Vegan Week

One of the items on my 50 things to do before my second wedding anniversary list is to eat vegan for a week. I decided that this week would be the week I'd do it. I have time to plan meals since I'm not working, so I figured this would give me something to do. Also, because I have a lot of produce from the CSA, it should be much easier to do right now than other times in the year.

My final non-vegan meal was Sunday brunch at the spectacular Southside 815. Southside is a restaurant that is only a couple of blocks from our apartment. I love that place. I've never felt disappointed after a visit there. It serves Southern-style food in the restaurant part, offers a good happy hour during the week in the bar part, and is only a short walk away when Jake and I are seeking a bar to watch Badger basketball or football on tv. I really need to ask where they get their meat from. Ever since I've been trying to eat ethically, I've stayed away from meat there. I'm sad about this because they have really great mini pulled pork sandwiches and yummy, yummy mini plates of nachoes with pulled pork on top during happy hour at unbeatable prices. Anyway, my last non-vegan meal before vegan week was a plate full of french toast (stuffed with cream cheese,raspberry jam, and pecans...yum!), a side of home fries, and a couple of cups of coffee.

I decided to keep a record of the things that I ate over the week, as well as include a few amateur attempts at vegan food porn:

Sunday dinner
Fire Roasted Quinoa and Black Bean dish (borrowed from the blog Yeah, that Vegan Shit)

(I had some quinoa up in my cupboard that I'd been waiting to use up since I made this thing with zucchini and peanut butter and quinoa a couple of months ago. I substituted fresh corn cut off the cob for the frozen stuff. )

Half of one of those "tigger melons" for dessert

Munich Dark Beer made by Capital Brewery in the evening while watching "West Wing" with Jake
(We stockpiled as much Wisconsin beer as we could cram into the car on the drive back from the wedding...I didn't find out until later in the week that beer isn't always vegan. Apparently it's sometimes "finished" with things that include traces of fish bladder or egg albumen or crazy stuff like that...)

Monday Breakfast
Kashi Autumn Wheat Cereal with soy milk, coffee

Monday Lunch
Salt & Pepper Kettle Potato Chips

Grilled Marinated Tofu Sandwich- I used sunflower seed bread (which I'm not sure is vegan...but I didn't care enough to bother to check...it's good fluffy bread from a vendor at the farmers' market), tomatoes, and green leaf lettuce. I grilled some pressed tofu on this grill pan my mom gave me for the bridal shower. It was cool because it actually left grill marks on it. I marinated the tofu in Sweet and Tangy Polynesian sauce (which had honey in it...oops).

Look at it...this is before I put the other toppings on it. Doesn't it almost look like chicken or something?

Cup of tomato juice

Plum

Monday dinner
Veggie Fajitas on whole wheat tortillas with guacamole (made by Jake! Good job, Jake!)

Chips, salsa, and guac

Bottle of Spotted Cow

Tuesday Breakfast
Smoothie made with strawberries, a peach, some soy milk, and ice

Coffee

Some handfuls of Zoe's Honey Almond granola out of the box(yup, more honey...and this time it was on purpose...)
Tuesday Lunch
Chips and Salsa

Sandwich (sunflower seed bread, red pepper hummus, cucumber, onion, lettuce, yellow tomatoes, jalapenos)


Tomato juice

"Donut" peach (I bought two of these at the grocery store...they are a locally grown variety of peach that is weird shape.)

Tuesday Dinner
Chickpea Curry (I got the recipe from a vegetarian cookbook Maria gave me a long time ago...) and brown rice

cup of soy milk

Wednesday Breakfast
Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal with soy milk, coffee

Wednesday Lunch
Leftovers from the Fire Roasted Quinoa and Black Bean dish

Cup of soy milk

Peach

Wednesday Dinner
I got creative and made up a dish. It was kind of loosely based on ratatouille, but doesn't have any eggplant. I don't know what to call it. It had pattypan squash, green beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and summer squash in it. I served it on top of plain couscous. I'll have to try to write the recipe down later.

After dinner, Jake and I drank blackberry wine (I bought this in Harpers Ferry...it's a West Virginia wine).

Thursday Breakfast
Envirokids Frosted Flakes and soy milk, coffee

Thursday Lunch
Chips and Salsa

Slices of cucumber with raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Leftover veggie fajitas

Salad (green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, raspberry vinaigrette)

Peach

Thursday Dinner
We went out Thursday night with PTO people for happy hour. I drank 2 pints of Grolsch (which I found out is actually vegan...). Jake wanted to order nachos and share them with me, so he asked for them without the beef, cheese, or sour cream. The waiter told him that the beef came mixed with the beans that were supposed to be on it. So, Jake asked for the beef mixture on the side so he could eat it. They wound up putting everything on the side...a little dish of guac, a little dish of jalapeños, and a little dish of "salsa" (which was plain chopped tomatoes...how can that be "salsa"). It was weird. Then, I convinced Jake to walk across the street to eat at the buffet at Whole Foods afterwards. I was buzzing from the beer and excited about all my options (WF helpfully puts labels up that list all the ingredients on everything in the buffet. I could see it being related to the fact that John Mackey is a vegan...). So...I loaded down quite a hefty plate...Peruvian corn, naan flatbread, Chinese vegetables with tofu, curried garbanzo beans, and "Balti" vegetables. I was very full afterwards.

Friday Breakfast
Tofu Scramble with jalapeños, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cumin

Toast with raspberry jam

Coffee
I really wanted to eat a good hearty breakfast before leaving for Atlantic City because I wasn't sure what I'd find for vegan options at the restaurants there. I really overspiced the tofu scramble in the morning, but I wound up eating most of what I served myself. I felt like my eyes and nose were going to completely burn off. Jake threw about half of his breakfast away...

Friday Bus Ride Snack
Diet Dr. Pepper

Bag of Fritos

Vodka/Cranberry Juice

Friday Lunch
We ate at the "Sultan's Buffet" in Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino. I loaded down my plate with stuff off the salad bar. Kevin looked at my plate and said, "What, did you get the fruit plate?" I got a good amount of veggies, mandarin oranges, beets, a tomato salad, some marinated mushrooms, a roll, and some tomato basil soup (It very probably had cream or something in it, but there were no labels and I didn't feel like asking. I had two bowls full. It was delicious.).

Friday Dinner
Udon noodles with vegetables at this cafe in a shopping center in AC

"Energy" vitamin water

French fries from a vendor on the boardwalk (Actually, this vendor still had them labeled as "Freedom Fries"...)

Saturday Breakfast
Envirokidz frosted flakes with soy milk, coffee

Saturday Lunch
Apple

Chips and salsa

Leftovers (some chickpea curry and some of the random veggie dish with the squash in it)

Saturday Dinner
Avocado and Veggie sushi, Veggie spring rolls, and mango tea at Bumblefish

Bar of Divine dark chocolate (which may contain traces of milk...bah...)

Sunday Breakfast
Cinnamon Puffins cereal with soy milk

Coffee

Yay!!! I'm done!! Weeeeee!! I made it!!

Why did I decide to go vegan? Well, firstly, I think it had to do with just basically being more aware of the food I'm putting in my body. I think I consume more fatty dairy than is really necessary. Also, I do think the dairy industry inflates how much their products are really necessary for a healthy lifestyle. So, I think I also wanted to go vegan as a statement against the Standard American Diet as well as corporate marketing of certain foods. I wanted to prove that I could eat healthily and heartily as a vegan (I feel I ate fairly healthily, considering I ate a good variety got lots of produce in my diet. I do wonder if it was a bit soy-heavy, though...and of course, I probably took in too much alcohol.). I think I ate well, for the most part, and enjoyed most of what I ate. (I think I need to keep in mind what it was like eating vegan at a big, crazy buffet like the one in Atlantic City...it definitely is a good idea to make sure the majority of your plate is filled with low-cal, highly filling items such as vegetables...)Finally, I ate vegan because I can understand the logic of eating vegan as an ethical standpoint. I feel that vegans are at least consistent and it makes more sense to me than dieting. I want to go on record that I did not do this as a "diet". I did not want to lose weight (and I didn't! I maintained my same weight...ha!). I do not believe in "going on a diet". I think diets mess up people's metabolisms and probably actually contribute to the reason why people are overweight/obese. I think it's all about having a lifestyle of healthy eating rather than a short term "quick fix".

On the other hand, I have no intention and no willpower to ever go permanently vegan. First of all, I enjoy dairy and eggs far too much. When I was growing up, I avoided most cheese because of an incident when I was 3 or 4 years old wherein I ate too many slices of processed American cheese and threw up. (Sidenote: I learned recently that when processed cheese was first being produced in the US, natural cheesemakers pushed the USDA to label it as "embalmed" cheese. Ha! Yeah, I think I could agree with that one...). It wasn't until I was in high school that I started to actually try cheese that wasn't mozzarella on pizza. I found that cheese is quite varied and most is delicious. (Oh, I love sharp cheddar...and Gouda...and feta...gurgle. I could do without that bleu cheese stuff, though...)Really, cheesemaking is probably quite the art. Why would I want to deprive myself of cheese again in my life? Not to mention ice cream...oh ice cream... Secondly, I really do want to support small-scale dairy farmers. I have members of my extended family in the dairy business and I know that they have struggled to make ends meet. Jake and I try to buy dairy for at home that is small-scale, organic, and rBGH-free for the most part (I know going out or ordering food we're not able to have that...but, no one's perfect).

Anyway, I'm rambling and ranting on and on...

So... In conclusion, I'm going to Chipotle for lunch today. Oh, I'm so ready for some meaty, sour creamy burrito goodness. Woo!

But...vegan week was an interesting learning experience. I recommend it.