Why I'm Making a Blog...

Sometime in 1990, my parents decided that, due to what they viewed as a healthier eating style, that they should become vegetarians. At the time, I was 2 years old. Vegetarianism wasn't too popular, and because my parents were very young, most people around them just thought it was a fad, and therefore didn't give it much thought. 

According to them, they didn't just stop "cold turkey" with their meat intake. They started with beef, then pork, then chicken, and by the time I was about 5, had taken fish out of their diets as well.

My grandparents pretty much thought my siblings and I were going to die. There are several stories from that time which include me, my grandparents babysitting me, and a variety of lunch meats. My parents were not that thrilled. My family has grown and changed since then. There are now 4 of us kids, all of which are vegetarian (my sister is actually a vegan now), and we all seem maintain a healthy diet. I definitely award the success to my parents for such a wonderful job.

This is why I wanted to start a blog. I want to create a guideline for young families, so they can view the changes it has made in my life, and the lives of my family. This way they can really start on their vegetarian journey.

This is what I want to accomplish through my blog:

• I want to let you know what  DIDN'T work for us, and what really did make a difference.

• I'm going to focus on posting stories, recipes, how to actually cook as a vegetarian and make it easier for you, how to get the veggies and proteins that you need.

• I didn't realize until recently while talking to my roommates and such how many stereotypes they have against tofu in general, and how it "tastes like nothing".

• Also, I want to use this blog to discuss packed lunch ideas, especially for kids. Being a kid that's a vegetarian in elementary school is actually pretty tough from what I remember, but there's some really fun things that can be done with their lunches that won't be "embarrassing" for them!

• I'm also going to mix it up and tell you what it's like for me, as I'm just about to finish college, and how I maintained the diet.

• I'll get inputs from my family members on recipes, their stories, and vegetarian failures of the past. 

Overall Goal of Growin' Up Veggie:

To help people with recipe ideas, let them know the pros and cons to certain ideas, show them how my family progressed over 19 years, as well as focus on the things that worked and didn't for us.