day six: just say no to sugar

i had jelly on a bagel today. 

just plain, old, regular, strawberry jelly, on a sesame bagel. no butter, (of course), nothing else. 

and i swear, it was so teeth-shatteringly sweet i had no idea what to do with myself. i'm gonna hit the one-week marker soon, and i can't believe that in that much time my tastes have changed this much. i'm not much of a sweets person anyway, but i'll definitely eat a cookie if it's sitting in front of me, and i adore ice cream. now, though, the thought of dessert is more than a little off-putting. 

there are some companies making really excellent vegan desserts right now, but i don't even feel the need to get a fix from them, either...it's actually rather surprising. 

i'm still a lot more energetic, and i find that it's taking a lot more than usual to get me upset. i'm (ahem) slightly moody, but that has been diminished somewhat lately, which i'm sure the people around me are rather excited about. i had to deal with a lot of paperwork bullshit about my school schedule this afternoon, and while normally that would have me tense and anxious all day, i was actually quite pleasant....and got stuff done rather quickly. 

now, i'm quite aware that this could all be some sort of placebo effect, and that this could just be me WANTING to be more cheerful...i won't know until the experiment is over. 

but i already know that there are some things in my diet i want to change permanently...especially in regards to sugar, butter, and my conscious consumption of protein. also, a lesson learned: melted cheese is NOT necessary to make food palatable. who knew?

things i would have eaten today but didn't:

BREAKFAST BURRITO (yum!!!!!) 

cream cheese

almond croissant

quiche (sigh....the frozen ones were on sale at eddie's today....)

day five: peppy mcpepperson

today i noticed a drastic upswing in my energy levels, as well as the fact that people have been remaking that i've been in a rather excellent mood lately, and it's true!

i never go more than three hours without a cup of coffee, and yet i'm dragging throughout the day as much as someone who only deigns to drink green tea and decaf lattes (you can just imagine what i think about THOSE people). but lately, i have been excited, cheerful, and just generally feel fantastic! the hunger issues have pretty much gone away, and i'm on a much healthier eating schedule, because i'm actually conscious of getting food and protein before i'm stranded somewhere i can't find anything to eat. 

i thought my stomach would kick up more of a fuss about this whole transition, but it's been remarkably quiet recently, which is a gift in and of itself. i remember the switch to vegetarianism being kind of hard to get through, and that i was a little sick for about a solid month. this, though, as been easy, and feels great. 

i attribute this to a lot of things, including eating much less sugar, so there's not as many major crashes after the rush, and not eating as much greasy, heavy foods. 

so in other news, there's a spring in my step and i'm whistling a happy tune. let's see how annoying i can get before the bluebirds appear. 

day four: i make peace with lentils

for all you baltimoreans out there, there's a new cafe on read street, zachi's, which is right next to the amazing pizza joint slash grease explosion known as michaelangelos. zachi's, however, is much, much healthier, with homemade hummus, kashi cereal, and tasty sandwiches (hold the cheese). 

i swung by there after figuring out that i did not, in fact, want to cook tonight, and came out with a lentil and rice casserole topped with caramelized onions, and a side salad of cucumbers, tomato, and lots of parsley. whole thing set me back only 8 bucks, and the portion was HUGE....definitely dinner-sized....if i hadn't been so hungry i would never have finished it all in one sitting. as it was, i was totally stuffed. 

BUT i haven't had lentils in a long, long time, and thought that i hated them. my mom is fond of telling me that when i was little i adored lentils, couldn't get enough of them. 

well, at 21 i have rediscovered that magic bean. 

i dislike rice unless it's coated in some sort of magical curry-like sauce, and yet here i was, eating rice and lentils smashed together with NO SAUCE, and it was one of the tastiest things i've had in a long time. they must sprinkle crack in the water or something. it was flavorful and the texture was awesome (texture's the thing i most commonly find off-putting about food). 

so onward and upward!

day three: doin fine

k, a bagel with hummus is not NEARLY as satisfying as a bagel and cream cheese....unless you add tomato or some sort of vegetable....the texture of a bagel and the texture of hummus just don't mix. 

i'm having an easy time with the "more veggies" thing, but it's not going as well with protein replacement...i wish more vegetables contained protein, or that i just didn't need the damn stuff, but i get hunger headaches easily, and i have a rather nasty stomach even in the best of times, so i suppose i should be careful. 

ate too much guacamole again...it's an easy snack, and my all-time fave, but i feel like in a few days i'll start turning into a giant avocado. maybe i should just hold off on buying the stuff, and  force myself to branch out and buy things i have no idea how to cook (like kale), or don't quite know how to use (like kale). i mean, this whole thing is supposed to be an experiment, right? so i need to actually start experimenting. 

joy and i were brainstorming about cooking things i already like to eat, tailoring them to be vegan: 

-potato salad made with an oil-mustard dressing, not mayo (her mom's recipe--it's amazing!)

-burrito bar! (she makes homemade tortillas)

-pesto pasta, hold the parmesan (MY mom's recipe--amazing!)

-bean soup (don't laugh, it's amazing!)

things i would have eaten today but didn't cause, well, i'm vegan for a while:

almond croissant

chocolate chip cookie (man, i REALLY wanted one)

effing CREAM CHEESE

things i don't miss:

milk (surprise!)

things i miss:

cheese

sour cream 

effing CREAM CHEESE

tomorrow, a trip to a health food store? i'm on a little adventure!

day two: so far, so good

despite a somewhat nagging hunger, things are going swimmingly. 

granola + soymilk = AWESOME, which i always knew, but i have learned to love soymilk by itself, which is new. it's a lot sweeter than regular milk, so i don't ever want that much at once, which is probably better in the long run anyway. 

also, fantastic world foods makes a vegan taco meat mix that cooks up in about 7 minutes, and is delicious in a bowl with bean salad and guacamole! i'm against meat replacement products in general because they hardly ever taste very good and i became a vegetarian because i dislike the taste of meat, so eating something made to taste like meat seems a little retarded. 

things i would have eaten yesterday if i could've, but i didn't:

brownies

egg + cheese sandwich

nachos

 BUT i'm still hungry a lot, so have been eating smaller meals more often......still NEVER full. kinda sucks. 

day one: the decision

my last non-vegan meal for the month: bagel and cream cheese. patently unhealthy. 

when i ate it, i didn't know that in the next twenty minutes, with bagel still stuck in my teeth, i would be saying good-bye to cream cheese for a while. 

i went on a shopping trip yesterday to beef up (ha, ha, get it? beef?) on non-dairy foodstuffs. picked up eggplant, asparagus, tomatoes, avocados, onions, beans, corn, limes, soymilk, pita bread, and kale. 

kale..........how the hell do you eat kale? i mean, i know you have to cook it....but what then? is it a side dish? do you throw it in pasta? is it just meant to be eaten squished on a fork, drowned in tobasco, with your nose pinched and your eyes squeezed shut? come to think of it, is tobasco vegan?? 

i'm a little out of my depth here, clearly. i spent some time with my "vegetarian times cookbook" yesterday, to realize that it is not a good aide for the transition from vegetarian to vegan. (although, if you were to go from carnivore to vegetarian, which i would highly recommend--i love being a vegetarian--it is probably your best bet, as far as alternative recipes go). so i decided to wing it. 

make that: i decided to call my mom. walking up and down the canned food aisle of the grocery store, she gave me a recipe for a corn and bean salad over the phone. 

last night proved to be a good night to start this project, cause it forced me to create  a meal to take to will's house for dinner (he made chicken, the bastard). here's what i made (we named it over dinner): 

becca's newborn vegan bean salad

1 big can black beans

1 smaller can kidney beans

1 smaller can corn (whole kernels)

red onion, chopped small

green onions, chopped big (yum!)

olive oil

lime (for juice)

salt

drain beans, corn. dump in big bowl. cut onions. dump in same bowl. on the side, whisk together olive oil and lime juice (more oil than juice....i would say 3:2??). dump in bowl. stir. add salt. eat by the spoonful. 

i am a culinary genius, people! seriously. 

BUT it was not nearly as filling as, say, will's crockpot chicken, dana's tobasco caesar salad, or the doritos i couldn't eat. i was literally staring at them as they ate good food i couldn't have. it was really effing hard not to just reach over and cram a fistful of doritos into my mouth, as charming an image as that presents. 

here's the list of foods that were in front of my face yesterday that i would normally have eaten but didn't: 

french fries

caesar salad (w egg, cheese, anchovies)

doritos 

chocolate

so far, so good. 

...and now for something completely different...

i've been a vegetarian for what seems like a very long time.

i don't eat any kind of meat at all, even seafood (unless it's the holidays or i have something rather magnificent to celebrate), although i get absolutely insane cravings for bacon. 

but whenever i have to tell someone about my meatless diet, i always feel compelled to add that i am a LAZY vegetarian. any meal i eat is usually created with the aid of a microwave or a toaster oven, and almost always involves some kind of melted cheese. i eat lots of bread, pasta (with creamy alfredo sauces OF COURSE), butter, milk, eggs, french fries, nachos, grilled cheese, blah blah blah FAT. 

this diet has led my grandmother to comment: "how do you gain so much weight eating nothing but vegetables?"

the truth is: i eat hardly any vegetables at all. 

so when a co-worker of mine mentioned that she had always wanted to give being vegan another shot, i was excited by the prospect, and we made a one-month pact. from january 6th to february 6th, we would be vegan. 

i didn't make the choice out of any misplaced sense of pride, or as a makeshift weight-loss program, or out of pity for the poor exploited animals (as i may have mentioned to many people before, i dislike animals on general principle....they're dirty and usually smell). i decided to cut all dairy and egg products out of my life because i want to learn how to eat healthier as a vegetarian, and how to cook for myself in a way that doesn't involve me pressing the 1-minute button on the microwave. 

i decided to re-tool my blogspot account (which i used for my vienna trip--the posts are still all here) to help me stick to my decision, talk about cooking vegan food, and, quite honestly, to get some moral support. Cause i have a feeling this is going to be hard. 

so here we go: one month of being vegan!