Tonight’s dinner was all about one of the main perks of the vegan challenge – it reminds me to cook from The Holy Grail a.k.a. Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan. It seems I never turn to this book unless I’m “forced to,” but I’ve loved every single thing I’ve ever made from it.
You might have noticed that unlike the last vegan challenge I have yet to eat 10billion vegan sticky pecan blondies (my very favorite thing from ED&BV, and in fact my very favorite dessert of all time). In vegan challenges past I’ve gotten so excited about vegan baking that I ate more sweets than is normal even for me. Since my 25th birthday is coming up in July and I recently had to buy bigger pants I’m just not quite as entranced with the baking.
I’m also making an effort this month not to buy “substitute” products. At last glance my grocery store carried vegan options for hot dogs, sliced meat, cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, blintzes, ice-cream, cheese and more. If I ever went vegan for longer than a month I’m sure those products would seem like godsends, but for this challenge I’m trying to keep things pretty natural. The point of this month (for me) was more about skipping the cheese than making it vegan. {Note – I’m aware that Allison has recently bought some of these products, more power to her, this post is NOT criticizing that! Why would I want to insult my self-proclaimed blog twin?}
At 15days in we are officially halfway through vegan month. I have also officially been vegan for a day longer than any time before. This challenge has been surprisingly easy for me. There have been a few times I’ve been jealous of what’s on Adam’s plate (like extra randomly when he ate a cheeseburger at the bbq and I almost cried because I wanted a bite so badly; I haven’t eaten red meat in 10years, wtf?!) but in general there’s nothing I’ve been wanting for. I definitely feel like I’ll make it through to the end without breaking a sweat.
Back to dinner. While I waited for Adam to get home I at a serving (2oz) of ww sourdough with Smart Balance Light.
Tonight’s main course was my 2nd favorite recipe from Ms. Burton, Tempeh Hash Brown Casserole.
Yumtastic! This dish is the perfect example of Unami! I can’t share the recipe here, but I promise that buying the cookbook is worth it for the blondies alone!
On the side we made pan steamed spinach.
All together now.
Do you ever buy vegan “substitute” products? Why or why not?
Eating Chalk 
yumtastic! i love that word. good idea to eat more natural foods. it’s tough, but you can do it! blondies? im about to search for these!!!
I’m clearly not a vegan, but I make an effort not to exist on gluten-free ‘substitute’ products as much as possible. As happy as I am that they now exist (for my occasional treats), there were very few GF products when I first went GF.
I can’t pretend that part of that for me isn’t wanting to get hooked on $10 loaves of bread. 😉
Good for you for not succumbing to the sticky pecan blondies temptation. I have a new resolve to lose 5 lbs. by 7/10 so I’m with you on the pants not fitting. 😦
This post, my dear, is why I love you! 🙂 You GOTZ MA BACK!
I completely agree with your line of thinking!! Mama Pea said something to me along those lines before the challenge started, and I was like “Oh – DUH, that makes so much sense!”.
(Originally that was my plan – but MAN – this past weekend – it was go buy an assload of vegan cheese, or cheat, so I had to cave! P.S. I was one HOT second away from cheating due to hangover)
I love the way you look at it, and I have to agree – I think for long run vegans, those are really nice options – but short term, you should be able to stick with veggies, fruit, grains, etc. I unfortunately – am not that strong! 😉
PS – Most of the meat substitues are NASTY! The only one I’ve liked has been TJ’s meatless meatballs, and TJ’s chicken-less pulled chicken!
I used to buy a lot of vegan substitutes when I first stopped eating meat a bunch of years ago. I don’t really eat them anymore but for a while they were good transition foods for me.
I only buy substitute products when there’s absolutely no way I could make it at home. Example: Tofutti Cream Cheese. Even if I spent years doing nothing but trying to make tofu taste like cream cheese, I would fail. So I buy the container and call it a day.
I haven’t really bought any of those alternatives just because they scare me a little! I’m sure if I went vegan I would try them at some point, but I would love to try them from a restaurant before making them myself – especially something like tempeh, etc.
I’m just a coward, I guess 🙂
I promise that tempeh is only a tiny bit scarier than tofu!
catching up on your posts! I have changed a lot as a vegetarian/vegan — in college I pretty much subsisted off of black bean burgers, vegan hot dogs, etc., but now I’m way less into the soy (plus my body doesn’t seem to tolerate it as well). I like making “fake” baked fish with tempeh or “fake” po-boys with breaded tofu in lieu of shrimp, but try to stay away from the more processed forms of soy.