A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter

Hello friends. My, I've missed you all. To sum up the past few weeks....golf season is over and tailgate season is here! And that about wraps it up. Sorry for the lack of posts....travels and tournaments have kept me away from normal life.

Back to blogging...

So I have this aunt who lives in Hawaii. She comes to the "main land" once every other year it seems. She normally stays for a couple of weeks and then makes her way back to paradise. My aunt recently beat cancer for the second time. (yay!!) In an effort to keep her health on the up and up she has become vegan.

Now, I know of people who are vegan for moral reasons, but she is the first person I have ever met who has committed to this lifestyle for health reasons. And I have got to hand it to her. It does take commitment. No animals, no animal bi-products. No meat, no poultry, no fish, nothing with eggs or milk in it and no cheese. So really, just veggies. And fruit. And soy. And nuts. And some grains. Mmmmm. I can tell I am tempting all of you with this diet choice.

A lot of breads are made with eggs, same goes with pasta, so when I offered to have her, the rest of my fam and a couple of friends over for dinner, I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. My usual shopping list (see title of this post...also a throwback to every one's Sesame Street days) was pretty much thrown out the window. I finally came up with teryaki portobello mushroom "burgers", grilled corn on the cob and an Asian slaw. When I told my loving husband of my grandiose meal plan, he politely asked if I would be treating him to Whataburger after the festivities.

With my newly revised shopping list, I loaded up the old recycled grocery bags and headed out. I breezed through the produce section and crossed off the majority of things on my list. It took some label reading, but I managed to find whole wheat vegan hamburger buns. I think I did a little dance in the bread aisle. It was very hard not to visit my beloved cheese counter at Whole Foods but with a little determination I managed to escape its calling. Oh, who are we kidding I raced back there and bought some Gruyere just to have on hand for my other non-vegan meals this past week. And I of course sampled the Australian cheddar. Ahem.

I got home and unloaded everything only to go into a full blown panic over grilling the mushrooms. I didn't really want to throw them onto the same grill I use week in and week out to char up delicious steaks. That would just be disrespectful. So I raced to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought a grill pan, which I have now labeled my "veggie pan."

I must say, the meal turned out pretty good! My vegan aunt, vegetarian friend and semi-vegetarian sister all loved it! I caught my loving husband, father and grandfather all attempting to sneak butter onto their corn, but other than that, they did pretty well with it.

I am thinking of hosting Meatless Mondays here on out. I was met with a lifeless glare when I mentioned this idea to my loving husband so we shall see how long my fab idea lasts.