Finally Getting Organized!

This morning, I spent about 2 hours organizing various grains that I've had sitting in bags in my pantry. As you can see from this shot, I still need a few more containers, but for the most part, they are now labeled and marked if they are "gluten free" or not. (We do not follow a GF diet, but it's good to know). I was about to type up cooking directions to add to the back of each container, so that anyone in the family could easily cook them up if they wanted to (ummm....well a person can dream, can't they?) when my husband walked in and said, "Hey, that looks great! Oh, but are they BPA Free?" uhhhh, I don't know! I looked them up. They are OXO brand, but I bought them at Target. Now, OXO Pop Tops sold everywhere else apparently have round buttons on the top and are made with a thicker plastic than the ones that Target sells, which are  #7 plastic, and a square button top. Usually, #7 contains BPA, but not always. Unfortunately, I already threw away all of the labeling. So, I guess a trip to Target is in my future today to confirm whether or not they are BPA free. It really bugs me that I have to do this. Usually I pay attention to the BPA thing, but I was so excited to find containers that stack and seal well, I just didn't think about it. Honestly, I am not sure if it's even an issue, since everything being stored is a solid. Can BPA leak into non liquid materials? I could not find an answer to this question online this morning, although I only spent about 20 minutes looking.

Am I too anal about this stuff? Maybe. But we are inadvertently exposed to so many things that negatively impact our health, that I feel an obligation to have as much knowledge as possible about products that I use, so that at the very least I can make an informed choice.



New to this

This time, however, my husband is on board, along with 3 of our 4 children. Our oldest, who is 18, hasn't bought what I'm selling (yet!), but I'll give it time.

Why do I call it "herbivore eating" or "plant only eating"? Here is the reason...when you say that you are Vegan, or that you "eat Vegan" or are a "dietary Vegan" or pretty much use the term Vegan when you've cut out eating animal products for health reasons, and not only because of ethical reasons, die hard Vegans get really ticked off! I can respect that, it's just that there isn't any other term out there that means "I do not eat animal products, and this decision was based mostly on health reasons".

However, for the sake of simplicity, I am going to refer to "eating a plant based diet" as eating Vegan in this blog from now on, or at least until I come up with a better term for it.

So, on that note, I hope you enjoy following me on this Vegan eating journey. It has opened my mind, eyes and my arteries, I've loved every minute of it (almost:) so far, and can never see myself heading out for a steak again!