The vegan journey begins
When my son was about 1, we learned that he was allergic to dairy, which meant reading all ingredient labels. It was eye-opening and utterly depressing to read what was in all the foods we’d been eating without thinking. I had been duped by the “all-natural”, “low fat,” and “organic” labels and hadn’t even considered that someone might be bending the truth or flat-out lying to me. In my mind, if it was sold in a grocery store it must have gone through some sort of testing to meet some established standards. Some credible organization was surely verifying that it was not only fit for human consumption, but also beneficial. Well, I was in for a rude awakening, to say the least. Ha,ha!
Make the trips to the grocery store a fun adventure
I decided to turn trips to the store with my kids into an adventure, a search for products that were actually healthy and a lookout for things masquerading as food. I quickly started feeling at home in the produce aisle. The fruit and veggies looked so much better with all the colors of the rainbow and no ingredient labels to decipher. I also learned a time-saving tip: if you want to know if something is vegan at a glance, check the cholesterol (thank you, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Vegan Author and Speaker). Only animal products contain cholesterol, so if cholesterol is zero, it’s a good bet it’s vegan. Sweet, right?!
Saving money by going vegan
Now I absolutely love going to our local grocery store these days. I see the products with a completely new pair of eyes and the store is full of possibilities! We pack our cart with fresh seasonal fruits and veggies, leafy greens, beans, chickpeas, rice, pasta, sprouted whole-grain bread, dried fruit (raisins and dates), nuts, seeds, crushed tomatoes, peanut butter, almond butter, and sunflower butter… the list goes on. Even though we try to get as much organic and non-GMO as possible, our monthly grocery bill is actually lower since we cut out meat, dairy, and eggs. It’s the best!
Vegan Curious? Here are more Easy Tips for Going Vegan and check out some of our yummy Vegan Recipes here.
Do you have any questions about how to easily go vegan? Happy to help! Send me a message or comment below. Would love to hear from you!
