The Almost Vegan Project

I've been a strict vegetarian for almost three years now.  By strict I mean that I eat no meat at all.  Not even fish.  I won't eat anything that has beef or chicken stock in it.  I buy what I call "happy eggs" which are eggs from free range, vegetarian fed chickens.  I (usually) only buy organic milk.  Maybe I have my head buried in the sand, but I imagine that the cows which organic milk come from are happy and free to roam.  Like the California Cheese commercials.  I buy it for health reasons as well, but mostly b/c in my mind organic milk=happy cows. 

The question I always get: "What do you eat then?"  My response?  "What do you eat?". 

I eat almost all the same things as meat eaters.  I just replace a burger with a boca burger.  I replace chicken with chi'kn.  I eat tofu.  I add TVP to stuff.  I get as much protein as the next person, maybe even more.  Vegetarians can be as healthy or unhealthy as they want.  I can eat chips, cookies, and cake.  I try not to, of course, but I am a slave to junk food. 

It is b/c of this that I'm embarking on the "Almost Vegan Project".  It is a project where I will eat only vegan for x amount of time.  Vegan means nothing with animal by product.  No milk, cheese, eggs, or even honey.  I want to try it for health reasons more than personal reasons.  I have a friend that is vegan and she doesn't use or eat anything that has animal by products.  Like she replaced all her makeup b/c of [insert animal thing here] that was in her makeup when she went vegan.  I'm not going that far. 

I've been wanting to do this for some time, but frankly I'm too lazy.  If vegetarian recipes have ingredients that aren't usually found in your cupboard, you have to hunt down certain ingredients for vegan recipes.  Since I wasn't really committed to becoming vegan (at all) I just decided it wasn't worth the effort. 

The hardest thing to cut out will be cheese.  I'm not much of a milk drinker and I don't eat eggs a lot.  But I love cheese. 

Casee=cheese lover.   

So if there's anyone out there that wants to join me (or try an almost vegetarian), feel free.  It's really not that hard.  No, really.