PS We're Done

Sorry about that. Life gets kind of busy sometimes.

Our first official non-vegan day was April 1st. Appropriate, I know.

Now, I know I was supposed to take so much away from the experience that I would remain vegan and never look back...but in my brain, an experiment requires testing new hypotheses and such. The new one after the 90 days being...what would meat DO to me? So I sauntered over to a cafe and got a salmon burger. Easy on the stomach, right?

Wrong. I thought my tummy was going to cramp itself into 1000 little knots. It was almost immediate. The fish was so not even worth it. I've tried meat a few times since and really just not felt very good about it. Not good at all.

I am kind of enjoying the freedom of not checking EVERY label ever. The strictness for the sake of the pact is no longer weighing on my brain, but the ultimate effects of how I shop and how I eat are. I am remaining vegetarian for now to the best of my ability, and downright vegan at home. Restaurants are hard to navigate, so I will proceed with caution there.

Ultimately? I LIKE how I feel as a vegan. I feel like all my organs work correctly, I don't feel cramped or bloated or gross or anything. I just feel like I have the right fuel. I didn't have any negative health effects during the 3 months. No mom, I did not become anemic and my hair did not fall out. :) (She was concerned about protein...she's a mom).

And as my admirable vegan friend J will tell me...it's not about how *I* feel but about the impact on the world and living things at large. He's right. I am doing as best I can, perhaps baby stepping after my "cold tofurky" (hahaha) experiment.

I do plan to research more things like eating local, eating in season, avoiding pesticides, etc. All this is important to take care of the bodies we are given.

Jamie is alive and well, too. If you beg her to post, perhaps she will. :)

-- Jana

9/10 Done...wow.

A little over a week left of our vegan experiment. It's amazing we lasted...but then again, I think both of us learned a lot. Jamie is still hanging tough, she just got a new awesome job and works all the time now. I will prod her into posting a fabulous story of willpower in the Midwest. Do it, Jamie. ;)

I got to experience the JOY of CHOCOLATE CAKE vegan style from Whole Foods the other night thanks to my fabulous friend who encourages this challenge rather than tempts me with steak. I appreciate that in a friend. I didn't take a photo because (as all food bloggers claim) I was too busy inhaling it. True. I hadn't had chocolate in that large of an amount since December. Wow.

Whatever I decide to incorporate back into my diet when April comes, it's going to be slow. My stomach might implode otherwise. Don't expect to see my lining up at the BBQ buffet anytime soon! :) If there's vegan chocolate cake in the world, I'll be ok.

The Home Stretch

Well well, as many of my beloved friends and cohorts have been pointing out, we are almost done with our 90 days. On a larger scale, that's creepy. It means that the year is one quarter done already. What have YOU been doing with your first quarter? Mmmmhmmm. Just kidding. :) I think my office mates are more antsy for me to be done than I ever will be. They keep inquiring, anyway.

Anyway, on Oscar night J1 was kind enough to have me over and provide dessert, so I provided pizza. I decided it was the time to try Austin's Pizza and their soy cheese pie...with artichokes. Not bad! Soy cheese is definitely it's own little beast of gooey meltedness...not very cheese-like, yet tasty nonetheless. J1 did opt for mozzarella on her's and I don't blame her for not joining in the soy test. :) However, my vegan-inspiration-friend J2 came to town last week, and about jumped for joy at the news of the soy cheese delivery. I will never take instant soy at my door for granted ever again.

"Crushed red pepper makes anything better." - JP

Otherwise...here is a shot of some tasty spaghetti squash with marinara and Morningstar Farms veggie crumbles. It approximated the texture of ground meat (maybe more like ground turkey) and tasted fine. I added some spinach in for texture. Because I can. I eat spinach at least once a day now, usually twice. Insert Popeye joke here.

Tis all for now. Happy SXSW week!

- Jana

Hurl.

This experiment must be doing something for me, because I read this dude's blog this morning and almost upchucked all over my keyboard:

http://www.johnchow.com/playing-with-my-food/

Now, I probably would have found it gross before, but really. Eat animals, one thing. Torture them in the act? Incomprehensible.

In other news I have some photos to post soon, and my apologies for lack of updates. Jamie's off conquering Oklahoma and I am gearing up for SXSW here in Austin! I promise pics as soon as I...pull them off my camera.

-- Jana

A Vegan Rut

Uh. Due to my basic lack of motivation to pay much attention to cooking, things have been a little uninspired lately. Luckily, I have the vegan shopping thing pretty much down, so there is a plethora of ready to eat foods around. I have also made the unfortunate decision to forego most vegan junkfoods...which kind of rules out a lot. Oh well.

I did discover that a local coffeehouse carries Celeste's Best baked goods, all totally vegan and all totally delicious. Well, the cookies looked great but I opted for the pumpkin bread. Couple that with a soy latte and you got yourself a happy little time.

Recent meal combinations:

- black beans, tomatoes, and tofu in corn tortillas
- Boca burger on whole wheat bread with spinach
- brown rice and tofu stir fry with Bragg's and flax seed
- I tried a tofu and hummus sandwich. I'm not so sure about that one.
- I love LOVE whole okra from the frozen section. I always loved them fried, but the whole pods are...interesting. I like it.
- breakfast generally consists of Kashi GoLean cereal with soymilk. Tasty.
- Odwalla bars ROCK. Especially...Choco-walla. Mmmmm.
- pickles. I eat lots of pickles. Dill, thank you.

An Austin buddy has pointed out that Austin's Pizza serves a soy cheese pie...this is on the list of things to attempt soon! I miss pizza. I would be happy with Papa John's sans cheese, though. I love their crust.

I ate a strawberry covered in what I assume was milk chocolate. I apologize for my semi-weekly indiscretions. I feel like I'm in confession.

Jana needs to shake her menu up. With a small budget. Help!

- Jana, in third person.

Vegan in a Suede Jacket

Yep, that would be me. It's pretty unintentional. Here's the deal, I keep an "emergency jacket" in the trunk of my car (along with an "emergency blanket," "emergency motor oil" and "emergency Smirnoff.") This jacket happens to be a suede jacket I got for Christmas in 1999, I'd pretty much completely forgotten about it. Then I forgot about wearing a jacket to work yesterday because I have to be to work at 7am and it takes 45 minutes to get to work and I woke up at 6:10. For those of you not in the Land of Enchantment at the moment, let it be noted that New Mexico has developed an identity complex and decided to mimic Nebraska, instead of embracing it's deserty weather self. It's like blistering fucking cold. So I wore that suede jacket all around town yesterday, and I felt terrified that some fan was going to come up to me and be like "YOU'RE NOT A REAL VEGAN" So yeah, sorry. It was cold.

So we're about 33% of the way though our meat and dairy free journey. Month numero uno was not that bad actually. I think I may have actually eaten MORE now that I am a vegan than before. Good news is that I have almost entirely stopped eating out, and when I do it's at a vegetarian restaurant (HINT: Fey's Cafe across from UNM is to die for, and it's local, cute, and entirely vegetarian/mostly vegan). Otherwise it's just a little to complicated to inquire as to if the bread has dairy, the sauce beef stock or chili human fingers.

As far as fast food is concerned, it's not even worth it. Although I have been having "McDonald's withdrawls" lately (there is NOTHING vegan at McD's... even the fries have beef in them.) I think I am seriously addicted to that crap. See, when I was young both my parents worked full time jobs and my siblings and I spent a lot of time at the babysitter's. My dad felt incredibly guilty about this, so about three times a week he'd take us for Happy Meals after he picked us up (my mom usually worked until well after midnight.) This is the exact behavior that McFatty's wants America's parents to imitate. According to the book Fast Food Nation, the McCorporation aims much of it's advertising at children and their parents, convincing parents that good moms and dads buy their kids Happy Meals to show how much they love their children. The idea being that young minds will always associate those little boxed wonders with the feelings of happiness, reward, and familial love, and continue eating at the Golden Arches into adulthood, passing the "Happy Ideal" onto their own children. OH MY GOD THAT IS SO ME! I'm going to admit that I still ate Happy Meals until this whole vegan thing started. Although I know what an incredibly cruel and un-animal friendly corporation McDonald's is, (and eating their food is the equivalent to downing a bucket of lard,) I still have the hardest time giving it up. I'm like a heroin addict in rehab, I'll pass a McDonald's on the road and a little voice in my head will say "Go ahead, just stop here. One little cheeseburger won't hurt anyone. Nobody will ever know. Just don't use your debit card. You can totally hide the evidence... it will be our little secret." I haven't broken, I think I'm strong enough not to, but man, that place has got a hold on me. And it's making a place in the lives of the children of America too. I work with kids and every morning at least one of them brings McDonald's in for breakfast. This instantaneously causes all the other children to gather around the McKid and gawk at him or her eating an egg McMuffin, begging for just a taste. There are some kids who have McDonald's breakfast at least three times a week, and we wonder why our kids are slow and obese. "You've really got a hold on me, really got a hold on me..."

Here's an interesting thought to ponder, can a vegan be a cannibal? I know humans are animals but they don't seem to count as far veganism is concerned. A LOT of foods cause human suffering (like anything grown in a field and picked by some poor immigrant getting paid some shitty wage under the table) but we're adaptable and suffering is part of our lives I guess. It sucks for that poor apple/peach/strawberry/tomato picker though doesn't it? I bet he has a whole different definition of suffering than I do. Is there a way to find out if a fruit is human cruelty free? I figure even if it's organic, someone's gotta be out there picking the bugs off with his or her bare hands right? It just bothers me. I feel like in order to completely end suffering I'd have to isolate my self on a farm away from the city and grow and harvest all my own food even then who's to say me building a dwelling wouldn't put some poor animal out of a habitat? It's like a reader wrote to us in an email "you gotta draw the line somewhere or you'll die" because it would be pretty impossible to end all suffering. I suppose it's part of existence. I don't know. I'm not trying to start some kind of moral argument here I just don't know. Also how goes the abortion issue with true vegans? I mean if we don't even eat eggs it seems that aborting a human fetus would be uncool too? Or does it just apply to eating aborted fetuses? I'm just asking purely out of curiosity, once again I'm not trying to start an argument because I know these are things people are very sensitive about.

So those are my recent vegan thoughts. I'm still finding stuff that I love... go Garden Burger for making BBQ riblets that make me feel like I'm deep in the heart of Texas (where the stars at night are big and bright, right Jana?) Trader Joe's has these Thai lime and chili cashews that I'm pretty sure I'd be willing to die for, and the Vegan brand sliced cheese is pretty good, tastes like a mix between cream cheese and American cheese, (although it doesn't melt worth crap.) I'm having a hard time explaining to the kids that I work with what veganism is and why I've chosen to try out this lifestyle. I'm not going to traumatise them and explain the mass slaughter of cows, they're too young and I'll lose my job. I'm feeling healthier and my skin is amazingly clear. My mom is still trying to find an omni to take a pan or two of enchiladas, and according to the News Bulletin, the "11th Annual Valencia County Matanza" was a huge success with over 6,000 people turning out to eat slaughtered pig and red chile, while Charlotte's Web is still touching lives at the box office. So that's all I've got for now, besides the strain on her wallet, it seems Jana is doing pretty well too.

Jamie "Needin' a McFix" Armer

The Wall (and I ain't talking about Pink Floyd)

Um, the prospect of 60 more days of this is horrifying me. There, I said it. For several reasons, none of them with merit.

- "Are you STILL doing that vegan thing?" Yes, thanks. I am.

- "Man...I'd offer you some of my________, but it's not vegan." Great. Just great.

- "So um...what do you EAT exactly?" Rocks, sticks, and leaves, duh.

- I spent $60 more on food than usual in January. I'm not sure where it went. I think mostly BocaBurgers and Tofutti. That's not good. Also, no matter how cool the Whole Foods of the world are, they are frickin' expensive, and I can't do it.

But then yesterday I received a magazine from PETA in the mail with vegetarian lifestyle tips, and an article about a "downer" cow made me get a little misty-eyed. It's horrible. It really is. Read this article. How can you even crave a hamburger for dinner after reading that?

We are no longer living in the days of my grandparents, where Bessie lived out her life chewing peacefully on grass in a giant pasture in Nebraska, roaming around until she got the axe and was parceled out to the neighbors, who knew exactly where she came from, what she ate, and how she was treated. We are eating refuse and abuse. Good for the soul?

I feel like one of the "weird" and "stupid hippie environmentalists" that Rush Limbaugh (and much of my family) loves to make fun of. All I can say is...my parents raised me to respect Creation and to take care of it. I don't see that happening, and it makes me uneasy.

So I'm gonna stick to it.

-- Jana

Me Too.

Ok I'll admit it. I have had (as far as I know) two indiscretions.

1. I forgot to say "no cheese" on veggie tacos at a restaurant. Eh. Scraping works.

2. Last weekend, the very weekend Jamie was partying it up, I was having dinner with friends before a concert. (A concert that rawked, by the way. Patty Griffin is amazing. But I disgress). Not wanting to be a pain in the butt, I ate cheese again at dinner. We were sharing things, the cheese was there...sigh. I explained to them our 90 Day Challenge, but then proceeded to "take" the "night" "off." This is purely weakness and the need to fit in on my part. All of you true vegans out there, I salute you. It's easy for me at home. I live by myself. No one thinks it's weird that I eat BocaBurgers for every meal. But somehow, the desire not to be the weirdo at the table causes concern for me.

I will say that later that weekend, I ate out AGAIN...and I did ok. I got tacos with corn tortillas filled with spinach and potatoes and peppers. After I had eaten half I realized the potatoes tasted kind of buttery. I never would have thought about asking about butter on the potatoes. It could have just been oil, who knows.

So I think that overall, for being almost 4 weeks in, 2 known mishaps is pretty ok. They probably shouldn't have happened at all, but as all of you lovely people have pointed out to Jamie...we just gotta move on.

I had the most fantabulous vegan dinner tonight, though, thanks to a friend who understands the challenge, haha (thanks, J!). She made pasta with pine nuts and a grapefruit and avocado salad which pretty much rocked my socks. J even checked the pasta ingredients for egg. :)

I am also thinking I will venture to the local co-op before my afternoon gig tomorrow for some vegan cornbread. It's supposed to rain tomorrow morning and cornbread and coffee sound about right. I am realizing with this experiment that even though lately I am too busy and tired to really cook, I am a foodie at heart and always will be. Veganism is allowing me to eat a lot of fresh, healthy, "colorful" foods, and I appreciate that quite a bit. I've had a heck of a time getting to the grocery store this week. That's kind of sad. I'm out of black beans.

Quick, people! What do you do for protein? I know PB has it but isn't that a different kind of protein? Do I just have to start putting beans in everything? Share. Thanks. :) Happy Saturday!

-- Jana, wishing she had the tequila, too.

I CONFESS! I DID IT!

Friends, Romans, Country Men:

I've done my best to remain a faithful vegan, but I must confess I had a bit of a bauble on Saturday night. You see, on Saturday night I had a party for my college graduation. It was supposed to be of moderate size... we sent out over 50 invites, and with families, children and other friends coming, we estimated around 100 guests over a 5 hour period. This means that I spent all of last week preparing, and preparing and preparing food. I did make sure that we had some vegan fair.. beans, rice, vegan tortillas, but mainly we cooked 10 pans of enchiladas, (5 red and 5 green,) 2 giant cheese cakes, a pot of red chile with beef, and well a plethora of decidedly non vegan foods. I was good all week, munching on tofu with smell of my mom's famous green chile chicken enchiladas wafting through the house. It was hard, but I remained strong to my commitment. Come Saturday I was all nerves about my party, so I couldn't eat anything. Then my party started, and well, nobody showed up. Maybe it was the snow, maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the fact that everyone hates me, I don't know. All I know is that out of the 50 invites we sent out, we had about 19 responses. This means we had TONS of food left over, as well as TONS of alcohol. This also means that Jamie got exceedingly depressed, and decided to take it upon herself to finish off the margaritas (on her empty stomach.) I'm hoping tequila is vegan, they don't really use a worm unless it's a lame marketing gimmick. By 7pm I was drunk, by 8pm people were shoving food in my face to help me sober up. So I ate some enchiladas. Yes my friends, cheese, chicken, and God only knows what other animal products. I was kinda afraid that when I started this alcohol might make me weak, but I thought it might be at a late night Frontier run where I ate hash browns cooked with animal fat... not at my own house! So now I'm at a conundrum with the whole vegan thing. Do I start the 90 days completely over again or do I just add an extra day on to the 90 days?

In other news, I'm also on the fence about the refined sugar thing. Are all refined sugars processed with animal bone char or just some? What about Splenda? And has anyone heard of "Combined Sugar"? I read that on an ingredient list and I was like "WHAT?!" What about the honey thing? Does it hurt the bees if I eat their vomit? I'm just wondering. Also, at whole foods I saw yogurt made from soy milk. Is this vegan? Are the live and active cultures considered animals? I mean if it's living in your yogurt and you eat it, are you killing it? And is it cruel or is that what you're supposed to do to fuel the circle of life? What is a live and active culture anyway?

Also, I started getting wicked tooth aches this last week. Could it be from a lack of calcium? I don't think it works that fast does it? Maybe I just need to go to the dentist. Is the dentist vegan? Man.

I think the hardest thing about being vegan is feeling guilty that I may have some how eaten an animal byproduct without knowing it. Especially at restaurants, because a lot of waitstaff is, um not very understanding my my goal, and really doesn't care if the bread was cooked with dairy.

Finally, here's a list of some vegan foods I absolutely adore:

Tofutti cuties, yum, yum, yum.
Trader Joe's vegan chocolate chip cookies
Flying Star's "Buddha Bowl" (FYI take off the fried wantons, they're made with eggs!)
Simply Asia's terriaki chicken bowl
Mission Flour tortillas
Cashews, cashews, cashews,
Trader Joe's Sun dried Tomato Bruchetta
Silk's soy chocolate milk
Any of the Odwalla bars
Target's Archer Farms Tomato and Basil potato chips
Yves vegan hamburger patties

So my friends in veganism, please forgive me for my drunken unfaithfulness. If you never want to talk to me again, I understand, but I was drunk! I didn't mean it! That meat and cheese means nothing to me! You're so much more important. Please, please, please take me back. I promise I won't do it again. I'll be commited! I promise, I promise. Please....

Please,
Jamie



.

Society Tells Me To

While Jamie is having nightmares about forgetting she's vegan, I am stressing that I'll blog happily about a new food I bought and loved and hate mail will come in by the thousands screaming, "THAT IS NOT VEGAN, YOU JERK!!!" and I will have ruined the experiment a whole week in. They call that "paranoia" sometimes. I call it probable. Tofutti Cuties, however, according to a quick Google search...do appear vegan. (PleasePleasePlease let me be right).

Oh, and by the way. Welcome to all the people coming from somewhere on CraigsList and however else you got here, and thanks for your emails and comments. You people are pretty much what will keep us on track. So call in sick and go shopping with me, please.

Today I spent $8.00 on 8 vegan patties (BocaBurger this time, not Morningstar Farms). That kind of seems like a lot, except if I were buying a steak I'd be out more than that. So I guess it works out.

Jamie and I were discussing (yes, we do speak outside of cyber-land) that life as a vegan is kind of...easy. Easy in the sense that in all my previous attempts to eat better, this happens:

(birthday/anniversary/retirement/bat mitzvah/2nd Coming/insert-occasion-here cake shoved in my face)

Person: Here, have some.
Me: Oh no thanks. I'm trying to eat better.
Person: Oh come on. It's the 2nd Coming! Jesus wants you to have cake!
Me: No that's cool. I ate a big lunch and I'd feel bad.
Person: What, you think you're better than us? You think you're HEALTHY?
Me: Well, no...I just uh...
Person: It's a small piece. It won't ruin you forever.
Me: Um...ok.

And then I eat a cruddy piece of cake and I feel cruddy all freaking day. But now??? Wonder of wonders!!

Person: Here, have some cake.
Me: Is it vegan?
Person: No. Are you vegan?
Me: Yes.
Person: Oh.

People get really defensive about food. Yes, it's a very communal thing. It's also a very personal thing. I'm not sure why others try to sabotage my attempts to be a happier person, but it seems they won't challenge veganism. I'm pretty sure a bunch of you old-timers can respond with stories where you were attacked for your veganism, but as a newbie I am enjoying a little less pressure to eat the cake. Discuss.

- Jana

Missing the carne adovada yet, Jamie?

When I was your age we didn't call it "vegan" we just called it "poor"

Luckily, one of my favorite foods of all time is totally vegan: pinto beans. Ever since I was a little girl I've loved these things, and there has always been an abundance of pintos in my life. Every baptism, wedding, matanza, graduation, funeral, and Sunday dinner at Granpa's house you'd just have to make your way to the crock pot in the kitchen and ladle yourself a big ole serving of brown goodness into a Styrofoam bowl, grab a tortilla, (tortillas by the way are vegan if they're made with vegetable shortening, but not if they're made the traditional way with lard,) and you were good to go. I was positive that my Auntie Ana made the best beans in the whole entire world, and used to brag about them to everyone in my second grade class. I also didn't know that there were other kinds of beans in this world until I got to college. Trust me I was quite suspicious of those so called "black beans." However, although beans have been a long time staple in my family, I hadn't the faintest idea on how to make them on my own. So that's when good ole mom comes in. She taught me how to make the pintos old school style, yo. It's remarkably easy actually, sort the beans, get out all the bad ones and the rocks and stuff, soak them over night, put them in the crock pot over the course of the day, come home and have a delicious, filling, vegan meal. YUM. I added some roasted green chile from this year's crop to round it out and had a vegan whole wheat tortilla. It was really comforting to have something so wholesome and familiar after spending a week eating snap peas and tofu. My mom found this all be be incredibly hilarious, especially because she can't even pronounce the word "vegan." She explained to me that when she was young, in a family of 10 children mind you, beans and tortillas were sometimes all they ate for weeks at a time. In the winter beans were the only thing they could afford (pintos are still relatively cheap, what else can you get for 64 cents a pound?!) She also told me how she'd spend long summer days in fields eating cucumbers and tomatoes, and actually ate so many watermelons that she still can't eat them to this day. So here I am being all philosophical when I'm supposed to be delightfully quirky. But seriously, isn't ironic that my mom's vegan and organic upbringing stemmed from poverty, whereas today it is not easy to be poor and vegan, and fresh, pesticide free, organic sun ripened tomatoes will cost you a pretty penny (and man, Lincoln was one ugly dude, so you'll have to search hard.) Possibly that is why I was raised on so much meat and diary, because they were such a luxury for my mom when she was growing up and it makes parents feel good to provide for their kids what they never had. Well I'm not a p-sychcologist or anything but I'm just guessing that's how it works.

So my first ever vegan weekend. I survived, and that's a good thing, because it means I have yet to be eliminated from the gene pool (AHHH future baby Jamies!) It started out with my boyfriend being all cute and supportive and eating a giant bowl of Velveeta Shells and Cheese right in front of me while I struggled to finish off my snap peas (I don't like them, but yet another trait passed on from my mom's upbringing is YOU DO NOT WASTE FOOD.) That night I had a great nightmare that I had forgotten that I'd become a vegan and ate pizza and ice cream. I woke up in a sweat and had to convince myself that I had indeed not killed my goal in a bout of forgetfulness. It was very similar to my college days dreams of "OH MY GOD I FORGOT I SIGNED UP FOR THAT CLASS AND I NEVER WENT" and my more recent dreams of "OH MY GOD I FORGOT I MAXED OUT THAT CREDIT CARD AND FORGOT TO PAY IT OFF."

Next I went to a friend's nephew's first birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. I got to sit and eat bland bread sticks while everyone chowed down on peperoni pizza and Superman cupcakes. I inquired as to weather the Superman cupcakes were vegan, they were not, apparently they were made with real Supermans. Because I survived I treated my self to a big ole fat bowl of tofu and Thai curry. Man, I love Thai. The next day, the super uber boyfriend's parents got to meet the newly found vegan's parents. It was awkward but I guess they like each other so that's good. We went out for Italian, and when I asked the waiter if the marinara had beef stock in it he gave me the strangest look. I'm thinking that's the first of many strange looks. Welcome to the vegan world.

Right now I'm at Flying Star and I'm totally loving their Buddha's bowl, which is like veggies, rice and tofu. Although I'm tossing picking at a few of these weird looking veggies, this is by far the best vegan dish I've had so far. Everyone should try it, and then go rake a Zen garden. I'm thinking world peace may lie in Buddha's bowl.

So that's pretty much it for now. I'm feeling really good, and maybe a little gassy, but ahem, Bean-o is not vegan. What the hell.

-Jamie "Buddha's bowl is in my panza!" Armer

How goes it in TEY-HAS Jana?

Poverty + Veganism = Superfood

"What the $%^# am I eating??"

So I'm a vegan on a budget. I have things like guitar strings, scotch tape, and Swiffer duster replacement cloths to buy. I am also a forgetful vegan, especially on mornings when I oversleep and have to bolt out the door, leaving my lunch laying there on the carpet by the door whining, "Why did you make me just to leave me?" Erm...oops.

So it was off to HEB at lunch time in search of a quick meal. An orange. A banana. And then lo and behold, we find the Odwalla bars and discover that the Superfood(TM) flavor are all half price. Now, a normal person might be suspicious as to why these things are half off...perhaps they taste like the instant soy pudding that was gurgling in Jamie's fridge. Who cares, they're on sale! I was expecting a green brick. I got a dark brown (is that a hint of green? is it??) chewy...thing. Tasted like bananas. Four more to go.

Dinner was another burger on toast with hummus and avocado, and some tasty, tasty brussel sprouts. My friend was telling me I might have a lot easier time of this endeavor since I already eat weird healthy stuff like these little green balls of death. I hope he's right, because the prejudice against brussel sprout eaters is intense. I need something to show for my love of mini-cabbage.

Glenn Miller is "in the mood"...for a sprout.

Jamie, what gas-causing foods have YOU been consuming today? :)

-- Jana

Sugga snap peas and instant puddin'

Veganism does a body well.
I'm like what? 4 days into this thing and I'm already feeling better. My arch nemesis "THE SCALE" is starting to suffer a defeat, as it claims I have lost 4 pounds. This doesn't make too much sense because I've been eating a lot of PETA approved junk foods, but hey, I'll take what I can get.
Yesterday I made my first ever vegan home cooked meal. Either veganism is pretty tasty or I'm a damn good cook. I mixed some fresh spinach, garlic, sun dried tomatoes and olive oil with some pasta. It was pretty wonderful. I ate the leftovers for lunch today.



In other dairy free news, I tried sugar snap peas because they were supposed to be a "Delicious Sweet Snack" according to the package. They tasted a lot like vegetables to me. I found some other uses for sugar snap peas:





Dog Food?



As a means of seduction.



Dentures



Braces



Eyebrows



Cigarette



Er...other cigarette...



Smile implant.

So being a vegan is pretty fun. Although I did come across quite a conundrum today. Mono and Diglycerides. Or as far as I can tell "one and two fats." They're in everything! Some come from vegitables and some come from animals. I don't know how to tell which ones come from which. On the PETA web site they recommend Jell-o vanilla instant pudding as an "accidentally vegan" food. So I whipped up a batch with some soy milk, and as I was waiting for it to set I noticed that the pudding had mono and diglycerides "to prevent foaming" so now I'm wondering if I can eat my pudding... I mean if PETA says it's ok I think I'm ok, but there are Web Vegans (TM) out there who forbid all of these mono and diglycrides. I don't know. On another note, the pudding has been in the fridge for over an hour and has yet to set. I believe that is the soy milk's fault. Maybe all that healthy soy is revolting against the evil glycerides and refusing to set. Either way I have a big bowl of vanilla soup which may not be vegan setting in the fridge.

On a final note, in the spirit of veganism, the dogs decided to eat EACHOTHER today and had fantastic fight. There were tufts of dog fur all over the kitchen. Hopefully the stray hairs didn't get into my tofu tonight... dog hair is not vegan.

For now, SOYenara (ha ha)

Jamie
How's it goin' Jana?

jana: day 4 and still alive

Well. I had myself some tasty "vegan goodness in a burger!" last night and it was quite, er...tasty. It was no burger. The psychology of faux meat is interesting. How do you approach it? I don't walk around with a chunk of styrofoam calling it a "faux space shuttle." If you want a shuttle you build a shuttle. The very term "faux meat" implies that it is supposed to resemble meat in taste and texture. I found that my vegan burger didn't really replicate a hamburger at all, aside from it's patty-shaped goodness. It was more like an...oat lump. Or something. I know that sounds gross but really, it was spiced well and I *like* the texture of that sort of thing anyway. I like oaty cookies and seedy bread (and I do mean with seeds, not back alley drug dealer bread). So it wasn't a hamburger replacement, but I don't really want one at this point in time. I have, however, been told by my Vegan Army (TM) friends that there are vegan BBQ riblets around. I am intrigued.

So the first four days have been pretty good! I have spent more time focusing on what I CAN eat versus what I can't, for the most part. I have photos, but someone left her camera at work so those will have to come tomorrow. Last night I mixed the vegan burger in with some brown rice and veggies for a stir fry. Tonight I had rice noodles with tofu and lime. I froze the tofu when I was gone over Christmas, and it had a decidedly spongier texture this time. Not in a bad way, really. I will never really figure out tofu, but I can pan sear it well enough that it tastes good to me. Also I just like saying "pan sear."

My hardest challenge came on Tuesday when a bunch of 4-H kids came to my office and we baked cookies for the troops. I was surrounded by mountains of snickerdoodles. Usually this would be a good thing...not so when you're on Day Two of the Vegan Challenge. Four messy, flour-covered hours later I emerged a little worn out but still true to the pact.

Dessert starved, I immediately went home and invented Jana Heaven. Here's the recipe:

One wheat tortilla
One banana
Peanut Butter (natural organic)
4 small pieces of vegan dark chocolate

I'm not going to tell you how to assemble it. I would hope, dear readers, that you can figure that out. (It's a spin off on Beth's creation of a PB/Chocolate Burrito in college. That was hysterical). Nuking it in the microwave for a bit seals the deal.

I still have not tried to eat out. That prospect scares me! How's it hanging, Jamie?

-- Jana

Faux space shuttle

Jamie lets the vegan begin.

Ok, so as Jana has so accurately detailed, the two of us have decided to become vegans for 90 days.

Does that make us crazy?

Perhaps.

So why ditch the cheese and the beef you ask? Being the multi-faceted person that I am, I have multiple reasons for going strictly herbivore:

1. I worked at a ranch and it changed my life. Ok not the kind of ranch that fattens up cows and and then sledge hammers their skulls for the McFulfilment of the American public. No, I worked at the kind of ranch that loves and nurtures animals. So I kinda got attached to those things. Eh, I guess I have a heart... and so do cows!

2. Milk makes my chest hurt. Maybe it's all those growth hormones and it just can't stop expanding after I drink it, or maybe it's my arteries constricting from all that baby cow nourishment. I don't know. All I know is that it's unpleasant and I don't like things that are unpleasant. Mooooove over pain.

3. So I have this great boyfriend who's incredibly supportive and nurturing. The down side is that his love and support often comes in the form of a fattyfattygreasyprocessedhighcalorie meal. I've developed what I lovingly call "the boyfriend panza," (no, that does not mean I'm pregnant!) Round tummys are cute on infants and and Santa Clause, but not Jamie. I don't like it. Nobody likes feeling fat, especially a cow that knows being fat only makes it the better for the slaughter. I also feel drained and icky all the time. For the benefit of my health, I desperately need to change my eating habits.

4. I love a challenge. I was only half serious about my idea until my brother, father, mother, and uncle told me I couldn't do it. Then I was game. I'm stubborn as hell, so I must by all means prove these people wrong.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not taking this vegan thing lightly, it's not some kind of lame gimmick. I know it's not going to be easy. Get this, for Thanksgiving my family has what is called a Matanza (literally meaning "slaughter" in Spanish,) a celebration in which a pig is fattened all year long and then ritually killed, cooked underground, and feasted upon. If that's not enough, my grandfather was a cattle rancher (who by the way died of colon cancer from eating too much red meat.) Meat eating is firmly ingrained in my genetics. That's what we do, we eat meat, and most of the time we cover it in cheese. On that note, I'll be the first to admit I am a cheeseaholic. It is a rare, but serious addiction. I put cheese on everything. I'll eat almost any kind of cheese. One of my best friends is named Cheeze (hmm... do I have to give her up?) I have indeed beheld the power of cheese. Oh, and there is this one other thing. I don't really like most vegetables. Among the veggies I refuse to eat are: squash, zucchini, green beans, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, cauliflower, and onions. Oh boy am I in for it.

On New Years eve my boyfriend and I ate a Papa John's chicken pizza, just to go out with a bang. It was wonderful and cheesy and chickeny, and totally NOT vegan. Then we fell asleep right after eating it, missing the New Year entirely, PIZZA CAN MAKE YOU MISS OUT ON THE NEW YEAR! Yet another reason to give it up. Here I am enjoying my last meal:

So here we go. I'm two days into veganism, and I'm doing alright, I found some stuff I like, like the Simply Asia bowls, and some stuff I'm definitely going to have to get used to... like soy milk, but I've yet to crave a cheeseburger, so I'm doing alright. 88 days to go!

Jamie

P.S. Soy milk tastes a lot like vanilla chalk, here I am trying it for the first time:

Vegan newbies

Well, here we are. I'm Jana, and soon you will be reading a post by Jamie as well. We're pals. Friends. Buddies. We get each other. That's why when Jamie said, "Jana I'm going to be a vegan for 90 days starting on January 1st," I realized it would be excellent to tag along. I've been toying with vegetarianism/veganism for about 4 months now, but only half-heartedly and with intents to "do more later." Well, now is later. Hence I am intruding upon Jamie's social experiment. I'll let Jamie post her reasonings in-depth herself.

This weekend I went a'shopping as a vegan for the first time. That was hard. I almost gave up before starting. However, we have transformed the kitchen.

Out:

Tuna, salmon, eggs, chicken, and jello. Boo.

In:

Soymilk, dark chocolate, vegan burgers, flax, rice noodles,
Bragg's amino acids, popcorn, wheat tortillas! Yay.

To be fair, I don't keep a lot of meat around anyway because I have recently discovered that raw meat grosses me out. I will miss my canned salmon. Bummer. I also started drinking soymilk about 4 months ago and like it alot. I don't buy cheese.

The hard part for me will be navigating restaurants and handling the inevitable situation of being invited over to someone's house for dinner. Thankfully Jamie and I have a veritable army of vegan friends (well, ok...3) who are ready and willing to advise and counsel. We're lucky that way.

Your turn, Jamie!