Most Americans have been raised on diets heavy in meat, eggs and dairy. We’ve been taught to associate animal products with comfort, well-being, affection, and comradery. It’s no wonder that many traditions are centered around the exploitation and suffering of animals.

If you’re a compassionate person, you’re likely to feel conflicted. You care about the feelings of those around you and want to share traditions with them. You don’t want to make them feel bad. But you don’t feel right about animals unnecessarily paying the ultimate price for your satisfaction.

Most people aren’t monsters. They don’t see their parents or those around them as monsters. They trust that traditions are sacrosanct and morally vindicated. They don’t question them. So, it causes them no dissonance. They aren’t looking for reasons to change, and they have no desire to feel bad about choices they’ve been making all their lives.

For some reason, resisting change seems to make our past behaviors more palatable. We never realize an alternative. There’s no tangible counterpoint. But suffering exists whether or not we acknowledge it.

I get it. I’ve been there. I became a vegan in recent years. I know what I’m missing. But what’s more important is that I know what I’ve been missing all my life until now. I know a peace I never new before. We can’t move forward until we forgive ourselves for what we’ve done in the past. For some of us, it’s the only way we can acknowledge it and move on.

If there were a time for change, now is a better time than ever before, with a growing need for sustainability and with good vegan food and ingredients more readily available. However, until we build knowledge and form new habits and traditions to replace the old, it takes a lot of thought to blaze new trails in a world full of minefields.

This website is a step towards simplifying the preparation of good vegan meals and towards developing new traditions. It’s a step towards crowding out old traditions with more compassionate ones.

Whether you’re here for the health benefits of a plant-based diet, for sustainability, for compassion, or for delicious, easy meals, there’s something here for you.

Peruse the growing catalogue of recipes here, and you’re sure to develop some new habits and traditions that are healthier, more sustainable, and murder-free.

Welcome. I plan to add a new recipe every week or two.

Contact | nick@murderlessmeals.com