my sister and her 6 month old son

My parents recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. In honor of the event my sister and I, my baby nephew, my boyfriend and even my boyfriend’s dad and sister spent this past Saturday over at my parent’s house. We had a great time hanging out outside, going on a boat ride, kayaking, and just hanging out and chatting. But one thing that set this family gathering apart from the others is that my parents made an entirely vegan dinner. My mom has always been very supportive of my choice to be vegan. She is always looking for vegan recipes and trying to adapt some of her non-vegan recipes. But this was the first time they had ever prepared an entirely vegan meal for a group of people. They had vegan appetizers including cowboy caviar (one of my favorites), and for dinner my dad grilled portabella mushrooms and veggie burgers which made one hell of a great sandwich.

Picture this: a vegan wheat bun, atop that add a large, freshly grilled portabella mushroom, a freshly grilled veggie burger, caramelized onions, then add a huge slice of a fresh local organic heirloom tomato (which I brought from the Whole Foods near me- seriously the most decadent tomatoes I ever had), maybe add a little Vegenaise or mustard, condiment of your choosing. Ohhhh man. Sooooo tasty.

In addition my mom made a vegan broccoli salad with Vegenaise, potatoes with olive oil, and a lovely fruit salad. I’ll have to the get recipes from her and post them. For dessert I made those amazing cookies and my mom made vegan chocolate covered almonds. All tasted wonderful.

My boyfriend’s dad teased me and said “I was told I could get a nice juicy burger! What is this all vegan crap?” and I said “Whatever. You liked it.” and he responded with “Actually yeah. I thought it tasted good. Really good. Amazingly good.” He proceeded to tell my parents that because of me, he eats more vegetables now than he ever has in his life. He’s gotten so into eating vegetables and being more health-conscious that when he goes out to lunch with his co-workers they call him “salad boy” because he always gets a nice big salad wherever they go. And no, he’s not vegan. He’s not even vegetarian, but he’s definitely taking steps in the right direction.

It’s moments like that when I feel like maybe vegans are making a mark. Our freakish ways are having an impact. Even while we were chatting my boyfriend, his sister, and my sister (who rarely eats meat or dairy but does eat eggs) all discussed various aspects of the food industry. It was a very positive conversation. Normally I would feel bullied in these conversations, but this was much more agreeable and I wasn’t the only one defending veganism. We all seemed to be in agreement about the positive impacts veganism has on the environment, people’s health, etc. Even when my sister asked what’s wrong with buying free range eggs, it was my boyfriend’s sister that said how you can’t trust store bought items that are considered “free range” because the regulations are so laxed, like keeping birds in tiny cages all day but letting them out for a few minutes can be considered “free range.”

My sister asked about free-range eggs because my parents live in farm country and they have neighbors that sell free range eggs that are actually the true definition of free range. They are very happy chickens that run around the yard all day. But how many people really live in areas where they can just grab a couple of free range eggs from their neighbors? Very few. And therefore you have to place your trust in the stores to let you know what is “free range” and what isn’t. Check out this link to see the dark side of free-range farming: http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.html. Not to mention we don’t need to be eating the eggs of other animals to be happy and healthy.

In all it was a pretty great weekend filled with vegan goodies, good weather and good conversation. How lovely.