Last Dinner + My Thoughts on Going Vegan

Well, today wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!

IMG_7372

I had some almonds + dried apricots around 3 this afternoon, and then some Amazing Grass + almond milk at 4:30 to get me through the end of the work day.

IMG_7373

Dinner…I wasn’t so sure how it would turn out.

It wasn’t that I thought it would taste bad – I just didn’t know how it would work without cheese.

My meal plan for this week included quesadillas – and you kinda’ need cheese to hold everything together.

IMG_7374

Or maybe you don’t!

IMG_7377

I had planned on making roasted kabocha + bean quesadillas with this spicy jack cheese, but those plans got changed a bit on Saturday when neither grocery store had kabocha! The nerve.

I bought 2 sweet potatoes instead and decided they would work fine.

Everything else in my plan stayed the same, except I just didn’t put cheese in mine.

IMG_7375

And I think it turned out to be a great vegan / vegetarian meal!

For the quesadilla filling, I diced 2 sweet potatoes and coated them with some grapeseed oil, ancho chile powder, cumin, and salt and roasted them in the oven at 450 for about 35-40 minutes.

While the potatoes were cooking, I got everything else ready.

  • drained/rinsed pinto beans
  • chopped avocado, lettuce, scallions, cilantro
  • steamed some corn
  • got tortillas, cheese (for Nick) and salsa out of the fridge

After the potatoes were cooked, I layered some potatoes and pinto beans (plus avocado and scallion for me) in between 2 tortillas and let it crisp up in the pan. Flip it once, cut, and serve!

IMG_7376

It was so good! I loved the spices on the potatoes with the avocado chunks and beans.

I had a few renegade beans and potato chunks that tried to escape mine, but it held together pretty well without the cheese! I think it would have been even better had I mashed the beans a bit or if the avocado was ripe enough to just mash into the tortillas.

All in all, it was a good meal! Even Nick said he liked it.

I’m actually feeling a bit hungry now, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be having some of my microwave popcorn tonight  ;)

 

Being vegan for a day was much easier than I thought it would be. Which is interesting to me since I’m not even a vegetarian.

I thought it would be a fun challenge to take on, and it was! It made me be more creative with what I put together for meals today, and I’m always up for coming up with new ideas.

I think this would be an interesting challenge for everyone to take on at some point in their lives, just to see how much we (as a country) rely on animal products and to find out that you can go through an entire day without them.

I don’t think I’ll be going vegan anytime soon, but it definitely gave me a lot to think about. I’ve actually cut most dairy from my diet in the past few months, mostly because I was trying to figure out if that’s what was causing some of my stomach issues. I mean, I used to have a glass of milk with breakfast every morning! Now, if I have something, it’s yogurt or maybe a little cheese…and every now and then, ice cream :)

Even though I am still a meat eater, I do try to get as many things locally that I can and buy meat/dairy from places that treat their animals humanely. 

I think just knowing how the food system here works and doing whatever you can to help is a good thing.

That may mean being vegan.

It may mean supporting all your local farmers, no matter what they produce.

It could be eating ethically as often as possible.

I think the biggest thing is to figure out what works for you, in every aspect of your life.

No diet is perfect for everyone, and I think as long as you give it thought and figure out what you want to do to keep yourself healthy and happy, that’s all you need.

I can say that I’m happy I did this! Thanks to everyone that promoted this and all the others that went vegan for a day.

 

And I’m out – I’ve got popcorn to eat and football/The Office to watch!

 

Did you go vegan today? What did you think?

12 comments

  1. Great Post. I like your thoughts on eating with a conscience.

  2. That dinner looks great! I eat cheese so rarely that I could easily do without it. It’s the darn greek yogurt that gets me! I must admit I miss it :-( Do you mix your amazing grass with water or a thicker substance?

  3. major props to you on the vegan, success Brandi!! I don’t know if I could part with my beloved greek yogurt — but it sounds like a great challenge :)

  4. Your dinner looks great! I’m glad it worked veganized :)

  5. Great thoughts on going vegan for a day! I think you summarized it perfectly and it definitely looks like you had a fun time with it. I love learning more about the lifestyle through blogs and experimenting with my own meals — it’s so interesting…and delicious! Have a great night :)

  6. nice job today! i didn’t do it.. but i think i could, my friends are vegan (several of them at least) and they make REALLY yummy food. i love trying to convert baked goods into vegan treats for them. happppy friday tomorrow! yaaay!

  7. I didn’t do the vegan for a day thing but would like to try it someday. Giving up greek yogurt/cottage cheese is the hardest!

  8. Glorious quesadillas!

  9. I won’t be able to go vegan…I really don’t think I can do it…no cheese? no egg? no meat? I really applaud those who actually make this into a lifestyle!!

    Hm. No kabocha? Scandalous!

  10. i like your cheeseless meal….looks delish!

  11. Great post! I didn’t go vegan for the day and have no plans on becoming vegan (or even vegetarian) but I don’t eat a lot of meat and have 2-3 vegan meals a week :)

  12. I didn’t do the vegan for the day last week, but I actually did it yesterday. I liked reading about your experience!!

Comments are closed.