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!