Not just a vegan rookie, but also a blogging rookie

When I started experimenting with eating a vegan diet, I was lost. Completely lost....

I have raised six children and now have eight grandchildren, so I have cooked for a long time and have always enjoyed it. Before we continue.....my husband and I had our children when we were very young, so I am a very young grandmother of eight! Now, I will admit that I didn't enjoy going to work all day then coming home tired and cooking for eight people every night. I had a minimum of 2-3 voices at the table objecting to what I was serving. But not my husband! He is my biggest fan, (in and out of the kitchen) and he is my favorite person to cook for. He will try anything and he also loves leftovers. What a guy. But I have always loved cooking on the weekends and for holidays. The miles separate me from my children right now, but it is fun visiting them and renewing their enthusiasm for things they remember eating while they grew up. Our middle child Christian, lives in West Texas and one of his favorites meals is roast beef and gravy with Yorkshire pudding. I will still make that for him, but now I will make additional items that will be vegan for myself.

But over the past few years mounting health issues have caused me to stop..... close my eyes.... slowly turn around.... and think about my options. I have type 2 diabetes, arthritis in both hips, high blood pressure, elevated heart rate, bad cholesterol, high triglycerides, constant low grade nausea, fatigue, sleep apnea and long term insomnia. Whew! I have never looked at all of that in one paragraph before....makes me want to shoot myself...or wonder why someone else didn't do it for me. All of these issues were being handled by three different doctors, and close to $1200/month in medications and blood sugar testing supplies. One doctor would treat one or two of these medical problems and another doctor would deal with another. The medications would work and then not work so well, so they would either add another one or change the medication. This has gone around in circles for years.

Our youngest son Daniel, who lives in San Francisco, had suggested a few times that I try a raw or vegan diet. I would politely listen....but yikes aren't vegans those crazy people? So I continued on with trying to cook low-fat and count my carbohydrates which all the diabetic classes will advise. Then our daughter Kelley, gave me a book to read titled "Skinny Bitch" http://www.skinnybitch.net/ . It is so funny! I laughed until I got about 1/2 way through the book and realized they were talking about becoming a vegan! Then I stopped reading. Becoming a vegan was too hard and too restrictive so there was no point in finishing the book. Right?

My long suffering husband Jim, has been endlessly patient with all the problems that I have had and not only patient but supportive in various efforts that I have tired to correct them. We had a golden retriever Maggie, (who was my soul) and before her death in 2006, was a good source of exercise......except that she had hip dysplasia and arthritis in her hips too! What a pair we became. As she aged and the pain got worse she was reluctant to walk very far or very fast. After she died we had some long and short term plans that really didn't include getting a new dog, but I only lasted 6 months and started to brow-beat long suffering Jim into getting a new puppy. The house was too empty and needed a dog. We picked up Gracie just before Christmas in 2007 and what a handful! After having an aging and arthritic dog for so many years, this puppy blew into our lives like a tornado! Walk? She can't wait! Even after walking her for an hour she hasn't even started to pant yet. So Jim walks her for 45-60 minutes in the morning and I take the evening shift. Then last spring the arthritis in my hips started to get worse, and Jim would take the occastional evening shift also.

I tell you all this about Gracie because I was growing despondent about my mounting health problems and now I couldn't even enjoy walking my dog. The doctor took Xrays of my hips and diagnosed what we already knew, that I have arthrisis and she wanted me to go and see an orthopedic surgeon. I came home from the doctor and instead of the usual humor that my husband and I discuss my failing body, we were both defeated. Othopedic surgeons mean an MRI and probably another medication, and maybe hip replacement surgery down the road. We were leaving in a few days to visit some of our children, so we decided to worry about in when we returned.

So we packed up Gracie and away we went . Over the years our options for free housing when we visit the kids has dwindled, due to expanding families of their own, and reluctance to have Gracie as part of the deal. For some of our visit we usually stay with our daughter Kelley, because they have the room for us, and they are mildly tolerant about having a shedding slobbering golden retriever in their house. In return, I usually take over the kitchen and give them a vacation from the cooking. But for about a month Kelley had been flirting with a vegan diet......there is that horrible word again! VEGAN. She was excited about our up coming visit so I could experiment with some recipes that she had found. Get this.....She wanted me to cook without beef, chicken, pork, fish, milk, cheese, eggs? You've got to be kidding me! What was I supposed to cook?