Easy-Peazy Lemon Squeezy. This vegan thing is totally not so tough. I mean, frankly, you can choose not to eat animals or animal products and still eat quite a lot of crap. Like Oreos and Fudgeos. But I don’t recommend that approach. Being a healthy eating vegan is much more rewarding. Admittedly, I did struggle a little more this third week, for a few reasons:
1. We moved into our camper (luckily just minutes away from home at our local campground). I don’t have my big, well-equipped kitchen at my finger tips. I’m torn between spending time at the campground and spending time at the house making cool vegan food. Luckily, the weather’s been crap, so when I’ve had time, I’ve chosen the house and cool vegan food.
2. I spent all day Thursday on a road trip out of the province with my youngest son for a medical appointment. I didn’t prepare. I found myself in Tim Horton’s parking lot googling vegan choices. (Thank goodness I found some.) I ate subway and basically prayed that my bread choice was vegan…but I was so hungry I didn’t have the heart to ask or google. (I wanted that bread, dammit.)
3. My husband has been very busy this weekend which has meant I’ve been on kid duty more than I normally would be (instead of my usual cooking/cleaning while he does kid duty)…so I’ve been struggling to get stuff done with very small windows of time. I think I did ok though. What do you think?
Here’s a summary of the weekend:
Saturday
10:00 am – 11:15 am: I took the little Littles to their baseball practice and helped coach.
12:00 – 1:00 pm: Dropped William off at his hip hop class while Emma and I raced to the other side of town. We got kale and a basil plant at our local farmer’s market. Then we went to bulk barn and got some supplies before racing back to hip hop to pick William up.
1:00 – 2:00 pm: Took both Emma and William to a locally owned restaurant called The Thoughtful Squash. I got a veggie burger with no bun (the bun wasn’t vegan) and yummy root chips. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm, so good.
2:00 – 3:00 pm: Dropped Emma off at hip hop while William and I raced to the grocery store to get groceries. Then raced back down town to pick Emma up.
3:30 – Dropped the kids off to the campground (with Jeff) and went to the house to do some cooking.
First, I made One-Pot Lentil Chili. So amazing. The Minimalist Baker website is one of my favorite places to hangout on the Internet these days. I doubled the recipe so that I would always have some homemade vegan grub to eat this week. What’s not gone by Wednesday I will freeze.
Then, I made these things that I like to call amaze balls. These guys are definitely delicious all on their very own.
But…I actually made them to be enjoyed as part of an ice-creamy treat. Vegan, of course. Guys. For realz. Amaze-ball blizzards are so, well…amazeballs. My oldest daughter, Brenna, and I gobbled these up like nobody’s business.
I had a hundred other things that I wanted to make….but it was late and I was tired. So I called it a night and headed back to the camper to spend some time with the little Littles.
Which brings us to today. The three-week vegan-niversary. Before I could get at the cooking, I had to take Emma to her jazz class. Of course, after we dropped her off, William and I raced to the top of town to get some MORE groceries…MUCH to his dismay. I assured him we were only going to get six things. (There were only six things on my list.) But, he counted the items as we put them on the counter to pay…and there were 24 things in our cart…fortunately he had so much fun counting, he forgot to be mad.
After we finished with groceries, we raced back downtown to pick up Emma, and then I dropped them both back off at the camper with Daddy so I could go home and fly around the kitchen like a mad woman. Brenna can attest to the mad woman part, I’m sure. I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to, but I did get this double batch of almond butter made. (Let me tell you….I had to say some prayers for my food processor. I wasn’t sure she could handle the double batch, but she came through for me magically. A true heroine.
I also made these bad boy veggie burgers. Part way through putting them together I realized I had forgotten to get more chili powder at the grocery store all 17 times I was there this weekend, but Brenna saved the day. (Having children who drive has its perks.)
This was my first time making this recipe and I’m super glad to report the burgers tasted like awesomeness in all its glory. My husband even said he could eat these all summer instead of beef burgers. That’s my definition of success. It’s a good thing they turned out…because I doubled this recipe, too. Mommy’s so gonna eat well this week. Phewph!
Emma was really disappointed that I didn’t make the crispy rice treats I made for Canada Day Weekend, so they’re on deck for tomorrow evening after work/supper/getting the kids to ball. Then, Tuesday, the sun is supposed to be shining…so I might take a day off of cooking. Luckily, I’m well stocked!
The highlight of my three-week vegan-niversary was the Facebook message I received from a friend who has inspired (and challenged!) me to live healthy for as long as I’ve known her. She told me that I’ve inspired her to try eating vegan. Like, how cool is that??? I’m sure there are many who are kinda tired of seeing pictures of what I’m eating on the Internet. (They can feel free to look the other way!) But, knowing that someone I have looked up to for years was inspired enough by my posts to give eating vegan a try??? Totally worth the hour and a half I’ve spent trying to upload these pictures using the campground’s wifi. That’s a total win!!
Oh…I did make another blizzard as a bedtime snack tonight. Actually, it was more of a frosty. My food processor is at the house so I had to use my blender. And, to get my blender to work with frozen anything, I’ve gotta add liquid. So I added the new love of my life, Silk Chocolate Soy Milk, 1.5 frozen bananas, and a heaping tablespoon of my almond butter to the blender and blended until it was the consistency of a thick milkshake. Then I added one crushed amazeball and blended just a little. I dumped it in a bowl and crumbled another amazeball on top. The result was pure friggin’ bliss y’all.
Anyway, what did everyone else do this weekend???
Musings from a Vegan Mom 