The road trip home

One day on our vacation up north we were visiting our youngest daughter Mandy.  During conversation I mentioned that Kelley was dipping her toe into the vegan world of eating.  Instead of scorn, she said "I'd like to do that.... but I could never stick with it."  Her opinion mattered to me because both she and her husband eat in a healthy way, have a vegetable garden every summer, can their own tomato sauce, and eat a varied menu. I remember thinking that she seemed to be knowledgeable on the subject (which most people are not)and if she thinks it's hard then what chance do I have?  We talked about a vegetarian diet and once again it comforted me that I could probably work with that.  My daughter-in-law Cindy was encouraging and supportive and felt that anything to improve my health would be the good road to take. Our other daughter-in-law Michele said, "don't you have to be careful about how much soy you eat?  Doesn't it cause breast cancer?"  I remember thinking I don't know anything about soy.....is that the cornerstone of a vegan diet?  Having no answer for her I knew I was in over my head. All these girls are young and and the young tend to be informed about these trends and I felt conflicted.   This was sounding more and more complicated. Other meals I cooked for Kelley tended to be the obvious selections that we all cook....spaghetti without the meat in the sauce etc....and for heaven's sake, what about Parmesan cheese?  What is pasta without the cheese? But I knew it was going to be more complicated than just veganizing my old standard recipes. 

We loaded up the car with Gracie and headed back on the road.  I always spend the first hour crying when we  leave the kids. We have gotten into a routine: lots of tissues,  Jim pats my hand while he drives not saying a word, and you can usually set the clock for 60 minutes. 

Before we left I downloaded a book onto my Kindle by Dr. Neal Barnard  http://www.nealbarnard.org/diabetes
This book grabbed me from the beginning.  I read it all the way home, and every chapter there was something that I was reading out loud ....something important that I knew hubby would need to hear! "Oh that makes so much sense doesn't it?" He would nod in that universal way that all men have....look right at me, nod, and have no idea what i just said to him.
While I continue to blab away here about ME, here is another favorite recipe I discovered
High-Protein Oat Waffles