Temptation

So much of it this weekend.

Friday night was steak dinner with friends :/

 I volunteered to bring vegetables and was able to resist. But it was hard. I wanted to reach over and eat a bite chunk of isaacs steak.

Today was a travel day, shockingly airports aren't super no meat friendly. Especially in the morning. I ended up with an English muffin and then some crappy snacks, eh.

THEN I arrived in CA and ate the most amazing burrito. Refried beans, rice, guacamole, salsa, salsa, mmmm salsa.

Getting creative

No problems not eating meat. I'm still working my way though groceries I already have so haven't yet started going label crazy, but I'm more aware than I have been before.

Found a tasty recipe for cilantro lime garlic tofu sandwiches. I burnt the bread, sigh, but otherwise it was tasty.

The weekend and travel is worrisome... I may do some preplanning re: airport food options so I don't get sucked into ( delicious delicious) Popeyes chicken.

Hump daaaaaaye

So Tuesday happened. I made it and made it well.

Turns out snacking in the office is harder to avoid than I'd anticipated, but in a good way. Now it's not just knowing I shouldn't eat palms-full of chocolate, but there's a real reason not to shove my face in.

I realized that I need to make a lunch plan before I head out I the am. Yesterday I ran home in a panic rather than ordering out for a boca chickn patty and some roasted broccoli. Not ideal but tasty.

Dinner was an artichoke! I'd never had a whole one before so it was a fun challenge to figure out cooking and eating methods. Really good, but I ended up with a clarified butter dip and wish id been able to find a milk-free alternative.

Figured out a recipie for a really good salad dressing, red wine & balsamic vinegar , olive oil, green onions, paprika, garlic and a bit of salt. Shockingly simple and delicious.

Giving myself a cheese pass was smart. I'm still trying to cut back/down on it, but I think it's made. Bring more conscious about other milk products is easier when I have my cheese pass, but like with dinner tonight, roasted portabellas with tomatoes & artichokes, I put cheese on top out of habit and as I was eating realized that it doesn't REALLY add anything. It's like a security blanket. So weird.

So yeah... shout out to Lunch for the Vegan if she's reading ;)

Monday recap- warning! if you stumble across this- there's going to be fart talk!

Soooooo Monday was the first work-day that I got through trying to be more animal-product conscious.
It went, OK.

First thing that I realized giving up cheese will be my biggest challenge. Like I hope I get there but I can honestly say I don't know if I will.

I have a coworker who is vegan, and while, contrary to what writing all about this on the interwebs might make it seem, I'm actively trying not to tell people about what I'm doing. I'm using this blog as a way to try to keep myself honest and push through, but those that know me know I have a tendency to start something and throw myself into it 100% and then drop it without another thought the next week. So I'm really trying not to make this into a 'thing' until I've got a better grasp of what the 'thing' is. Cryptic. I know.

Anyway, so this coworker who is a vegan is awesome. She operates with her dietary choices in such an inspiring way, she never complains about what's on the menu, or what could she eat, and never forces her point of view on others, but she's always quietly prepared for whatever food situations the day might throw at her, and happy to talk about her choices if someone is really interested. Clearly I am.

It's pretty common knowledge around my corner of the office that I spend my weekends watching documentaries, and there are a few others here who do too, so it's an easy water-cooler topic for Monday morning. When my coworker asked what I'd watched this weekend, I literally couldn't shove the words back into my mouth before telling her about Vegucated (she said it was a big part of her decision to go vegan), and that I found myself in this crisis area. She was so supportive, but again not pushy. It was nice to run some thoughts by/through her. Then she sent me a list of more vegan-centric documentaries  for future consumption :)

Back to the cheese issue. I love cheese, have I mentioned that?
Encouraged by my co-worker to 'do what I can now' and 'adapt over time' I'm letting cheese slide for now. If I spend all of my time getting down on myself for eating or wanting to eat or thinking about eating cheese I'll go mad, and probably quit.

So for now, cheese it is.

Yesterday felt far more normal food-choice-wise than I expected it to:

• English Muffin for breakfast per usu (according to http://veganrestaurantshub.com/ Dunks is a-OK!) 
• cut out the milk in my coffee (no big deal as it was really just for effect anyway)
• lunch was ordered in, I amended my Friday afternoon order request from the appetizer sampler of ribs and chicken and chicken and crab rangoon (mmm crab rangoon) to vegetable lo mein. Probably cooked in a vat of butter and chicken broth, but menu dissection is a ways off for me. 
• dinner was exciting. I made a salad and I was excited for/about it! I happily plowed through a comically giant tupperware bowl full of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, snap peas, parsnips, bean sprouts, broccoli and (sigh) feta. a little bit of salt and red wine vinegar & oil. so good.
• snacked on some dark chocolate squares that didn't seem to have milk products listed on the ingredients and a few chunks of fresh (oooo so good) pineapple.

Then the farts. Oh man were there farts. I bet it was the lo mein, but who knows. It was pretty gross, and clearly worth recording.

So on that note. To Tuesday!

Again?!

Yeah yeah. I'm still going to talk about food, but for myself this time. 

I've gotten into documentaries lately. Like really into them. Nothing too good or too bad. From Blackfish to Bronies I'm burning through Netflix.

I watched Food Inc. during one of my first documentary binges. It was interesting but not life changing. What it did do was make me want to watch more food-based docs. I watched a great one called A Matter of Taste about a chef's journey toward a 3star New York Times review. Then I tried something called Vegucated.

It hit me. Hard.

Like really hard. I grew up on a farm. I'm not ignorant about where food comes from, but something jolted inside of me and I wanted to make a change.

Welcome to day 3 of my attempt at a plant based diet.

First things I've learned:

Chipotle sofritas are amazing.

Animal products are in EVERYTHING!

People are super quick to need a label. I wouldn't DARE call this attempt vegetarian or vegan, I feel like that would be a set up for failure. It's just, something I'm trying mk?

So this will be the details of that journey, hopefully I'll keep on track, but at least have somewhere to pick up if I fall off.