Plant based eating

As I've mentioned on the blog before, I've been trying to go more plant based for a couple months now.  I've been vegetarian my whole life but want to transition to being vegan, mostly for health reasons.  My cholesterol has always been really high (good cholesterol is super high too) but it does better when I don't eat dairy. 

I've been doing ok but transitioning seems to be kind of an easy slide into eating dairy again and once a week turns into twice a week, etc.  So starting May 1st, I've decided to just flip the switch and eat completely vegan.  And because Mike is awesome, he's joining me in making May vegan month for him as well. 

Savory oatmeal with tofu and mushrooms

So far so good.  It's only been a week but I haven't had any slips.  Breakfast and lunch have been easy.  Breakfast has been oatmeal (I've been making a big batch of steel cut oats on the weekend to eat throughout the week, I have savory and sweet options). 

Chickpea salad sandwich

Lunch has been either tofu banh-mi style sandwiches or chick pea salad sandwiches.  I supplement that with fruit and raw veggies with guacamole.

Vegan lasagna soup

And I'm working on simple, quick weekday dinners that can be plant based.  We've done a simple pasta with roasted veggies and tomato sauce, and we have an easy chickpea stew that I can do.  We also do a veggie banh mi that just needed us to switch from mayo to veganaise to be vegan.  I also have a lot of vegan soup recipes but I'm not sure we'll want soup in the Summer.  I'll see what else I come up with.  And of course, I'm happy to take help from vegan prepared foods from the grocery store as needed.

 

I love the vegan options at Trader Joe's, like this cauliflower gnocchi

But eating out is really where I had been falling off the wagon  before.  What I've found in this past week is that it just takes a little more planning and research.  Thankfully we have a couple places near us where it's easy to get plant based meals if we need a quick meal.  There's Chipotle for Mexican, Honeygrow for stir-fry/noodles, Cava for mediterranean, and Mod pizza as well as &Pizza have vegan cheese.  So we're definitely lucky that way.  When we went to Baltimore this weekend, I was able to find a place that had vegan options in their menu such as the impossible burger and a vegan BLT.  We just had to research in advance and drive a tiny bit further but it was worth it.

This week is going to be a bit tough since I'm traveling for a conference.  I've already done a little research and found places near the hotel that have vegan options.  But it's mostly the conference provided meals that I'm a little worried about.  We'll see how it goes!