
I’m really excited to try this out today. 24 hours of eating vegan. It took a little bit of planning (because Solomon is joining me!), but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I’m curious to see what I take away from this experience. I’ve been pescetarian for about 6 months. This is after dabbling in vegetarianism/pescetarianism for about a year and a half.
I have a tendency to inadvertently eat a lot of vegan meals. When I first started considering vegetarianism, my go to food for everything was cheese. A lot of new vegetarians overload on carbs, I overdid it on cheese. Once I realized this, I cut back dramatically, and now use cheese very liberally. I use a little on pizza, quesadillas or as a condiment. I also don’t choose cheesy meals (like grilled cheese) TOO often. Because I limit my cheese, and don’t eat a ton of yogurt, I find my meals become vegan by default quite often.
This is my first time ever blogging a day of eats. I don’t think it’s for me, but here goes!
Breakfast
I started off with a delicious cup of pumpkin coffee (how I make this is coming tomorrow!) with some unsweetened almond milk. I prefer regular milk in my coffee, and don’t use any sweetener for the most part. This was OK, maybe a little on the thin side. It’s OK though, because I want to try to learn to drink my coffee black. Maybe this is a good stepping stone?
By the way, I love duckies!
I also had microwave oats with 1/2 banana, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola, that Nature’s Path sent me to sample, a little crunchy Barney Butter, and some agave. This wasn’t too different from a typical breakfast for me. I usually find my oatmeal combinations are vegan, and this was a yummy one I’m sure to duplicate! The granola gave a nice crunch (though I wish it had more pumpkin taste!) and the Barney Butter makes everything amazing. I would have to say I had a great start to my vegan day!
My friend Robin (who lives in Israel and may be starting her own blog soon…hint!) and Solomon joined me for Vegan 4 A Day. Here are their eats:
Robin: coffee with soy milk, rice cake with avocado
Solomon: oats with raisins, TJ’s organic Superfruit and crack cinnamon raisin swirl
For snack I had an apple. I didn’t take a picture. How do you guys remember to do that? I’m impressed!
Lunch
Our original lunch plan was something I cooked in the slow cooker yesterday. I had seen it on another blog recently and thought it looked great. Unfortunately, neither of us liked it
. Solomon called me before I had my lunch and said “I don’t want to eat it just to eat it.” That made me soooo proud of him. Solomon’s attitude towards food has changed so much lately and he is becoming a much more healthy eater! He ended up heading up to the student center for a salad.
I was hangry because I had just done an hour and a half of Dave Farmar yoga, so I wanted something fast and filling. I was hesitant to make anything that would have a lot of leftovers, since I’m trying to use up things in our kitchen, and not have to shop more or have leftovers before we head out for Thanksgiving. I figured a stir fry is a safe, quick bet! I made a quick sweet and sour sauce.
I cooked some cubed tofu in a pan with pan and a little garlic, then threw in a ton of frozen veggies.
I let this cook over medium heat while I cooked some whole wheat pasta. Right before the pasta was done, I threw the sauce on the tofu/veggie mixture, and added some cashews for a little crunch!
I was lazy and put the pasta and stir fry right into the bowl I made the sauce in. Maybe lazy isn’t the right word. I was being green!
Fantastic, FILLING lunch! I would eat this again in a heartbeat! I really prefer making my own sauces, and I love that it was so easy to make a quick, healthy vegan lunch!
Robin had a red pepper with EVOO and salt and pepper, and my nutty coleslaw! See, Robs and I are connected even though we are oceans apart! She’s been making this salad for a few years now, and loves it too
For afternoon snacks, I had an Arnold Sandwich Thin with hummus and an orange.
Dinner
Robin wasn’t able to do vegan the whole day because she had a Thanksgiving dinner (in Israel!) tonight. I’ll get her thoughts on it later or tomorrow (it’s the middle of the night there now!)
Solomon and I had a fairly unexciting dinner. We cooked some Dr. Praeger’s burgers, which we tend to eat a lot of anyway. I threw on some hummus and schüg (amazing combination) and of course, BANANA PEPPERS!
I also baked some french fries using my mountain of potatoes. I soak them in water and some salt for about an hour, drain them, then pat them dry, toss some EVOO, paprika, salt and pepper in there and spread them on a baking sheet. I also like to sprinkle some cayenne and chili powder on top for a kick! These bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Simple.

Final Thoughts
I really commend people who are vegans. I think maintaining a lifestyle like this would require a lot of discipline.
I understand and appreciate the moral, environmental and ethical reasons for being vegan, but I do think I would miss a lot of things too much. On the other hand, I haven’t had meat in over 6 months, and I have ZERO desire to have any now. Perhaps eventually cravings for cheese and other dairy would stop, but right now I don’t plan to become vegan. I think a lot of my reason would be that I would find it very hard to socialize and eat out, and I would feel like I am putting people out when I am at their homes. I know being vegan is something people do for themselves, but I can’t shake that feeling.
While it wasn’t difficult to be vegan, it was a little harder than normal. I had to be really careful to read labels of everything! I think in the future, I might try to commit to vegan one day a week, just as a lot of people commit to eating meatless one day a week. Going forward, we’ll see how this works for me!
Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway! 6 winners and 5 ways to enter. Not too shabby! Winners will be picked tomorrow night!
