Though I’ve been a vegan for more than a year and a half, a vegetarian for 3 years, and kosher (no pork, shellfish, etc.) for 6 years, I haven’t always held non-meat eaters in the highest regard.

Back before my gradual conversion that began in 2008, I used to mock the concept of vegans and vegetarians. I had them stereotyped pretty easily in my mind.

Then, as my eyes began being opened by watching Netflix documentaries like Supersize Me, Food Inc., Forks Over Knives, Vegucated, and Hungry For A Change, I began understanding the attraction towards an “I eat nothing from an animal diet”,  but I chose not to participate because I wasn’t ready to make such a lifestyle change.

If you ask me, becoming a vegan or vegetarian requires you to live an alternative lifestyle.

I would know, since I live the vegan life 100% every day, no exceptions.

By the way, part of the lure to veganism is that it means your daily cholesterol intake is less than 1%; or in other words, 0%. While “vegan food” (veggies, fruit, grains, beans, nuts, & seeds) do contain some cholesterol, it’s never enough to register high enough to count as 1% on the food label.

So I thought it would be interesting to produce a collection of picture collages featuring what our family ate during the 5 day Christmas vacation we just came off of.

I must admit, I have a major advantage in my vegan lifestyle: My wife is an extremely good cook, and she loves planning and cooking our family’s meals. (That’s her in the picture above in the blue and back shirt.)

In the way I am passionate about blogging, she is passionate about making good food for our family.

One of her secrets is a website called Oh She Glows. The majority of the food you see today is derived from her plant-based recipe website.

Over Christmas vacation, we dined on sweet potato chili, spinach pasta with “vegan meatballs” (made with oats), vegan veggie pizza (vegetarian for those who eat cheese), vegan nachos (made with potatoes and avocado), and cashew sauce pasta, to name a few meals.

And thanks to my mom and my sister, we definitely weren’t short on vegan desserts.

My mom had a table full of vegan cookies and cakes, while my sister made vegan chocolate cupcakes, per my son’s request.

The biggest challenge was when we drove an hour to a family reunion near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

We wanted to be able to spend time with that side of the family, but we were unable to eat any of the food there; and I especially didn’t want to be a hardship to them because of our dietary limitations.

So here’s what we did: We packed the Lexus LX (the vehicle I was reviewing last week) with Larabars and water; which kept us full through the visit. We arrived 30 minutes early, to maximize on spending quality family time, before the food part started.

In total, we were there for a solid hour and a half, before they started serving their food, which is the point at which we left.

Fortunately, the Whole Foods was only 8 miles away; that’s where we had our lunch that day.

I admit I was a bit skeptical going into this holiday season how as I vegan, I would be able to participate in a feast of Biblical proportions. But my family made it happen.

Honestly, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything food-wise this holiday season. I ate very well and had a great time; just without the cholesterol.

For more on this kind of stuff, just click on tab on the upper left-hand side of the page: My Vegan Life.

And of course, feel free to ask questions in the comments below!