Vegan Lessons

Being a Vegan is hard work.  I have to cook.  And think.  You know I hate that.

Actually, I've learned it is easier to be Vegan at home than it is when we go out.

There are some standard vegan foods that I turn to:  hummus, oatmeal, and peanut butter.

I've also learned that I love lentils.  I don't think I had eaten them before.  I know that I haven't cooked with them.  I also love fire roasted tomatoes.

Vegans use more spices.  I like that.  I am becoming much more confident in adding spices, even when they aren't in the recipe. (It forced me to clean out the spice cupboard, too!)

In order to have any success, I had to cook two Vegan meals on the weekend and then take the leftovers for lunch all week.  And I've had to read labels.  Carefully.

Some great finds:
*Ukrainian bread at a local grocery store.  Yum!
*I've eaten a lot of nuts and dried fruits. I think Target's Archer Farms has the best selection.
*A mexican cabbage recipe was delicious, as was a Tunisian Stew recipe, a fresh mushroom and fire roasted pepper pasta, and the Lentil Chilli recipe that Cousin Ree sent me.
*Natural Peanut Butter.  Some of it is far better than others.  I am wishing I had written down the first brand I tried.  Skip the Smucker's Natural--it is dreadful.
*Oatmeal with dried nuts and fruit and a bit of peanut butter is delicious.  I'm not sure why I ever bought the per-packaged oatmeal. Old fashioned oatmeal cooks in the microwave and is ready in 90 seconds.  Kind of hard to beat that.
*Almond milk.  I have never been a milk drinker.  For that reason, I never ate cereal for breakfast, unless I ate it dry.  My favorite now? A whole grain cereal with almond milk.  Yum.  And now I have converted the Bug to almond milk, too.  (During the show, cereal and almond milk was an evening meal more times than I care to count.)  The shelf life of almond milk is a lot longer than regular milk, too. 

I will continue to eat some Vegan meals after this, but a chicken/turkey/fish eating Vegetarian is probably more my style.  I've discovered several new recipes that we will continue to use--and cold cereal and oatmeal will stay part of my breakfast routine.  Oh, and I'm pretty sure I will always have almond milk and hummus in the fridge.