Week 1 Vegetarian, CHECK

Soooo...I recently decided I want to follow a vegan diet. I know I know, it's craziness but I've heard fabulous reviews about going vegan & how it changes your health in extreme positive ways. I have legit reasons that I won't bore you with but mainly, I'd rather smother an animal with my kisses than eat one.

I've tried going vegan once in my past & it was dreadful. Too many drastic changes at once isn't good for a girl.

This time however, I'm using my noggin & transitioning to a vegan diet by replacing 1 or 2 items with a vegan option every week. I've been doing my research & there's a vegan option for almost everything!

Week 1 was removing all meat/poultry from my diet. That was friggin easy because it included 2 slices of turkey bacon in the a.m. & chicken for lunch & dinner. Well the chicken was a bit difficult but those were the only non-vegetarian staples I was consuming. CHECK! Made it through with flying colors. Eliminated the TB & replaced chicken with tofu. I have salads for lunch & dinner & grilled tofu is yummy in salads no matter what anyone says.

Last week I chopped up the tofu & baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes. It was ok like "well I spent time making it so I'm gonna eat the stuff" ok. This week I still chopped but cooked on the stove top in a big pan & used the yummy dressing below to cook it in. Much better! Gives the tofu more of a grilled flavor & texture. It's all about trial & error.

This week starts the process of slowly removing the dairy.

Bye Bye Bye Eggs & Cream Cheese. I quit my bagel, cheese & eggs that I usually eat for breakfast & swapped them out for steel cut oats. Easy as pie because I absolutely love these oats. They're smaller & chewier than regular oats & they're better for you. Loaded with fiber & protein, they really fill you up & make for a great breakfast choice. Bob's Red Mill has a great steel cut oat that I use a lot. But normally I get mine from the bulk section at Kroger when available.

Now don't judge but this is what I put into my oats:

1 TBSP turbinado
dashes & dashes of cinnamon
1 TBSP of Better n' Peanut Butter

It's deliciousness in a bowl. The peanut butter is not like real peanut butter. 1/2 the calories, fat & sodium & the flavor is way strong so you don't need much. Kind of nutty but sweeter...it's one of those things you have to try for yourself to understand. Since steel cut oats are not instant & take a while to make, I cook a HUGE batch on Sunday & measure 3/4 cup into containers. Makes it super quick in the morning to get ready. I dump into the bowl, heat in the micro for a few minutes, stir in the goodness above & done! Turns out like this:

Next...Mini Babybel Cheese...oh so sad to see you go! Yes I love those little suckers & sadly weeped goodbye. I ate them as part of my afternoon snack paired with a 1/4 cup mixture of peanuts, almonds & soy nuts. I replaced with grapes. Grapes are filling to me for some reason & paired with the mixed nuts makes for a healthy & filling snack to tide me over until din din.

I'll keep the blog updated with my progress.  Hopefully it will go smoothly!