2nd week

This marks the beginning of my 2nd week eating Vegan. I find myself really wishing for summer produce or at least living in a warmer climate. I hate HATE the produce at the stores where I live, but I think we are getting by. I've had some highs and lows over the past couple weeks that I'll share:

HIGHS:

- YUMMY tofu. I made a tofu stir fry that I actually LOVED the tofu. It's usually triggered my gag reflex before, so I am happy that I liked it and will be finding even more ways to prepare it in the future...

-Really good vegan cupcakes! I was skeptical at first, when my Sister assured me the recipe made cupcakes every bit as good as our Mom's famous Sour Cream Chocolate Cake. That was just too strong a statement to make, I thought. As they came out of the oven, the cupcakes looked beautiful, but when I tested one, I didn't think they had enough chocolate or something. But the next day, they almost did taste as good as Mom's! Or maybe my sister brainwashed me? I don't know!

- Every meal I have cooked at home has been VEGAN!! And we have liked everything. So I consider that a success. I just still don't have any cookbooks, so other than the tofu, I've been making things I always normally make that was vegetarian before, I am just not using cheese or sour cream or any dairy toppings. So it's all food we normally eat, which is getting boring to me!

LOWS:

-I went out to eat at Panera Bread with my toddler, and forgot to ask them to hold the feta on my Medditeranian veggie sandwich. AND I DEVOURED IT ANYWAY!!! It was like I was binging on something I knew I shouldn't have, but it was so good I couldn't stop. I seriously love(d) Feta cheese. They also smothered the salad in feta and I didn't eat it because even without the cheese, it was gross. The lettuce and tomatoes weren't even fresh.

- We went to a Super Bowl Party last night. I didn't tell the hosts that I was vegan, and since it was a pot-luck type thing, I brought my own bean dip and the Vegan Cupcakes. But I did have some seven layer dip but just only ate the bottom layers! And something else that sounded vegan, but I didn't ask, because it was so good and if she told me that there was eggs or something in it, I would have cried. So that was my lowest point.

Other than that, and my other occasional guilty pleasure(Coke) I've been rather pleased with myself. Here are some dishes I made last week:

-Tofu marinated in yummy sauce(I already wrote that earlier, sorry)

-half hour vegan chili w/bulgar and beans...also lots of other stuff. My husband LOVES this Chili!

-Tortilla soup- it's vegan!

-Crepes off my Rice Dream box. I just used my Ener-G egg replacer. I thought they turned out pretty great, and I have never made Crepe's before, either!

-Black Bean salad

-Sweet Potato Fries

-Some veggie sandwiches

That's all I can remember now, but I am really excited to get some new recipes. I just get overwhelmed at all the ingredients that I don't have and stores here don't carry a lot of vegan friendly products....So I'll just keep looking for inspiration online!