Fabris softener!

[Karma007]

Indido, does your daughter help with the cooking and shopping (I know, not cool...but vegan cooking can be awesome, especially with the right cookbooks. Have I mentioned the cupcakes?). I would tell her that, while she's welcome to eat what she wants, if she wants more than rice and vegys, she better learn to cook, and how to seek out the good stuff, even in a less than stellar grocery. There is also a list on the web somewhere of "accidentaly vegan" foods for her to check out, should she miss some of her junk food faves (Oreos!)

There are a lot of myths concerning meat and dairy free diets ("the'yre all skinny and malnourished...you can't be a serious athlete on a vegan diet...you won't get enough protien"...) and if she is choosing this route, especially as a growing teen, she'll need to have a firm understanding of what her nutritional requirements are.

Also, if's she a web surfer, have her check out the Post Punk Vegan Kitchen (theppk.com). It's full of like minded individuals, and if she loves food, she's welcome there, regardless of where her politics stand.

Feel free to email me if you would like more info

Here's me...shutting up again...

[deeaimond]

Indigo,

I agree with shootingstar, that if your daughter chooses to be a strict vegan, you should not have to be the one cracking your head over what she can or cannot eat all the time. Since she is old enough to make the food choices that enable her to be a vegan, she should also be able to take enough care to make sure she is eating healthily. Learning to cook for herself will mean that she gets to experience how complicated food prep can be and so she will learn to not complain. It also means there are more things for her to eat, and who knows, some of them might be good enough to tempt the rest of the family as well. (Then occasionally she can take over the cooking duties leaving you free to go for as nice long ride)

In my home my parents have always worked full time so cooking duties always fell to me. I cook well, but occasionally there are some slip-ups. Or sometimes, especially these days when i come back from work exhausted (with more work waiting to be done) and dad and bro are just waiting for a meal. I'm happy to cook more (I have to eat too)

But I understand the frustrations of having to prepare food around the various likes and dislikes of a whole family of people. Having one vegan makes it even more tough I imagine. Fortunately for me, no one dares complain (because then I will just cook for myself for a week and all they can have is the smell of good food.)

Oh and another good jelly substitute for gelatin is konnyaku (a kind of japanese yam) It makes excellent jello and is full of fibre.

As for the original topic of fabric softener, I don't use any either, because its hard to know what kind of chemicals are in it and i have unidentified allergies to chemicals.

[Irulan]

Don't know how old your daughter is..but soon it might help she prepares some of the food herself. Just to understand what it is required to be vegan in meal planning and recipes.

I third this. She's got no business complaining about which yogurt you buy etc if shes a) not doing the shopping, b) not paying for it and c) not doing the food prep. It's easy to have a special diet when someone else is doing all the work.

While my kids never did vegan or other non-mainstream food paths, I did have a very picky eater. He learned at a very young age that I wasn't a short order cook or a waitress, and that he could come and help shop if he didn't like what I got. ( we are talking when he was 10 or so) Even at that young age, he knew how to fix things for himself if he didn't like what was on the menu.

[indigoiis]

Thanks you all.
We were getting tired of the rocks.

[Brandi]

Well, you can also go for synthetic ingredients.
These are petrol based. Petrol is dead dinosaurs. Go figure.

Your horse tallow will have been purified, distilled, and transfigured so that there's no dead stuff in there...

Do you use lipstick? can you say lice?

And you do wear leather shoes, don't you? I'm just saying... not trying to make fun of ya.

I use vegan lip stuff as well as makeup. i don't have many leather things actually. I am just slightly bothered by using it on stuff I rub oe wear on my body. You can make fun of me! I am rubber!

[Brandi]

Just noticed this when I was grocery shopping tonight - Seventh Generation now makes fabric softener dryer sheets. They use plant-based ingredients.

I will be going the vegan route!

[Brandi]

yep, fabric softener bonds with your wicking fibers and clogs them up so they don't work any more.

I use nature's freshener.... line dry!!

I would love to line dry but we live in a very moist environment so it won't work for me.To bad I would love to dry my clothes like that.

[Brandi]

YAY! Another Vegan cyclist who loves Isa! I have VwaV on my wishlist but people keep buying me Veganomicon...i have 3 copies now.

Bet some ladies here would buy them off you?

[Brandi]

I am not a vegan. I don't do crap food though except here and there if there is nothing else. I am bothered by the fact that we need all these wierd things in our life. I don't mind eating meat here and there. We tend to lean twords vegatarian if we can. I don't use fabric softener's on our bike our hiking clothes. I liked it for things like sweaters, towels, sheets etc...I understand it is clean and so on. But putting animal fat on your clothes is strange now that I know about it. And it doesn't say on the bottles so looking for it doesn't work. I know there are probably a lot of things just like this. But what does fabric softner really do? Make your clothes smell nice and soft? True. But do we need it?

[Irulan]

static control, "soft feeling", wrinkle control and artificial scents.

[Aggie_Ama]

I switched to Bamboo Sheets and they can't use dryer sheets but they are oh so soft. Organic sheets, no fabric softener= win! And they breath so well in hot Texas. My only gripe is they are a natural color and seem dingy because DH and I both tend to have oily skin in the summer. But did I mention they seem naturally soft and light?

[Karma007]

I found thse neat laundry sachets at Trader Joe's. They're reusable, and gave my laundry nice lavendar scent...

[Brandi]

I found thse neat laundry sachets at Trader Joe's. They're reusable, and gave my laundry nice lavendar scent...

I am going to tj's today I will look for those!