Saturday, February 19, 2011

Why I'm Starting This Blog (a.k.a the "Hello World" post)

"You have to eat your chicken ...  eat your chicken ... just two more bites of chicken and then you can be done."

I've been a vegetarian for 9 years now, so I was starting to feel like a real hypocrite after repeating these words to my sons throughout my first year as their stepmom (esp. since they knew I was vegetarian because I didn't want to eat animals).

My husband and I ate vegetarian when we didn't have the two boys.  But we had gotten into a rut of pasta or chicken nuggets during the nights we had them - we wanted to get them eating better and trying new foods (it was always an ordeal whenever we had them try a new food).   We also wanted to get everyone eating vegetarian at home, but we were concerned about how to ensure our youngest son got the protein and nutrients he needed since he has Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI).  We had searched the internet for vegetarian and MSPI without much luck, so we weren't sure exactly how to do kid-friendly vegetarian meals that adhered to the MSPI diet.

But with the new year, we made a goal to all eat vegetarian at home and to have the boys try at least one new food per week.  We're also working on ensuring we all eat healthy in general.  For the most part, the goals have been going really well - we've added some new staples to our diet and found that eating vegetarian with MSPI is actually a lot easier than it looks.  And, that's the reason for this blog - my hope is that other parents who want to continue being vegetarians but have a child with MSPI don't come up empty-handed when they search for advice on products and recipes for their family.

2 comments:

  1. Wow is there really another mom like me? My son (who is 2 yo) and I, are somewhere in between a Vegetarian and Vegan, and my son has MSPI. So whenever I look up Vegetarian recipes I get recipes loaded with Dairy and Vegan recipes with Soy.. I though I was the only mom out there and bc I dont "fit" in the vegan or vegetarian group I felt alone. Thank you for writing this blog!!

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  2. Thanks, Sarah! I appreciate your comment a lot. I hope you can get some use out of some of the recipes my husband and I have found. And I would love to hear recipes and foods that you have discovered work well with your son.

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