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