my 30 day vegan challenge

Hello ladies,

I am back. As you may have noticed, I took a little break for about a month. This is because I am a college student and I had finals. Then I flew home and worked for winter break and didn't have much to post about. Or really feel like it. But, alas, I have returned and I bought so many things (posts coming soon, still waiting for some things to arrive) and have also begun a 30-day vegan challenge. Please do not ask me to justify my reasoning for this; I have none. But I am doing it. This journey began Saturday, January 5th, meaning we are coming to the close of the first week (I am writing this Thursday evening). I'm not quite sure what these posts should consist of/what you guys want to know so I am mostly going to outline what I've eaten each day and how I felt about it. I will be including recipe links but I am not the best at following recipes so I will try to note what alterations I made.

Saturday, January 5

Breakfast: some stale Cheerios

If you weren't aware, Cheerios are vegan. Not an eventful start to this journey, but good enough.

Lunch: N/A

I didn't eat lunch this day. I wasn't hungry and also had nothing to eat. I didn't go grocery shopping until about 3pm.

Dinner: Butternut Squash Tacos w/ Cabbage Black Bean Slaw

Finally my first real vegan meal. This was pretty good. It took too long to make and cutting the squash hurt my hands and also my spirit, but other than that I enjoyed it. I only used about 1/3 of a squash for this and had enough for 4 tacos this meal and 6 more tacos when I had leftovers. Modifications: I didn't peel my squash (I like the skin), didn't measure anything for my slaw (I used like 1/4 of a cabbage and a can of black beans I think? Everything else I just eyeballed), and didn't make the guac (I hate avocado)

Sunday, January 6

Breakfast: 2 kiwis

I'm not a breakfast lady.

Lunch: Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad

This was also pretty good. Modifications: I just hand-chopped my carrots and cabbage. I didn't have green onions or whole peanuts. I didn't have rice vinegar, sesame oil, or fresh ginger either. Other than that I followed the recipe I think. It probably would've been better with all the ingredients, but like I said. Pretty good.

Dinner: Potato and Chickpea Tikka Masala

I didn't use a recipe for this. I basically cooked potato chunks (3 or 4 potatoes) and chickpeas (1 can) in some olive oil and then added a jar of Tikka Masala sauce from Target and let it cook for a lil while. It's not pretty but it tasted really good. I had a large bowl for dinner and another serving for leftovers (that I will be eating tonight).

Monday, January 7

Brunch: Corn Fritters with Maple-Sriracha Sauce

I really enjoyed these. Lots of modifications were made on this one, specifically to the sauce. I basically didn't follow the recipe, I just mixed sriracha, maple syrup, tahini, and lime juice until it tasted good. Also for the fritters I didn't add green onions because I still didn't have them but I wish I had. Pro (not pro) tip: make sure you use enough flour or these are not fun to fry. I also paired this with a Kevita Coconut Lime Mojita Probiotic beverage; they're good. They were 2 for $5 at Target.

Dinner: Butternut Squash Pasta

I really only used this recipe for inspiration. I didn't fry any sage, I used red onion instead of yellow, and I added a bunch of curry powder and coconut flakes. I also used mini farfalle (bowtie pasta) instead of linguine but that's a superficial detail. I also used more red pepper flakes than it said. Maybe some chili powder too, I can't remember. All that said, this was delicious.

Okay so change of plans. I stopped writing this post and never uploaded it and it is almost over so we are going to turn it into an overall experience post. I will link the recipes I used as well as any notable alterations I made and not do this meal-by-meal breakdown thing because that was exhausting. I also started eating a lot of leftovers or repeating recipes after the first week so there's less to tell anyways.

Spinach Lentil Bake: This was quite tasty. By itself, it was definitely bland, but I had it for several meals and very much enjoyed adding Trader Joe's green dragon sauce to it for some flavor and spice.

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad: Another decent recipe. I used zesty Italian dressing instead of vinaigrette. Pretty quick and easy but not my favorite thing. Tastes like what you would expect.

Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl: Now this is what you call tasty. I used butternut squash instead of sweet potato and I loved it. I made it twice. I even make the roasted chickpeas and sauce as a snack. 100% recommend.

Buffalo Chickpea Pizza: This is another serious winner. Possibly my favorite thing I made. and I made this many times. Very very tasty. Also, I cheated on this one and used the regular ranch we had in the fridge (not vegan) thinned out with coconut milk to make it pourable because it was a waste of time and money to make vegan ranch. This is definitely a recipe I will still be using as a non-vegan. Try it. Trust me.

Spinach Artichoke Dip: This is my final favorite of the month. A little time consuming but not too difficult and makes a good amount so you get several servings out of it. I'm sick of vegans advertising that their fake cheese things taste just like the real thing when they don't know what the real thing tastes like, but if you don't expect it to be made with cream cheese and sour cream then I think you will enjoy this.

Hummus: I made my own hummus. It's tasty. It's not that hard to make, but hummus also isn't that expensive.

Grits and Barbecue Black-eyed-peas: I didn't use a recipe for this, I just threw it together. But it was good and I figured I would include it for inspiration.

Taco Bowls: Emily and I had taco bowls. Mine did not include chicken. Hers did. It was brown rice, black beans, corn, lime juice, salsa, cilantro, Himalayan pink salt, and nutritional yeast. Another one without a recipe. Can't go wrong with this one.

Fries and sauce: I made fries. Just google how long to cook them for. I also made the sauce from the corn fritter recipe to dip them in. 'Twas tasty.

Fried "Rice": I got some cauliflower rice from Target and added cabbage, carrot, and teriyaki sauce. It wasn't bad but I think I used too much sauce.

Channa Masala: This was some microwave channa masala from Target over basmati rice. Really quick and easy and delicious. The brand that makes this also had Punjabi Eggplant that I tried but forgot to take a picture of. It was good as well.

Pesto Pizza: I used pesto, mushrooms, kale, and artichoke and baked it for 15ish minutes at 475. Very good.

I think that concludes my journey of veganism. Looking back, several weeks later, I enjoyed my stint as a vegan. I am actually about to make the spinach artichoke dip again and I have repeated the buffalo chickpea pizza several more times. Unfortunately, I don't think it's the lifestyle for me, but if anyone is interested I would highly suggest giving it a go. Especially if you like cooking. As always, thanks for reading.
Jessie