hello february.

Our family word this year is ADVENTURE.

Each month we are going to embark on some sort of adventure as a family, essentially leaving our comfort zone in some way.  We realize that being a family of 7 is an adventure in and of itself but a family challenge that we all can participate in will open up discussion and reinforce a feeling of unity as we experience it together.

This month we are going vegetarian.

(At first we contemplated about going vegan which means eliminating meat and all animal by-products like dairy but we thought we should ease into this new eating habit first…we don’t want the natives – the kids- to get too restless and mutiny too soon.)

After seeing this movie and reading this, this, and this, Ever-Patient and I are looking closer at the kinds of food we eat and why we eat them.  It’s not as if I have suddenly become a PETA activist and want to save all the animals.  I do enjoy a good grass-fed piece of steak.  The decision to go veg is a way for us to experiment, to eat more consciously, and to seriously challenge our eating habits.  Culturally speaking, meat has always been in the forefront of our diet and because of this, it has become a focus on our children’s plates which in the end, results in less room on the plate for veggies.

For the last two days, my family has been conscious of everything we put in our mouths.  Not only have we excluded meat from our diet, we are also eating organic produce, sprouted grains, quinoa, kamut, millet, spelt, and every green known to man.  By dinner time, greens are taking up more than half of the kids’ plates now and they are eating every last morsel.  It has opened up conversation about food.  #2 is curious about where food comes from, frequently quizzing me if an item is plant or animal.  At one point, I told #1 to forget about her homework because our little discussion on knowing what exactly we are putting into our bodies was more important for her to participate in.

#2 is allergic/anaphylactic to peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish.  Eating a peanut could kill her.  I am vigilant about monitoring what she eats wherever we go and the kind of food we have in our own pantry.  Then after seeing a movie like Food Inc. and reading about the health hazards of processed food and food that comes from factory farms, why would I let my children ingest these foods knowing the effect it could have on their health?  Not to sound melodramatic but even feeding this food to my kids (which in the end teaches them that it is ok to continue eating this food in adulthood) is just like giving #2 a peanut butter sandwich.

Since this is new to us, we are now experimenting with new foods and recipes.  We are involving the kids in the entire process – meal selection, preparation, and an evaluation of the meal after we’ve eaten it.  For yesterday’s dinner, potato and mozzarella croquettes with sauteed string bean and black beans, we made everything together – the kids took ownership of the food and in the end, enjoyed eating the fruits of their labour.  We plan to take them on excursions to a few local vegan/vegetarian restaurants.

For Ever-Patient and I, we are most interested in seeing the effect that going veg has on our wallets and our health by the end of the month.  Is it cost-effective for our family of 7 to go vegetarian?  Will we notice a markedly different feeling health-wise?  Will we notice a difference in the well-being of our children?

The key with this challenge is that this is an adventure for our family.  We are cooking and eating dinner together.  We are talking and researching and inquiring.  We are becoming active participants in our lives, choosing to live just a little bit more consciously.  By going on these adventures, we can remove ourselves from the daily grind of life and grasp these opportunities to make life more exciting and to expose our children to unconventional ideas.  Our hope is not that they become lifelong vegetarians but lifelong learners that will never stop questioning and having the courage to step out of the box.

I asked #3 the other day if she understood why we are going vegetarian.  She said, “Because chickens have families.”  Then she picked up her broccoli and took a big bite out of it and said, “But broccoli doesn’t!”  Chomp.