I went into this whole vegan-thing with the plan that I would do my best to stick to an entirely vegan diet. It's been a little over a month now and I have to say that I really like the way vegan-eating makes me feel. I found that as a result of restricting my diet to mostly plant-based foods, it's caused me to look at the world in an entirely different way...and amazingly I don't feel that I am missing out on anything by not having meat or dairy products. I by NO means have followed veganism perfectly, but I do try to make more responsible choices every day about what I'm putting in my body--and this idea has extended into other areas of my life as well (which I can talk about in a different blog).
In the last month I have done the following:
1. Discovered an entire world of grains that I didn't know existed: millet, wheat berries, farro wheat
2. Stopped relying on caffeine in the mornings to get me going and happy
3. Maintained my level of fitness-- AKA: I haven't become one of those anorexic-looking malnourished emo veganites that I was a afraid of before.
On to other news: Last night I went to a dinner party where the host made spaghetti with homemade meatballs-- cooked in bacon fat. I ate them. They were delicious! Does this make me a vegan no more? For the night, maybe. But, one of my goals since the beginning in taking on this lifestyle was to never inconvenience anyone else or place judgment on others for their diets. Had I rejected the meatballs, I would have been implying that my ideas of a diet are better than theirs. Even though I would never think that, it's still the way it would come across. I then followed the meatballs with a slice of non-vegan applesauce cake. It too was delicious (though I bypassed the ice cream).
Was it worth it? Well, I paid for this sudden change in my diet at work today. I had a few extra trips to the bathroom (except during the two-hour lock down we experienced...that was pure torture!) and I woke up feeling sick to my stomach this morning. But, it was worth it.
It was worth it because I shared a great night of food with friends that was untainted by the particularities of my diet.
As for tonight's dinner, I found my farm box veggies nearly gone. So, I improvised and came up with a pretty good mishmash here. We'll call it...
Out-of-Fresh-Produce Mishmash (Serves 2)
1/4 C cooked millet
1/4 C cooked red quinoa
1-2 C veggie broth (add as needed to cook the grains)
1/2 C garbonzo beans
1/2 C frozen peas and carrots
1/2 C onion, finely diced
1/2 C savory tofu. diced
1/2 C tempeh, diced
2 T soyaki (from Trader Joe's)
salt & pepper to taste
fresh or dried herbs to taste (I used some fresh marjoram i had in the fridge)
In a medium sized pot cook the millet and quinoa in the broth with spices. When the liquid is nearly gone, add the peas and carrots, garbonzo beans.
While the millet and quinoa are cooking, saute the onions until almost browned, add the diced tempeh and tofu and brown. Add the soyaki and stir for 1 minute. Then, stir this into the millet and quinoa mixture for a couple minutes--allow the flavors to fuse.
Remember too that vegan is more than diet. No leather shoes or furniture. No commercial shampoos that use lanolin (which is pretty much all of them). It goes on and on but it's terrific that you saw some real benefits to the vegan diet. It does really cramp your social life, though, unless you hang out with other vegans. I remember one celebratory lunch where the only thing I could eat was the garnish while I was on a similarly retrictive diet.
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