28 Day Vegan

Tomorrow is March 1st (can you believe it!?) and thus ends my 28 day vegan adventure. It's been a month of high highs and totally desperate lows. I am not going to lie, the first week was rough. The problem was I did not prepare adequately. You may remember from my first post on this subject that James was away for work for the first two weeks of the month. I figured that would make the transition easy. The problem was that without James home, I didn't plan dinners, heck I didn't really eat dinner. I was really busy that week with extracurricular activities (1, 2) and didn't find time to make a proper trip to the grocery store. So for that first week, I lived on carrot sticks and peanut butter and jelly. By the end of it, my stomach had suffered through a baby shower and a super bowl party and I had lost three pounds! I was starving and desperate and knew I had to take action or I was going to fall off the wagon for sure.

On a suggestion from a friend, I bought an amazing cookbook called Veganomicon. A-MAZING. Go out and buy this book, even if you want to add cheese to every recipe (I promise you though, you won't) it's totally worth it. There are so many awesome, easy recipes (notice all my post-it notes) along with lots of helpful tips about shopping for and cooking with natural, healthy foods. Armed with this beauty, I set off for a Whole Foods shopping spree and I was well on my way to gaining back those three pounds. Below are some pictures from some of our meals this month. If you want any of the recipes, let me know, I'd be happy to send them your way.

vegan pancakes with Earth Balance spread and agave nectar

vegan veggie pizza with Daiya "cheese" - James was a big fan


Tofu stir-fry with buckwheat soba noodles

sweet potato burritos with Tofutti sour cream and fresh guacamole

roasted Tofurkey with mushroom gravy

spinach linguine with artichokes and homemade basil cilantro pesto

James' vegan valentine peanut butter cups...mmm

vegan black bean brownies - to die for!

The truth is, after my minor stumble in the beginning, my vegan diet this month wasn't all that far off from how I already eat. If I was bound and determined, I think I could certainly remain vegan and feel full and satisfied for the rest of my life. But make no mistake, being a vegan isn't easy. It takes a lot of time, planning and preparation. Grocery shopping becomes a two hour ordeal (okay, that's a small exaggeration, but you wouldn't believe how long it took me in the bread aisle alone!). Depending on where you live, you might not ever be able to eat out again. If you do venture out to eat, be prepared to ask your waiter a gazillion questions before ordering. Even then, it's hard to know for sure if your breaking the rules. Snacking? It will never be quite the same again. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to pass up those cookies your co-worker brought in or those donuts leftover from the morning meeting. But rules are rules and I stuck to them. And I'm glad I saw it through.

A lot of people have asked me if I'm planning on remaining vegan. For now, the answer is no. I think I'll always look at veganism as a goal, sort of the line in the sand that represents the best nutritional and ethical me I can be. The closer I am to that line, the better off I am. Forcing myself to stand on the line just won't work for me though. At least not at this juncture in my life. Darn it, I just love mayonnaise too much.

Definitely delicious!

Crazy Dog + Icey Driveway =

...a Summit induced black eye. Happy Monday, everyone!

(pay no attention to the fact that I haven't plucked my caterpillar like eyebrows in 5 weeks or that I don't wear makeup - though today may have been a good day for that)

New Life

For the past week, I've been held captive by two birds and three eggs. Let me show you what I mean...

This family of Bald Eagles lives in the Blackwater Refuge in Maryland. Just today, literally like an hour ago, the first of three eggs hatched. I know this because I've been obsessively checking the Refuge's live eagle cam every five minutes. Call me a nature nerd but I can't help myself. Below are some still shots of the nest and the series of four pictures shows the first chick coming out of its shell. I'll keep my eyes on the action for you all and update this post when the other two chicks make their way into the world, hopefully with some better pictures.

Top: mom and dad preparing the nest and incubating the eggs. Below: two chicks, one egg left (2/21)

"The morning of a new life is like the dawn of a day, full of purity, visions and harmony." ~Chateubriand

UPDATE: As of Friday, all three chicks are hatched and healthy!

In Case You Need a Smile

I promise this whole blog isn't about pictures of our dog, but these are just too funny to not share. We went snowshoeing this afternoon and of course, I brought along my camera and took some action shots of Summit. We think her new nickname should be Gumby because when you snap a picture of her in motion her ears are always flopping, her lips and tongue are flapping and her legs are flailing. And she's always going 110 mph. Always. See for yourself. I can't help but smile every time I look at these. Hope you do too.

One last thing...Happy Valentines Day!

The Great Vegan Challenge

Okay...I admit, it may not be worthy of such a title, a lot of vegetarians people try this, so don't go thinking I'm all original or anything because I'm not. I'm just determined to cross off a few of our 20 goals over there on the right side bar. They are stalking me.

So I figured I'd start with my goal of going vegan for a month. For those that are not familiar, veganism is defined by a diet that does not include any animal products. I've been a vegetarian for over six years but I still consume animal products like milk, cheese and honey. In fact, I'm actually technically a pescetarian because I still eat fish on rare occasions. But I don't eat mammals or birds. Never, ever under any circumstances. But that's a topic for another post.

So anyway, I figured February was as good of a month as any and hey, it's also the shortest at just 28 days. There is also four feet of snow outside right now so running is a definite no (this doesn't bode well for goal #2) and as a result my appetite has been in hibernation along with my leg muscles. Plus there are no major holidays or birthdays for my parents and in-laws to bug out about when we come over for dinner. The only thing that I didn't consider is that it's the middle of winter and fresh, local produce is hard to come by. Definite bummer.

I'm only two days into this, but so far things are going well. It makes it easier that James is in Canada this week and next because it's going to take me a little time to adjust to this new diet. If any of you have any cookbooks, recipes or helpful hints, pass them along. I'll be back in 26 days to give you a full report!