I just sat here eating my vegan sandwich and staring at that Chris Farley GIF for legit like 5 minutes before I opened a new post.
Clearly, I've been lazy about blogging this week, and I doubt you want to read a post encapsulating all of the meals I've eaten since Monday, so I'll try to hit the high notes.
I'm much better at vegan cooking now. I'd actually say this has made me better at cooking in general. I've tried new flavors and techniques that I otherwise probably wouldn't have.
I am still having Diet Coke cravings here and there, but I try to remind myself that it never really makes me feel better after I've had it, so I try to stay away.
I am having cheese cravings seriously pretty much every minute that I'm awake, and probably most minutes that I'm asleep too. Cheese is amazing. Vegan cheese is the worst. I am seriously considering throwing this vegan thing overboard and having pizza for dinner tonight.
This whole thing has really made me think about the role that food plays in my life. I am the first person to proclaim the wonders of sharing a good meal with friends, but then I remember the times that I've used food to comfort or reward myself, and it makes me kind of sad. Haven't I evolved beyond that point? Or matured beyond that point? What is it about our society that says: "You're good. To show you how good you are, you get to eat this cookie." Think about those messages. Why can't we communicate how much we value one another in other ways? I value you and your health, here's a beet. High five. Or, how about, I value you, let's spend some quality time together. I dunno. I know that someday I'll have kids and I'll shove a fistful of oreos into their mouths just to have silence for the amount of time it takes for them to chew and swallow, but I hope that I also communicate my approval and appreciation in other ways too.
Oh, and the title of this post - this week someone asked how the veganism was going and I said that I was being a "sneaky vegan." What I mean by that is that I've been eating a lot of processed soy and a lot of things that I shouldn't be eating only because they're vegan - for instance, a vegan cookie is still a cookie. Eating 5 vegan cookies may be better than eating 5 regular cookies, but it's still eating 5 cookies. I committed to this diet with the intention of focusing on whole foods and plants and I haven't really been doing so great at that. There are a million documentaries about how veganism is great for you, but I'd be interested to hear how veganism affects your body if you're NOT following a whole foods/plant based diet. What if all you eat is tofu and veganaise and fakon (fake bacon)? Does anyone know where I can find information on that?
I'm back to juicing. I really do feel good after drinking juice in the morning.
That's all I've got for you today. OK BYE! Have a good weekend.
Friday, March 08, 2013
Monday, March 04, 2013
Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That is how I feel right now re: veganism and blogging. More specifically the blogging than the veganism.
It's been 14 days since my first day of veganism. I'd say overall I still feel better than I did before trying veganism. My skin is in total breakout mode right now though, which sucks, and I'm having regular headaches. Apparently both are symptoms of detoxification of your system. So just gotta press on to get to the other side.
Friday:
breakfast: bread + peanut butter. again. didn't have veggies to juice.
lunch: convinced a vendor to bring me a salad from Croutons (spinach + berries again).
dinner: ordered thai delivery. tried a new place. we liked it! victory! had drunken noodles with tofu and some corn fritters that were probably not vegan but LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. (chris farley anyone?)
I seriously think of the above from SNL at least like 3x/week. I love Adam Sandler's face in that gif.
Saturday:
breakfast: vegan pancakes using this recipe from Marcus Samuelsson (delish! - but the recipe doesn't make much, so definitely double the recipe). We didn't have maple syrup (whoops) so we made do with jelly and peanut butter for our pancakes. You can taste the banana flavor, but I think I may have liked them more than regular pancakes because I didn't have a huge crash/food coma afterwards. Definitely worth a shot.
lunch: bean burger from Evolution in San Diego. That's right. We have vegan fast food restaurants here. Welcome to California. We had just taken the doggies to the park to run around before we left for the evening but it was SO HOT that none of them wanted to run. They all just wanted to stand in the shade and hide from other dogs slash the sun. So that was a bust.
dinner: Totally non-vegan. We drove up to Long Beach to see my Aunt TC, Uncle Bill, and cousins Therese and Billy (among other people) and ate at an Italian restaurant. Could we have eaten vegan dishes or made dishes vegan off their menu? Probably. But I didn't even feel like worrying about it. I want this diet choice to be a plus in my life, not some huge inconvenience when I'm trying to enjoy time with family. So I had linguine carbonara and Jeremy had penne with meatballs. And then, on the drive home, I stopped to get gas annnnnnd a Cadbury Egg because I NEEDED IT AND LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. I figured I'd already eaten non-vegan once that night so the ship had sailed.
I got a caffeine free Diet Coke on the drive up and I didn't even finish it. I didn't even HALF finish it. I dunno. It's just sort of lost its appeal. It's a sad day.
Sunday:
breakfast: I don't even remember. I think I ate a spoonful of peanut butter.
lunch: leftover thai food from friday night.
dinner: salad that I made up (what? I'm a vegan chef now, don't worry about it). I went to Sprouts yesterday for the weekly grocery shop and the green beans were calling to me...they just looked so good. So I bought 'em. If a veggie calls to me, I'll buy it. If an aisle full of chocolate calls to me, I try not to buy it, but I still end up buying two dark chocolate bars, one with raspberries and one with orange (THEY WERE ON SALE). So anyway, I blanched the green beans then shocked them in an ice bath to stop the cooking so they were still green and crunchy. Then I toasted a handful of cashews on the stove, and added grape tomatoes, half an avocado, carrot shavings, baby arugula and spring mix, and some frozen corn that I'd roasted under the broiler until it was browning up a bit (in a good way, haha). I made a dressing from olive oil, the juice of 1 lime, dijon mustard (2-3 tablespoons) and red wine vinegar. Then I added salt + pepper. It was really good! Way better than I expected it would turn out.
Then after dinner I ate 4 vegan cookies (2 oatmeal raisin, 2 chocolate chip with walnuts which are the bomb) and finally caught up on the last few episodes of Dexter from this last season.
That show. Is so. Good.
Today I've eaten fruit. I am so lazy today. I had plenty of veggies to juice for breakfast but just did not feel like it. So I ate a banana instead. And for lunch, I brought some strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries and I'm just sort of nibbling them as I get hungry. I dunno. I'm uninspired. Sooooo yay.
It's been 14 days since my first day of veganism. I'd say overall I still feel better than I did before trying veganism. My skin is in total breakout mode right now though, which sucks, and I'm having regular headaches. Apparently both are symptoms of detoxification of your system. So just gotta press on to get to the other side.
Friday:
breakfast: bread + peanut butter. again. didn't have veggies to juice.
lunch: convinced a vendor to bring me a salad from Croutons (spinach + berries again).
dinner: ordered thai delivery. tried a new place. we liked it! victory! had drunken noodles with tofu and some corn fritters that were probably not vegan but LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. (chris farley anyone?)
I seriously think of the above from SNL at least like 3x/week. I love Adam Sandler's face in that gif.
Saturday:
breakfast: vegan pancakes using this recipe from Marcus Samuelsson (delish! - but the recipe doesn't make much, so definitely double the recipe). We didn't have maple syrup (whoops) so we made do with jelly and peanut butter for our pancakes. You can taste the banana flavor, but I think I may have liked them more than regular pancakes because I didn't have a huge crash/food coma afterwards. Definitely worth a shot.
lunch: bean burger from Evolution in San Diego. That's right. We have vegan fast food restaurants here. Welcome to California. We had just taken the doggies to the park to run around before we left for the evening but it was SO HOT that none of them wanted to run. They all just wanted to stand in the shade and hide from other dogs slash the sun. So that was a bust.
dinner: Totally non-vegan. We drove up to Long Beach to see my Aunt TC, Uncle Bill, and cousins Therese and Billy (among other people) and ate at an Italian restaurant. Could we have eaten vegan dishes or made dishes vegan off their menu? Probably. But I didn't even feel like worrying about it. I want this diet choice to be a plus in my life, not some huge inconvenience when I'm trying to enjoy time with family. So I had linguine carbonara and Jeremy had penne with meatballs. And then, on the drive home, I stopped to get gas annnnnnd a Cadbury Egg because I NEEDED IT AND LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. I figured I'd already eaten non-vegan once that night so the ship had sailed.
I got a caffeine free Diet Coke on the drive up and I didn't even finish it. I didn't even HALF finish it. I dunno. It's just sort of lost its appeal. It's a sad day.
Sunday:
breakfast: I don't even remember. I think I ate a spoonful of peanut butter.
lunch: leftover thai food from friday night.
dinner: salad that I made up (what? I'm a vegan chef now, don't worry about it). I went to Sprouts yesterday for the weekly grocery shop and the green beans were calling to me...they just looked so good. So I bought 'em. If a veggie calls to me, I'll buy it. If an aisle full of chocolate calls to me, I try not to buy it, but I still end up buying two dark chocolate bars, one with raspberries and one with orange (THEY WERE ON SALE). So anyway, I blanched the green beans then shocked them in an ice bath to stop the cooking so they were still green and crunchy. Then I toasted a handful of cashews on the stove, and added grape tomatoes, half an avocado, carrot shavings, baby arugula and spring mix, and some frozen corn that I'd roasted under the broiler until it was browning up a bit (in a good way, haha). I made a dressing from olive oil, the juice of 1 lime, dijon mustard (2-3 tablespoons) and red wine vinegar. Then I added salt + pepper. It was really good! Way better than I expected it would turn out.
Then after dinner I ate 4 vegan cookies (2 oatmeal raisin, 2 chocolate chip with walnuts which are the bomb) and finally caught up on the last few episodes of Dexter from this last season.
That show. Is so. Good.
Today I've eaten fruit. I am so lazy today. I had plenty of veggies to juice for breakfast but just did not feel like it. So I ate a banana instead. And for lunch, I brought some strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries and I'm just sort of nibbling them as I get hungry. I dunno. I'm uninspired. Sooooo yay.
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