Naturalpath

About five years ago, (when I still ate eggs, by the way) I had the dubious privilege of touring a local egg farm that used battery cages to house its laying hens.

The way I came to be allowed inside was a real matter of serendipity; I was the co-leader of a Brownie troop along with an absolute bulldog of a woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer. She basically bulldozed the farmer into letting us bring the kids for a tour. I could tell right from the get-go that he was less than happy about it, and even less happy when she pressured him (in front of the kids) to let us into the actual barn.

Tofu has gotten a bad rap in popular culture today. Just mentioning the word seems to be synonymous with weak, effeminate, Birkenstock-clad freakdom.

However, tofu, once you know how to cook it, is pretty darn tasty, not to mention really versatile.

I happen to think that this method is the absolute best for trying tofu for the very first time. It happens to be my husband’s favourite “junk food,” (and I would dare anyone to look at him and call him effeminate!) It may not be the healthiest method of preparing it, but it sure is yummy.

My husband and I love to hike. We only really got into it a few years ago, when our two children got old enough to accompany us on some of our shorter rambles. (They are now twelve and thirteen.) We’ve put in some pretty serious mileage in the last three years, including hiking 96 kilometers (59 miles) in four days. (The kiddies stayed with Grandma for that one!)

 

We had hiked enough (all short day hikes) that we felt pretty confident that we could be able to do the hardest hike in the Maritime Provinces, Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. The hike is a grueling 52-kilometer (32 mile) coastal trail that promised, in return for all our hard work, some pretty spectacular scenery. We had only ever “backpacked” for one night prior, but that didn’t worry us. We had hiked plenty of trails before that were rated as difficult, and we found them to be a breeze. Although this trail was rated as “Very Challenging”, we thought perhaps like so many other trail descriptions that this would be a bit of an exaggeration, or perhaps not apply to “fit” folks like us.

Yes, it’s true folks. Although it’s been seventeen months since I last ate meat, I certainly did love it.

My husband used to make the best steak I’d ever had, marinated overnight in his super-secret recipe and grilled to perfection. I loved toasted turkey-and-cheese sandwiches, McDonalds Double Cheeseburgers, and heaven lived in a KFC Big Crunch sandwich.

Recently my mother in law (who seems to have an opinion on just about everything I do, by the way) commented to me (and not for the first time) that my husband and I must have lots of money because we always seem to buy whatever we want at the grocery store without considering the cost. Sorry Mom-in-law, but we don’t have a fortune tucked away under the mattress. We simply have decided that what we eat is a priority in our lives, and from a financial standpoint, we consider it a good investment in the future.

  This observation really has nothing to do with becoming pretty strict vegetarians a year and a half ago. Even when we ate meat, the weekly supermarket run ate up a pretty good chunk of our paycheck. I would say that today the amount we spend is about the same as before the change in diet.

I would have liked to think that giving up animal products would ultimately be cheaper, but that hasn’t been the case yet. A lot of my acquaintances over the past year or so have commented that they were sure it would be much more expensive to be a veg*n, but that hasn’t been the case either.