Feeling detoxy today – I have a low grade headache and a curious sensation in my body like my cells are pushing out meat residue. Luckily it is Sunday and I don’t have a lot going on today.

Last night for dinner, I had some soup, but because I was afraid of being hungry, I ate a very large portion of it- 2.25 cups to be exact.

Afterwards, I felt bloated and uncomfortable. “Guess I didn’t need to have that much” I said to my husband. “It’s going to take some time to figure this out.”

“That’s the problem with trial and error”, he said. “You make errors.”

I suppose I could go and find a cookbook and follow it but I have never been very good at following anything. I like to make things up as I go. And this has always worked for me in the past, because I have always centered meals around meat – that is the tradition in which I was raised. I have my ancestors’ memories to draw from.

The foods I have enjoyed the most, that I have raised my family on, are comfort foods: meatloaf, chicken pot pie, turkey dinners, beef stew – that sort of thing. Meal planning has revolved around what meat I am serving.

My husband, who largely depends on me to feed him, requires meat at every meal – “if it doesn’t have meat, it’s not complete!”. My two boys, who are 12 and 15, have followed suit.

When I announced to my boys that I was going to embark on this experiment, they both got fussy and then retreated from the room. “You’re not going to make us do it too, are you??” the younger one asked, a look of horror on his face.

I assured them that I would not. I didn’t expect them to be so… disappointed in my decision. They are clearly quite attached not just to meat but also the tradition of mom making delicious meat dishes.

Well, for now at least, I will continue with that, AND feeding myself otherwise. Now, what to have for breakfast?

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A search of “vegan breakfast foods” turned up the following page:

http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/03/top-15-vegan-breakfast-recipes-of-2011/

What a lovely website – lots of good ideas here. But I found it after I made the same breakfast as yesterday – oatmeal with apples, raisins and cashews.

I think I will spend some time going through this website and writing down ingredients for recipes and then go shopping this afternoon.

Vermont in winter is not exactly the best time or place to go vegan….

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After dinner, day 3. I went grocery shopping this afternoon and came home with a lot of supplies, including a cookbook called “Nourishing Meals”.

When I came home, I realized that I did not have room in my kitchen for all these new and different foods. This prompted a major reorganizing of my kitchen – resulting in the ridding of some annoying clutter that I had been wanting to get to anyway.

I got so busy taking care of all the food that I never got around to preparing any of it, and left to do some errands on an empty stomach. By the time I was almost home, several hours later, I was super hungry once again!

So then I had to make dinner for the boys (we’ll include my husband in that category) – meat loaf, topped with bacon. And dinner for myself- lentil stew. I took some of the leftover lentils from two nights ago, and threw them in with carrots, celery, onion, kale, parsley and spinach, and some sauteed shitakes and crimini mushrooms as well.

Putting the leftover meatloaf away was a little uncomfortable. I really like pan drippings and crispy bacon and they tempted me just a little. Just a little…

I started feeling really detoxy when I was out and about this afternoon. My kidneys especially feel mucky. I wish I had a bathtub because I would definitely take a hot epsom salt bath tonight – I guess I will just do a salt scrub in the shower instead.