Dating animal free

As a person who doesn’t actively seek out other vegans to date and start a commune with it can be a little awkward crushing a meat loving man’s dreams by telling him I don’t touch the stuff. This must be handled carefully from keeping him running for the hills.  After dropping the bomb you usually get a blank face staring back at you with one eye looking for the door. I blame this on the vegan thing but it’s entirely possible that it’s something else like my red hair and freckley skin. Nobody wants a ginger baby. I digress.

So my new plan is to avoid any sort of food situation for the first three months. That’s totally realistic right? For instance, I was just offered to go out for tapas and I smoothly played that one off by saying I’d love to join you but will be saving all my stomach space for the sangria. When asked why I didn’t want to eat anything I informed him that there was food in alcohol. Win.

Next up, the lunch date. I just show up to this one already drunk and let him know if I eat I might throw up. Win.

Then there’s the baseball game, it being springtime and all. Romeo gets up to grab us a couple of hot dogs and I let him know that his smooth operator date snuck in her food in her oversized purse. Economical and healthy. Win.

I'll invite you all to my wedding.

The crazy adventure of a vegan restaurant

Taking a non vegan to a vegan restaurant can be quite an adventure – for the non vegan. They approach it as if they’re visiting a new country. They ask you questions in preparation, “What’s it like there? Is the food good? What do they even cook with? Will I be full? Will I need to get a slice of pizza afterward? If there’s no cheese, animals or eggs what does that leave?” These questions get more frequent the closer you get. Then there’s the “I’ve never done this before. So exciting!” Yes, eating food is exciting.

Last night I had the pleasure of trying a vegan restaurant with my non vegan friend, Gina. She was excited and skeptical but all in. I tried to preemptively defend vegans by telling her how for some yes, it was a lifestyle but for others, including me, it’s not what defined them but rather a healthy diet we embraced, and that a lot of vegans are normal people. So of course when we arrived the place was filled with vegan stereotypes, including silent, sulking man whose style resembled that of my grandmother.

That being said Angelica Kitchen is nicely decorated and has a welcoming feel. Unfortunately they don’t take credit cards or serve booze. After some yelling at the waitress for not having alcohol and how would I survive we decided to order an appetizer, the walnut-lentil pate with tofu sour cream. It was the shit. I’m not sure if Gina even got to try it because I was too busy shoveling it into my mouth. Delicious.


Next up, Gina ordered the sushi and I a Japanese soba noodle dish. Gina gave the sushi the thumbs up but I was pretty disappointed with my soba thing. It just tasted like someone dumped a bunch of soy sauce on noodles and said "Viola! Amazing vegan goodness!" Not so much. That being said it wasn’t gross or anything, just not great.

Afterward, Gina and I hit up a bar in the neighborhood to fill our bellies with beer then parted ways. I have yet to hear if she grabbed a slice of pizza on her walk home.

Nice Headdress

Going to the grocery store as a newbie vegan

Go AROUND!!!!! Imagine you’re sitting on the 405 during rush hour and your car stalls. The traffic starts to move forward and you just sit there. People start to honk. They pass you with glaring looks. You’re so close you can hear some of them murmur things under their breath or possibly intentionally loud enough for you to hear. You are like a large tree limb blocking the flow of water. After a few minutes of you desperately trying to get your car started so you can move forward you become frantic, anxious and frazzled. One more person honks, one more intelligible comment at you and you snap. “GOOOO ARRRROUND!” Half your body leans out the car window and your arm moves in a circular motion you yell, “GOOOOO ARRROUND!” This is me. At the grocery store. Imagine it: New York, Whole Foods, Saturday afternoon, narrow aisles and people crammed into that urban food oasis like sardines. You’re a vegan and you don’t know what they hell you’re buying. You have to look at every food item differently now and with question. You have to pick up every item you used to buy and read the ingredients. You have to look for alternatives. You have to check your cart to see if you have protein. What about calcium, am I getting any of that?  Can I make a meal out of any of this? What will I eat for lunch? What about snacks? It’s all unknown and you’re standing right in the middle of the interstate blocking traffic as you stop every two feet and read every ingredient.

Fear not, with each passing visit you will figure out what foods work and remember them. You’ll whiz through that store like a professional roller blader in the 80s. You'll become skilled in breaking through the clutter and honing in on items you can eat. After many a trips below are some the things I look for every time:

Fruits & Veggies – So many wonderful things that are your friend

• Spinach – I eat it out of the bag with hummus. Stack several pieces and roll.
• Avocados – Proof that Jesus loves you. Best. Food. Ever.
• Red/Yellow/Green peppers – make great snacks due to their dippable power when sliced
• Sweet potatoes – These babies take an hour to bake but reheat easily so pop a few in the oven and bam, yummy potatoes for a week
• Apples - great snack, slice em up and take em to go
• Berries - for some added oatmeal goodness

Chips

• Tortilla chips – pair with salsa or guac. You know what to do here.
• Food Should Taste Good brand – they have blue corn tortilla, sweet potato, olive, and lime chips to name a few. The label on the back will say if it’s vegan.
• Sesame sticks – a.k.a addictive crack sticks
• Pretzels – Read the labels though as some brands have a lot of added ingredients. Organic seems to be the way to go here.
• Plantain chips – Salty deliciousness

Frozen

• Amy’s Organic Indian, pizza, burgers, Mexican, stir fry, tofu scramble - On the back where it says Ingredients right after it will say (vegan) if it is. You don’t have to read through the whole list.
• Soy Ice Cream – those three words just don’t seem to go together but I swear when they’re in sandwich form they’re amazing. Give it a try.
• Sweet potato fries

Deli area

• Tofu – you can get it plain or in flavors. I love the savory and oriental flavors. If you go with plain to bake it yourself at home then start out by choosing extra firm and go from there.
• Tempeh – you can buy this stuff in strips and fry em up on the stove. Go nicely in sandwiches or tacos.
• Vegan cheese, yogurt, cream cheese – I honestly have never tried any of the vegan cheeses as I’ve heard the flavors are so great but they’re there if you need em.

Inner aisles

• Amy’s organic soups
• Pasta & pasta sauce
• Soy milk, almond milk – again I haven’t tried either of these as I wasn’t a big milk person before but they’re popular items among the diary free. 
• Beans
• Oatmeal
• Pine nuts – make your pasta dishes magical

If you have any more please share in the comments section. Momma* always needs some new ideas!

*disclaimer – I am not a mom

My awesome lunch today

Back in the Kitchen, Woman

When I first went vegan I embraced the whole cooking thing but old habits die hard and I quickly found ways to get around that. One of the great things about NYC is all the delicious vegan options for eating out or ordering in. Some of my favorites include the mac n ‘cheese’ from Loving Hut or the Midtown Melt seitan burger from Blossom Du Jour. It’s easy being vegan when you have someone else to cook it for you! The downside is this is a great way to go broke fast. It’s also probably not totally healthy.

Last week I ordered lunch from Blossom almost every day. In order to meet their $15 delivery minimum I ended up spending about $20/day. That’s $100 for the whole week! I’m a graduate student not a member of the Jonas Brothers.

It’s time to get back in the kitchen and channel my inner Julia Child (if she were a vegan). I’ve found that if I don’t cook on Sunday nights I’m screwing myself for the week because by the time I get home from school the last thing I’m going to do is cook. One of the up sides to being single is that you can make a dish Sunday night and it will last you through the week, or at least part of it. At the risk of sounding un-American, this week I made a cheeseless lasagna complete with tofu/cauliflower ricotta. I know that seems like something you would feed your dog but honestly it’s freaking amazing. Isa Chandra Markowitz is a genius and I’m living off her cookbook, Appetite for Reduction. 

So to all you vegan maybes out there I highly suggest you buy this cookbook or at least just give the roasted cauliflower ricotta lasagna a shot. I mixed it up a bit and halved the amount of spinach and added in grilled mushrooms, squash and zucchini. Things were getting ca-razy in my kitchen!
My second favorite recipe from the book is the Mango BBQ beans. Freaking awesome. I ate them over brown rice then did a little dance.

Happy cooking.

Eating out with your hobag friends

My friends Emily and Christy are coming into town this weekend and Christy is planning a dinner for the three of us. She sends me this hateful email saying she’s not going to make special arrangements for this f**king hippie, flowers, rainbow bs I’m doing and I need to stop being a selfish c**t. I’m going to go to a restaurant of her choosing, going to like it and eat a god damn cow like the rest of em.

Eating out can be really hard.

Ok that didn’t actually happen but it’s a good illustration as to how eating out can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully it’s not nearly as difficult as I initially suspected and just requires a little careful planning. No hateful names or ends of friendships occurring.

The best scenario is where you get to pick the restaurant (f u Christy). This means you can be sure to eat somewhere that has a vegan option you’ll enjoy. If a friend is picking it might be good to send them a couple of suggestions or remind them of your restrictions (i.e. I am more important than you). It’s amazing how supportive friends are and most times mine will send me the menu and ask if it’s ok before making a reservation (damn straight). If this is the case then I just try to find one thing that I can eat and be agreeable. You can’t be a vegan AND picky. Worst-case scenario you have no input, you have to attend and there’s nothing on the menu that you can eat (this is what I call eating at my mother’s). I find it best to call the restaurant ahead of time and see if they can make accommodations. If not then I’ll eat beforehand and order the plainest salad on the menu as not to draw attention for not eating.

Things to look for on menus are hummus in the appetizers section as it’s surprisingly filling (especially if you pair it with a beer), items where cheese is the only thing standing in your way (as it can be easily removed), and pasta. Often times if they have pasta you can get it with just tomato sauce. Salads are always a good standby but usually aren’t that filling. Also, if all else fails look to see what side items they have. A lot of places will list a few vegetables so you can pick a couple and make yourself a veggie plate.

Gone are the days where you can just rock up to a place and order any ol thing off the menu, but I love eating out and I love being a vegan so it’s worth the extra effort. And at the end of the day if this is the biggest of my problems then life ain’t that bad.

Oh! And the website Urban Spoon can be really helpful when looking for places. It lets you know how vegan friendly they are. For example, here’s the page I look at when trying to find places in my not-so-vegan-friendly hometown http://www.urbanspoon.com/t/40/2/Indianapolis/Vegan-Friendly-restaurants

If all else fails, order a beer.

Happy eating!

Hello Vegan Donuts!

One of the reasons I was initially drawn to being a vegan was that someone told me you could eat as much as you wanted, as long as it was vegan of course. That sounded great. Cutting out certain foods seemed a lot easier than starving myself. And let’s be honest, at times I’m a bit of an emotional eater so being a vegan meant I wouldn’t have that eater’s regret after stuffing my face. I mean if I’m stuffing my face with spinach and hummus that can’t really be bad right?

So here I am feeling a bit restricted by options but not by portions. Well, turns out there’s a whole world of specially made vegan items to get you through the day. I never really feel restricted. There are vegan cookies, donuts, cream cheese, ice cream, brownies, pastries, chocolate, cupcakes, the list goes on. I wasn't a big sweets person before but every time I would see one of these items I had to eat it because it was there. “Oh my god a vegan sheet cake! I better eat all of that!” ...And I wonder why I haven’t lost weight. Turns out you really can’t eat as much of whatever you want. I was pounding down 250 calories of cookies a day. Looser jeans that does not make. After four months of being a vegan I’m now on a mission to be a healthy vegan. I will still indulge a little bit as I deserve some reward for my efforts (and I'm human) but I won’t find it necessary to fill my mouth with every vegan item I see. I’m talking to you, vegantella. 

I’ve included a picture of some recent vegan cupcakes I consumed just to torture you and myself a little bit. Next time I spring for one of these I’ll split it with a friend. Sharing is caring. 

 

The End of Cheese

So can I still have beer? No cheese. Fine. No eggs. Fine. No spinach artichoke crab dip. Fine. But can I still have beer? The answer was yes and so I committed to being a vegan. We all have our limits. Beer was mine. But in all honesty if giving up beer meant that I would lose 20 pounds and be the epitome of health I would probably do it. Maybe.

I am a beer drinking vegan. Nice to meet you.

I began my diet of NOs at the beginning of January in an effort to lose weight. I’d heard story after story of people losing weight after becoming a vegan. I was already a vegetarian so it wasn’t that big of a leap. Two months later I haven’t lost much weight but I do feel better and I feel in control of my diet. I know that whatever I put in my body is good for me and that’s a great feeling. There are no complex rules, just a honed list of healthy foods. No adding points, counting calories, eliminating carbs, warding off fruit or eating only meat. People swear (me included) that they could never be a vegan because it would be too hard. After doing it I found out it was just the opposite. It’s the easiest diet to stick to that I’ve ever had. It’s the easiest diet to remain committed to. All diets have their restrictions and all diets eventually fail. Being a vegan is a lifestyle and it’s way easier than any fad out there.

Through this blog I will share my journey. I’ll share my challenges, triumphs, tips, recipes, feelings and a personal account of a regular girl trying her best to become happy in body and spirit.