Halfway through the week

We've made it! 3 whole days vegan. Well, mostly vegan. Tim cheats more than I do. My vitamins have gelatin in them, and we had some tater tots that had a hint of sour cream in them (trying to clear out freezer space for other stuff, didn't make sense to avoid them just for the tiny amount of dairy in the grande scheme).

Successes so far:

Veggie melts! I love these, and now Tim loves them too! Avocado, pesto (made w/o cheese), sauteed onions and peppers and a dash of vegan cheese on sprouted grain bread with vegan (Earth Balance) butter. Warm, hearty, and delish!

Mongolian BBQ seitan: Spicy and sweet, and Tim's new favorite. He found the recipe, and I even used the mushrooms as directed. I don't think they really added much for us (other than about $5 to the total meal cost), so we'll likely leave them out in the future.

Homemade seitan: Used it in the dish above and our usual stir fry. Cheaper and fresher than store bought!

Inspired to try these in the near future:
Mini berry cheesecakes that happen to be vegan!
Chocolate orange ginger cupcakes

Getting Ready

To prepare for tomorrow's start of weekday veganism, we've been getting ourselves ready by planning out meals for the week and making what we can ahead of time.

So far, we've made:

Black bean burgers - I leave out the egg and this works just fine. I added a little cayenne pepper this time, and I also used dried beans that I cooked to save money.

Breakfast burritos - Tim takes these to work. This isn't really something new, but just continuing his good breakfast veganism.

Energy bites - For this week, I tweaked this recipe with the following substitutions: chia instead of flax, homemade almond butter instead of peanut butter (with a few cacao nibs tossed in), maple syrup instead of honey, and added dried cranberries. Technically this isn't entirely vegan (small amount of milkfat in chocolate chips), but in the name of frugality, I wasn't going to buy new mini chocolate chips if I already had some. However, I will buy vegan ones when those run out.

2 Years Later...

Here I am again, contemplating a vegan diet (note: diet, not lifestyle. I certainly don't pretend I'm together enough to really avoid all animal products, or throw out my beloved leather purses, although I haven't really been buying things like that lately).

After lots of changes, including the birth of my now 8-month-old daughter, I'm longing for the simplicity and healthy feeling of the vegan diet that I was enjoying before I became pregnant. After mentioning this to my husband, Tim, he suggested that we become "weekday vegans". So, we will be eating a vegan diet during the week, with opportunities to incorporate some of our favorite non-vegan items on the weekends. As Kathy Freston would put it, Vegan-ish.

I'm looking forward to this challenge and all the great benefits that I know will come with it! We're not officially starting this coming week since we've got to clean out the pantry, fridge and freezer. This week will be a transition week to get prepped and stocked for a revisit of my previous vegan adventures!