Monday, August 5, 2013

vegan lovin'

I love being vegan. It's only been 4 days, but its wonderful. I'm having so much fun. There are definitely negative parts, so after my one month, I'm probably going to put a few not vegan things back in my diet, but at this point, I don't miss meat or dairy all that much. I miss honey in my herbal tea the most. And since I'm doing vegan for health and weight loss rather than animals, I don't think it's a big deal to use honey. I've also started taking a shit ton of vitamins. And they rock. 

My vitamins:
-ace (it's a weigh loss herbal combo)
-vitamin B12
-b complex
-vitamin c 
-vitamin d
-st. johns wart 
-black cohash
-this Chinese lung stuff 
-biotin
-fish oil

I've been drinking a detox herbal tea every morning and drinking fresh green juice at some point during the day. The only hard part is when I'm out and hungry and would rather just go grab a burger at McDonald's than going home and making something healthy and organic. the weight loss herb is really helping me with not being hungry or needing caffeine. Thank goodness. My husband and I bought a love seat recliner yesterday and the women who sold it to us asked me when the baby was due. I'm not pregnant. Yikes. Yikes. Damn. :/ 

I'm so thankful I have such a loving sweet husband who loves my curves. Since I've been planning and started this vegan deal, he tells me all the time that I'm not allowed to get real skinny because he won't have anything to cuddle and hold onto. :P  

So enough about my personal problems, lets talk food. I'd never eaten tofu before this experience. On Thursday, August 1st, my first day of being vegan, I made vegan chili. I had been wanting chili recently and hadn't gotten around to making it before I made the change. I found some ground not beef (soy beans, etc) made by the veg company Boca. I also got vegan sour cream and vegan cheese shreds. I made some homemade Fritos to go with it. 

  
Let me tell you this right now, vegan cheese is GREAT. I love cheese and thought I could never live without it, but the vegan alternative sure works for me. 

Last night Kevin and I made a big fancy meal. Teriyaki tofu. Firm tofu cut into chunks and marinated in teriyaki sauce. Fried rice with tons of veggies. And some awesome pot stickers filled with portobello mushrooms, avocado, and silken tofu. 


Today we had a major cleaning day. We got that new love seat yesterday, so we had to do some living room cleaning, major kitchen cleaning, and too tons of laundry. I ran the dishwasher twice and Kevin did like five loads of laundry. I also baked bread. Lots of bread. I had two kinds rising at the same time. I wanted to use the rest of the portobello mushrooms in the fridge for burgers, but we didn't have buns. I found a recipe on Pinterest for this cool loaf bread that I had blueberries and strawberries in it. Since I wanted to make that anyways, I figured I could make my own vegan friendly buns. 

I found the bun recipe here:

http://thehealthyfamilyandhome.com/how-to-make-homemade-vegan-hamburger-buns/

It was awesome!! It uses almond milk, flaxseed, and coconut oil. The bread was fluffy and plain ole' beautiful. 




Gorgeous, aren't they?

As for the loaf of bread, the recipe came from here: 

http://www.veganricha.com/2013/07/strawberry-blueberry-bread-loaf-vegan.html?m=1





I haven't tried it yet, but I think it will be good. 

As for dinner, we had portobello burgers, baked fries, and corn on the cob. 







Thursday, August 1, 2013

New month, new me.

Where do I begin? I quit no poo, if you've been reading my blog lately. I'm using an organic shampoo for black people and a leave in organic olive oil conditioner. The split ends of my hair were getting worse and worse with the no poo, so I stopped and got my hair cut for the first time in over a year and a half. She had to cut a lot because my hair was so ridiculously broken at the bottoms. It feels wonderfully healthy now! 
I really miss my looooong hair, but I know it will grow back soon enough. 

In other news, I am trying out veganism for the month of August. I am also trying to be more intentional with God. I am going vegan for health, NOT animal rights. I would like to lose 50-60 lbs. In late November, me, my husband, and his family are going to Orlando to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I want to look and feel good by then.