Easier than it looks!

Thanks MaliceInWickedland for the photo.

Progress report on my vegan apprenticeship:

✓ Taste buds adjusted to soy milk in tea.

✓ Taste buds adjusted to soy milk on cereal.

✓ Trying new vegan recipes and loving the results.

✓ Finding alternatives to replace old non-vegan grocery items.

✓ Discovering that Oreos are vegan :)

So far my vegan apprenticeship is proving much easier 

than I thought it would.

I used to think that it would be very hard to be vegan.  I thought that a vegan diet would be boring and difficult to maintain.  But I am happy to report that I was wrong!  I also thought that vegans would be skinny - how could they possibly be fat?  Seems I was wrong about that too - there are plenty of options for vegan pig outs.

So what is the next step for this for this vegan apprentice?  I am still sticking to my strict vegan day once a week on Mondays.  And I am also finding that I am naturally making vegan choices on other days too.

Should I just focus on stretching to 2 then 3 strict vegan days etc?  I think the tricky thing is going to be sticking to the plan when not at home.  So many restaurants/cafes etc have a good range of vegetarian choices, but vegan - not so much.  And I can't really expect all my friends and family to keep soy milk on hand just in case I pop in for a cuppa.

Perhaps it will be easier to focus on making all my meals at home vegan first.  That should not be too hard.  I can manage without eggs in meals and baking at home.  But there are plenty of useable items in my fridge and pantry that "contain milk products".  Wasting them would not be environmentally friendly!  So I will use up what is already in the fridge and pantry, but have started reading all the labels carefully when I am shopping.  Reading labels is a pretty scary enterprise.  I had not realized how many basic foods have "flavors" and "colorings" added.  Hmmmm!  So I am trying to avoid artificial nasties like that too.   Admittedly Oreos have the ubiquitous "flavor" added.  But I have to have some vices.

So here goes:  My next goal is to be totally vegan at home.   I am aiming to tick this box by the end of June.

Dinner tonight - barley, split pea and vegetable soup, with a good splash of Chardonnay.  Smells delicious!  Just perfect for a cold, rainy day.