Day 12 - My future food

A friend asked me today what was going to happen at the end of the month when my 4 week vegan commitment was over. And it got me thinking. . .

I have 2 weeks left and I really have no idea. Sometimes I think I want to vegan for the rest of my life - I feel great about myself, what I'm eating, and how I'm living. But other times, I really miss dairy. If I decide to not be vegan forever, I think I could do vegetarian at least. I really love pizza.

O yeah, the vegan ramen (from yesterday's blog) was great! It was really easy to make, convenient and yummy. I might go and buy some more for late night cravings of ramen noodles.

Speaking of late night cravings. . . This is my food I am eating now:

This is my favorite late night snack: Chips with beans, tofu sour cream, and salsa - YUM.

O yeah- tofu sour cream! Weird, right!? I saw it at the health foods store and I thought "I gotta try this!" - I tried it when I got home, and I REALLY didn't like it. I thought it was nasty. But then tonight I thought I would give it a second chance (and eat it with something) and it was GOOD. I was shocked but when it's mixed in with beans and salsa, it's delicious!

Day 11 - I'm HUNGRY.

As each day goes by, I am realizing that I am eating not as much food as I use to. Which, I suppose is a good thing. But I don't think I am eating quite as much food as I should be. I am struggling to shove vegan food in my mouth before dinner. This really isn't too big of problem except my stomach starts growling sometimes.

I guess I should let you all in on a secret. I have ADHD. I am currently on medicine for ADHD, and one of the biggest side effects (I notice) is lost of appetite. Before I went vegan, I had a good schedule of making sure I ate. Because I really do forget - I will go a whole day on a muffin and then at 9 PM, I have a headache and feel shaky.

So, now I am trying to figure out what to do because my hunger pains aren't as painful as they use to be (because of the medicine). I use to always get soup/sandwich/cheese bagel at my school's cafe. Well, I no longer have those options. . . So I need to (once again) plan ahead.

Here is what I did today:

I microwaved breakfast and ate it in the car. It was the left overs from this weekend's breakfast scramble. Look, I was dangerous and took a picture of my skilled multi-tasking:

Please don't the cops.

Tonight (in about 20 minutes), I am going to a meeting where dinner is being served (uggggg). I am starting to not like eating when other people are cooking (how sad). I asked if the dinner will be vegan friendly and it's not (of course) but there will be a veggie tray (o joy, veggies). So, I am bringing along a cup of vegan ramen. I am excited to try this because I love ramen noodles and I am so happy to find a nice company that makes them vegan. I hope they are as salty, fake, and unhealthy as the real ones.

Fresh Flavor in a cup. Yum.

Last thing! I got Thai/Sushi with some girlfriends last night. I was planing on getting vegan sushi but then I realized they had other vegan options. So I got Thai Green Curry with tofu. It was YUMMY. It came looking like this:

Is it soup? Wait, I'm confused.

It was served with rice and looked like soup. I was confused because I thought green curry was a noodle dish. But it was very good, I highly recommend it - but only if you like spice. It's a bit spicy. O yeah, don't worry that's coconut milk - which is vegan. Bam baby!

Yipps! Gotta run to that meeting.

Have a good night y'all! Thanks for the comments!

Day 10 -The hard part is setting in

Being vegan is starting to be a lot harder than I expected. Sure, I thought it would be hard but this is extreme.

I will start with my weekend.

Friday night: I had some plans to go to a bar with some friends. We met a bit before dinner time, so I actually packed a little dinner (PB & J and pickles) for myself because I wasn't sure if we would be going to a vegan friendly restaurant.

We ended up at Viceroy (a trendy bar that is modeled like a bar during prohibition - there is even a secret door and password to get in). And as it turns out Viceroy is (sorta) vegan friendly! So, I ordered vegan chili and french fries.

Not the best/most appetizing picture, but at least I got to eat out!

On Saturday, I had a wedding to go to. I was really nervous about what was going to be served at the reception. I thought about asking the groom (who is a good friend but doesn't know I'm vegan) if there were going to be vegan options. BUT I forgot. So, I planned on bringing some snacks in my purse. BUT I forgot that too(surprise, surprise). So, I just had to be anxious and wait to see if I would go hungry for the night.

We get the reception and sit down and I look at the menu: Salad, chicken, fish, green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes. Great! I can eat salad, green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes. The salads were soon served and look so pretty! Plus, it was easy to pick off the blue cheese. Yippies!

It was small, but mighty tasty!

Then, I get to the buffet. I am waiting in line thinking "please don't let there be butter on the green beans, please!". But of course, the green beans were DRENCHED in butter. So, I get a huge plate of sweet potatoes. Here what one of my friend's plates look liked:

Look at the chicken. mmmm!

And this is what my plate (and I) looked like:

ugh.

After about 2 bites, I realized I really didn't like them. They probably would have been good if I something else to eat with them, but they were very. . . mushy and gingery (I don't like ginger). So, I literally had 3 bites. And starved until I got some Taco Bell later that night.

ARG! I HAVE TO BE HONEST. I have a confession- the mashed sweet potatoes were probably not vegan. There is no way to know for sure because I was too shy to ask (I really gotta get over that). But I just googled recipes for mashed sweet potatoes, I noticed that all of them have butter and even some have chicken broth. ARG, because of my "I don't want to be that girl" insecurities, I have ate butter and maybe even chicken. Damn it, I should've asked.

On Sunday morning, all my friends were going to a popular breakfast place called Wolfgang's. If you ever come to Grand Rapids (and you are not vegan), go to Wolfgang's! They have the best, unique breakfast combinations - Banana Bread French Toast, Pancakes with cream cheese and fresh berries, and Skillets with eggs, potatoes, meat, and seasoning. It is SO good.

So, once again I planned ahead. I thought "I will get hash-browns with onions and peppers in it." And as a back up (if the hash-browns have butter), "I will get potatoes with peppers." I thought it was a pretty solid plan.

The plan failed - miserably. The hash-browns are cooked on the same skillet as everything else = butter, butter, butter (and maybe bacon drippings). The red potatoes are even worse. They marinate them in chicken broth - why? I don't know. Good thing I asked this time. It was really awkward as the waitress and I tried to figure something (anything!) out. I suddenly remember I could get a plain bagel. So, that is what I got.

AND IT SUCKED. Well, the bagel didn't taste bad. It just sucked watching all my friends eat very yummy cheesy eggy breakfasts while I had a bagel with jam on it. I love eggs so much. I love breakfast so much. I probably won't go to Wolfgang's again unless they get at least one vegan option.

However, I have made some yummy vegan breakfasts. Here is some photos:

This was my second time making breakfast potatoes. This time I added vegan bacon, and it tasted SO good.

This is a very interesting breakfast. It's suppose to turn out like cheesy eggs. Here is the recipe. This was an adventure of it's own. I made it with tofu and nutritional yeast. I was really worried as I was cooking it because it looked kind of nasty. But to my surprise, it tasted good. At first, I was a little turned off but the more I ate, the more I liked it. Especially when it was on my bagel!

In fact, I am eating the left overs right now. :)

This is a random shot. I get really hungry at night when I am reading and I often need a lot of food. This is what I grabbed. Vegetarian refried beans, chips, and a pickle. I love my pickles.

Lessons learned: ASK. and ask ahead of time! I should have called Wolfgang's with my questions so I wouldn't have been so disappointed, and I should have asked my friend if there were going to be vegan options at his wedding. It would have avoided a lot of sadness and hunger in my stomach. My poor stomach.

Good news! I have lost weight. NOT gained and the acne is not bad. Woop woop!

Day 6 - Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I decided after popular vote of my closest friends who support me through the craziest things to continue blogging. Y'all are wonderful.

THIS ICE CREAM IS HEAVEN IN A TUB.

and

coming from me that says that a lot.

TOMORROW! I am going blog about pride issues because for some reason I feel that I am better than other people for being vegan. Am I? --> Hell's NO!

P.S. Sorry for being so whiny yesterday.

Day 5 - Snacks and Challenges

As the days go by (has it only been 5 days!?), I realize that being a vegan is hard. The fun new adventure aspect is wearing off and the "I just want a hotdog so bad" part is coming into focus. I started school today, and I think that's why I'm realizing the challenge - I have to pack a lunch and snacks on the go. Last semester, whenever I got hungry I ate a cheese bagel from the cafe or a yogurt. But now, I really have to plan ahead - I'm not good at that especially when it means:

a) Getting home after a long day exhausted and packing a lunch before I go to bed. Or

b) Getting up earlier to pack a lunch.

I always go for option b but it always end up failing. I have to find a new system.

Last night! I had the best midnight snack. Well, I should explain - when I get hungry at night, I get REALLY hungry and I eat A LOT. I really needed a snack and this is what I made:

A big ol' pile of refried beans, chips, and a pickle. I love my pickles! This is a great snack for me, maybe not the healthiest of options, but hey! - at least it's vegan. Oh, yeah I did chop up some green onion and put that in the beans. YUM.

To be really honest, I don't feel like blogging about this anymore. I don't think anybody is reading this, and it takes a lot of time. I haven't got one comment on this whole blog = no readers = I'm a loser = I feel sad on the inside. See what you have done?

Day 4 - Rules

I need to define my rules/regulations of what I can and can't have.

Before I began, I thought I wasn't going to be very strict- but then I realized if I wasn't, I wouldn't know where to draw the line. So, I am being strict and here are my rules:

Rule #1: No Meat. This is pretty obvious. But let me define further - no solid meat and no meat in liquid or powdered form. For instance, I can't have chicken broth (or anything made in chicken broth) and I can't have Ramen because they have chicken powder in the seasoning. Also, no fish- which is a small bummer because I am going to eat Sushi tonight.

Rule #2: No Dairy. Again, let me define further - no dairy in any form (milk, butter, eggs, yogurt). The hardest ingredient to deny is "dry milk" - it seems to be in a lot of stuff.

Rule #3: Eat everything else - anything that grows from the ground.

Those are my rules. I should explain something further - A true vegan would not just define themselves by the food they eat but also all other products - cleaning solutions, make-up, soap, and clothing. I am not a true vegan. I am focusing on the food aspect only. I would be overwhelmed to change all those elements at once. Perhaps, I will slowly change my mind over time (if I get use to being a food vegan) and I will change to more animal/planet friendly products. But for now, I am focusing on food.

Also, honey is still up in the air. I can't decide if it's okay or not. I have not had any honey yet. I have a big bottle of it and it's from the farmer's market so I feel like it's okay. But technically, it is an animal product.

Product Review - Newman O's

I read from a couple of blogs that these Oreo cookie copy-cats were good, so I gave them a try.

It's strange because they say "Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies" but there is no creme or milk in these cookies- which makes them awesome because they are vegan.

The first thing I notice when I opened the package was they look exactly like Oreos and smell like Oreos too (I have a strong sense of smell). And then when I looked closer, I was kind of bummed because they don't have as much creme filling as Oreos. BUT THEN, I tasted one. O my goodness! It was delicious! I would say the creme filling taste the same as Oreo's filling, but the chocolate cookie part was very rich and chocolaty. My mouth was overwhelmed with positive sensations.

I am definitely buying these again.