Reflections from a Fake Vegan Day 6: Maintain Your Willpower

Do you like how it's taking me nearly a month to write about a one week experience? Life just seems to keep getting in the way of blogging. I think I'm doing too much, but anyway...day 6 of vegan week went okay. I had to pass on an offer to go out to dinner because the menu didn't have anything vegan on it. Per usual breakfast and lunch went well. I safely snacked and for dinner I made rice for the first time in years. I mixed some pineapple and veggie burger in with it to give it a little something. It wasn't bad. I was hosting a party the following night so I baked a bunch of stuff for that on Friday night (day 6). I was tempted to sample many of the things I made, but I knew in 24 hours I'd be able to enjoy them so I restrained myself. I was kind of surprised about what I did and didn't miss. Yes, I missed my milk, but I also missed things like cheese and butter. I wanted to put butter on my zucchini bread and I would have loved to have put a piece of cheesy on my veggie burger. Considering my huge sweet tooth, I was surprised I wasn't craving sweets more often. I think the fact that I purposely didn't keep too many in the house that week helped. Had they been around, I may not have had sufficient willpower, but since they weren't there, I didn't have to worry about sneaking them. I'm somewhat curious about whether I could handle going vegan in the summer because in the summer I really like ice-cream. How do vegans go without ice-cream for life? Don't they know what they're missing? I know, I know, they probably think I'm crazy for eating animal product, but ice-cream is so good. :) I'll try not to take a month to write about the last day of vegan week. And until then, have a good one!

Reflections from a Fake Vegan Day 5: Keep Me Busy So I Don't Cheat

Day five was a long day. Per usual breakfast and lunch went well. I had to work late so work provided me with dinner. I did my best to eat vegan. I didn't put dressing on my salad and when I ate it, I tried not to eat any cheese. I was careful about which pasta I picked--not the really good looking cheesy kind. :( I also showed tremendous restraint and stared at the dessert table, but did not eat anything on it. After all, I had a piece of vegan-zucchini bread and a vegan brownie waiting for me. Yeah, somehow, those didn't sound as good as the desserts in front of me, but I managed to bypass the dessert table and head back to my desk. Since it was such a long busy day, I didn't have a ton of time to eat so I didn't mind the vegan thing as much as I otherwise might have. After work, I had a dance class so no time to eat then--or be tempted by non-vegan foods. When I got home from dance, I baked some things for a party I was hosting two days later. I really wanted to sample some of my baked goodies, but I knew I had to wait two days so I baked the goodies and then put them out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Yeah, not so much, but I managed. After all only two days left to go. The end was near, I couldn't wait to drink a glass of milk, make a grilled cheese, and enjoy some sushi. Oh, yeah, and perhaps a brownie. :) I don't know how real vegans do it. They must have insane willpower.

Reflections From a Fake Vegan Day 4: The Joys and Challenges of Baking

Day four went fairly well in fake vegan-land. I think I successfully avoided English Muffins and all other foods that might contain eggs, butter, or milk. Might I also add that on day two, I passed up a brownie and had fruit instead. Just had to pat myself on the back for one success. So anyway, on day four I decided to try some vegan baking. A friend of mine gave me some egg replacer (replacement? I'm not sure it's proper name) and told me I should make zucchini bread with it. I like zucchini bread and I've made it before so I thought I'd give it a try. I made it with the fake eggs and well...it looked really weird. Not terribly moist and when it was done cooking, it looked a little crumbly, but you know what? It tasted fine! It would have tasted better with butter on it, but yeah, it was good. I also made vegan-safe brownies. Those were also not as moist when in batter form though when they were done baking they seemed more moist than regular brownies. They taste all right, but I haven't been as addicted to them as I have been to regular brownies. I think I'll stick with the zucchini bread. :)

Reflections from a Fake Vegan Day 3: Will Power...Or Not

Day three of vegan week started off well enough. I had a vegan-friendly breakfast and lunch. At lunch time, it was someone's birthday so one person on my team brought in a birthday cake. I gathered up some will power and said no thank you. Even when they peer pressured me to have just a little piece, I said no thanks, "I'm trying to be good" and I stood my ground. Go me! Later that day I had a meeting with my boss who offered me my favorite kind of Girl Scout cookie. I really wanted one, but I said no thanks. He offered again and I managed to resist again. I was so proud, I was actually passing up sweets. Usually when I battle with my sweet tooth, my sweet tooth wins, especially on a stressful day. Well, things went along nicely until it was time to tutor. When I got to tutoring, they had a nice little snack left out for me on a plate at the spot where I usually sit. I wasn't exactly sure how to explain that I was eating vegan for a week and could you tell me if there are eggs, butter, or milk in this little treat. If it were a friend or family member or something, I'd probably just explain, but let's face it this whole thing I'm doing is weird. Who eats vegan for one week just because? And I was pretty hungry since it had been five hours since I had my fruit salad so I ate the treat and I'm pretty sure it wasn't vegan-friendly. So three days into vegan week, I've eaten three things that were not vegan-approved. Am I a failure? I may have to do this vegan business again sans milk, English Muffins, and tutoring treats. I give those real vegan some major kudos. It's a lot of work to keep up with all the ingredients and pass up on good foods when everyone else is eating them. We'll see what day four brings.

Reflections From a Fake Vegan Day 2: Those Darn Labels

I suppose if there were a week to be a fake vegan, this was the week to do it. This week is/was insanely busy. I have/had meetings, etc after work every day (okay Friday isn't so much a meeting as a standing walking date with a colleague) and something to do every night (some fun stuff and some meetings). So since I was going to be so busy, I wouldn't be snacking so much since I wouldn't have time. Breakfast on Day two of Vegan Week went well as did lunch (I'm loving the fruit this week). After my meeting, I went to the gym, then was home for about 15 minutes before I had to meet some friends to go to see a movie. I vaguely remember inhaling an English Muffin with peanut butter in the midst of changing, returning a phone call, and playing beat the clock in an attempt to make it to the movies on time (success). Later on that night I was reading some vegan websites in an attempt to get more ideas for recipes and vegan-safe foods and I noticed one of the more comprehensive lists didn't list English Muffins, so I checked the label and wouldn't you know it, the darn things have milk as the second to last ingredient. SERIOUSLSY?! Seriously? Apparently, bagels are safe. I like bagels, in fact I like them even more then English Muffins. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy English Muffins, but had I been smart and read the label FIRST I would have noticed this and bought bagels instead. I guess I'm kind of a failure since I unintentionally ate non-vegan food on vegan week. Grr. I'm still sticking with the project, but I may try it again another week later this year when I'm more sure of the food labels. Ironically, since doing vegan week, I've been eating fewer vegetables. I'm definitely eating healthier since I can't eat sweets, but instead of my usual salad for lunch I had fruit salad. I figured since I'd be eating lots of veggies for/with dinner I'd do fruit for lunch, but I've yet to have veggies for dinner so we'll see how that goes. In the mean time, have a good night and read your food labels, or maybe you shouldn't read them, then you won't know you are unintentionally cheating.

Reflections from a Fake Vegan Day 1

So a couple of days ago I began my vegan week. On day one I went to the grocery store--and was reminded why I don't go to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. I was set to begin vegan week that night around 7 or 8. That way I could finish by 7 or 8 the following Saturday--in time to eat non-vegan food at a St. Patrick's Day party. Priorities, right? Hey if I am baking goodies for a party, I want to be able to enjoy them. This is why I could never make it as a real vegan in real life. Anyway, day one wasn't too bad. I bought lots of fruits and veggies, rice, veggie burgers, tortilla wrap things, and I even found a salad dressing that appears to be vegan-friendly. Perhaps next time I go vegan for a week, I should do it when more fruits are in season, but I digress. So Saturday night was no problem as I had eaten plenty of typical food during the day. Sunday morning, I confess I did cheat a little. I had about a big glassful of skim milk left in the fridge. I didn't want to waste it, but I wasn't sure it'd still be good in a week so I decided to just drink it. I know, I know, a real vegan wouldn't do that, but as we know I am a fake vegan. I'm just doing this to see if I can do it and because supposedly it's good for you, but the way I see it, a girl needs her calcium. Breakfast was fine. Most of the breakfast foods I regularly eat do not contain animal products. I was so busy Sunday afternoon that I didn't have time for a snack. I had some noodle concoction for lunch and pasta for dinner. So if you can forgive the milk (hey isn't it wrong to waste food too?) day one went fairly well. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

A Verb is a Noun...Or is it a Verb?

As someone who enjoys reading, writing, words, etc, you'd think I could speak/write properly, right? Wrong! I have this bad habit of verbing things--see I just did it. Yep, I take words that are nouns and turn them into verbs. Ironically, the word verb is a noun, but I make it into a verb when I verb things. For example, two of my friends and I were playing Scrabble on-line and one of them put out a word none of us knew. So one friend asked what the word meant. I had no idea so I said "Dictionary.com it." Dictionary.com is a noun, but I felt the need to turn it into a verb instead of simply saying something along the lines of, "Look on dictioary.com."

Speaking of Scrabble, I learn so many new words from that game. I swear people are making words up and then I'll look it up and it turns out it's a real word. So I'm not wasting time when I play, I'm improving my vocabulary. :)

Not only do I verb things, but I also enjoy saying fake words that are composed of two real words. Years ago, a kid taught me the word ginormous (I assume he was trying to combine gigantic and enormous). I know it's not a real word, but I still say it every once in a while. I find it fantabulous. Yep, fantastic and fabulous equals fantabulous.

Another word I like "countrify." That is when a country singer sings a non-country song, and you know puts a country twist on it. This is a bad example, but it's the only one I can think of right now, so just go with me for a minute here. Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was originally sung by Dolly Parton. I think she wrote it too. Well, let's pretend for a minute that Whitney originally did the song and then Dolly sang it later. I would say that Dolly Parton countrified the song--or made it a country song. Yep, I'm a huge dork!