Vegan Challenge: Week 1

I love challenges that are shaped as 21-, 30-, and X-day challenges.
I especially like them to try new things, even ones that won't stick.  They provide a nice temporary change of pace, and help me open up and expand beyond my own routine (i.e. I gave up wheat pastas once, and it made me realize that my weekday routine included multiple nights of pasta because it's what was most convenient, and also forced me to expand into non-pasta convenient meals).

So we are one week into Lent.
Note: I am not very religious.  I have no intention to discuss religion, and Lent really requires/includes prayer and a lot of things I am not going to discuss in this blog.
But every year, I use the 40 days of Lent to challenge myself to sacrifice something I thoroughly enjoy, and treat it like a 40-day challenge.

This year, my Lentan challenge was to go vegan.

I made this decision on Fat Tuesday, to start on Ash Wednesday (the following day).
I gave myself three "buy" meals.  These meals are really just because, long before I made the decision to make this sacrifice, I'd committed myself (and possibly already spent the money) to three meals that will not be remotely vegan but will take place before Lent is over (Easter).  Anything beyond these three "buys," however, I have to just Veganize.

I can probably live without meat, though I do really enjoy it.  But I was in the middle of an egg phase, and am also a lover of cheese and other dairy.  I use a lot of meat broths, even if there's no meat in my actual cooking.  If nothing else, I figured this will be interesting and full of lessons learned.

I knew I didn't want to be a person who resorted to just bags of fried potato chips and candy while I waited out my 40 days as a vegan.  Luckily, I have a friend who's tried pretty much every form of diet out there (she is the one who inspired me to take on this challenge and the challenges I am also considering for the summer) and has been eating vegan for quite some time.  She was a valuable resource, and taught me my very first lesson:

Keep it simple.

Another lesson I learned immediately, from one meat and dairy lover to any other who tries to go vegan or even just cut way back on animal proteins: Do not make the decision randomly in the middle of the week when you have no groceries and are completely unprepared.  That might be pretty obvious, but I ignored it and did it anyways, which left me hungry and frustrated for two days, while making regular runs to Whole Foods to hit up their salad bar.

My friend also pointed me to a fantastic vegan cooking blog: Oh She Glows.

I took a necessary moment to plan out a menu for the week, and then used a lunch break to grab all the groceries I needed from Whole Foods.  The first trip to the grocery store was expensive - but to be fair, it included things that will last me awhile, like probiotics and nutritional yeast and cacoa and dairy-free milks (I went with unsweetened almond and vanilla rice).

I like to cook just one or two days of the week, and then have food preparation be quick throughout the rest of the week (i.e. microwaving, mixing, putting in bowl, toasting, etc.).  So I set aside some hours to do all of my cooking Sunday and Tuesday, and this week includes these Oh She Glows recipes:

• Layered Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole - I'm a sucker for pasta sauce and both zucchini and eggplant.  I did add Spinach into my bean sauce, and used Cannelini beans instead of Northern/Navy (I kind of think they are the same but haven't really looked into it), and the bean sauce was really fantastic.
• Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheese - I am also a sucker for butternut squash, and have learned the real value of nutritional yeast.  This doesn't taste like your boxed mac and cheese (either powdered cheese or cheese sauce - which is sometimes what I make on a bad day and throw in hot dogs, tuna, collard greens, or anything else), but it is tasty.  I find that the more bites you take, the cheesier tasting it gets.
• Carrot Apple Ginger Soup - I had previously made a horrendous carrot soup from one of the Cook Yourself Thin books (a series from which I generally love the recipes, but this one just missed my mark), so I was a bit weary of this one. However, this carrot, apple, and ginger combination was really low maintenance (easy) and really tasty - somehow both refreshing and warm at the same time.
• Lightened Up Tahini Lemon Dressing - I was too lazy to put this entire salad together, so I just took a huge bunch of kale, and washed it, chopped it, put it in a salad spinner for a few spins, and then put it in a tupperware.  Every day, I grab a handful and throw some of the dressing on.  Since it's kale, I give it a good mix/toss, and let it sit for a moment.  My friend described this dressing as good enough to make a car tire delicious.  She was right!

I also made this Quinoa Salad with Beets, Chickpeas, Oranges, and Spinach from the Gluten Free Goddess, because I bought two beets on a whim from the market on Sunday.  I love beets, especially roasted, and have been slowly figuring out what to do with quinoa - this salad is really uplifting as we shift from winter into spring (well, in DC - I know there was just a big wintry storm in the midwest so winter is not exactly over).

So there you have it - one week in...
Here are the lessons learned, from a generally-non-vegan, in Week 1 of the Vegan Challenge:

1. Keep it simple.
2. Be prepared - think it through, don't start mid-week without food in your house, do your research to ensure you get your vitamins.
3. Take a moment - plan out a menu.
4. Staples always cost money (it's like buying spices) - don't fret over those first grocery trips.
5. Great blog for vegan recipes: Oh She Glows.