Meet Cocoa...

My family eats meat and potatoes. Lots of meat, lots of potatoes. I grew up eating meat and potatoes…steak, bacon, lamb chops, even venison. So why the sudden change to a plant-based diet? For me personally, it wasn’t a very hard decision. When I attended art school in Oakville, every year we would go to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair to draw the animals on display. We’d spend days studying the anatomy of the cows and horses and pigs and chickens and sheep, filling pages upon pages of our sketchbooks with them. I never thought about what happened to these animals, I just drew them for my assignments. Then all the students would get together and we’d go out for dinner before heading back to the school. I’d usually order a hamburger. I never really made the connection between the beautiful animals I’d just drawn from life and the hunk of dead cow on my plate.

That was until I met Cocoa. A little less than two years ago, my parents brought home the sweetest little cocker spaniel puppy and I immediately fell in love with him. He is such a great friend. When I look into his cute little puppy dog eyes, I see the same eyes as those cows and horses and chickens and pigs and sheep from the fair, and I wonder why I eat all those animals and not my puppy. So, this past New Year’s, I made the decision to live a kinder life: to be better to the environment, to the animals and to myself. I’ve been flirting with veganism since January, working all sorts of yummy vegan foods into my diet, and then after a while slowly phasing out non-vegan foods, which brings me to this May: I’ve made a commitment to eat completely vegan for a month to see how it makes me feel. Many of my friends and family have been incredibly interested in what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been cooking, so I’ve decided to start this blog to document my journey. I’ll post some recipes, some pictures, some products I’ve learned about and for anyone who is interested, I encourage you to try some of the foods, or to try cooking with some of the vegan ingredients. For those who know me personally, send me an email if you want to know more about something I write about or if you’re interested in a recipe I haven’t posted. Bon appetit!