30 Days Later: Am I Still a Vegan?

Aside from my cheating on day 30, I think that I was pretty successful on the vegan diet. I felt great on the diet, tried new foods and made a positive impact on the environment. With all those positive results, you would think that I have fully embraced the vegan lifestyle. The answer is no. I am not a vegan.

Don’t be too disappointed yet. It has actually been 3 months since this experiment, and I have had time to see how my experience with veganism has changed me. I have made some significant changes in my diet because of this experience, and I try to lean more towards vegan food choices. I’ve acquired a fantastic vegan cookbook called Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero and have made some delicious new foods. I often try to eat vegan at least for breakfast and lunch. I very rarely eat cheese on my tacos, pasta or in my sandwiches. I’ve mastered cooking tofu! This accomplishment is huge for me and look for a future blog posting for a tofu and cashew stir-fry. Another significant change is the amount of whole grains that I eat now. I only buy whole grain pasta and whole grain or whole wheat bread. I consciously make meals with whole grains as the key component. I no longer cook with white rice. It’s brown rice all the way.

Why and how am I not a vegan? I missed cow’s milk –a lot. I thought that I would miss yogurt more but not as much as actual milk. Now, I will drink a glass of milk when I feel like it and use it my cereal. Truthfully, this reversion back to my old diet makes me happy. Cow’s milk is healthy for you, and I buy my milk from a local dairy farm where we frequently visit the cows. They are not ill-treated and like to come to the window and moo at us. Eggs are another forbidden food in veganism. I rarely eat eggs plain, but I do cook with them. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I enjoy baked goods which require eggs. I also occasionally use eggs in main dishes when the recipes call for them. Every once in while I eat some old-fashioned French toast. Seafood is back on the menu in my house. We probably eat seafood twice a month, but I really enjoy it. I eat shrimp, crab, salmon or haddock. I like the taste of seafood and again, it is healthy food. I don’t over-indulge because I understand the impact of commercial fishing on the fragile ocean ecosystems. And finally, there is honey. When I first discovered that honey is considered a non-vegan food, I laughed at what I thought was a ridiculous notion. When I did more research on honey farming (or is it bee farming), I realized that there are valid reasons to avoid honey. I am more aware of what food products I buy have honey in them, but that hasn’t affected my food choices.

At the end of the day, I am not a vegan – most days, but I am more educated and make more informed food choices. Overall, I am healthier than ever before and enjoyed my 30 days as a vegan. I’ve walked away with valuable information, and who knows, maybe veganism is in my future.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 30

Day 30

Breakfast: Kashi Island Vanilla cereal with vanilla soy milk
Lunch: Risotto, apple
Snack: Crackers and hummus
Dinner: Pasta with cilantro pesto, cake

I made it! I spent 30 days as a vegan! As I boast and brag about my success, I must also admit that on this very last day, I cheated. I intentionally cheated. I hope that I didn’t disappoint too many people, but let me explain what happened.

It has actually been several months since I did this experiment. I journaled about my experiences and decided that it would fit well on my blog and enable me to share my adventure with others. Day 30 happened to fall on my birthday. For those that know me, cake is on my top 10 list of favorite foods. It’s the best part of any birthday party, a highlight at weddings, and may favorite part of any bridal or baby shower. Cake isn’t a dessert that I eat on a random evening. It signifies a special event or celebration.

On my birthday, I love my cake, more than I love whatever special dinner that I’ve eaten. My request every year is for a round, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yes, it can be a boxed cake with tub frosting, but it has to be round. I love that layer of chocolate between the 2 layers of cake. This year my husband told me that he was going to make a vegan cake for me. I know – he’s pretty great. The problems started when he had problems finding a recipe that would substitute for my favorite cake. Here we go again – problems with food substitutions. The other problem is that I know my way around baked goods pretty well, and I knew that a cake without eggs and milk just wouldn’t be a cake.

I made the decision that I would cheat and have real cake. It was delicious, and I don’t feel bad about it at all. I enjoyed every bite. The question is whether or not I will be having leftovers. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out if I’m still a vegan!

Bye-Bye P90X, Hello Sidewalk

I’m not surprised that my passion for P90X has waned. It’s only been 5 weeks. I’m very proud to say that my husband is still going strong, but I missed my laid-back, tv-watching, early-to-bed (if you can call 11pm early) nights. We were in a routine of putting the kids to bed and then heading to our pseudo-basement gym and working out. Sounds great, huh? I had a workout partner that was committed to the exercise. How much more motivation did I need?

One issue for me was that I don’t enjoy exercising at night. Exercising when you feel your best is a cardinal rule for sticking to a fitness routine, and I was breaking it. I am a morning person, always have been, and despite many attempts to make me into a sleep-late, up-all-night person, I am still a morning person. If we were working out at 7pm and then having some downtime before bed, I’d be ok with that but lifting weights at 9pm just doesn’t mentally work for me.

The workouts themselves are challenging or maybe I should say that they are as challenging as you make them. The truth is that I don’t really like lifting weights or doing hundreds of pushups. I like to move. Cardio has always been my thing. Even though it is 2011 and very uncool, put me in a step aerobics class, and I’ll be in my glory. I won’t deny that the plyometrics session is a really intense cardio workout, and I will admit that I loved the kenpo workout, but I just didn’t like all the other workouts enough to stay committed.

I knew that I was faltering with the workout program and thought that a week off would give me the rest I needed physically and mentally to hop back on the P90X train. After that week, I still hadn’t found my motivation and instead started finding excuses – “I’m fighting a cold”, “I have so much to do around the house”, “I need to run an errand”. Now I really didn’t know what to do. I need exercise in my life but what should I do if P90X isn’t it. I decided it was time to strap on the running shoes and hit the pavement again.

I got up early yesterday morning and headed out for the first time since the beginning of June when I did a 5K with my sister. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After all of my P90X workouts, I felt strong but wasn’t sure if I had the stamina to run for any period of time. Imagine my surprise when I knocked out a 5K like it was nothing. It wasn’t a fast run (I’m not a very fast runner), but I was excited to be out there moving. It was humid and I worked up a sweat for 6am but felt great.

For all of you morning –haters, you don’t know what you’re missing. Early mornings are special. There is something about the sun just coming up and the quiet of the neighborhood that is a unique experience. We walk regularly in the same neighborhood, and people are always out working on their lawns or playing with the kids. The mornings are empty of that. You might pass a few other runners that you wave to because you’re both part of that special morning club of runners (kind of like how motorcycle riders wave to each other). You’ll definitely see people out walking their dogs and maybe an occasional walker. I confess that as I did my little wave to the other runners that I felt a little bit of a fraud. After all, it was only my first day back.

I returned home feeling pumped for 2 reasons. Number 1- I had actually gotten back on the saddle and number 2 – I didn’t feel like I was starting from the couch. My body felt like it was ready for the runs. I guess I can thank Tony Horton for that. Then today came, and boy, am I sore. My quads are sore. My back is sore. My abs are sore. While I worked all of these muscles in P90X, I guess running is just too different of an exercise, and my body really wasn’t quite that ready. Oh well. Muscles heal. It just keeps getting better from here, and I’m still psyched for my run tomorrow morning.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 29

Day 29

Breakfast: 2 slices of whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Lunch: Farro salad, crackers and hummus, apple
Snack: Walnuts
Dinner: Red Pepper and Asparagus Risotto

Risotto is a top food choice for me when dining out. It’s fairly easy to make but does require some time and attention to produce a thick, creamy risotto. There is nothing more disappointing than ordering risotto at a restaurant, being presented with a beautiful dish only take find out in that first bite that the rice is crunchy. Consequently, if you plan on making risotto, follow the cooking times in the recipe. If you don’t, the end result will be an unappetizing disaster.

The key ingredient in risotto is a short-grain Italian rice known for its high starch content. Typically, recipes call for Arborizo (also known as arborio) rice which you can find anywhere, although I do know that there are a couple other rices that you can use. Using Arborizo rice is important because as you cook the rice, it will start to release its starches, and that’s how you get that creamy consistency. Unfortunately, Arborizo rice is not as good for you as brown rice and some other whole grain options. It has less protein and fiber than brown rice and more carbs. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t indulge once in a while and cook up some delicious risotto.

Red Pepper and Asparagus Risotto

4 ½ cups of vegetable broth
2 cups Arborizo rice
½ cup yellow onion, finely chopped
½ cup red pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bunch of asparagus tips
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Saute onion and red pepper in 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until onion is translucent.
2.  Add garlic and stir for about another 30 seconds.
3. Add rice and stir frequently until lightly browned.
4. Add ½ cup of broth and stir frequently until moisture is absorbed.  Repeat until broth is gone.
5. Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pain.  Add asparagus tips and thyme and saute until tender.
6. Parmesan cheese is optional.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 28

Day 28

Breakfast:  2 slices of whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Snack: Cashews
Lunch: Lemon pepper tofu, farro salad, animal crackers
Snack: Apple
Dinner:  2 tacos with refried beans, salsa and guacamole

Trying to convert to veganism can be challenging.  You need to think out of the box and be creative.  Fortunately, there are tons of resources out there to help you reinvent what your stereotypical dinner is.  I’m talking about the internet.  Google vegan recipes, and you’ll get millions of results.  Millions.  I just googled vegan recipes, and it came back with “About 6,400,000 results.”

Sometimes you just don’t have the time, energy, ingredients or creative juices flowing to try something new, but when you feel like experimenting – go for it.  Try new things.  Not all children are like my son, but as long as he likes the way a piece of food looks, he’ll try it.  He eats all sorts of things.  I caught him reaching up on to the counter and swiping a handful of chopped red pepper once.  He ate all of it. I’ve heard that this experimentation will only last until he is about 3, so until then I will take advantage of it.

 We can all learn a lot from him.  We get so used to eating the same things just in a different rotation because it’s easy, it’s comfortable, and most of all because it’s known.  Children don’t have that luxury.  Everything is new.  They have to try new things or else they’ll never figure out what they like.  We should all be willing to try new things.  Maybe even try old things that we don’t think we like.  I don’t like lima beans or dill.  Every once in a while, I’ll eat some pickle to see if I still don’t like dill.

Going through this experience, I have learned about foods that I didn’t even know existed.  Some I didn’t like(faux meats!) but many I did (tempeh!).  Everyone should try something new once in a while.  Get out of your food ruts and entice your palate with something different.  You never know – you may surprise yourself.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 26

Day 26

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter, banana
Lunch: Farro salad, potato, corn, dinner roll
Snack: Animal crackers
Dinner: Brown rice salad, green beans

Today, I finally used that farro that I had such hard time finding, and it did not disappoint. I was expecting something more along the lines or brown rice. It’s chewier and denser than rice. It’s heartier and more filling. It isn’t surprising that a farro has more protein and fiber than brown rice.

I made a farro salad. It was meant as a side dish at a family dinner but could easily have been served as an entrée. I wish that I could remember where I found this recipe so that I can give you proper to credit to its creator. It was delicious.

Farro Salad

4 cups vegetarian broth
1 ½ cups farro
1 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
2/3 cup finely chopped red onion
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 large garlic clove
½ tsp dried Italian seasoning
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
¼ cup olive oil

1. Combine broth and farro in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Drain.
2. Mix garlic, seasoning, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Add to farro with tomatoes, onion and basil. Mix well.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or chilled.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 25

Day 25

Breakfast: Kashi Golden Sunshine cereal with soy milk, banana
Lunch: Brown rice salad, crackers and hummus, mandarin orange
Snack: Almonds and cashews
Dinner: Tacos with refried beans, mango salsa and guacamole, tortilla chips

When you think of the typical American diet, you definitely don’t think vegan. Most people make dinners consisting of a meat, vegetable and starch. Vegan meal ideas can come from variety of sources, but one approach is to start thinking of other ethnicities. Chinese food doesn’t have to be provided only by takeout. Whip out your wok and throw together your own stir-fry or you can try my number one ethnic food choice – Mexican.

I certainly don’t remember all of our family dinners all that well but some stick out. My dad did a lot of the cooking, and he was very good at it (except for that time he made tuna noodle casserole – ewww). I remember his parmesan cheese sauce over homemade pasta. That was a good one. He made great soups too, all from his own homemade broths. We ate well, but one meal that I always loved was taco night. My parents would put out the fillings in different bowls on the table, and we would grab our tacos and start assembling. It was fun and delicious. To this day, I still love tacos and Mexican food in general. In my poor college days, I would enjoy an $.89 bean burrito from Taco Bell. My culinary inclinations have improved, and we frequently have homemade Mexican fare or a quick meal at Baja Fresh (they have the best Baja salsa!).

Fortunately, my husband is on board with the whole Mexican food as a staple in our house and has perfected homemade guacamole. Two reasons that I love guacamole are cumin and fresh cilantro. These are my two favorite spices. Each has a unique individual flavor and when combined together, they can enrich a simple combination of beans and veggies in no way you can imagine. Using these spices gives so a full flavor that you won’t ever miss the cheese if you’re eating Mexican vegan-style.

Here’s a tip on fresh cilantro that I just got from a friend. Buy it, wash it, let it dry and then freeze it. When you need some fresh cilantro, just pull a bunch from the freezer and add it to your dishes. I’ve been doing this for the past month, and it tastes just as fresh as when you bought it.

Guacamole is one of those things that everyone loves but how often do people really think about making it. I consider guacamole a health food. Avocados have tremendous health benefits. They are full of good fats that help maintain and even lower your cholesterol, and they are high in potassium which helps to regulate blood pressure. Guacamole is also a very popular food with kids. I think that it is the combination of the green color and a dip. What kid doesn’t like to dip foods? Of course, my son just eats it by the handful. Since I love guacamole so much, I’m going to share our recipe so that everyone can try it.

Guacamole
Making your own guacamole is about personal taste. There aren’t any measurements here, so just throw everything into a bowl and add more spices until you find your preferred flavor.

2 Avocados, mashed with a fork or use a mixer if you want it really smooth
Cumin
Garlic powder (can use fresh garlic but garlic powder isn’t as potent)
Onion powder (same argument as garlic powder)
Salt
Hot Sauce (Chalupa is the best!)
Fresh Cilantro, chopped
Fresh tomatoes, chopped (not necessary to still have good guacamole)

Mix together and enjoy!

The Vegan Experiment: Day 24

Day 24

Breakfast: Oatmeal with walnuts and banana
Lunch: Baja Fresh Baja Burrito – no cheese or meat with pinto beans
Snack: Animal crackers
Dinner: Gardein Mandarin Chick’n, Brown rice salad

I gave faux meat yet another try and was again disappointed. It looks like meat, but it does not taste like meat. In fact, I think that substituting faux meat for real meat for a new vegetarian might result in a big failure in that person’s attempt to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. It just doesn’t taste good. You might be thinking that it is just my opinion, but you should know that I like most foods except for anything with dill in it and lima beans. No more faux meat for me. I’m sticking with beans, tempeh and I will keep working on tofu.

I have a complaint about yet another ingredient substitute. The citrus vinaigrette recipe came from 101cookbooks.com. It calls for 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese. I found a vegan version of parmesan at the grocery store. The first time I made this vinaigrette, I added the cheese per the recipe. I was skeptical because the cheese didn’t smell all that good and the taste was a little sketchy, but I was optimistic that combined with other ingredients you would never know it wasn’t real parmesan. Let’s just say that the vinaigrette was made a second time without the faux parmesan cheese and the cheese went in the garbage. Another strikeout for fake food.

Brown Rice Salad

2 cups cooked brown rice
1 sweet onion, chopped into big chunks
1 yellow pepper
1 cup cooked peas
1 cup chopped green leaf lettuce
citrus vinaigrette

1. Toss onion and pepper with olive oil, salt and pepper
2. Roast onion and pepper for 40 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Chop into smaller pieces.
3. Add all ingredients together.
4. Toss with citrus vinaigrette to taste.

Citrus Vinaigrette

1 finely chopped shallot
zest of 1 mandarin orange
juice of 2 mandarin oranges
2/3 cup of olive oil
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar

Mix all ingredients together.

Enjoying My A/C

I’ve been thinking a lot about air conditioning the past couple of days. I spent this weekend at an outdoor wedding (not even the bathrooms had a/c!) and an outdoor birthday party during one of the most debilitating, heat-filled weeks on record for Pennsylvania (and most of the United States). To attest to how hot and humid it was, I took my son outside to play at 8:15am on Thursday morning. My son loves to be outside, begs to be outside, cries to be outside. After 20 minutes of playing, he collected his toys to be put away and waited at the back door for me to let him in the cool, air-conditioned house.

While the heat was uncomfortable and the main topic of conversation at the wedding, it didn’t diminish the good time that we had. After several hours of profusely sweating, the heat eventually eased, and we enjoyed just being outdoors on a summer night. Even at the birthday party, we stayed in the shade, drank a lot of water and went about our afternoon enjoying the party. That doesn’t mean that driving home in an air-conditioned car wasn’t a relief. By Sunday evening, I was actually chilled enough just sitting in my air-conditioned house that I needed a blanket. I guess my body had already started to adjust to the heat from my weekend activities.

Since then, I have been thinking about what the impact of air-conditioning is on our environment. The first story is good news. The Montreal Protocol was established in 1987 to phase out the use of chloroflourocarbons (CFCs). CFCs are actually deplete the ozone. All UN recognized nations have ratified the treaty. In 1992, the Montreal Protocol was amended to include hydrochloroflourocarbons (HCFCs). While HCFCs do not cause as much damage to the ozone as CFCs, they are still harmful. Why is all this important? The refrigerant used in air-conditioners is an HCFC. If you have an air-conditioner older than 1992, it most likely operates by cooling the air using this ozone damaging refrigerant. Consequently, the Montreal Protocol outlines how this refrigerant must be handled during a/c unit servicing and decommissioning to make sure that it can’t negatively affect the environment.

All that is great news in protecting our ozone, but the negative aspect of air-conditioner use that we can’t eliminate is its dependence on energy sources to run. A/C units operate using electricity, which is provided by power companies. Power companies can use a variety of fuel sources to operate, but the most commonly used source is coal. We all know that burning coal produces a dirty exhaust that makes clean air unclean. I’m sure that you can think of a host of other reasons why excessive a/c use can put a strain on our environment because of our dependency on the power company to provide us with electricity.

What can you do to lessen the environmental impact of your air-conditioner:

1.  Produce renewable energy. As a solar panel owner, in the last 12 months, our energy production has completely covered our electric bill except for July and Aug (because of our a/c use!) and January (because we had a lot of snow).
2.  Make sure your windows and doors don’t have any leaks.
3.  Set your thermostat a couple of degrees higher when you’re away or even when you’re home. You can easily adjust from a temperature setting of 74 to 75 degrees. Just think – 75 degree temps outside = gorgeous weather!
4.  If possible, have your house outfitted with multiple zones so that you can adjust your temp settings based on where you spend most of your time. For example, if you spend all of your daytime downstairs, your zone for the upstairs can be cranked up to 80 degrees during the day and vice versa for nighttime.
5.  On those unexpected cooler summer days, turn off your a/c and open up your windows.

A/C use isn’t going anywhere for any of us. If you understand the broad picture of the impacts of a/c use on the environment, you can still enjoy you’re a/c while taking some steps to lessen that environmental impact.

The Vegan Experiment: Day 23

Day 23

Breakfast: Island Vanilla Kashi, soy milk
Snack: Cashews
Lunch: Whole wheat pizza, chips
Dinner:  Black bean burgers with tomato and avocado, polenta fries, peas, and 2 mandarin oranges

Today I have discovered something delicious – polenta fries! I got the idea from Whole Living magazine. You buy pre-made polenta (the kinds that is packaged like sausage). You slice it into fries, toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper and then roast at 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes until crispy. These have a unique flavor and are delicious. We ate them dipped in marinara sauce. Fabulous.

The black bean burger recipe that I have included is one of the best ones that I have made to date, and trust me, I have tried many. This one results in burgers that hold their shape and very flavorful. You can never go wrong with black beans and cumin! Enjoy.

Black Bean Burgers

1/2 red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp hummus
1/4 cup corn
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
couple of dashes of hot sauce

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add celery, cumin and paprika.
2. Mash about half of the black beans.
3. Mix all the ingredients together and form into patties.
4. Cook in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat until heated through.