Some mornings I eat an apple and some oatmeal, sweetened with soy or almond milk. This is a far cry from the Cheerios I used to eat, and I find it fills me up until lunch time.
Today marks day four of my Vegan Challenge. I was prompted to eat a vegan diet based on a UN study released last week. The report found evidence that a global diet shift away from animal products is needed to help prevent resource depletion and alleviate world hunger. The report said agriculture accounts for 70 percent of our global freshwater consumption, 38 percent of the total land use, and 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, more than half of the world’s crops are used to feed animals, not people. So, I’m going vegan for two weeks to reduce my environmental footprint, and to prove to others that it’s not so hard.
My updates thus far have been more about my motivations for the diet than what I’ve actually been eating, so I’m going to try to share my meal choices with you.
So far, I’ve found some delicious vegan ice cream that I LOVE. It’s called Luna and Larry’s Naked Coconut. I’m also learning the joys of tofu, although I’m still learning its different uses. One challenge is maintaining a balanced diet. It’s easy to find one thing you like and stick with it. A friend of mine from college went vegan my freshman year, and for the first week all she knew how to make was vegan chocolate cake, and so she did. I’m finding similar problems with this coconut ice cream and some vegan gingersnaps.
I’m discovering that there are two ways to execute a vegan diet: You can either eat only those foods that are prepared vegan-ready, or you can learn to make meals for yourself by reworking ingredients, experimenting with recipes and learning about the food you’re preparing. Personally, I like the second option. I think tomorrow I will invest in a good vegan cookbook, something I probably should have done from the start. I’ve been relying on Google.
Most mornings I start with oatmeal and some fruit, like an apple. I add soy milk or (one of my new favorites) almond milk to sweeten. Other days I have some Kashi cereal. Tonight for dinner I sauteed some tofu, onions, red bell peppers and garlic. I’ve also had a number of suggestions from readers, one of which told me to check out the Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, which I love because it’s like a starter kit for new vegans. And today I discovered Vegan YumYum, a blog with amazing recipes. How great does this look?!
I neglected to tell my extended family about my going vegan for two weeks, and last night we all gathered for a delicious, homemade meal. I had a choice: I could either give up my diet and indulge, or I could refuse all the homemade dishes, pick through the fridge for a salad or something, and watch as everyone else enjoyed the meal.
I sort of compromised. I avoided any and all dishes containing meat, and stuck with vegetarian dishes that seemed least likely to contain animal products. But even if I had asked my grandmother what was in her potato salad, she probably wouldn’t have known if it contained animal products or not, because as I’ve said before, it’s hard to spot them sometimes. So I spared my family the scrutiny and tried my best to eat responsibly without alienating anyone or ousting myself too far from the family dinner dynamic.
I asked my Vegan Mentor from The Vegan Society what she usually does at family meals. “I learned early on that it’s best to be proactive,” she said. “Because ultimately I don’t want to feel like I’m being a burden to someone, and I don’t want to be hungry and miserable feeling. I’ve avoided a lot of awkward social situations by planning ahead.” Note to self: plan head!
This whole experience reminded me that food plays a huge role in our society. When we sit down for a meal, often it is the only time anymore that you get the family together in the same room. And part of the joy of family dinner is sharing the dishes together; it’s a bonding experience. So to step away from the meal and willingly reject the food is like being the one sober person at a cocktail party. You know everyone is enjoying their drinks, and you really want to enjoy one with them, but you know you can’t. And so there is a divide between you and everyone else.
And I wonder if, on a bigger scale, there is a divide between vegans and the rest of society? If so, how can we close this gap?
I would love feedback! Tomorrow, I buy a vegan cookbook to add to my library, and I get to eat the pinto beans I’m soaking overnight.
The Vegan Challenge Series
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Jessica is a freelance writer from West Lafayette, IN. She recently graduated from the Indiana University School of Journalism with her B.A. in journalism and a concentration in political science. Her works have been featured in a number of publications including HELEN magazine, The Bloomington Herald-Times, and CafeAbroad.com. Jessica is an environmentalist with a passion for the outdoors. She also has an insatiable appetite for travel, and was fortunate enough to spend a semester abroad in Rome, Italy. She currently lives in Indiana but is planning a move to New York City in the near future. Visit her Web site here.
Thanks for pointing out that with a little extra effort, being vegan is totally possible, and it can reignite an appreciation of food and where it comes from, as well as feeling good about what goes into the body. Even if everyone just ate less meat and animal products, our environment and health would be better off.
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I start my morning with oatmeal too! My boyfriend/partner loves vegan ice cream and there are so many now. There is so much more of everything vegan these days and all that prepared junk food is making me fat! lol So cooking for yourself is good, so if you are buying a cookbook, I LOVE Veganomicon. Isa also has a website http://www.theppk.com/ that’s great. Don’t know if you wanna bake too, but The Joy of Vegan Baking is my favorite. Colleen also runs a website with podcasts: http://feeds.feedburner.com/VegetarianFoodForThought
Have you gone out to any vegan restaurants yet? Happy Cow is a great way to find places:
http://www.happycow.net/
As for family get togethers, planning ahead is definitely needed as is just teaching a few basic things to them like making mashed potatoes with soy milk and vegan butter or making soups with vegetable stock. There are little things that can be changed and then everyone can enjoy the same food. You can also bring your own dish that everyone can share. Sharing veganism with yummy food is always a good way to go! Jonathan Safran-Foer talks about the social bonding aspect of food in his book, Eating Animals, if you are interested.
http://www.eatinganimals.com/
Okay, now that I have probably overwhelmed you with links, I will end by saying that I look forward to reading your next post and following your continued journey.
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HappyCow! Awesome. Thank you! I bought a cook book today, and I’m excited to start working with it. I’m in Chicago right now with some friends, and I toted all my food up with me to ensure I keep up with the diet. The boys I’m staying with are all hardcore meat-eaters. But honestly, my last two days have been relatively easy.
Also, it’s so funny that you mentioned “Eating Animals” because I JUST saw that in a used bookstore today and was so compelled by it. I didn’t buy it, but I think I’ll go back for it next week.
Thanks for your support
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The really great thing that I have found about being vegan is that you don’t even need a special cookbook. Just make substitutions.
Eggs:
1 TBSP Applesauce
1 TBSP Corn Starch and 2 TBSP water
Cheese:
Nutritional Yeast
Silken Tofu
Milk:
Almond Milk
Coconut Milk
Hemp Milk
Soy Milk
Mayonnaise:
Veganaise (tastes exactly like real mayo although some of the off brands don’t)
When going out to eat, I usually ask for the allergen information of the foods I am interested in. All restaurants will be happy to provide you with this information.
Smoothies are a great breakfast as are tofu scrambles, a stir fry, or even toast with some fruit on it. Lunch you have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bean burritos or tons of other things.
I hope I have been helpful.
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I absolutely love veganaise. I’ve never tried the applesauce/cornstarch mixture for eggs, though.
Tofu scramble sounds GREAT. Yum. I’m extra hungry. Thank you for your advice!
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Hey,
First of all, it’s nice to see you documenting your first experiences with Veganism, and I hope that you continue with it in the future, if not staying vegan, than at least incorporating it into your normal routine. It’s also nice to know that you are spreading a positive message about how easy it can be to incorporate Veganism into a typical American diet, and hopefully you will be able to have a good impact on those around you, especially your friends and family. I wish you good luck on the rest of your journey.
There is another website you should know about with vegan recipies, here’s a link (just incase you haven’t come across this one yet!): http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-recipes.asp
I also wanted to point out to you, without criticism, that the terms “Free Range” and “Humane” have no regulations to back them up, like the very loose “organic” regulations. So typically, with free range and humane animals, as a consumer, you are still purchasing the same type of animal used in a typical factory farm, basically an animal from the same genetic stock. For example, broiler chickens (which are used for basially 99.99% of the meat in this country) are also used on free range and humane farms, the only difference is that they get to live maybe a week longer, max, because they aren’t fed food laced with hormones. They still are genetically manipulated to grow larger faster, and with less food.
I recommend that you check out this site: http://www.chooseveg.com/free-range.asp
Scroll down to point #2 about how organic and free range labels are misleading. There’s a little video too. I think you should know about this, since it’s important for you to know where your food comes from, and what these labels truthfully mean, which is basically that they mean nothing. I don’t mean this as criticism at all, I just figured since this is an educational journey for you towards helping yourself and the world around you, it’s important to know this information to help you with your plans for the future after your two-week veganism adventure!
Good luck!
Deirdre
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Jessica!
Good for you. I hope you find so many good tasting foods that you incorporate into your life. As far as I am concerned, every meatless meal is an animal saved.
I highly recommend seitan. It’s my favorite “meat substitute”. If you are gluten intolerant, ignore my recommendation.
Keep it up. You are doing great and you are helping others also learn about veganism. As are all the commentators.
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Like some of the commentors said earlier probably there is no need to overemphasize animal by-products. Most of them are there because animals were killed for the three main reasons: meat, milk and eggs. So just avoiding those three is a good start. And then once a person is comfortable with that change, with time it would be easier to avoid more obscure animal derived ingridients.
And I would like to put my vote for Eating Animals. I really enjoyed reading his book because of the unique style. Unlike most authors who write about these topics, he is mainly a fiction writer. And that is what sets him apart.
And yes, definitely try VeganYumYum alfredo sauce. It is great! I made it many times and it is very convinient. Especially, when there is no time to cook complicated dishes.
And in regards to family. To put in two words: It’s complicated. My husband and I live 400 miles away from our parents, so any time we come in and stay there we don’t have a lot of control over our food. And it took them almost two years to understand what it is that we eat and what we don’t eat. I definitely would not eat any meat, but I suspect that I cosumed some food that might have contained milk. Like crepes for example. It is very hard to say no when my mom spend 2 hours making them for me. But I don’t have those worries that often any more. Over time they get used to our choices and often change themselves. Like my parents-in-law went vegetarian some time after we became vegan.
Anyways I will stop talking.
Good luck with your experiment and I look forward to reading more about your adventures
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At the behest of my dirty hippie PETA art school roommate my freshman year of college (and yes, every one of those modifiers applies), I went vegan for about a year and a half, so I know how awkward it can be to sit down to a family holiday meal and only be able to pick at the salad. I ended up eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my Christmas dinner because there wasn’t anything else I could eat.
But I learned my lesson – when Easter rolled around, I showed up early and brought vegan recipes and made a few dishes to share. And they were so popular I ended up leaving the recipes with my mother for future meals! Most people use animal products because that’s what they know how to make and use, not because they necessarily taste better. The most delicious recipe for banana bread I’ve ever encountered comes from this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1570672202/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_1
So when your family gets together for meals, don’t expect them to accommodate you on their own – bring a vegan dish to share and show your family that you’re not just sitting around eating lettuce all day!
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[...] days as a vegan to reduce my environmental footprint. The tw0 week challenge is almost done, but I have learned so much that I will likely try to cut animal products out of my diet as often as possible in the future. [...]
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Every animal saved is worthy of your hard work. Keep it up!
And really, don’t worry about the nitty-gritty terms. There are vegans who never learn all the animal by products nor care to ni the future. Eating is a personal journey. Don;t feel bad if you “make a mistake” there are no “rules” just an overall goal – to reduce sufferring as much as possible.
You’re doing a great thing for yourself, the animals, the planet and your readers!
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Hi, Jessica!
I love cooking, but must admit there are always those nights when I’m not feeling particularly ambitious in the kitchen…for those occasions I like to keep Field Roast “Grain Meats” (http://www.fieldroast.com/) and Tasty Bite Indian Entrees (http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=2105673&cgrfnbr=2717595) on hand.
Vegan Outreach maintains a great list of yet more vegan products, recommended weekly by their e-newsletter readers:
http://www.veganoutreach.org/guide/products.html
Even though I’m not vegan, I love their newsletter — as mentioned, the Product of the Week feature is great, and they also provide links to articles about animal cruelty, the food industry, nutrition and other pertinent topics.
Good luck as you continue your journey, Jessica!
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