Food Fight!

I am Vegan (or at least have been mostly, sometimes, or almost vegan since November 1^st). I live with a foodie and an omnivore. The foodie likes raw milk. I don’t even like milk! She buys things like cow leases (to obtain raw milk), eggs direct from the farmers of cage free chickens and organic, pastured butter, whatever that is. The omnivore likes meat. A LOT! This is the man who orders his burgers plain and his BBQ with no sauce. Oh, and he really doesn’t like vegetables much.

To say being vegan is a challenge would be an understatement…in this house anyway.

It takes planning, but we do it. And we do it (while feeding 4 of the foodie’s children as well) on a pretty reasonable grocery budget. We make regular visits to the farmers market and the health food store, with a few visits to Trader Joes in between.

It also takes acceptance. And we’re getting better at that. What we’ve concluded is that choosing a healthy way of eating is an important decision, which healthy plan you choose is a personal choice and isn’t as important as simply making the decision to eat healthy.

So, yes, although we’ve had our food “fights” a time or two, we’ve all made the decision to eat healthier and that gives us a lot less to fight about :)

As for the omnivore, we just give him meat often enough that he stays pretty quiet :)

A success!

A lot of cooking was done today, including these gingerbread flax muffins. Healthy, vegan AND enjoyed by all :)

Tempeh with Sugar Snap Peas

What's this you ask? Besides leftovers for tomorrows lunch it's PW's Beef with Snow Peas recipe, made with tempeh instead of flank steak. I must say this is my favorite recipe yet! And, I like the texture of tempeh way better than tofu. It may well be my favorite meat replacement :)

I sure would like to win this :)

The Chocolate Covered Katie Magic Bullet Give Away!

A Typical Lunch

The beautiful yellow color from the curry doesn't come through in this pic, but this is my tahini-curry carrot salad. I added apples and chickpeas and a side of sticky ginger tofu that I made last night.

Day 1

So, how did my 1st day go? Not bad at all! Actually, it was quite yummy!

During my trial run days these past few weeks, I learned that you can top anything with Coconut Oil (must be unrefined, extra virgin) and it will taste better. There is also coconut butter, which includes the meat of the coconut and tastes heavenly right off the spoon! So for breakfast I have been topping my oatmeal with either of those, some cocoa powder and a bit of raw sugar. Yumm-o! I admit that it probably helps that I love oatmeal and eat it daily anyway :)

Lunch consisted of sauteed veges purchased from Eastern Market this weekend, some polenta (topped with coconut oil) and a tomato, basil Tofurkey sausage. Yes, I went right for the processed vegan food, but last night I sauteed veges for today, so don't judge too harshly ;)

Tell me this doesn't look delish!

Dinner, I kind of took the easy way out. I worked late and wanted to exercise, and eating a full dinner at 7:30 or 8 didn't appeal to me. So what did I do? I repeated breakfast! Seriously though, would you have trouble eating something that looks (and tastes) this yummy, twice in one day?

Today (and for the month of November) I will be Vegan

Everyone's first question is "why?"

The real question (for me) has become "why not?" I can find NO evidence against it. Yes, there are certain vitamins and minerals (and proteins) that I will have to be sure to get, but that's the same in any diet. I found a blog with recipes that excite me to try and I'm longing for new food ideas. My goal is at least 90% (since Thanksgiving is in there and all) for the month of November. If I feel as good as all those vegans out there say I will, then I will make it a longer commitment.

I'm planning on blogging about it, so if you want to follow along, this is where you'll find me....