4 Month Check-In

From Cafe Gratitude

Time for a check-in. What started as a 30 day challenge has morphed into a new and extremely satisfying lifestyle. After three months, I began to hit a confident stride. I could easily keep myself from starving, get the nutrients I needed, and put together vegan meals without having to follow recipes or meal plans I got online. I stopped focusing so much on the fact that I was VEGAN (omg), and began simply living as such. When you focus on every breath you take, it is harder to breathe for some reason - same goes for being vegan. Once I stopped obsessing about it, it became easy and a part of me. Now four months in, I feel like I could (and might) do this forever.  

Not to say there aren't days when it is extremely frustrating. Why can't there be more vegan options? Why do I have to ask this waitress a million questions about what is in the food? Why doesn't Target carry tofu or almond milk? Why is Chipotle the only vegan friendly, reasonably priced, quick place to eat? Why can't I get rid of these pesky fruit flies for good (more to come on this later)?!? Luckily, these occurrences are dwarfed by the positivity I have seen and felt from this lifestyle change. I truly do feel that I have gained more than I have given up. 

Cafe Gratitude Dessert

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Restaurant Review: Füd

813 W. 17th Street. Kansas City. MO. 64108.

Since becoming vegan, Jason and I have cooked most of our meals at home. I knew Kansas City had some veg restaurants, but frankly, I thought they were going to be really weird. Even though I've been vegan for almost four months now, the picture in my head was that they would be "stereotypical vegan." You know, the menu is comprised solely of tofu, everything is really mushy, has no flavor, and comes with a side of grass and other unappealing foliage. I should have known better. 

Despite this horrible image I had in my head, Saturday night we headed to Füd. This local vegan dining establishment focuses on organic food, sustainable practices, and having the lowest possible carbon footprint. So all in all, you can feel really good about eating at Füd. On a sidenote, they only accept cash and checks, glad we saw that before leaving the house.

Now let's talk about the food. I was shocked to find such a diverse menu with a plethora of different options. I settled on the Rainbow Salad from the Living Fresh Food portion of the menu. A living rainbow of greens, avocado, apple, carrot, squash, cucumber, bell pepper, parmesan seed, nuts and house dressing. This was, hands down, the best salad I've had in my entire life (Jason agreed). I'm not sure what they put in their house dressing, but they should bottle and sell it. Vegan or not, you can't go wrong with this for a meal.

Rainbow Salad

Jason ordered the Jack Reuben from the Hot Fresh Food portion of the menu. Panini style jack fruit spiced and stacked with garlic sweed cheese, thrillanaise, and sauerkraut on rye. If you're like me, you're thinking...what is thrillanaise...and sweed cheese...? The menu is sprinkled with these words that are probably not in Webster's dictionary. But don't worry or focus on that too much. I don't know what they mean either. All you need to know is that it's a reuben sandwich. And it's good.

Jack Reuben

Although we were sufficiently full, we pushed on and ordered dessert: cashew soft serve ice cream sundae topped with raw chocolate sauce, raw superfood caramel sauce, goji berries, cacao nibs, blueberries, and pecans. I'm telling you right now, I would go back to Füd for the dessert alone, it was that good. Just looking at the picture of the sundae is making my mouth water. Everyone. Must. Try. This.

Cashew Ice Cream Sundae

So in summation, we had an incredible dinner experience and Füd far exceeded our expectations. I highly encourage everyone to give this restaurant a try, I think you'll walk away full and completely satisfied.

Forks were a great invention...

Today Jason and I cooked my parents breakfast for Mother's Day. This was our first time cooking for anyone since becoming vegan, and we went back and forth about whether or not the meal should be completely vegan. If I had a little more cooking practice, we might have gone that route. But I really didn't feel comfortable serving tofu french toast or chickpea omelets to my parents without having tried them myself. And since this meal was to honor my wonderful meat/dairy eating Mom, we decided to bring a traditional egg quiche along for the ride with our other vegan dishes. Our plates were full of colorful plant based foods, and our glasses were full of a little bubbly.

My parents, intrigued with our diet change, asked us questions about becoming vegan. We talked about some of our standby dishes and some of the various cuisines we are interested in right now. The conversation went something like this: Asian cuisine...Japan...tofu in soup...chop sticks...interesting business dinners with chop sticks...forks. To which Dad stated, "Forks were a great invention."

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Dad was right about that (although I stated that sporks were probably a greater invention). But that comment reminded me of the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives. It was instrumental in turning me on to the vegan diet, and more specifically a whole foods, plant based diet. You can catch the documentary on Netflix or watch the official trailer here. Whether or not you plan to become vegetarian or vegan, no one can dispute the fact that adding more plant based/unprocessed foods to your diet is a healthy thing to do. Also check out the Forks Over Knives cookbook. I highly recommend it.

But Why Dairy?

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I get the meat thing, but why did you give up dairy and eggs? I get that a lot, and rightfully so. Here are my reasons.

Health: It can be summed up in this video Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, and I encourage everyone to watch it. This video found its way to us courtesy of Jason's friend and fellow vegan @wolsamnoraa.

Cows: Veal. A lot of people have a problem with the idea of veal and say - That's cruelty to baby cows so I don't eat veal! It's completely unnecessary! But do you know why veal exists? Think about it for a second. How is it that dairy cows can produce such large quantities of milk throughout their entire life? That's right! They are continuously impregnated. And what happens to (a large majority) of their offspring? You guessed it. Veal, a product of the dairy industry.

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Chickens: I have no problem with eggs in general. In fact, I am a major egg lover. If you ask Katie, my college roommate, she will tell you that at one point in time I was living exclusively on eggs. What? They were cheap and seemed more nutritious than Ramen noodles. My problem lies with factory farming and unfortunately that applies to the egg layin' hens too. Before I became vegan I was seriously considering a backyard chicken coop. I'm no longer in the market, but if you're interested Williams-Sonoma sells a variety.

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Thirty Days Vegan

I can’t believe that Day 30 is here and the 30 Day Vegan Challenge is over. It absolutely flew by. The first week was extremely rough. The second week was mildly challenging. And the third and fourth weeks started to feel more comfortable and normal. It has been an exciting and eye-opening experience, and I can’t wait to continue the journey. Jason and I both plan on maintaining our vegan diets (with the exception of BBQ eating when his Dad comes to town).

Overall Health: Everything I said on Day 15 of the challenge stands true today, and even more so. I no longer require caffeine to get me going in the morning, or caffeine to keep me awake in the afternoons. I don’t feel the need to come home and collapse on the couch after a day of work. I feel light on my feet and my brain feels sharp. I have energy like I've never had before, and overall I feel fantastic.

Weight: As of today I've lost a whopping 12 pounds! Boom! And for the record, 2-3 pounds a week in weight loss is completely healthy (says Weight Watchers) in case anyone was concerned. ;) I’m pleased as punch with these results.

Migraines: I’m happy to report that for the month of April, my migraines were down by 70%. That’s pretty good considering I was spending 15-16 days a month nearly incapacitated. I can’t even explain how amazing it feels. My doctors have prescribed every drug under the sun for my headaches. Nothing changed except for the addition of some unpleasant side effects. No, I don’t want migraines + weight gain and extreme mood swings. No, I don’t want migraines + the inability to think (yes, they impacted my cognitive function and made me stupid. That’s a blog post for another day). No, I don’t want migraines + an allergic reaction, my throat closing, and a trip to the ER.

Yes, I would like a significant reduction in migraine frequency + weight loss + overall good health + the ability to stuff my face with flavorful food every meal. I think I've found a winner.

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Ready, Set, Garden!

Since we are consuming a ridiculous amount of veg these days, it seems like the logical next step would be to grow some of our own. We attempted a backyard garden last year. Due to the extreme heat and drought-like conditions, the output was minimal (and probably due to us being novices). Since then, Jason has clocked several hours (and I've clocked a few hours) volunteering at the downtown community garden. He's picked up some tips from the pros and we are much more experienced and prepared this time around. 

We spent Sunday prepping the garden and planting. Here's the garden all cleaned out and ready to go.

And hey! What's that colorful mixture of goodness on top of the soil, you ask? It's the pulp we saved from juicing! You can mix it into the soil for compost. Talk about a beautiful trifecta. Good for the soil, the soon-to-be veggies, and us! 

Hot tip: If you don't have a garden, you can donate your pulp to a local community garden or farm!

On the summer garden agenda this year: tomatoes, Thai peppers, habaneros, rainbow carrots, onions, eggplant, cilantro, parsley, and dill. Come on over in a few months for some SPICY salsa!

And I had to include this picture of Sasha. She loves gardening season too, just another excuse to be outside all day!

How will you survive???

Since becoming vegan I have gotten a lot of questions like, "No meat?!? What do you eat???" The first week of the vegan journey, I really didn't have an answer. I had done plenty of research, but in reality I had no clue how I would keep myself alive, or what I would be consuming...3 meals a day...21 meals a week...bean burritos? It's funny now because that is what Jason ate for an entire week. What a disaster. I don't recommend living exclusively on bean burritos. #beanlife

As I have continued to learn on this journey, I still find that question hard to answer but for a different reason. There's an endless amount of things I can eat, and I have only begun to scratch the surface. Every time I go to the market I see a new food I have never tried, or a new spice combination to play with. I can eat most typical American dishes with minor substitutes or tweaks to the recipe. Another bonus I have found is that being vegan has sparked my creative side. Until now, I had not consider myself a creative person (thought my brothers got those genes).

This weekend I made my own version of a veggie lasagna. I...am at a loss for how good it was. It was unreal. I have not had a lot of experience cooking with or eating tofu, and honestly, it still creeps me out a little bit. But it was absolutely perfect in this recipe. It looks a little bit like ricotta cheese mixed in with the veggies, and I didn't even think about it when I was eating it. After scarfing down a monstrous piece, I was satisfied but not uncomfortably stuffed to oblivion. Even if you are not planning on becoming vegan, I highly recommend adding this plant based recipe to your rotation. 

Veggie Lasagna Medley

Adapted from Engine 2's Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna

2 cloves garlic, chopped
12 ounces mushrooms (baby bella), sliced
1 head broccoli, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 1/2 cup corn
1 1/2 cup peas
2 red peppers, chopped
12 ounces silken tofu
1 tsp dried basil (if using fresh, add more)
1 tsp dried rosemary (if using fresh, add more)
1 tsp dried oregano (if using fresh, add more)
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
3 medium sized sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
2 jars pasta sauce
1 package lasagna no-boil noodles
4 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup raw cashews, ground

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute mushrooms and garlic over medium heat until the mushrooms have reduced in size (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside in large bowl. 
Using the same pan, saute broccoli and carrots with 1/4 cup water. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and add to mushrooms.
Saute peppers, corn, and peas until heated through (about 3 minutes). Remove from pan and add to bowl with other veggies.
Drain the silken tofu with a paper towel and add to the bowl of veggies.
Add spices to the veggie bowl and combine.

Assemble the lasagna in a 9x13 pan. Here are the layers from bottom up:
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Veggie/tofu
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Sweet potatoes
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Sliced tomatoes

Now that's a lot of veggies!

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove foil and sprinkle ground cashews over the top. Bake for 15 more minutes uncovered.

Put under broiler for a few minutes until the cashews are toasted.

Enjoy!

The ground cashews toast up perfectly, you will not miss the Parmesan cheese.

Check out that sweet potato layer, oh yeah!

Aunt J Knows Best

Last Thanksgiving, Jason and I were in California and stopped in to see my favorite Aunt J and Uncle K. Aunt J is Mom's little sister, and we are three peas in a pod. I don't know how many times growing up my mom switched our names or said, "You are just like your Aunt J!" And Mom was right. I know I can thank her for several of my wonderful personality traits, and my height. Although she lived half way across the country, we always managed to stay close. I called myself her sidekick, and everything we did together was an adventure. It is fitting that she has played an instrumental role in my road to vegan.

At our last visit, Aunt J had semi recently become vegan. The change was a good thing for her, and I could see that she was glowing and even more full of life than ever before (which is hard to believe if you know her). We talked some about the change while flipping through a vegan cookbook. We admired the colorful dishes and fun presentations. While I was intrigued, many of the ingredients listed in the recipes were foreign to me. It sounded like a good idea in theory, I just didn't know if I could do it. But with Aunt J making it look so simple, I thought I'd give it a try.

Each morning while we were there, Aunt J made us a juice concoction to go with breakfast. Jason and I have adopted juicing, and now swear by it. With juicing, your body does not have to work hard to digest anything, so all the nutrients are absorbed immediately. Some people make "green smoothies" which are also incredibly good for you. If you're looking for nutrients plus extra fiber, that's a good way to go, too.

Daily Juicing

The contents of our juice varies depending on what we have on hand. We buy greens in bulk from Costco, and the rest from the farmer's market. We try to do about 3/4 vegetables to 1/4 fruit. Here's what I made yesterday:

2 handfuls of spinach

2 handfuls of kale

2 stalks of celery

1/2 cucumber

1/2 beet

1/2 apple

1/2 orange

1/2 lime

3 carrots

1 inch ginger

*Makes anywhere from 12-20 ounces, depending on how juicy your fruits and veg are.

Half Way to Thirty

I've made it to the half way point! I'm amazed at how quickly the time has passed, and I'm even more shocked by the results I've seen. The first week was the hardest with the severe cravings (I still think my five day binge prior to starting the new diet may have contributed...). But now that I've settled into my new norm, I no longer crave sticks of butter or wheels of cheese. I have managed to find something to feed myself everyday, and I really haven't felt all that hungry.   

Overall Health: I feel absolutely incredible. Any cliche phrase you hear someone say when they have a new, healthy lifestyle...that's me right now. I have massive amounts of energy, have been told my hair and skin look shiny and healthy, and just generally feel better. 

Weight: I was down 8 pounds on Saturday, but then I drank wine and as a result HAD to eat McDonald's french fries (what? sue me), which landed me at 7 for the official weigh-in. Still pretty darn good.

Migraines: The jury is still out on this one. I have had a few but will have to continue tracking for the rest of the month to make a determination.

Hot Tip: When eating out, it is important to ask questions about how the food is prepared and what ingredients are used. If you do not do this, you will most likely end up ingesting a food item that is not on the vegan approved list. Like, perhaps, fish sauce in Pad Thai. So just be careful about that.

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