The Hunger Games: Day Four

As of this morning, I’ve embarked on the beginning of my fourth day of eating like a vegan. I’m not going to lie; it pretty much sucks, though not as much as I thought it was going to suck, so I guess that’s a big old WIN. I’m actually shocked I haven’t cheated yet, even yesterday when my darling sister tried to ply me with chicken liver mousse, brie cheese and Ritter bars. I held fast and firm. Nothing can shake my inner vegan warrior! NOTHING.

Xena was a total vegan face

On a hunger scale, I would say I’m at a steady 5 or 6 all day. That’s my biggest beef (zing!) about the vegan diet; I never feel satisfied or full. I’m not necessarily looking forward to my next plate of steaming veggies. I thought this would be a huge problem for me since most days I turn into the female version of the Incredible Hulk if my blood sugar dips below a certain level. I honestly feared for the safety of my sister and cats. However, I seem to have magically maintained my pleasant demeanor. I will say I have gotten pretty creative on my menu, and that has helped. Going into this week, I made a point of not being lazy and just eating pasta every day and so far I’ve succeeded. Here’s what I’ve had so far:

Day 1

Breakfast: granola with rice milk

Lunch: quinoa with beets and beet greens

Dinner: roasted portabello mushroom “steaks”, roasted potatoes, and green beans

Good looking mushrooms steaks!

Day 2

Breakfast: banana with peanut butter

Lunch: Burrito bowl from Boloco – vegan style (and they totally gipped me on the rice btw)

Dinner: Butternut Squash Soup and corn tortilla quesadilla with rice cheese, tomato, and basil.

A vegan burrito bowl from Boloco. Basically I paid $5.00 for a bowl of lettuce, three beans and a few grains of rice. All I can say is good thing I added the guac!


Day 3

Breakfast: banana with peanut butter

Lunch: butternut squash soup and a wrap with tomato, basil, and mustard

Dinner: roasted eggplant with broccoli polenta

I have to admit, this polenta was really blah without the milk or cheese. Damn you vegans!


In true list loving fashion, here are a few things I've learned about this "whole vegan thing".......

1. The soy lattes at Starbucks are surprisingly good. I don’t usually take sugar in my coffee so this was a bit on the sweet side for me. But by the time the foam melted into the coffee, it was sort of ….nice?

2. I didn’t have high hopes for my rice cheese. I should have guessed that a dairy substitute made with a grain would be, well, grainy. But the package said it was good at melting, and that definitely made it taste less like sticks. Hooray!

3. Season, Season, Season. Without butter and milk to add to things, I found that a little extra seasoning really goes a long way. I have been using veggie stock in the place of water when I cooked most of my grains, salt and peppering like it’s my job, and throwing random herbs into everything. Long live basil!

4. Vegan and Gluten free granola is the pits! As you can see from my menu recap, I bailed on the gluten free granola by Day 2. First of all, it tastes like cardboard coated with cranberry dust. Secondly, my affordable (cough, cough à $7.00) bag, would probably last me three servings! What a rip. I really think the market takes advantage of gluten free people. Just because we haven’t tasted granola in a few years does not mean we won’t realize that this stuff tastes like crap.

5. God bless tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole. By the end of this wild ride, I think I’ll have to base my strict adherence to this diet on the fact that my almost daily ritual of bingeing on chips and salsa (or guac) and a cocktail while watching Jeopardy, remained intact! God truly loves me if he made booze and avocados vegan and gluten free.

So with only 4 full days to go, I can just about see the finish line of this Vegan Marathon. Look---a nice wedge of Brie cheese is waiting for me with it’s arms (do cheese have arms? Just go with it) open for a big hug.I still have to survive my work potluck (I'm making a vegan pumpkin risotto) and might do a grand finale at a vegan or vegetarian restaurant. Until then.....VEGAN ME.

The Hunger Games; My Week-Long Stint as A Vegan

Vote Vegan? V is for Vegan? Planet Vulcan?

Vegans have been my nemesis for a long time. The Lex Luthor to my Clark Kent. The Joker to my Batman. The Heidi Montag to my Lauren Conrad. Being gluten free, I constantly struggle on a day to day basis with finding foods that I can safely eat. Dining out is often a catastrophe as gluten minefields are everywhere. The fact that people voluntarily choose to not eat the most delicious things in the world like meat and dairy, I can seriously not comprehend it! I get that eating sure so pure and so plain probably means a healthier body, both inside and out, but I’ll put it bluntly. I could never break it off with my one true love; cheese.

Oh Cheese, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways....Cheddar, Gouda, Fontina, Manchego

These days, meat and dairy have become my survival foods. They are almost always naturally gluten free, so I constantly rely on them in my day to day eating. For breakfast, I’m all about eggs, cottage cheese, or yogurt. My dinners are usually based around a protein, and any excuse I have for putting cheese on something, I’m there.

This summer I’ve definitely been slumming it - eating-wise. I traveled a lot, so when I did have time it eat, it wasn’t too pretty. The other day I had macaroni and cheese for breakfast (it was, however, HOMEMADE) so I thiiiiiiiink it’s time for a cleanse of some sort. Anyways, this fall coincides with me challenging myself and what better way to do that then by GOING VEGAN! Not forever, just for a week, and just so that I can experience life on the other side. Perhaps this way, I’ll have a new found respect for those vegans out there, instead of wanting to push their faces into a big pile of foie gras. In general, I feel like I do consume far too much dairy for one person, and if I can learn to live without it for a week, perhaps I can start to eat a bit less and be OK about it. So here goes nothing!!!

Look at this fun fake chicken and cheese! And it only cost me.....$10 bucks!

Yesterday I went to the store to stock up on vegan stuff and I discovered that eating like a vegan is pretty expensive. My usual Sunday grocery list, dominated my meat, dairy and eggs, was now filled with somewhat expensive produce and weird outrageously expensive fake food. I figured I would do gluten free granola and rice milk for breakfast and grains like brown rice and quinoa with a veggie for lunch. I would opt for a meat like veggie option for dinner with, you guessed it, more veggies. I got veggie stock, which I never usually buy because I think it tastes like dirty celery water. I wasn’t going to try to find a lot of dairy and meat substitutes (most usually have gluten as fillers, so that’s a no go) but I could not resist some gluten free fake chicken tenders and a cheese substitute made with soy and rice. YUMMO.

For my last meal as an animal by product eating person, I was going to go for delectable beef short-ribs (my last meal before the electric chair choice). However, my local Shaw’s and their meat department is a tad lackluster, so I had to settle with Cornish game hen. Not that I’m complaining, roast chicken is amazing. So after eating about 3 pounds of crispy chicken skin and some cheesy grits, I drifted off to sleep while visions of vegetables danced in my head.

As I write this, I’m already one meal in and about a cup of rice milk deep into this diet. So far I feel…..ok? I had a banana this morning, followed by vegan and gluten free granola with rice milk, and rice milk in my coffee.

Stocking up the pantry with vegan friendly stuff; BEPs, GF granola and brown rice. I feel like I need to rock some Tevas with socks and my life will be complete!

I felt hungry by 11 am (I’ll mention I had breakfast at 9:30 am), so had some dried apricots and almonds. My stomach feels a little bit empty and I really didn’t get the usual enjoyment out of my coffee. The rice milk really watered it down and gave it a funky soy taste. Blech, I hate soy. Yesterday I roasted some beets and made some quinoa, so that’s lunch. Tonight, I'm having Portobello mushroom “steaks” with roasted potatoes and green beans.

These beets looked lovely at the market, and I would have bought them crazy vegan diet or not.

As I go through today, possibly craving a big, juicy bun-less cheeseburger, my one comfort lies in the fact that BOOZE is vegan. Let’s be real, I would never ever take on a diet that would turn me into a teetotaler. F-that and bring on the vodka tonics.

I’ll be checking in on Wednesday to report on the last few days. If I don’t post anything, there is a chance I either a. passed out from low blood sugar or b. cheated and am embarrassed about my puny will power. But let’s hope neither of those things occur. Go Vegan, Go Vegan, Go Go, Go Vegan!