Experimenting With Veganism, Days 1 and 2

by Anne

This is my third blog, my second active one. My other active blog is on the highly vegan related topic of hockey. Check it out on the side if you're a hockey fan, particularly a Sabres fan or a Kings fan.

Anyway!

I'm tired of being unhealthy and feeling lie garbage(soft g) all the time. So, starting on Wednesday June 9, 2010, I am transitioning into life as a vegan.

It hasn't been an easy switch. First of all, no one in my immediate family,  close group of friends, or anyone I know well at all, is a vegan, or even a vegetarian.

My Mom is, as usual, supportive. She always endures these random forays into health I decide to make every few years.

I've decided that I can't go cold-turkey, so to speak. There are things that are going to be difficult to weed out of my diet, frankly because I don't realize they aren't compatible with a vegan lifestyle. I ate Cheez-its today and yesterday, because they are in my cabinet and I don't want them to go to waste. That's not good. 

I made the mistake of looking at an exhaustive list of animal products that can be found in food, and that just made my head reel. So, for now, I'm trying to make educated decisions and eating as many foods that appear to vegan, even if they aren't certified vegan or anything like that. 

The first two foods I tried that I've never had before were vanilla soymilk and quinoa.

Yesterday I had a small bowl of cereal with some Silk:

The cereal tasted good with the vanilla flavor, but I don't think I'll be swigging down a glass of this instead of milk anytime soon. I've had chocolate soy milk in the past and it was completely disgusting. I think I'll try vanilla Silk with chocolate syrup before I'll have chocolate soy milk again.

However, reading a few articles today has shown me that too much soy is not good for you, so I'll be trying rice milk next. I was relieved to hear that soy might not be as great as previously reported, because I'm looking for any excuse not to have to eat tofu. Tofu is disgusting, plain and simple.

Then, for dinner tonight, I ate some quinoa (keen-wa). I just ate it mixed with some Earth Balance vegetable oil spread and a little salt.

It looks like couscous but isn't as dry, and has a subtle nutty flavor to it.

I'm looking up more recipes to use quinoa because it's pretty tasty, and would definitely be good as a rice replacement. I've found a recipe for stuffed peppers I'm going to try sometime. Maybe my Dad will eat one of them, because my Mom doesn't like peppers.

Next up is some rice milk ice cream. It's "chocolate" peanut butter, so we shall see how that goes.

Thanks for reading!