Ideal for EatingEating ethically while eating great!

I love to cook, and I love to eat!

It has not always been easy (it never is!) to eat ethically and, especially, to enjoy eating ethically.

I grew up eating shrimp in Texas. It was, and in some ways still is, my favorite food. But I gave up shrimp in middle school when I learned that sea turtles were dying in the shrimping nets. I went back to eating shrimp when shrimpers claimed they had installed some sort of release door for the turtles -- an oceanic get out of jail free card for sea turtles? I hate to admit it, but I bought it.

In high school (almost 25 years ago) I stopped eating land animals when my mother and I realized that tumors and other nasty bits were probably ending up in our meat. After a few years of eating dairy, eggs and fish, I became a vegan towards the end of college. I felt good -- physically and ethically -- but I did miss dairy. I didn't miss meat so much. But I really missed good ice cream, cream sauces and creamy soups.

Over the years, for one reason or another, I'd eat meat again then go vegetarian for a while. I'd cut out dairy or pork or certain fish, but I'd usually end up eating animals again. It's French (I love French food). It's easy. It's tasty. It's the norm.

Whenever I thought about my food, I'd usually end up rationalizing why I was eating animals and animal products. Having a carnivorous husband and three kids, eating animals was just easier.

But I've finally admitted that I was rationalizing all these years. So I've given up eating all animals and dairy -- for ethical reasons. If our food industry weren't based on factory farming, I may continue to eat some meat. But, for now at least, I can't bring myself to eat even a bite of ethically-raised, grass-fed beef. For now, I can't eat anything with a face. And I definitely can't eat shrimp. Even if they are completely unconscious and unaware, the fact that 26 pounds of "bycatch" is killed for every 1 pound of shrimp that is caught is just too horrifying to me.

When I first started this blog, I was still using honey and eating "ethically gathered" eggs laid by "happy" hens. After reading some provocative information on bees and on "happy" hens, I have since given up both honey and eggs. However, you will still find here my recipe for egg-based chocolate mousse.

Other than that, I'm a wellness+life coach. I'm married. I have two daughters, one son, one step-daughter and four cats. I live in Pittsburgh, where I'm lucky to have access to an amazing range of local foods. Not so many vegetarian restaurants here, but most restaurants have some decent options -- certainly more and better-tasting options than when I was a vegan 20 years ago.