BUDDHIST DIET: Vegetarianism V Veganism 1

Whereas my vegetarianism is progressing into totality and I currently eat no meat and only a little fish, I do not feel inclined towards veganism - yet. I am not sure if this will stay, or if I will head towards it in my future - but my decisions are now based on what naturally arises from deep within, rather than what tradition, stomach, convenience or expectation suggest. However, in some matters I already lean towards the vegan diet - eg. milk and eggs.

In my teens, I preferred goat-milk to cow-milk - straight out of the goat that a friend of mine owned for preference. As I aged, I found cow-milk to be an allergy in my son for 2-3 years, and I simply did not enjoy drinking it myself. Rice milk and soy milk tasted better, but cost twice as much. I became suspicious of the health of pasteurization and homogenization. I could not buy milk without these practices implemented, so chose not to use it.

As I explored many vegetarian recipes from Thailand, India, Vietnam, etc, I discovered that I loved the taste of coconut milk in my cooking, and found it a more than suitable replacement for cow-milk. I had never been a fan of drinking cow-milk anyway. Coconut milk cost around the same price as cow-milk, and tasted good, so it became my regular milk for cookery. There has not yet been a recipe I cannot substitute coconut for cow milk in. (For a vegan hot-choc recipe that I created during experimentation, read: http://buzz.prevention.com/community/coffee-boone/mmm-i-love-chocolate )

As I mentioned in my last post, I do not buy eggs. It made unhappiness arise from deep within me to eat them, so I stopped. I do not use a replacement, I simply leave out that ingredient when baking a cake, and do not have pancake or omelet in my diet any longer. Not having pancakes was the hardest part of this choice, but in a hurting heart verses a tasty treat war, omitting egg-cookery won out.