How It All Vegan

The other night, my husband and our son and I had dinner at my parents' house.  They still have trouble understanding my choices in my diet, and my dad especially likes to tease me about the 'vegan police' busting me for eating a little accidental meat here and there. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been a vegetarian for a long time (I think almost 10 years now) and you think the idea wouldn't be so novel anymore. However, he did rather proudly find this app on his new iPhone which read aloud the different ways to pronounce 'vegan', there are FOUR, and we had a wonderful time listening to them and laughing. 

I am not totally vegan, but I have come a long way. Three months ago I thought I could never give up cheese. Chile con queso was it's own food group in my diet.  However, when my husband suggested we do a 30 day vegan challenge, I accepted. He had read about numerous marathon runners and other athletes who ate a plant based diet and that they were leaner, meaner, had quicker recovery and had great vitals. 

I used the book "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn for the foundation of understanding how your body operates on a vegan diet, the benefits, and facts/myths about plant based diets.  I used "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freeman and Kim Barnoun for meal planning. I had read Skinny Bitch years ago, but I hadn't been ready to take the next step.  It's pretty in your face, and when I reread it, I felt it came across pretty harsh.  However, I remembered how it lays out at least four weeks of meals in the back of the book and as I was not a huge fan of the meals in the Engine 2 book, I needed some other ideas. You can get it pretty cheap on Amazon.com.  I would like to share some of the best of the best. I have made a few duds in my time but I have refined and honed my 10 years of vegetarian cooking know-how and cut out animal products. Here are my top Vegan meals. I will post a recipe or two at a time.

Ground 'Beef' Tacos and Black Beans

Ground 'Beef' and Pinto Bean Burritos and Mexican Rice

Taco Salad

Veggie Nachos

Portabella Fajitas and Chips/Guacamole

Black Bean Patties with corn on the cob and sweet potato fries

Lasagna with sauteed asparagus

Homemade Raw Pesto with Penne and Italian 'Sausage' with baked acorn squash

Pesto Pizza with salad

Pasta Primavera with salad

Spaghetti and 'Meat' Balls with salad

Chili with cornbread

Chili Dogs with vegetarian baked beans

Riblets with mashed potatoes

Cauliflower Steak with couscous

Veggie Burger with Tater Tots

Chinese Chicken Salad

Peanut Noodles with Broccoli Slaw Salad

Lettuce Wraps and Hot & Sour Soup

Peanut Tofu with Brown Rice and Broccoli

Scott ended up losing about 20 lbs in 3 and a half weeks. I lost about 4 lbs.  I have continued the vegan diet for the most part, eating no added cheese, consuming no dairy milk, yogurt, etc. However, a few of the meat substitues I use have some egg in them.  With continued exercise, I have finally reached my goal weight of 130 lbs. I have found when you don't consume animal fats in any way shape or form, you can actually eat a whole lot of food.

Sample meals for a day:

Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk

Snack: Instant Oatmeal

Lunch: Fake Chicken Patty sandwich topped with avocado, pop chips, a fruit

Snack: Hummus/Carrot Sticks

Dinner: Cheeseless Pesto Pizza wtih artichoke hearts

Dessert (only a few days a week): Country Choice Lemon Ginger cookies, which are to DIE FOR