Week 2

Well, If I ever had the slightest thought about becoming a vegan it has forever vanished. I find that the food choices in order to get maximum health benefits are much too restricted. I'm not a great lover of beans so that excludes this from the diet on a daily basis... Maybe I could eat them once a week, but that's about it.

After two weeks I have to say my craving for sugar has not really left but I've managed to stay away for the most part, other that what I would call natural sugar which is in fruits, etc. etc.

I can't imagine doing this in Argentina for instance. At least here in Vancouver we have Whole Foods where I can find some great choices. We also have a vast array of international restaurants with lots of vegan options.

I think if the need be I could be vegetarian but not vegan. I miss the cheeses and the eggs (although I found some soy alternatives). I also miss cream in my morning coffee even if there are alternatives, like Coconut milk or soy, it's not quite the same.

As I was laying around in bed this morning I was having a little bit of a hard time thinking of meat and if I wanted to get back to eating some. Definitely no pieces of meat, i.e. steak and things like that... Probably I will go back to eating disguised meat... things like spaghetti and my chicken pie... but large pieces of meat, probably not. I will continue to eat fish in moderate quantity, particularly salmon and halibut.

I have found some wonderful vegan options for dinners though and some of the recipes I will definitely do again. There are some wonderful blogs with great recipes. Thank God for the Internet sometimes.

I made Carlos a vegan birthday cake on Friday (I had not been able to get his birthday present on time because it had not arrived yet) so even though we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, we did it again on Friday. The cake was a little bit weird... Neither Ocean or I liked it very much but Carlos was okay with it... I'm not sure if it's because he really like it or if he just was being nice. I had forgotten to put the baking soda in there so maybe it had something to do with the way it turned out. Bit flat you might say.

I should also say that I found it difficult to keep up with the blog on a daily basis so for this week I am posting all the pictures at once. Just click on the PHOTO tab at the top of the page. They should show up if a little while.

So here we go, one more week...

Day 5, TGIF

Day 5. I said at the beginning of the year I wanted to have every Thursday and Friday off. This has not worked so far. Since I spent a lot of time off with the migraine I had to make up for it somehow. Not a great weather day today. Rain on top of snow makes for a lot of slush.

The little dog's hair is way too long and when he goes out in the snow he gets these hard little snowballs on his feet and then get really cold so I took him for a haircut.

Got a soy latte on the way back and called that breakfast!

For lunch I ate a leftover curry Carlos made on the weekend. Chickpeas, potatoes and onion and made a shake with what I found to be the best substitute for yogurt: tofu! I used mango tofu with bananas, blueberries and vanilla soy milk. Just like dessert!

Half way through the afternoon I made some vegan blueberry/lemon muffins using a recipe from a book we got from Wes and Katrina a few years back called ExtraVeganZa. This book has great recipes - doesn't really matter if you're a vegan or not, they are delicious. I thought it would make a great finish to our dinner. I can assure you it did just that!

The dinner choice was from a different book called The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone. I had seen her on Oprah a couple years ago and wanted to give that book a try. I did the lentil stew which was so so so tasty. It made a huge pot so there will be leftovers on the weekend. Frankly I haven't missed the meat at all, not once. I do miss the cheese and dairy though... Not as far as taste goes but just for the fact that they are found in so many things at the store and it's sometimes difficult to find the "vegan" alternative.

Well, it's pouring rain and has been all day. Frankly it was much nicer when it was colder and sunny. I can do without the rain!

I don't think I mentioned that we've signed up for the Sun Run this year. Not that it will be a run for me, I gave that up a few years ago so a Sun Walk it will be. We've been walking 3 times a week, outside, except for this week where it has been much easier to just use the treadmill.

All right, maybe the rain will stop sometime over the weekend and we can get a decent walk in the sun. Have a nice weekend. I'm happy I don't have to work for a couple of days. Next week is going to be a very busy one.

Days 2, 3 and 4

Days 2, 3 and 4 are a bit of a blur since I went through a 3 day migraine. It was very difficult to try and keep up with the vegan thing. I was missing a lot of the foods that generally make me feel better.

Day 2 breakfast was quite good. Fresh pineapple, mango and whole grain toast with orange marmalade. However I was also supposed to eat some plantain with a rice concoction. I was pretty full after the 1st dish and my head was just about ready to explode. I prepared the second dish but may I just say I followed the directions to do this plantain but it was absolutely disgusting. The rice concoction didn't go down well - when I have a migraine I am not very hungry which is sort of a catch 22 since if I don't eat I get a headache.

Anyway I decided to take the day off work in hopes that my headache would clear up. So I went on with lunch. Tomato, cucumber and sprout sandwich with OJ. I was supposed to have some vegan tempeh bacon with this but upon having a little taste I was 100% certain that I could not replace real bacon with this stuff.... EWWWWW... It was just awful. If anyone knows of a good replacement for real bacon, let me know. This one just didn't cut it.

Lunch was also going to include some yam and sweet potato fries but I thought better to keep these for dinner.

Dinner was a salad of greens with red pepper vinaigrette, tomato and rice soup and garlic buns. I found a great substitute for garlic butter at the One of a Kind Show in December, it is made with a soy base and it is to die for.

So far Carlos is delighted with all the food and can't wait for his next meal. Preparing everything from scratch is time consuming but the results are remarkable. I wish I could do this full time and give up my day job. For sure I was born to cook.

Day 3, I woke up with the headache having moved to the other side of my head. :(

Breakfast was simple, oatmeal with soy milk and orange slices.

I thought lunch would be awful but no... it was quite good. Tomato and artichoke salad. I'm not a huge fan of artichokes, unless they are covered in Hollandaise or Bearnaise sauce or as a chopped up and baked with cheese, etc as a dip. The recipe also called for mint and other herbs... but I must say the combination was quite good. Sandwich was Balsamic zucchini, basil and hummus.

Delicious! Dessert of fresh pineapple.

Dinner was a Red Bean and Greens stew type on brown rice. Wouldn't cook that one again. Dessert bananas with a berry dressing. A bit too sour for my taste. Would be great on ice cream though.

By Day 4 my headache was still full on and I needed to take some drugs. Before I can take anything I need the same thing I always have which is a yogurt shake so I got Carlos to do that for me and ignored the fact that vegans don't eat yogurt... If something is going to help my stomach it's for sure yogurt. I couldn't eat the whole shake but got the drugs in and by noon I was almost headache free.

So on with lunch. Hummus, shredded carrots, zucchini, sprouts and sun dried tomatoes wrap with blue corn chips and an apple. Light and tasty. Hubby was out for dinner with friends so Ocean and I had Subway sandwich and chips. Not the healthiest but could be worse. By then my head was free of pain but somewhere in the clouds and I was in no mood for a cooking extravaganza.

Look for pictures on the PHOTO page.

Day 1

Okay one day down, 20 to go!

One good thing first thing this morning is that there was no new snow on our street.
Breakfast was easily made, Mango Lime Pancakes with maple syrup... (I forgot to read the part about the maple syrup so I had mine "sans") Crap! I topped up the pancakes with fresh strawberries and added a glass of green tea.
Off to work... First part of the drive was wonderful, nobody on the roads... couldn't figure out why.... that's until I got to about 41st and Granville when the snow started coming down rather heavily. By the time I reached King Edward I could barely see, the pavement and lines on the road were completely gone and I started to get worried... so I took my best advice and turned myself around and back home I went... By the time I reached Oak and 41st the sun was shining and the road was bare... what the heck was that?
Anyway... a bit of a day off for me which was probably a good thing because this whole vegan thing is going to require a lot of cooking... and judging by the size of my lunch a lot of eating as well...
For lunch I made a Blue Corn Chip Salad and some sliced watermelon drizzled with lime juice. The salad was awesome, crunchy with lots of taste... black soybeans, roasted red pepper, tomatoes, salsa, sunflower seeds. The combo of watermelon and lime was also great. I washed it down with some almond chocolate milk. That was a lot of food.
For dinner we had a pear and arugula salad, a potato and onion soup with some kale and Fettuccine with grilled asparagus, peas and lemon and some organic grape juice. Everything was great I thought except for the fettuccine which I thought was a bit dry and didn't have a whole lot of taste...

Everyone liked the food. So many different taste. I really need to drink more water though... that's always a difficult bit for me so I'll have to maybe set a timer so I can remember to drink.
I have no idea how many calories were in the food though, but I calculated the points so I know where I stand. Alright posting pictures in a bit.

Preparing for Day 1

Sunday, January 15th 2012.

At the beginning of January I made two New Year's resolutions. One was to stop swearing which I must say I haven't been very successful at. It is simply not ladylike (or mamie like - since we have a brand new baby granddaughter) to have a foul mouth. So I will keep working on that and we'll see how that goes.

My second resolution was to become as healthy as possible before turning 60, which is not for a few years yet, but I really need to get on that if I want to get there. This entails getting rid of stress, work as little as possible, exercise regularly and get rid of some unwanted pounds. The parrrrrty is over!

Apparently in order to kickstart a weight loss or to get on the fast track to a healthier life it is a good idea to follow a plant based diet. For those of you who don't know what that means, it is to eat like a vegan! Eating this way supposedly changes your life. Apparently it takes about 21 days to get rid of bad habits so for the next twenty-one days I will become a vegan and I thought it might be interesting to blog about it.

Carlos has pledged to join me in that effort, although he will not follow the entire menu plan, he will forego the milk, eggs and cheese for the duration. Ocean says she will give a try to the new recipes but is not so sure about doing this on a daily basis...

On Saturday morning I went out and bought everything we're going to need for the first week. My grocery cart was half full with fruits and vegetables and the other half with one type of bean or another. If eating meat is bad for the environment because the cows fart too much I wonder what it'll be like here if we are eating beans on a daily basis. LOL

Beginning tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn until Sunday February 5th we'll be munching on nothing but what I have referred to in the past as boring cardboard food. So my storage room is now filled with such things as kale, collard greens, brown rice pasta, mangos, berries, soy and almond milk and beans, beans, beans. I'm not sure if I can give up on meat forever but for sure I'll never give up on dairy.

I will try to update my page every day and also post pictures of our meals. But for tonight, it's leftover crepes and one more piece of that awesome carrot cake!

Wish me luck!