Flirting With Veganism – Challenge Recap

It’s sad but true, my two-week staycation is already over, and I have to get back to work tomorrow. That also means, that the Vegan Challenge hosted by Blogilates.com is now over, too!

As I mentioned in my last post, I felt very good during this challenge. As I’m already a vegetarian, I only had to cut out eggs, dairy, and honey, which was surprisingly easy. Until Saturday afternoon, when I was invited to a birthday party and was confronted with lots of amazing looking cake. I couldn’t resist! So my flirt with veganism only lasted for 12 instead of 14 days. Oh well. That’s still a personal record for me!

So, will I go back to eating eggs and dairy? Yes, I will. I really loved the way I felt on an exclusively plant-based diet, and I do plan to keep most of my meals and snacks vegan, but I want to have more options when I eat out or when I’m visiting friends or family. Being a vegetarian in rural South Germany is already quite challenging, and being 100% vegan is almost impossible around here, in my opinion, especially if you have a weakness for cake and ice cream like I do.

Did I lose any weight on that challenge? Not really, maybe one pound, if even. I didn’t follow the meal plan at all, and ate lots of peanut butter. But that’s ok! I’m mostly happy with my weight and wanted to enjoy my staycation to the fullest, instead of restricting my calories in any way.

All in all, I’m happy that I got to participate in this challenge. It was a great reminder that I do feel best on a mostly plant-based diet.

See you!

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What I Ate Wednesday #13 – Meatless Monday

Today is already day 10 of the Blogilates Vegan Challenge, and I’m still going strong, even loving it!

This is what I ate on Monday. Well, most of it. I never manage to photograph everything I eat in a day, but I think you’ll get the picture.

I wanted to try something new for breakfast, so I made a tofu scramble. It contained mushrooms, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and onions, and was served with a slice of whole grain bread. It was delicious! And incredibly filling!

At noon I was still quite full from breakfast, and I had planned to go to the gym in the afternoon, so I wanted a rather light lunch. Solution: Oats in a peanut butter jar! I put in about half a cup of oats, a tablespoon of ground flax, some raisins, and lots of soy-rice milk. Later, after the oats had soaked up most of the liquid, I added a few tablespoons of applesauce and a dash of cinnamon. So good!

Dinner was one of my all-time favorites: meatless chili with home-made oven fries. And some guacamole on top, to make it perfect. Is it weird that always want fries with my chili?

For June’s sensible snacking theme, we were asked to share our favorite healthy snacks. I really love snacking between meals, maybe a little too much sometimes, but I mostly try to have something healthy and filling, and stay away from processed, packaged snacks.

One of my favorite snack options is fresh fruit, usually a banana or apple or whatever is in season right now. To amp things up, I sometimes add a home-made cookie. I’m still working on the recipe for that chocolate oatmeal cookie pictured above, until then I highly recommend the famous bizookies, or Mama Pea’s Anytime Cookies.

Next up: peanut butter and jelly rice cakes! Plain rice cakes are usually significantly lower in calories than a piece of bread, so if you want a rather light snack, they are a great base for your favorite toppings. They also go well with savory spreads, like hummus.

Another snack that I enjoy quite often is a bowl of fruit, in this case strawberries, topped with (soy) yogurt and granola. Let’s call this a fruit & yogurt bowl. This totally tastes like dessert! But as the main ingredient is fruit, it’s actually quite healthy.

What are your favorite snacks? Or are you a three-meals-a-day-no-snacks person?

See you!

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What I Ate Wednesday #12 – Almost Vegan

Happy Wednesday everyone!

These are actually the ‘highlights’ of what I ate from Saturday to Tuesday. Like I mentioned in my last post, I decided to join the Vegan Challenge over at Blogilates.com. But I don’t really follow the meal plan, as I don’t want to lose a lot of weight, and I prefer my own style of eating. Just minus eggs, dairy, and honey for the next two weeks.

On Friday I bought lots and lots of delicious vegan foods: rice waffles, soy yogurt, agave syrup, rice milk, applesauce, whole wheat bread, canned pineapple chunks (I’m slightly allergic to fresh pineapple), soy cream, ajvar, hummus, non-dairy butter, and tomato paste. And lots of fresh produce that didn’t fit into the picture.

Whenever I don’t know what to cook, I turn to our favorite Korean dishes. On Saturday we had bibimbap, that’s a big bowl filled with rice and various toppings, like shredded carrots and cucumbers, omelette stripes, sautéed zucchini, mung bean sprouts, sautéed spinach, etc.

On Sunday I made myself some rice paper rolls. To be honest, after taking one bite, I scraped out the filling and tossed the rice paper. Gross! I won’t make that again.

More Korean food! For dinner we had cold noodle soup, also known as naengmyon. I topped my bowl with zucchini, cucumber, pear, and half a boiled egg.

And this takes us to Monday, the start of the Vegan Challenge. For breakfast I had my usual whole wheat bread, topped with peanut butter, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and apple butter.

Monday turned out to be quite a hot and sunny day, so we were in the mood for a cold, light, but still filling dinner. Gimbap to the rescue! I filled my rolls with avocado, cucumber, and roasted sesame seeds. Delicious!

Lately I’ve been eating lots of salads for lunch. Tuesday’s salad creation was mixed greens, black lentils, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and homemade balsamic dressing. Perfect!

After all those cold dishes I was craving something hot and spicy, so I made doenjang jjigae, a Korean tofu stew. My version was a little different from the one I linked to. To make it vegan, I omitted the sea food, and used more vegetables instead. Is anyone interested in the recipe?

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I’m a little addicted to fruit salad. A few days ago I ran out of the frozen bagged mix I usually eat, so I just made my own. It contains pink grapefruit, canned cherries, pear, apple, pineapple, and peach. I had it as an after-dinner treat, topped with soy yogurt and cinnamon.

So far, the Vegan Challenge is going really well for me. I mostly eat my usual favorite meals, just slightly modified, and I feel satisfied and never hungry.

Have you ever tried a vegan diet? If yes, how did you feel?

See you!

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