I’ve decided to challenge myself and be vegan for the week. For someone who believes that bacon makes everything better (seriously, it’s in my bio below), a vegan week could be quite the challenge. But I found as soon as I committed to taking the plant plunge, I became extremely excited. As much as I love a burger or a nice steak, I find vegetables and legumes ten times more interesting and the thought of making a week’s worth of recipes to keep myself satisfied and able to resist bacon withdrawals kind of seemed fun. So team, here we go.
Before I lay out my first vegan day, let me give you some insight on my vegan week. I’ll be stocking up on vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains. No seitan or tofu for me — I’m keeping it real and meat-substitute free. I’ve also decided to cut out coffee because hey, why not, right? This is the point where you might think I’ve officially lost my mind, but I swear it’s still there.
Photo by Amanda Shulman
Breakfast: A gorgeously green smoothie. One banana, a handful of spinach, a handful of kale, a few blueberries and some dates for sweetness all blended together with a glug of almond milk. It was thick and I was able to eat it with a spoon. I felt full but in a good way, and totally satisfied.
Photo by Amanda Shulman
Lunch: I decided to make my week easier by making an enormous batch of steel cut oats and keeping them in the fridge to have on hand. I threw some steel cut oats in my slow cooker with a few cups of almond milk and let them cook for about two hours. The result is a fluffy slightly toothy oatmeal that is truly substantial and feels like a real grain. Forget about your dry crumbly packets of Quaker’s and opt for this. For lunch I topped a hearty bowl with almonds, a dollop of almond butter, cinnamon and a drizzle of honey.
*full instructions here
Dinner: I’ll admit I got a little carried away, but I had too many ideas to pick one. Having recently become obsessed with everything and anything Ottolenghi breathes/eats/thinks, I made a meal inspired by him. There were eggplant boats with quinoa, a sweet potato chickpea salad with a tahini honey dressing and a refreshing radish cucumber salad dressed in lemon and olive oil. This meal left no yearning for meat and I happily basked in my vegetable laden dinner.
Photo by Amanda Shulman
*these meals do not include my snacks of multiple pieces of fruits and dark chocolate.
Final thoughts: If today was any sign, being vegan for the week won’t be so bad. In fact, I might even enjoy it.