This Vegan Thing

Vegan: A vegetarian who eats plant products only, especially one who uses no products derived from animals, as fur or leather.

So this definition is pretty specific and exclusive - I'm not maniacal about the term 'vegan' as far as I'm concerned but basically, this is the eating style I have adopted for the time being. When it's all said and done it is highly likely I will move to include fish and eggs sometimes - especially eggs in baking because I love, love, love to bake! But for now, I do not eat meat of any kind, no dairy, and I've seriously restricted sugar (oh the pain). And I'm still alive to tell about it!

Yesterday was probably my best Vegan day yet, it was day 3 and I ventured out and made TWO new recipes. The first was a collard green recipe that had balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, raisins and garlic. Have you SMELLED collard greens? I mean, have you soaked them then walked by them and caught a whiff? "O-M-G" that was something to behold. I thought, This is going to be the worst food ever, what a waste of money!

Fast forward to my first bite of said stinkers. HEAVEN. Those greens were so unbelievably good I could eat them on a daily basis! Between the nutty flavor the garlic took on, because at $3.50 for a small bag of pine nuts please believe THOSE were eliminated!! But the garlic set off the nice bite of the collards along with the sweet hit of the raisins - this girl was in collard heaven. FIVE stars. Who knew? I only have half of the what the recipe yielded though because I was honestly afraid of what might happen (bathroom-wise) if I ate an entire bunch of collard greens. Yowza. I'm sure that is just TMI, but really, this vegan thing has really given the bathroom a whole new meaning.

Second recipe was Lentil Chili. Now in theory this sounded like it could be okay. Let's start with the positive. A lot of vegan dishes seem to leave me hungry pretty quickly, not this one - I was full the rest of the night. It had a nice, hearty texture - definitely didn't miss the meat - and the flavor was pretty good. But lentils are very small and I probably could scoop up 100 of the little suckers with each bite...so that was overwhelming. It was a mouthful. I'd definitely give this recipe TWO stars - which means it won't likely make its way into my world ever again.

I'm on Day 4 today and my primary goal for the day is to be FULL. I've never liked diets to lose weight because I don't like feeling hungry - but veggies can only do so much! I know I'll figure this thing out, heck it's only Day 4, but it'll definitely be one of the most important aspects of this eating style. Another thing, I'm not doing this to lose weight. At 31, I've decided if my body is to weigh less God will have to show me the way, but after YEARS of battling the scale, I'm so over that. Much like working out, eating this way is about how I feel - losing any weight would just be a icing on the carrot.