being vegetarian was, anyway. I told her:

If you dont eat the meat someone else will. So that doesnt change anything.

She said that she actually grew up vegetarian and her father still lived that lifestyle. After watching a video on animal cruelty that showed all the chemicals injected into our food, it really made her think about the decision she was making to eat meat, so she decided to stop. Like many vegetarians, she still ate fish, and informed me that the proper name for a vegetarian who eats fish is a pescatarian . We did, however, still have a great time during her visit and enjoyed many great restaurants.

Just a few short months later, as I was taking my last bite of my turkey dinner at Thanksgiving and feeling stuffed like the rest of America, I received a text message from the same friend who visited me for my birthday. The text read:

Hello, new workout buddy! and I replied back,

Yes, I could lose a few pounds before I pile on more with the holiday weight.

So we decided that we would be each others motivation to work out and eat right, and I also agreed to become pescatarian until Christmas. I even found some friends locally that were willing to join me in being pescatarian. (It sounds like a religion, doesnt it?)

That month between Thanksgiving and Christmas actually went better than I thought. So much so that I decided not to eat meat on Christmas and see if I could continue this pescatarian lifestyle. One of my local friends who had joined me in being pescatarian had a friend who was vegan, and he was researching more about the vegan lifestyle. He shared with me a lot of the information hed learned about living without meat or dairy, which made me want to learn more. Of course, I started my research with Why should humans eat meat? and Is meat bad for your body? because I wanted to find the best arguments I could to support my morning sausage, smothered chicken, and beloved cheese. Based on the research, I found the argument to not eat meat made more sense than the argument to eat meat. The testimonies and studies led me to become more curious about this vegan lifestyle, especially if that meant avoiding many illnesses in the future. And I wouldnt be mad if I happened to drop a few pounds as a side effect, either.

I found vegan Facebook and Meetup groups to gain more knowledge, and ended up doing a 40-day fruit fast. To my surprise I survived. At the end of the 40 days I felt amazing. Full of energy and light. I thought to myself, I can do this. I think Ill be vegan now and see how long this lasts. As time went on I proved to myself that I could do it, and the research showed I should. In the first year I lost 30 pounds, lost my gut, cleared my acne, got rid of my dandruff, and grew my hair. That began my vegan journey, but this southern girl definitely had to make it taste good.