Almost a Month Later

I said I would be back to give some thoughts on the 30 Day Challenge, and I'm finally getting around to it! Yay!

I had my first non-soy latte today since the start of this thing. It tastes weird!

Overall I think this has been a really positive experience. I think people hear the term vegan and they get this immediate mental picture of a tree-hugging hippie living in a VW bus and eating giant bowls of "yard clippings". Or at least that's what I used to see. In reality, it's just a more sustainable, "healthy" way to eat and live. It's not easy, but it's also not that hard.

Since the challenge ended and going forward, I won't be calling myself a vegan. I'm aiming more for a "plant-based diet". I read that term somewhere recently (couldn't tell you where) and it clicked with me. I want the majority of my fuel (calories) to come from plants. I'm going to give in to the occasional dairy product, and I'm not going to stress over whether the salad I just ordered is going to have eggs in the dressing. I'm going to eat sushi. I love sushi! But I expect I'll continue to shop like a vegan. Most of the "cheating" is going to be when we go out to eat or on special occasions when we cook for friends or eat at a friend's house. I guess if you want to get hung up on words, technically that will make me a pescatarian.

I have more thoughts, but I'm out of time for the moment. Pesky work-Saturdays!

Days 29-30

We made it to 30 Days!!! ::happydance::

Yesterday was standard. Green juice for breakfast, bean burrito for lunch. Didn't even eat my banana because I'm still avoiding food after that binge snacking on Sunday. Seriously, I haven't even wanted to touch food, but somehow I've managed (hahaha).

Dinner was Moe's since it was also grocery shopping night and I refuse to go on an empty stomach. I took a picture this time!! Look at my yummy "Earmuffs", which used to be called a "streaker" or a naked burrito. I basically ate it as nachos since I used my chips as a fork.

Earmuffs from Moe's

So far today I've had breakfast (green juice) and a new burrito that I found at Kroger last night. I usually don't buy Amy's burritos there because they are $3.29 or higher, but they had them all on sale for $1.99 which is the same as the commissary's price, so I scooped up a few new ones to try. Today's was an Indian tofu burrito, and it was good!

Also, I haven't said much about what I've been drinking. I am trying my best to cut out soda and artificial sweeteners. Last week I found these:

True Lemon packets. They are not with the drink mixes in my store, they're over with the bottled lemon and lime juice. They are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice, and contain nothing else but citric acid, lemon juice, and ascorbic acid. It's in a crystallized form and flavors a bottle of water really nicely. It says one packet = one wedge of lemon and has zero calories. True Lemon also makes drink mix packets, and I found those over in the drink mix section. They contain stevia, which is still better than splenda or aspartame, but I'd rather stay away from all of them.

I'm not sure what's for dinner. My brother-in-law gets in tonight around the time I get off work, so I guess we'll play it by ear. I've got a big post coming soon with my thoughts about the 30 Day Challenge!

Day 28

I'm excited as I write this because I just realized today is day 29. We're almost to 30 days!

Yesterday I had green juice for breakfast, a banana, and a burrito for lunch.

Hubby made dinner since he got home first. We had spaghetti. Whole wheat noodles with some leftover pasta sauce that was in the fridge. He added some chopped onion and 2 vegan burger patties to the sauce to give us a good "meaty" sauce. It was good! If I had thought about it ahead of time I would have made the breadsticks again, but instead we had garlic toast. Simple and tasty!

And because I feel bad about not having any pictures of food, here's a picture of my cat instead. =D

Days 25-27

Saturday we had plans to go out to the woods and check out some campsites and do some night-time photography, but our friends stood us up! We would have stayed home to finish moving the studio/office, but since we were planning on a little day-trip, we went to Moe's to pick up lunch before meeting our friends.

I'm getting only slightly tired of Moe's at this point. There are so many combinations that it's hard to get bored. I had a homewrecker junior with tofu this time. It was loaded with rice, black beans, grilled mushrooms and onions, black olives, cucumbers, guacamole, and the southwest vinaigrette. I actually asked for the Salsa Vinaigrette, but the southwest was good too. It was VERY oily though, and my plate quickly turned into a puddle. I couldn't eat the last inch or so of the burrito because I'm pretty sure it was all vinaigrette.

We were pretty bummed about being stood-up, and I'm not sure that we ever got around to real dinner. We did finally get busy moving furniture, and I want to say we ran out to Kroger for a loaf of bread and I had a pb&j and some chocolate almond milk for dinner. Dinner of champions.. hahaha

Sunday I started the day with a bowl of oatmeal before we did a little grocery shopping. We bought mostly convenience items since we are expecting this week to be a little hectic. We scarfed down a cheese-less Amy's veggie pizza before heading over to a friend's house to watch the Super Bowl. I'm glad we planned ahead and brought our own snacks, because I think the only vegan things there were potato chips and teddy grahams. I brought roasted red pepper hummus, wheat thins, veggie stick chips, and BBQ Almonds. I've really been good about avoiding snacks all together, but being around a bunch of people eating lots of good smelling food was a real test. If I hadn't brought my own snacks I might have caved and eaten other things!

Since I'm not used to snacking like that, I felt sick when we got home after the game. I had to try very hard to keep all that junk food down, and I probably would have been better off if I hadn't. I'm not condoning binge eating and throwing up, but my body was definitely trying to purge... ick.. Makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it!

Monday I had some store-bought green juice for breakfast. It's not as "healthy" as home-made, but at least I'm getting the vitamins. The juice has a lot of things my multivitamin doesn't have, and it tastes good. And it is easy to drink when my sinuses/allergies are making me nauseous in the morning.

For lunch I had an Amy's bean burrito. I bought 5 to last me the week at work, so I'll be repeating myself a lot. They're quick and easy, even if they do often fall apart. You could easily jazz one up with some salsa and/or guacamole, or even some Better Than Sour Cream. I don't really get tired of them, since lunch is more of a hassle than a culinary experience for me. They keep me full for the rest of the day and they taste good. Maybe someday I'll be able to step outside the box of leftovers and frozen things. I'm just not that dedicated yet.

I had a banana and some almonds when I hit my mid-afternoon slump, and I think that was a pretty good snack. My energy levels stayed fairly consistent yesterday, all without any caffeine! I didn't have one of my (in)famous yawning fits at 4:30, so I'd call that a good day.

For dinner I made a stir-fry with the fake chick'n teriyaki strips again. It's so quick and easy and only uses one pan, so I'm inclined to make this at least once a week. I used frozen veggies to save time, but if I was going to serve it to friends I would definitely take the time to chop fresh veggies (onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, green beans or sugar snap peas) and at least buy a few cans of authentic stir-fry veggies (bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, yummm). The bag of veggies I used last night was heavy on the broccoli, which I kind of think of as Chinese food filler. If I was making it from scratch, I'd probably leave out the broccoli. If I had a little more time I'd have made some fried rice (with tofu or sans egg), but honestly the veggies and chick'n filled me up and I didn't miss the side dish.

Day 23-24

Since I work later hours on Thursdays, I got a lot done yesterday before work! We had a new sleeper sofa being delivered for our guest room "between 8-10am", so I couldn't sleep in like I usually do.

New sleeper sofa!

I had oatmeal for breakfast. It's boring, but it's easy and I like it. I was able to sit down and eat it as I watched the morning news. There's something I could get used to, if I didn't enjoy sleep so much.

Lunch was kind of weird, because I get to work right before lunchtime on Thursdays. My routine is always off, and I try to save my lunch break for dinner time (I would be ravenous if I tried to wait to eat dinner after 8pm). I ended up eating some hummus and wheat thins as I worked at my desk. I had also mixed some cranberry juice and apple juice in a tumbler and brought it to work, so that counts as lunch too.

Organic Thai Coconut Curry Hummus. So tasty.

For dinner I had a black bean burger (freezer to microwave, so easy at work!), and my leftover salad from dinner at Good Eats. It was a huge salad, so I had plenty left.

I ended up eating another bowl of oatmeal when I got home because I was hungry again. I've been having a hungry week. Oh well.

Breakfast today was the same.. oatmeal. It really is good with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Really creamy and like a completely different substance from oatmeal made with water. I think vegan or not, I'll keep making it this way. Who needs the added sugar from regular milk anyway?

I brought a strange last-minute concoction for lunch today. I mashed a can of white beans and mixed it with a few tablespoons of salsa to make a bean dip. And we were out of tortillas, so I brought tortilla chips instead. I'm not crazy about the extra sodium, but oh well. It's what I had. And it's going to taste good. I brought some mexican rice I can heat up in case I'm still hungry. Oh the strange things I eat when I'm running low on produce. =D

We're going out for sushi tonight to celebrate the hubby's successful PT test. He passed with a 97%! That's his best score ever, in the entire 5.5 years he's been in the military. He's practically sold on being a permanent vegan now. Success!! We might even pick up some sorbet, though I'll feel guilty and I'll have to drag my butt onto the treadmill tomorrow to make up for it. The next adventure is going to be adding in more exercise and cutting out the (vegan) junk food. 

Day 21-22

Tuesday was fairly standard as far as food goes. Had a muffin for breakfast, banana a little later, and an Amy's bean burrito for lunch. For dinner we tried some Chick'n burgers. We made sweet potato fries in the toaster oven and I threw together a salad of spinach, avocado, tomato, and cucumber with balsamic vinaigrette. Everything was good, especially the Chick'n burgers. They have me convinced that fake chicken is much better than fake beef.

Home made salad

Wednesday was a hungry day for me. I had a muffin for breakfast, then for lunch I had a black bean burger and wheat thins with Thai coconut curry hummus. I ended up having two cups of coffee late in the work day because I was fighting sleep and a headache. I've been using coconut milk creamer and it's a fair substitute.

We were out shopping for new running shoes, so we went to a local place called Good Eats for dinner. I ended up having a Spicy Thai Vegetable Soup and a Greek Salad (minus the feta). Hubby cheated and had a shrimp po-boy, but he's been good up till now so I didn't fight him on it. The girls at the counter were friendly and answered all my questions about the soup ingredients. I asked about dairy and she told me there was none in the soup. It was very creamy, and it definitely had a hint of coconut milk.

Greek Salad from Good Eats

Day 20

On Monday we tried juicing.

Two servings of Green Juice

I couldn't finish mine. I drank about 80% before my gag reflex took over. The juice is spinach, kale, celery, green apples, cucumber, and ginger. I found a different recipe (different ratios, plus lemon) that I want to try next time. This one was a big no. I wish I could find a good one without celery because I don't like celery at all, and it's overwhelming in any juice. That wasn't really the problem with this one though. This one just tasted like grass clippings. Yuck.

I had a muffin later on, and my co-worker brought me a soy mocha from Starbucks.

I found a new kind of Amy's burritos that I like, and that was my lunch. I also had a vegan cupcake (!!) since I brought them to work to share.

For dinner we had Chick'n Stir Fry. I bought 2 bags of stir fry veggies (peppers, onions, baby corn, water chestnuts, broccoli, snap peas, carrots, mushrooms) and a bag of Chick'n Teriyaki strips and dumped it all in the skillet for a few minutes. I added a little soy sauce and the teriyaki sauce that came with the chick'n. It definitely passed the taste test. I really liked the fake chicken strips.

Days 17-19

We had Moe's for dinner Friday night. We were going to go to Genghis Grill, but we ended up going to Moe's with friends instead.

Saturday we made burritos at home for lunch (white bean and avocado), and had black bean burgers with lettuce, tomato, and avocado for dinner.

I managed to make the blueberry muffins last night and they came out really well. Our oven cooks fast, so I may have actually pulled them out a minute too soon because I was scared they would burn. My only complaint is they need about 1/4th cup more sugar, but otherwise the texture and everything is great. Here's the link to the recipe I used. She has lots of helpful notes!
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/03/02/vegan-blueberry-muffins/

Blueberry Muffins!

Today I had a blueberry muffin for breakfast and a peanut butter and jelly soft taco for lunch. That's a throwback to my favorite Mexican restaurant and favorite menu item as a kid.

For dinner we made pizza! The crust was from the refrigerated section, and we added pizza sauce, red onion, red bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, and black olives. It was very good. Maybe next time we can make calzones!

Pizza before it went in the oven.

I also made vegan cupcakes today! They came out perfect, I'd say. Just plain vanilla with vanilla frosting, though the frosting was surprisingly difficult to work with. I guess when you are used to working with buttercream or cream cheese frosting, there is going to be a little adjustment period.

Here's the recipe I used: http://whippedbaking.com/2012/04/11/very-vanilla-vegan-cupcakes/

Very Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes (before frosting!)

I'm taking those to work tomorrow, so I'll see how everyone else feels about the dairy-free, egg-free baking!

I must say that I feel a lot better after spending a good chunk of time in the kitchen this weekend. I miss having a big kitchen, but I really do love cooking and baking.

One last thing, we made juice tonight for tomorrow's breakfast! We've dabbled with juicing before, but I think it's important with this vegan lifestyle to make sure we're getting a full range of vitamins and such. You're supposed to juice and drink it right away, but not being a morning person makes that about as likely as me going to the moon. I figure 12 hour old juice is better than no juice at all. So, tomorrow I'll be drinking my first dose of Mean Green (from "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead"). Wish me luck...

Day 15-16

I apologize for falling off the blogger cliff this week. I don't know what's gotten into me. I can't remember if I had breakfast this morning, so recapping all my meals for the past two days just isn't going to happen.

I think we had Moe's for dinner on Wednesday.

Yesterday I had a blueberry scone and a banana for breakfast, oatmeal for lunch, another banana as a snack, and a cheesesteak sandwich with no steak and no cheese from the bowling alley cafe (it's right next door to my work) for dinner since I was working late. Those sandwiches are amazing, btw. It goes to show that you really can find vegan food just about anywhere. Most restaurants have the ingredients, you just have to find someone willing to put them together for you.

I've been avoiding my kitchen lately because it depresses me. I have weeks where all I can think about is my giant kitchen in my house in California, with brand new appliances that I picked out, and more counter space than I knew what to do with. Then I look at my tiny galley kitchen in our rental and I get depressed and have no desire to cook. It's a phase and it will pass and honestly, my hands are itching to get in there and bake or make a stir-fry or something.

I'm promising myself that I'll get in there this weekend and make those blueberry muffins before my fresh blueberries go bad. And I want vegan cupcakes. The idea just intrigues me, even though they'll be bad for my waistline.

Day 14?

I think I can see progress!

I had oatmeal for breakfast, and a blueberry "scone" a little later at work. They had some organic blueberry scones next to the cans of biscuits at the commissary this weekend, and they just so happened to be dairy and egg free. I baked them last night, but they are pretty much blueberry biscuits. Seriously, they taste like Grands biscuits that just happen to have blueberries in them. But they're still good, so whatevs.

I actually had a breakfast burrito for lunch. Amy's makes a potato, tofu, black bean, and salsa burrito and it's pretty good. I ate the last regular bean burrito for lunch yesterday, so it was slim pickin's for lunch today.

For dinner we made the vegan "cheese" pizza, but I didn't like it. I would rather have the cheese-less pizza next time. The highlight of dinner was the breadsticks though! I used half a can of breadstick dough (also next to the biscuits), and I didn't separate the breadsticks. I put them in a pan and brushed on some olive oil. Then I sprinkled them with sea salt and oregano and baked them in the toaster oven according to the package directions. They really couldn't have turned out more perfect. I'm only sad that now I'll have to make them with every Italian meal for the rest of my life... hahaha

Perfect Breadsticks!

Even the bottom was pretty

Days 10-13

Agh! Sorry I've been a blog slacker! I'd say we were in a bit of a food rut this weekend, which didn't inspire me to write much. =/

Friday we went to the local health foods store and found lots of vegan goodies. I wish I could find them at a regular grocery store so they wouldn't be so expensive, but I guess it's better than nothing! I found vegenaise and "better than sour cream" and a vegan "cheese" pizza, among other things. My favorite find was the organic dog food in a huge bag for only $7.50. It's Castor and Pollux Organix Dry Dog Food, and it got the top rating of 5 stars on dogfoodadvisor.com. I still can't believe some of my friends are paying $30+ per bag for "good" dog food, and I got this stuff cheaper than the Iams I had been buying. The pieces are small enough for my 5lb Pom, and my cat seems to really like it (shaking my head, she loves dog food and won't leave it alone!).

We ate a lot of junk food over the weekend, including oreos and vegan burritos. We did sneak in one Moe's run, and a trip to the sushi place that we ordered take out from last week. I got to try agedashi tofu, and I liked it!

We had black bean burgers and sweet potato tots for dinner last night, and I'm hoping that puts an end to our junk food craze for the week. I bought the ingredients for more home made bean burritos, so that's probably what we're having tonight. I need to get another list of recipes going and make a big grocery trip in the next day or so, but hubby has finals this week and won't be much help so I don't know if that will get done.

Oh! And I bought the ingredients to make blueberry muffins. That may be what I do tonight to keep myself entertained.

Day 9

Agh! Sorry I'm late! I have a different work schedule on Thursdays, and that always throws off the whole rest of my day.

Breakfast yesterday was maple and brown sugar oatmeal again. I got a few recipes for blueberry muffins to try out though, so hopefully I can make those over the weekend. Hubby really liked the idea of muffins and has asked me repeatedly to make more.

For lunch I had veggie soup again, with leftover cornbread. I'm tired of it now, so I brought something else for lunch today.

We tried out some frozen veggie burgers for dinner. I found 2 vegan kinds in the freezer section at the commissary, so we both had one of each. One was Amy's and I don't remember the brand of the others. Amy's were plain veggie burgers, but the others were my favorite. They were black bean chipotle, but not too spicy. Oh, so good.

An interesting note to share, since most of my friends aren't vegan. I found out yesterday that honey isn't considered vegan by the "purists". It is considered an "animal product" by many! Hubby said this was going too far, that no way would he give up honey mustard, and I kind of agree with him. Maybe I need to do some more research, but I don't feel like bees are being extorted for their honey. I'm very fond of honey and beeswax, too. I use fresh beeswax from a local beekeeper to make solid lotion bars, and I love that I can use such a natural product instead of one loaded with chemicals. I keep reading that being vegan isn't about being perfect or being a "purist", it's about lessening your impact and voting with your wallet. Based on those principles, I see no reason to avoid bee products.

Health Update

Just a quick update to say that I've lost 5 pounds! Granted, I was not watching what I ate from Christmas to New Year's and I gained a few unnecessary pounds, but at least I can say they're gone!

I haven't had much progress yet on other health related things. I figure it's just too early in the process, and we haven't been eating super healthy. ::coughfriedmushroomscough::

I do want to pick up some things to start juicing again next week. It makes such a mess in our kitchen and it's time consuming, but I guess it's worth it to get all those nutrients the right way.

Alright, back to work!

Day 8

Breakfast was predictable today: Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal with almond milk

Lunch was a "hearty" vegetable stew I put in the crockpot over night last night. It was an everything in the fridge kind of stew, and I deviated from the recipe a bit. I threw in several carrots and parsnips, half an onion, a white potato, half a sweet potato, 2 cans of whole tomatoes, 2 cans of cannellini beans, half a head of cabbage, and some spices. Of course everything was peeled, diced, or sliced appropriately. If I had remembered we had celery, I'd have thrown in some of that too.

For dinner we had soup again, but I finally made the quinoa cornbread! It turned out very interesting. I will most likely make it again, without the quinoa next time. It wasn't bad, just gave it a strange texture. Fun fact, this is the first time I've ever made cornbread with whole kernels of corn. I liked that part.

Vegetable Stew and Quinoa Cornbread

Tomorrow is probably going to be a leftover day mostly. We have a few frozen veggie burgers as a backup plan, but I work late so I'm probably having stew again. I'm trying to make it to Saturday without shopping again, because we're finally going to the only health food store in town that day. They close too early during the week for me to make it over there after work. I'm excited to see what kind of selection they have. My fingers are crossed for vegan sour cream and egg replacer.

Anyone have a good vegan blueberry muffin recipe to share? I know it's not likely, but I figured I'd ask!

Day 7

One week down!!

I had planned a longer post, but I cooked dinner tonight, and then we went to find me some new work shoes, and when we got home I decided to make tomorrow's lunch and dinner too. Then poof it was 10pm. Oops.

Breakfast was maple and brown sugar oatmeal but I made it with almond milk (instead of water) and that was pretty good.

For lunch we had to improvise. The bowling alley is next door to the library where I work, and they have a cafe/grill. Hubby was coming to eat with me, so I ordered two Philly cheesesteaks without the steak or cheese and asked if they could add some mushrooms. They weren't busy yet, so they were happy to oblige. The sandwiches were awesome. Two warm hoagie buns overloaded with grilled peppers, onions, and mushrooms. I will be ordering that again for sure.

Mmm.. Pizza

For dinner we had a pizza night. We found one variation of Amy's vegan pizza at the commissary. I have the picture of the box, but I can't remember what it was. Hubby loved it. He said he didn't miss the cheese at all, which is big because he's a huge pizza lover. He was really glad to find vegan pizza! We also had some fried mushrooms. Not a banner day for healthy food here, but they were so good and went well with the pizza. I can see a repeat of that meal on pizza-and-a-movie night.

Here's the box. It was a Roasted Vegetable No Cheese Pizza

Fried Mushroom Bites (Made in my schfancy new toaster oven)

Last bit of fun for today: I got my milk frother from Amazon today! I was so excited to try it out! I just made a decaf k-cup and warmed some vanilla soy milk in the microwave for a few seconds, then used the frother to make foam and dumped it on top of my coffee. First thoughts were holy cow where has this contraption been all my life and how did I live without it. I see many more fun vegan coffee drinks in my future. Many, many more.

First milk frother test was successful!

Day 6

This is going to be short because it's late. I had a sewing class at my neighbor's tonight so I'm behind on everything it seems.

Breakfast: maple & brown sugar instant oatmeal

Lunch: leftover two potato soup. Left me starving by 4:00. I was not happy about that.

Dinner: Organic spaghetti with marinara sauce from the Vegan Student Cookbook. We added the fake beef, but I didn't like it at all. Of course, I haven't eaten real beef in over a year so I'm not the best test subject.

Day 5

Sorry, no pictures today. 

Breakfast was 2 pieces of 100% whole wheat toast with a little bit of Earth Balance spread. I was going to have peanut butter, but I decided bland was better.

For lunch we went to Moe's again. We were doing a little shopping in the same shopping center, so it just made sense. I had two tofu soft tacos with rice, black beans, lettuce, corn salsa, cucumber, and black olives. Josh got his usual homewrecker with tofu. I'm ridiculously glad we have a quick place to eat that we already loved.

For dinner I made Chilean Two-Potato Soup. It's sort of chili-like. One white potato, half a sweet potato, corn, diced green chilies, diced onion, garlic, red kidney beans, cumin, thyme, salt, cayenne pepper, and vegetable broth. I really liked it as far as soups go. Much better than anything from a can, but that's not saying much. It will be great for lunch tomorrow, since the temp isn't expected to get above 36 degrees.

Side note: I had planned to make some quinoa cornbread to go with two different soups, but our kroger didn't have quinoa. Or rather, they had only one package and it was in the specialty foods section and was like $15, which is INSANE. I meant to stop by the commissary and pick some up, and I totally forgot until I was getting the ingredients out to make the cornbread. Oh well, maybe I'll remember to pick some up before I make the veggie stew later this week.

We should be about ready for another shopping trip by Tuesday or Wednesday. I want to find another muffin recipe because those have been great for Josh in the mornings. He has about as much time for breakfast as I usually do, and portability means he'll actually eat breakfast. I have a feeling we'll be doing more soups and stews this week since the weather is going to be brutally cold for the next 10 days.

Day 4 Dinner

Sautéing the quesadilla filling

We made Black Beans and Greens Quesadillas from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook. The filling was red onion, garlic, kale, black beans, a little oj, thyme, salt, allspice, and firm tofu splashed with soy sauce.

These were really interesting. The recipe made 4 quesadillas, and since I didn't have a side dish we just each ate 2. The first one was really different and really good. By the time I was finishing up the second one, I was tired of the kale. I think next time I'll half the kale and add a cup of chopped or sliced mushrooms instead.

Josh and I both agreed that it needed a spoonful of sour cream on top. Maybe I'll be able to find the vegan sour cream at the health foods store for next time.

Here's the finished product:

Black Beans & Greens Quesadillas

Day 4

I'm bad and I skipped breakfast today. I had to work (every fourth Saturday, ugh) and I just couldn't force myself to eat this morning. I suffer from constant, year-round sinus drainage (sorry, I know it's gross) and it's usually at its worst first thing in the morning. It can make me very nauseous, hence my issues with breakfast.

Since I'm working, Josh decided to get lunch for us. We decided to try some vegan sushi! We got an avocado roll, asparagus roll, sweet potato roll, and some veggie tempura. I'm assuming since this was a very traditional Japanese sushi restaurant that they didn't use eggs or milk in the tempura batter. It was very light and crisp and not puffy, so I think we did ok there. Of course we also got some miso soup (true miso, no animal broth) with seaweed and tofu. Yummmmmm. I had asked him to get agedashi tofu for us to try, but he forgot. Oh well, there's always next time.

I haven't decided what to cook for dinner yet. I've been dying to make one of the soups, but I also have the ingredients for tofu and kale quesadillas. Josh will probably choose spaghetti if I let him pick.

Day 3

Old Fashioned Oatmeal with Brown Sugar & Raisins

That looks like breakfast, but it was actually lunch for me today. Sleep won out this morning and I grabbed a muffin as I made a mad dash out the door. I walked in to work at precisely 9:30, but I soon got distracted and ended up only eating half my muffin. Ah well, welcome to my typical morning routine!

My stomach was protesting loudly by 1pm, so I added water and heated up my oatmeal in the microwave. I'm glad I put paper towels under it, because even though I put the tupperware lid over it (not sealed, just resting) the oatmeal bubbled over. That drives me nuts! I guess I'm going to have to reduce the power or get a bigger bowl next time.

Tonight's dinner could be one of many things. I've got ingredients for Two Potato Soup, Vegetable Stew, spaghetti with mushroom marinara and fake ground beef. Or we might try eating out somewhere since we're planning on going to the movies.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fake ground beef. I wanted to try it just because, but it kind of goes against the purpose of being vegan. If you're just going to replace meat with a chemical substance that tastes like meat, what's the point? Thoughts like this lead me to believe it would be more logical to be a vegetarian. When you can eat a veggie burger held together with eggs, I think that's a win over a vegan burger held together with some kind of laboratory created substance.

Part of the reason I've decided to cut out dairy and eggs for now is because I don't like the way dairy cows and chickens are treated. Yesterday, a friend of mine told me about a farm that isn't too far away that raises their cows, pigs, chickens, and hens the old fashioned way. On their website it even says, "Cows eat grass, chickens eat bugs, pigs root around outside." I think I need a shirt that says that! I want to go check them out sometime, but if/when I'm ready to start incorporating eggs back into my diet, I want them to come from a farm like this. They even come to the farmer's market here during the summer and fall, so I'm thinking they might be a very feasible option for guilt-free eggs.

Edited to say:
We've decided on Moe's for dinner. I'm probably getting the Art Vandalay (vegetarian burrito) with rice, black beans, lettuce, corn salsa, mushrooms, onions, black olives, and guac. Josh likes something similar but he added tofu last time. It was pretty good! I honestly don't even miss the sour cream or cheese that I used to get, and I sure don't miss the calories.

Day Two

Day two has been pretty easy. I started reading The 30 Day Vegan Challenge for a few minutes when work was slow, but I didn't get very far yet.

I had a muffin (see last night's post) for breakfast. The muffin seemed a little dry so I put a little bit of Earth Balance (vegan butter-type spread) and popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it. Josh said he didn't warm his, but I think it was a lot better that way.

I had my leftover Avocado & White Bean Burrito for lunch, but this time I stuck it in the microwave for 30 seconds too. It was goooooood! I'm probably going to make a whole bunch of these and try freezing them for quick lunches or dinners.

For dinner we had Lickety-Split Burger Hash from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook. It's just onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, 2 chopped up vegan burgers, tomato sauce, dijon mustard, and a little bit of maple syrup as sweetener. Simple and quick, which is great since I had to work until 8:00 tonight. I decided to serve it over minute rice (hey, I didn't have time for regular rice!) and it was the perfect addition. The only thing I didn't like was that it only made 2 servings, so there were no leftovers! I'll definitely double it next time.

cooking the diced onion, pepper, and mushrooms

Lickety-Split Burger Hash over rice

Tomorrow is probably going to be prettttty boring. I don't have anything planned for lunch and it's after 10pm, so I'm probably just taking some oatmeal and a banana. But I guess the fact that I can do something quick and easy and boring is a good thing. Vegan doesn't have to be complicated (well at least not all the time)!

Day One Dinner

I survived! Day one is almost done and I'm not starving or grossed out or discouraged. I'd call that a success.

For dinner we had Avocado and White Bean Burritos from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook. It was just mashed up fresh avocado, mashed up canned white beans, store-bought salsa, and fresh arugula on flour tortillas. I did add some technically non-vegan veggie shredded cheese on top. It has milk-derived protein, which I didn't realize when I bought it, but honestly I'm doing this to avoid dairy and I don't really consider that dairy. Anyway, the burritos were sooooo good. I made 2 extra so we can take them to work for lunch tomorrow (no "salad" from bk for me!). We also took 2 of the tortillas and cut them up and toasted them to make tortilla chips.

Avocado & White Bean Burritos

After dinner I made some Banana Chocolate Chip "ice cream" from Raw Energy: 124 Raw Food Recipes for Energy Bars, Smoothies, and Other Snacks to Supercharge Your Body

I didn't make it with strictly raw ingredients, but it was a great starting point for a vegan ice-cream-type dessert. I used dairy-free chocolate and roasted cashews instead of raw chocolate and raw cashews, but I otherwise stuck to the recipes. I haven't tried it yet, it's in the freezer now. I may have a spoonful before bed though!

I also made something for breakfast tomorrow. Apple, Raisin, Cinnamon muffins from the Allergy-Free Cookbook.  This is an awesome cookbook I checked out from the library, but I may have to buy a copy. It's full of normal, everyday recipes, with substitutions for nuts, dairy, and/or gluten. When I want to turn something vegan, all I have to do is follow the dairy substitute ideas (and obviously avoid the meat recipes) and I can leave in the gluten and nuts! Very handy, very versatile cookbook! However, I may have to alter this recipe next time. The dough was extremely dry. I had to add an extra splash of soy milk just to get it all combined. They didn't settle into the muffin pan well, and I'd rather bake them a few minutes longer to get a better muffin shape next time. I'll let you know how they taste tomorrow!

Apple, Raisin, Cinnamon Muffins

Edited to say: I left out the best part! The muffin recipe called for "apples unpeeled, shredded" and I literally laughed out loud. I did *not* shred my apples. I chopped them pretty small. I don't know if that had anything to do with the dough being very dry, but yeah.. shredded apples. smh.

 

Day One

Today is my first day trying to eat like a vegan. I'm doing this partly for ethical reasons, partly out of curiosity, and partly because I've inherited fairly constant digestive issues from my dad and I wonder how vegan eating might change that.

I gave up eating beef, pork, and all other mammals in November 2011 and I can honestly say I haven't missed it. I have been eating quite a bit of chicken, turkey, and fish since then, but I can no longer ignore the profound impact that "growing" these products is having on our ecosystem and food chain.

So here I am.

The hubby and I went grocery shopping last night for our new vegan (and mostly organic) lifestyle. That was an adventure. I'd say it took about twice as long as a regular trip, but it wasn't as expensive as I feared it would be. Kroger has their own line of organic products now, and while I haven't researched them extensively, at least a few of the things I bought claim to be GMO-free. I bought organic spaghetti noodles and they were only $0.29 more than the cheapest pack of regular noodles. Same goes for soymilk. With the rising cost of cow's milk, the soy wasn't noticeably more expensive. Granted I only bought the soymilk for a recipe and I won't be adding it to my oatmeal or anything since I have serious issues with Monsanto and their soybeans that are probably in my milk... ugh. I digress.

Today I started with my usual instant oatmeal. I'm not the type of person who gets up even 10 minutes earlier to prepare breakfast, so instant is my go-to. I found organic instant oatmeal that's fairly low calorie, and easy to make (obviously). I heated that as usual and added half an organic banana. It wasn't as good as my Quaker Peaches & Cream that I usually have. It definitely needed a pack of sugar/sweetener. I have some organic oats from the last time I made granola, so I may have to suck it up and make the stuff that takes 5 minutes tomorrow.

Lunch is coming up in a few minutes and I'm off to Burger King (gasp!). I didn't think ahead and make lunch last night, so I didn't have anything to bring with me to work this morning. I'm just going to have a salad with vinaigrette (that's vegan, right?) with no cheese. It's not going to be an every day occurrence, but I have to make do today.

After Lunch Edit:
Burger King was less than helpful. They have all the ingredients for a great vegan salad, but they wouldn't put them together for me. =( I really wanted the apple cranberry salad without chicken or cheese, but apparently they have no way to ring that up so my only option would be to pay for the chicken. Which I guess I'll just go ahead and do next time. But then they also have to make me a fresh salad because the pre-made ones have cheese on them. And vinaigrette is not vegan, or at least theirs isn't. It has eggs in it. So I ended up getting a "salad" that consisted only of lettuce and a few sliced tomatoes and Honey Balsamic salad dressing. It served its purpose, but that was a maddening experience. First of many, I expect, if I keep trying to eat out during this experiment. Oh the joys of living in Louisiana! If I lived in NYC or San Francisco or DC, I could eat at a different restaurant every night and never run out of vegan choices!

I'll post about dinner tonight. I've got lots of options since we just went to the store last night!