Well, today wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!
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.
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.
Or maybe you don’t!
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.
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!
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?
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Great Post. I like your thoughts on eating with a conscience.
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?
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 :)
Your dinner looks great! I’m glad it worked veganized :)
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 :)
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!
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!
Glorious quesadillas!
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!
i like your cheeseless meal….looks delish!
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 :)
I didn’t do the vegan for the day last week, but I actually did it yesterday. I liked reading about your experience!!