Almost there

I am still vegan, and Im pretty sure that by Sunday this weekend I will have made my goal and have been vegan for a whole month!

Im so impressed with the results that I will be sticking to this for a long time to come :) And to think of all the animals Ive saved along the way....makes me feel great.

I still get comments from workmates and people who are so old fashioned and dont understand, but I dont let them bother me. If someone starts to fight me over not eating animal products, I just tell them gently "I dont try to control what you eat, please give me the same respect". Has worked so far..

The end of this challenge is in sight...wasn't much of a challenge after all!

Another day

Had lunch at a vegan restaurant near work. Im always so impressed with their food. I can hardly cook meals for myself bursting with as much flavour as theirs do. But I suppose that is why they are chefs, and I am a mere media sales assistant.

Have to try and weasel my way out of lunch on Monday. We are meant to be going to a japanese restaurant, and I really don't want to seem difficult when I avoid all the sashimi and ask for the yasai itame to be cooked in soy sauce only. Probably the thing I hate most is seeming difficult.

We went to the sunshine coast for Australia Day, and for some reason everyone gravitated toward the bakery at every meal. The only shop I can't eat anything at. Pastry - butter, cakes - eggs, savoury rolls - smothered in cheese, pies - meat, pasties - spinach with fetta cheese. I mean, at least when we go to mcdonalds there is still something on the menu I can eat...chips! Chips is better than a trip to the bloody bakery, ending in me holding everyone up because I have to walk to a fruit shop.

I understand now why vegans can be so angry. People are just so ignorant sometimes, and that is really frustrating.

Its been a while

I'm keeping with this though, and its been a week and a half. I enjoy it, and being vegan has made me realise exactly how much we don't cook our own dinner. We are either not at home or have people over who want take away..
It really bugs me how particular I need to be with food orders when I am out. I choose meals with no meat in them, and am vigilant enough to ask if there is cream, milk, dairy, honey etc in the sauce, and if they say no I trust to get an animal product free meal...only my meal is smothered in cheese. In case these people didn't realise, cheese isnt a vegetable, and I dont want it in my vegetable gnocci. Hence why I specifically asked for no dairy.
Sigh! Something about being in the minority I have to get used to I suppose.

Day 3

Breakfast: Cereal with 1 sliced banana and 1 cup soymilk
Lunch: Salad (tomato, mushroom, lettuce, carrot) and some grapes
Dinner: Ratatouille with Toast Fingers

People are commenting on how healthy I am eating. When people ask if I am on a diet, I feel proud to tell them I am actually vegan now, so not I am dieting but "lifestyling".
I made the most delicious ratatouille tonight. I've always wanted to cook it but my boyfriend doesn't like zucchini, or eggplant, or tomatoes. So that is pretty much the entire dish! Very happy I got to try it tonight though, and thrilled that I have leftovers for lunch or dinner another time.
Right now I have the most massive sweet craving, and sadly none of our sweets are vegan friendly. So I am scouring the internet for recipes utilising the ingredients I have in my kitchen...I hope I find something!!

Day 2

Breakfast: Cereal (bran flakes, dried fruit, puffed wheat, no honey) with 1 cup soy milk
Lunch: Wholemeal pasta with broccoli, semi dried tomatos and sliced black olives with a lemon and garlic pepper dressing.
Dinner: Vegan Pad Thai (no egg, cooked in soy sauce)

Lunch today r.o.c.k.e.d. I am so glad I made that in a big batch, I have two more meals of it in my freezer for a quick lunch or easy dinner.
I bought a packet of savoury yeast flakes from my local health shop and tested it out on some bread with nuttelex. I think I used too little, because the taste was very faint. But I loved the smell of it so I look forward to going a bit crazier with it in a recipe at some stage.
Not much else happened today. No obvious mistakes or anything (whew!). It may be a bit soon, but I don't miss cheese or milk. I never drank milk on its own anyway because I thought it was gross. Most surprising is how its been 2 days and I dont miss cheese. I get cheese withdrawals after 12 hours on a normal day, so this is progress!!

Day 1

Breakfast: Cereal with 1 cup soy milk
Lunch: Wholemeal roll with nuttelex non-dairy spread (yum), baby spinach, rocket and sliced roma tomato + 1 pink lady apple.
Dinner: Subway - 6inch Veggie Delight. All the veges on offer except jalapenos, no sauce.

So today was pretty much like any other day, except my roll didn't have any ham or cheese on it.
I came home to see my boyfriend, his sister and our daughter all around the table setting up a train set. We chatted for a bit and then got onto the topic of dinner.
"How about roast night at the RSL?" my boyfriend, Andrew, smirked. I just rolled my eyes. We decided to go to a chain of shops around the corner from home. Andrew's sister and my daughter got noodles, and we chose subs. I made my bread order and began on salads when Andrew interrupted my train of thought with "what bread did you choose?"
"Honey Oat" I replied.

And then the sinking feeling came.

I'd completely forgotted that there is HONEY in the honey oat bread!! I wondered if he had heard what I ordered, and instead of stopping me, made a smart alec comment. I realized he genuinely wanted to know what I ordered because he couldn't decide.

I know everyone makes mistakes, but when I came home and loaded up my sub with marinated tofu I couldn't help but beat myself up over it. How could I have let that one slip? I even made it a point to check all my snacks and cereals in our cupboard for traces of dairy, egg or honey...but honey oat bread somehow slipped under the radar.

Well it's something I wont be doing again any time soon. But man...what a lame way to flake out...something so obvious...

The challenge

What will happen when a regular meat and dairy consuming woman turns vegan? That is the conclusion I am trying to draw from this experiment. What will, if anything, happen to me?

Now, I'm no newbie to being vegetarian. I was vegetarian for a good year during high school, and went through stages as an adult following a vegetarian diet. But having a full-time job, a 2 year old girl and a carnivore boyfriend meant I was making excuses for not taking the time to prepare nutritious and sustaining vegetarian meals for myself. "It's easier for me to just have what they are having".
I've always had a soft spot for the animals that went on to our dinner plate. I recall times when I was preparing Butter Chicken...I could not eat it because I just could not shake the image of the animal being killed to make the meal. What was it doing the day before it was slaughtered?

How ironic that through the animal's death we were given fuel for life.

Since a child I've made moral decisions about the meat I eat. I never ate veal, or lamb. Last year when I found out about the foul treatment of pigs in pig farms(factories) I pledged to eat free range or not at all. And more recently I was made aware of Rennet in cheese, an enzyme taken from the stomach of a newborn (or unborn) calf. I told my family and friends about it, and boycotted any cheeses that were produced with rennet.

But what is the difference between a calf and a cow barely a year old? They both have their lives violently cut short by humans for food. They both eat, drink, breathe and live. They both bleed and feel pain.

If I feel strongly about the animals then why did I give up being vegetarian, you ask? I can't even really answer that. Eating meat made me feel guilty most of the time, and the rest of the time I'd convince myself it was okay using any reason I could think of.

After hearing about the milk and egg industry now, I feel its time to reduce my impact on the animal population and greenhouse emissions. And I can combine this into a 30 day challenge, all while charting my progress on this 'ere blog! Isn't the internet a gem?

Ok. So.
I am allergic to eggs, so that wont be difficult to give up. I already love oat milk and soy milk, and drink it regularly. Butter is easy to replace with a non-dairy spread, and ice cream is solved with sorbets and soy ice creams.

Cheese. This is the hard part. I haven't tried vegan cheese yet, but I hope it is bloody good, because otherwise this challenge will prove very difficult. I love cheese. Live for it. I put cheese on everything! In my salads, on my sandwiches, over my vegetables and pastas...besides hot chips, cheese is my vice.

In any case, I will be sticking to this for a month, like it or not. And I will be telling YOU exactly how I go.
FYI, the chick in the photo is me pre-vegan. Expect more pictures, especially of animal friendly meals and me chowing down on said meals.


The challenge begins tomorrow morning.

Speak soon.