30 days of vegan: my favorite vegan eggs

Recently I posted my musings on my favorite breakfast food- the burrito. In it, I blithely said go forth and find one of the many, many copycat recipes on the web that rely on kala namak and turmeric to impart eggy color and flavor. 

But that was lazy of me. And a bit disingenuous. When I first endeavored to go vegan, I knew meat would not be a problem for me. I've never been a meat fan, even in childhood. I always went for the most processed meats: sausages, hot dogs, things that didn't seem like meat. A slab of flesh always freaked me out. One encounters weird flavors, textures, chewy, slimy, stringy bits. Gross.

I always thought cheese would be the really hard thing. I've had love affairs with whole branches of cheese. In the fake cheese realm, varieties such as Swiss do not translate nearly as well as cheeses like Cheddar. Parmagiano and Romano are struggles, too. The substitute recipes often have Italian herbs or spices, as if to say, we know this isn't going to work, the best we can do is remind you of a food with real cheese in it. 

But I got over cheese (thanks in no small part to nutritional yeast). It turns out the very hardest thing for me to abandon was the humble chicken egg.

I have always loved eggs. As a kid, while my classmates sat at tray tables watching cartoons and guzzling down sugar bomb cereals, I was feasting on fried eggs and bacon, scrambled eggs and toast, omelets stuffed with ham and cheese, or my beloved creamed eggs. I come from farmer stock. I spent a lot of days and nights sleeping under the roof of my maternal grandparents. They raised chickens and ate a lot of eggs. So really, eggs are my soul food.  The prospect of giving them up was, ultimately, the most difficult choice. The heavy-handed treatments that are the gold standard for vegan eggs in the online cooking sphere- heavy with garlic and onion powder, turmeric, soy sauce or liquid aminos- while not unappetizing, scream "I am not eggs" to this egg lover. And so a suitable egg substitute has been my philosopher's stone.

I've settled on tofu as a base, just like the most popular variants out there. But I forgo the firm and extra-firm refrigerated packs for the silken tofu-based shelf-stable aseptic packs. All of the aseptic grades you find are based on silken tofu, though you can find soft, firm and extra-firm varieties. My favorite for this dish is firm.

Of all the common flavorings used for tofu eggs, I have found only black salt, nooch and butter to be indispensible. I don't like turmeric for the coloring agent; in terms of flavor, I prefer annato or saffron. Both impart delicate color and flavor- exactly the mood I want to strike with simple scrambled eggs.

There are different ways to achieve the flavor and texture of butter. Cooking the tofu in coconut oil mixed with nutritional yeast works nicely. But I find using a plant-based butter-like spread to be perfectly fine.

I prefer a healthy grinding of black pepper, but that's a personal choice.

So, here's how you make my delicate, simple take on classic scrambled eggs.

Ingredients

• 1 brick of aseptic pack tofu- any grade is fine, but firm is probably best
• 1 tsp black salt
• 1 tbl plant based butter, or 1 tbl coconut oil
• 1/2 cup plant milk- I prefer organic, unsweetened soy milk with no fillers
• 1 tsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp annato or a healthy pinch of saffron
• 2 tbl nutritional yeast
  

Method

1. If using saffron- heat the plant milk in the microwave for 15 seconds. Add the saffron to the milk and set aside to bloom.
2. Put the tofu, salt, flour, baking powder, nutritional yeast and milk in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
3. At this point, you can add any veggie additions. Some ideas are sliced green onion, diced roasted red pepper or tomato, precooked broccoli florets cut small, or thinly sliced cooked mushrooms.
   
4. Heat a non-stick skillet to medium. add the butter or oil. use a brush to coat the pan entirely.
5. pour in the mix. This will lower the temp of the pan. Give the mix two minutes to cook. Turn heat to medium low.
   
6. This is when you can decide if you want it omelet or sandwich style, or scrambled. If scrambled- break the disc up into large pieces and start tossing them gently. Break them up a second time if you want the pieces smaller. They should be starting to brown, but not completely set. If going for an omelet, begin checking the edges. the flour and baking powder give them a little structure, so you should be able to flip as one whole disc. But be careful to not overcook, this is why we've turned the heat down. The top should be lightly browned. Give the bottom another minute to do the same.
   
7. Remove from the pan to a bowl or plate covered with a lid until ready to serve. If you are melting vegan cheese on top for sandwiches, put it on now and cover.
8. Enjoy!
   

Veggies for Breakfast: Sweet Potato Hash

We've been trying to incorporate more vegetables into breakfast. Abbey made a dish yesterday that involved simmering tomatoes and onions,  adding beans, then poaching an egg on top of it. That inspired to me to get up this fine Sunday morning and make a dish we have been discussing recently, a sweet potato hash. It's savory, sweet, creamy and delicious. Plus, the way I've made it, it's vegan.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
green onions
1 cup of Gimme Lean, sausage style
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbl vegetable oil of your choice

Microwave the sweet potato. I used a pretty big sweet potato and cooked it on high for 9 minutes, which was just about right.

Meanwhile, saute the bell pepper and Gimme Lean in a skillet. use 1 tbl of the vegetable oil if needed. If you have a nonstick pan, dry saute. Set aside when done.

Dice the cooked sweet potato, and saute it with the vegetable oil. keep an eye on it, it can burn because of its sweetness; but leave it alone mostly, so a crust will form. Add the cumin and paprika.

When the sweet potato has some nice browned bits throughout, add the Gimme Lean and pepper back in and warm through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Place in a serving bowl and snip green onions- green parts only- over the dish, about 2 scallions in total.  Parsley or red pepper flakes might be nice too.

It was a satisfying and hearty way to start the day. It will add some nice variety to our breakfast lineup, too.

Asian BBQ Tempeh with stir fry and Vietnamese salad

Here's another vegan dish that was tasty enough to blog. We were inspired by this recipe at Go Vegan Meow, but, as usual, put our own twist on it.

Marinade

3 tbl soy sauce
3 tbl cooking sherry
six cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbl ketchup
1 tbl brown sugar
2 tsp sriracha

Korean BBQ Sauce
2 tbl gotchujang
2 tbl ketchup
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbl brown sugar
1 tbl cooking sherry

1 brick of tempeh, sliced in 1/2 strips
Rice noodles

For the stir fry:

1 head of broccoli, trimmed and sliced
2 carrots, sliced on the bias
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 tbl high heat vegetable oil

For the Vietnamese salad:

romaine lettuce, thinly sliced
big bunch of cilantro
1 tbl rice vinegar
2 tbl salad oil
1 tsp sugar

Method:

Mix the marinade ingredients together. toss with slices of tempeh and arrange on a baking dish. Marinate for at least an hour. In the meantime, mix the ingredients of the Korean BBQ sauce.

Boil some water in a large pot. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and saute the tempeh until browned.  two minutes before the tempeh is finished, spoon in the Korean BBQ sauce. In another pan, stir fry the vegetables. When the vegetables are crisp done, remove from the pan. Cook the rice noodles and drain.

mix the salad dressing ingredients with the cilantro and lettuce. Build a bowl by adding noodles, then stir fry, and tempeh. Add a bit of the salad on the side.

Full disclosure, Abbey didn't have the Vietnamese salad, just the cilantro. The Vietnamese salad was a very last minute inspiration on my part, but I really liked the addition. Maybe you will too.

Tofu salad lettuce wraps

The last time we made eggless egg salad, we were repurposing leftover scrambled tofu. This time, we made it from scratch, and it turned out better than ever.
Ingredients:
One brick of tofu. We used extra firm.
1 cup diced sweet yellow onion
1 cup diced sweet red bell pepper
handful of parsley, chopped
a squirt of yellow mustard
1 tsp. turmeric
pinch of salt, couple grinds of pepper
1/2 cup- 3/4 cup vegenaise
paprika
sweet pickle relish
Method:
Drain the tofu. The way I do this is with two piles of paper towels. I pat it dry first, then place it on a plate covered with several folds of paper towels. Then I place several folds of paper towels over the tofu, then place another plate with a weight on top. A large can of soup works for this. Leave it for a half hour, then disassemble, flip the piles of towels over, and repeat.
While waiting for this to happen, dice the vegetables and put them in a large mixing bowl. Add the mustard, turmeric, vegenaise, and parsley. Mix.
Take the drained tofu and crumble it directly into the bowl. mix again until thoroughly incorporated.
To serve, make a sandwich or a lettuce wrap, like we did.
The way I finished mine (and I liked quite a bit) was spooning a bit of the sweet pickle relish onto the finished plate, then dusting it with paprika. You could just incorporate those into the mix, of course. Feel free to add what you might to an egg salad sandwich, like slices of tomato.
We loved it! Hopefully you will too.

Quick and Easy: dressed up frozen pizza

There are some common denominators among the variously aged gourmands in our household, but one consistently stands out: we love pizza. In fact, a little too much in my case. Since I am approaching fifty, I find it's impossible to indulge in all of my old habits in the manner to which I have become accustomed. I've had to make modifications to cut down on calories, fat and carbs.

When we decide to throw in the towel and just get pizza, we do follow the conventional route sometimes and hop on a laptop and order something. But more often than not, we pick up frozen pizzas at the supermarket. One choice that everyone loves is the frozen product of a local pizza purveyor, Shakespeare's Pizza (please do visit them if you are ever in the Columbia, Missouri area- they are amazing). But what Abbey and I usually grab for ourselves is an Amy's soy cheeze pizza. It's not too big for two people to reasonably share, for one thing. The crust is what I believe the pizza trade would call "hand tossed-" not too thin, not too thick. Most importantly, Amy's uses a soy cheese for this pizza which, if I may be frank, is an exception to the rule: it does not suck. It melts nicely, has a pleasant, mild flavor, and complements the crust and sauce perfectly.  Also, there isn't a ton of it, but there is enough to provide structure and grip for the multiple toppings we usually put on there ourselves. It's the only pre-prepared pizza (that I know of, I should stress) that allows me to take the easy way out for dinner and be somewhat healthy at the same time. And I am all for that!

Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing

So one of the things that really drove me to veganism in my pursuit of a healthier way of eating was a long, torrid love affair with cheese. I've been obsessed with cheese as far back as I can remember; ask me to recall my fondest childhood memories, somewhere in that list would be pizzaburgers (burgers topped with marinara, provel, and a sprinkle of dried parsley on top) and the ubiquitous green cans of Kraft brand parmesan I sprinkled on everything. My interest in cheese never waned, only got more intense as I grew up and became a man. I went through obsessive phases revolving around both expensive cheese (I can still smell in my head my first encounter with Sage Derby) and cheeses altogether more pedestrian (melted American in toasted cheese). When I went vegetarian for a decade in my 20s and 30s, it was not a problem at all; as long as cheese was still on the table, I could put up with just about any kind of dietary restriction. As my waistline bloomed, I realized my cheese relationship was far from healthy, in more ways than one; and as I rounded my forties, I finally understood we really needed to part company if I were to ever reach optimum fitness in my life again. It's just one of things I can't do casually. It really is all or nothing, at least it has been so far in my life.

Fine. No more cheese. I can do this! Right?

Well, actually, I have finally reached a place where I can say yes- but for the first month of our vegan phase, I was not sure at all, and I spent considerable time (and expense) trying to find a substance to stand in for cheese. I just didn't know any other way to eat. That's not true, strictly speaking; I am fully aware of, and versed in to some degree significantly dairy-free cuisines like Chinese. But I had a daily habit, and I was not used at all to not getting my fix. So I started hanging out at health food stores, thinking over the faux cheeses. I dabbled a little randomly, and was stung by some pretty awful substances. I started reading reviews online- yeah, there are fake cheese reviews, and there are a lot of them, and there is no clear consensus. But a few names have stood out. There are people who like Daiya; actually, Abbey is one of them. I don't mind it providing a backing role if there are a lot of ingredients in the dish, but I don't like its flavor to be obvious in any way. Not exactly what you'd call enthusiasm.

I stumbled upon reviews of something called Teese, which was available in a variety of flavors and compared favorably price-wise to many products. The only problem was, living in the hinterlands, I had to mail order it. To my surprise, it does not need to be refrigerated; it showed up at my door loving nestled in some styrofoam peanuts. I refrigerated it before opening it, anyway, perhaps out of habit more than anything. Then the fateful day came when we decided to use the mozzarella Teese on a homemade pizza. I was not crazy about it, nor was Abbey. Strike one. Then the opportunity came for the Cheddar style stuff to add a bit of cheesy flair to some chili. I sliced some and put it on the dinner table. "What's that?" my youngest son was instantly curious. I told him it was a cheese substitute. He sniffed it, took a bite, and looked disgusted. "Ew!" he exclaimed.  Undaunted, I tried heating it a little before adding it to my chili. This very quickly filled the house with the aroma of warm Teese. "It smells like gym socks!" someone said, and I had to agree with them.  If it wasn't the smell or taste, it was the texture- either grainy (when cold) or gummy (when warm)- honestly, what I mostly felt about Teese was it was as if aliens invented it in their lab based on an earthling's description- as if the maker had never actually tasted cheese.

Sigh. If this was the best, or nearly best, cheese substitute the vegan food industry could provide, I thought I'd be better off avoiding cheese-centric dishes altogether. That was the best decision I could have made. I've had to rethink how I prepare meals and I'm finally getting a handle on a wide enough variety of dishes that I don't feel like I'm suffering. Plus, I think moving beyond recreating dairy and meat-free omnivorous staples is a necessary step for anyone looking to radically change their diet for the long haul. But in order to make this change permanent, it was necessary to master a few dishes that possess dairy-esque states of creaminess, but aren't trying to be something that they aren't- like the extremely tasty Hurry Up Alfredo recipe at Vegan Yum Yum that isn't Alfredo at all, but is a delicious thing unto itself that I find amazingly gratifying. I don't let that kind of meal dominate my palate, but it does make my cheese banishment less of a big deal. And I certainly don't plan on resorting to alien lab cheeze anytime soon.

Update: Veggie Slices are the bomb. Even for an avowed cheese lover such as myself. The smoked provelone style is ahh-maa-zing.

Vegan Chili

If you've read the archive of this blog, you know more chili recipes were inevitable- this time, it's completely vegan. It worked out really well, so I thought I'd share.

1 large yellow onion, diced
1 tbl olive oil
approx. 4" of a roll of Gimme Lean sausage style
2 15 oz. cans of tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can of mild enchilada sauce
2 15 oz. cans of red beans
1 tbl unsweetened cocoa
1 tbl sweet paprika
1 tbl cumin
1 tbl dried oregano
1 tbl brown sugar*
1 tbl prepared black coffee
2 tbl corn meal
salt to taste

*Use genuine unrefined brown sugar to avoid bone char filtering.

Saute the onion in olive oil until starting to turn clear. Make a space in the middle and add the dry seasonings. Let them toast a minute, then add the Gimme Lean.  saute together 5 mins. Then add the coffee, enchilada sauce and tomato sauce. Cook on medium low for about 10 mins. Whisk in the corn meal and stir, constantly, for another 10 mins. Then add the cans of beans and stir for another 5 or 10 minutes.

(Mostly) Vegan Megapost

Phew, it's been a whirlwind start to Autumn around here. This is the time of year that family birthdays kick in, and once October lands the school events start hitting. Can you tell I'm feeling slightly bruised? Only a little of this fall's bounty was bruised- most of it has been perfect and delicious. Pumpkins have been robbed of seeds and are queued up for carving, tomatoes melted into amazing sauces, and herbs have added just the right kick to savory dishes and provided a lovely bouquet to the air around the house.

Abbey started the season off with a traditional carrot cake and cream cheese frosting for her mom's birthday, which was decadent and delicious. The cake itself was vegan, consisting of oil, spices, flour, carrots and sugar. No eggs or dairy. Though Abbey made a traditional cream cheese frosting for her mom to enjoy, I'm sure a tasty frosting could be made with Earth Balance and Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese. Next up was my mom's birthday. That day we had a blackberry cake (it had buttermilk, but still amazing) and two appetizers. The first was crostini topped with pesto and fresh tomatoes. The pesto was not vegan- there was a small amount of parmesan- but again, it easily could have been, either omit the cheese entirely or substitute a combination of almond meal and nutritional yeast. Although I've made quite a few pestos with no cheese and they were all fine.

Next, we had veggie meatballs in sweet and sour sauce. I modified the traditional recipe found over at About.com's Chinese Cooking pages, substituting pineapple juice for the water. after heating the sauce and letting it thicken, I tossed in thin slices of baby carrots, diced onion and green pepper, and some nice off-the shelf veggie meatballs from Veggie Patch. I poured that into a crock pot a little in advance so the vegetables would cook a bit.

Most of our weekday meals this week have been noteworthy. Abbey has made creamy soups with white beans before, and we got to enjoy one this week made with spinach and nutritional yeast. that's a piece of ciabatta doused with olive oil parked in there. We cooked the beans in a heavy dutch oven to the point that they were falling apart; all we had to do was stir and they instantly made a creamy base. She tossed in a thawed chunk of spinach and it was practically done.

Here's the third dish we made with pesto this last week- a pasta salad (high fiber Piccolini penne from Barilla) composed of cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, vegenaise and a drizzle of olive oil. Abbey topped it with shreds of basil, salt and pepper.

Many years back, Abbey and I had a favorite Chinese spot near the campus where we worked. They had some pretty good dishes, but the one the towered above was their rendition of Lo Han Jai. Also known as Buddha's Delight, it's a savory vegetarian combination of Chinese vegetables such as lotus root, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and cloud ears; bean thread; tofu and soy sausage of some sort. It's a like a festival of healthy things in a bowl; traditionally eaten on Chinese New Year's, presumably as a sort of toast to the diner's health. Hankering for that flavor, Abbey found a recipe which we adapted according to available ingredients. We baked cubes of tofu, then stir fried snow peas, sliced baby bellas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, napa cabbage, bean thread, and added a simple sauce of soy sauce and vegetable broth (Imagine's Organic No-Chicken Broth was delicious for this purpose). It was fantastic.

Finally, Abbey came to the rescue for lunch the other day- I was trying to squeeze physical therapy and lunch into one hour; if it weren't for Abbey, I would have gone back to work hungry. She took some locally grown tomatoes and made a Spaghetti Pomodoro with them. The pasta was Racconto whole wheat spaghetti, the sauce consisting of tomatoes, whole black olives and olive oil. Nothing else was needed or desired.

I guess that's it for now! At least it is according to my camera. Abbey just whipped up an amazingly healthy granola that might be popping up here pretty soon as it has an impressive list of healthy ingredients, including buckwheat groats, flax, oats, pumpkin seeds and cashews.

... MOSTLY Vegan...

You know the joke from the Princess Bride. As Miracle Max examines a seemingly deceased Wesley, this transpires:

Inigo Montoya: He’s dead. He can’t talk.
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What’s that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

That sums up my vegan experiment pretty well. No matter how hard I try, I find a part of me that is only mostly vegan. It is not an easy thing to be 100% vegan without a complete readjustment in your senses. Cheese is something I really needed to kick- I've had serious problems with overindulgence. I talked about my difficulty in abandoning it entirely here. After about two weeks of mostly veganism, I can say my cheese habit is nearly dead. I don't crave it anymore. Well, I do crave the slight tang that a good aged parmagiano reggiano imparts to pasta dishes. I don't think I will ever be able to kick that. But all of the other cravings are seemingly gone. I can't afford to lose that momentum.

One of the factors that killed my cheese desire was, ironically, the nasty flavor of most fake cheeses. I struggled in vain to get into Teese and Daiya. I still can't stand them. They taste so obviously artificial; it never blends in with the other flavors. (Although I do kinda like daiya browned in the pan and eaten on its own as a cracker of sorts.) So, in response to this, I have adjusted recipes so they really don't require cheese. And that is how I kicked the habit.

I do have to give a special shout out to Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese, though. It may not be better than cream cheese, but it is remarkably tasty. I use small amounts of it to give pasta dishes just enough creaminess.

Another factor has crept into our meal planning: the high cost of vegan replacements for non-vegan products. (that's the "checking the pockets for loose change" part of the analogy.) We really can only afford to have one or two of them around all of the time. The one dairy replacement that is not expensive at all is nutritional yeast, which is pretty darn cheap if you can get it in bulk. So we keep some meat replacers- mostly Morningstar and Quorn- around, and the Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, and the nutritional yeast. fake cheese we'll get periodically (Abbey finds the taste of Daiya just fine, thank you very much) but I don't think it will make a constant appearance.

Also, tofu, as versatile and genuinely tasty as it is, is a little hard on the budget if you want to use it many times throughout the week. Especially if you buy organic, which I usually try to do. So, for a cheap source of protein, I've decided to morph into what you might call an ovo-vegetarian and eat eggs. For breakfast this morning we had burritos with black beans, salsa, Morningstar sausage, scrambled eggs and green onions. I put some diced green pepper in mine as well. I don't anticipate going overboard with eggs, but I think I will have some periodically to simplify the preparation of some dishes and, as I said, gain a few protein points.

Other dairy issues have been solved for the most part as well. I gave up my much beloved lattes for black coffee and the occasional soy latte, which I discovered is not gross. Soy milk is also great in smoothies and with cereal. Abbey prefers almond milk, which she likes for the same purposes. I can definitely say my desire for milk is gone.

Milk caused us health issues, anyway. After not eating any dairy for a couple of weeks and then having a pasta dish with milk in the sauce, Abbey had some familiar bad feelings in her gut that reminded her a lot of her problems with IBS. Could she have been lactose intolerant all that time? Maybe or maybe not, but it seems she definitely to be now. For me, my sinuses are bothered by milk, so that was an easy choice.

This morning we had a nice treat: a chocolate smoothie made from chocolate syrup, frozen chunks of banana, and soy milk. I added just a splash of vanilla and blended it until smooth. It tasted decadent.

Vegan Banana Muffins

These muffins are moist and delicious. Abbey adapted her usual banana muffin recipe to make these vegan. There is fat, but only in the form of monounsaturated canola oil, and they use whole wheat flour. So, delicious and nutritious!

Vegan Banana Muffins

4 bananas, mashed

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

for egg replacement: 2 tbl water, 1 tbl canola oil, 1 tsp baking powder, mixed together in a bowl

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher. add oil, sugar, egg replacement, and vanilla to the banana. In another bowl, put the flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Combine the contents of both bowls, but don't over mix. divide the batter in a 12 cup muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 mins.

You could make this healthier by using an unrefined sweetener, but refined sugar is a known quantity. But experiment! Try palm sugar or brown cane sugar. Just stick to non-liquid sweetener.

Enjoy!

The Vegan Experiment, part 2: temptations

One inevitable outcome of eliminating whole categories of foods from your diet is it gives you a very precise idea of what your worst food temptations are. Within 24 hours of going vegan, what i wanted more than anything was a big hunk of ripe swiss cheese. In the subsequent couple of days, I was tempted by cheese pizza, rotel dip, deep fried mozzarella, cream cheese on a bagel, and slices of sharp cheddar (which i wanted to eat right out of the fridge). Interestingly, few of my fantasies revolved around meat. there was the one day that I regretted passing up some beef chili, but by and large, I wanted cheese more than anything, and I came very close to chucking it all.

In truth, I did cave in once, for a mexican con queso dip. I knew that if I gave in just a little, I would cave completely; that's how I operate. That's why I have given up a hundred exercise regimens. One day off the wagon and I figure there's no point in going back, so I abandon it entirely. That is a surprisingly difficult thing to understand for being such a simple concept: once off the wagon does not sabotage a routine. Just get right back on it the next day.

I'm now getting that veganism can be a way for me to learn moderation, and to not let a little deviation mess with the overall plan. It's a bit easier for me to judge the course when there is a simple guideline to follow. I think my success will be much greater than using my usual technique, winging it.

The Vegan Experiment

Recent trips to medical facilities have rattled me somewhat- I feel like the pace of medical intervention in my life is increasing at a rate with which I am rather uncomfortable. My GP wants me to come back for a blood pressure re-check, because it's now officially elevated. My journey into the heart of darkness hammered home the reality that I have too much body fat; it's actually blocking the free movement of air to my lungs. This is not trivial; it affects everything from my sense of hunger to the health of my heart to my ability to think.

How I'm dealing with it is two-fold- one is exercise, which affects something major that happened to me this year that I haven't been ready to write about until recently (Labyrinthitis, I'm writing some posts about it right now). The other, the subject of this post, is my diet.

I have some issues with food. On one hand, I am an obsessed foodie who is always looking to stimulate my palate. On the other, I am an emotional eater. This has been pretty well documented (here for example). And they tend to work together to sabotage my attempts to eat better. Sure, I eat Bologna and American cheese sandwiches because I have abandonment issues; but it's German Bologna and thick cut sharp American on real sourdough, if you catch my drift.

Getting in there and sparring with those two formidable enemies are my waistline and reason, trying to plan a diet that works but doesn't drive me crazy. It can get ugly. Very ugly. What I am trying now is appealing to something that feels like an old arch-nemesis- boundaries. If I had a contest for supremacy among my competing personal weaknesses, lack of discipline would be a serious contender for #1. Boundaries are always ready to debate; they could answer the questions my lack of discipline constantly asks. I've decided to let them try. If my lack of discipline whispers "wouldn't we like a juicy burger" in my ear, my new boundary replies, "is it vegan? no? then shove it." Although I admit there is a chance my boundaries will say yes to fries. That's a delicious consequence I'll just have to occasionally endure.

Avoiding bad stuff and choosing good stuff is not easy when the goal is vaguely defined. Confining my intake to veganism makes some choices, not all, but most, quite definite. No longer do I have to ask "is this cheese lowfat?" or "is this a lean cut of beef?" Instead I just ask, "is it made of animal products?" The answer is usually clear, though the miracles of modern food technology constantly threaten to make it more gray (is test tube meat grown in a lab really meat?). But I can keep it pretty much black and white by sticking to things I know I can eat: vegetables, fruits and grains. Interestingly, I violated this rule just this morning- There's no vegetable field where I can pick the contents of my breakfast sandwich of Morningstar sausage and Daiya vegan cheese. Which, by the way, was very tasty. So, it isn't going to be 100% crystal clear, and I can't stop reading labels; that's ok, I'm a foodie, I like reading labels.

There are multiple benefits of veganism. One is the drop in saturated fat, which is the main cause of atherosclerosis. Another benefit is the decrease of caloric density- I'll feel about as full, but consume fewer calories. Now, I could easily turn this into a carbfest and never lose any body fat. But that is one other boundary I'll be setting up for myself- whole grains only, unless it's sourdough bread, which studies indicate does not spike insulin levels. I won't gorge myself on it, but I won't feel guilty eating it, either.

It's a challenge. I need challenges right now. This is a part of my life that has been allowed to do what it pleases for the most part. This is my line in the sand. It remains to be seen if I come back in a few months healthier, or just to kick the damn line to pieces and find another line to draw.