Okay so I’ve been MIA on the blog for months! Sorry guys I’m working on my time management skills. It’s not one of my strong suits. My work days are long…. I mean LONG!!! 10 hours to be exact. Then on my off days I’m running what seems like 5,000 errands. WHEW!!! A girl is TIRED!! BUT that’s still no excuse. I should make time for all the things I love. If y’all have any pointers on better time management skills PLEASE help a sista out!! I need all the assistance I can get!
Anyway so I’ve been back on the road of trying to eat healthier. I figure since my workouts are so sporadic these days (I’m working on that too) the least I can do is eat healthy. I’m at Trader Joe’s every week it seems like. I just love that our city has one now. I honestly didn’t know what being vegan consisted of so I decided to consult my fav curly-haired, vegan blogger boo Jeremie. He has a YouTube channel filled with yummy vegan recipes as well as fashion, curly hair products and styling tips. I will link his channel here: www.youtube.com. We met up at Trader Joe’s to go grocery shopping. So first things first…. What does vegan even mean? It means NO meat, NO eggs, and NO diary!! Huh? What? No cheese?!! That almost took me out right there! But I thought this is only for a day Kristie. You’ll be fine without cheese for ONE day.
But I found that it was actually really hard to go without cheese for 24 hours. I put cheese on literally everything! I eat cheese to snack on. When I actually thought about it I eat some form of cheese practically at every meal! Yeah this was gonna be a challenge! So I hadn’t planned out any meals ahead of time. Jeremie and I planned right there in what seemed like the busiest day at Trader Joe’s. I like to eat so I needed to plan all three meals breakfast, lunch and dinner plus snacks lol! Yes, I need my snacks. So we decided for breakfast since I love breakfast burritos (I get one almost daily at Tamp & Tap) that I would remix it. Instead of using eggs I would sub for tofu. For lunch butternut squash soup and for dinner cauliflower wings with sweet potato fries. Sounds yummy, right?
The breakfast burrito I prepared consisted of Tofu, red, green, yellow peppers, onions and potatoes. I have NEVER eaten Tofu in my life!! I was scared! LOL! I can’t stand buying food and it’s not yummy. Food should be satisfying, right? Jeremie assured me that it tastes great, but honestly I was still skeptical. Opening the package was very intimidating. It looked quite weird to me. And the smell… well check out my reaction below! LOL!
For lunch I wanted to try one of Jeremie’s Autumn Squash recipes. Here’s the link: www.youtube.com. Once again this is something new for me because I’ve never eaten Butternut Squash before. Spaghetti squash… yes! Butternut squash… no! But when it comes to food I’m willing to try anything once. Now… my soup did not turn out how I wanted it to. The consistency was just off. The flavors were there it just wasn’t thick enough. I believe Jeremie used one of those Immersion Hand Blenders. I don’t own one of those. So don’t judge my thin broth looking soup lol!!
For dinner I wanted something quick and easy. I found a receipe on Pinterest for Cauliflower Wings. I bought a bag of Sweet Potato Fries from Trader Joe’s. I battered the wings with Brown Rice Almond Flour and various seasonings then put them in the oven for about 25 minutes. I took them out the oven and cover them with a Private Selection Memphis Inspired BBQ Sauce. I also baked some carrots and celery to give it that “wing shop” vibe.
Lastly I had to have snacks which consisted of fruit, popcorn and these vegan white cheddar chickpea puffs. I didn’t care for those. They kinda taste like I was eating paper again like I used to do when I was little. LOL! Sooooo overall being vegan for a day wasn’t all that bad, HOWEVER…. I couldn’t do it long term. I need my cheese lol! Hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂
Nice post! I’m a vegetarian for most days of the week, so I could also go vegan for 24 hours.
I’ve always wanted to go vegetarian but I’ve never have the courage to start. Maybe I’ll start doing once a week, 24hrs at a time.
Yes that’s great! Thank you for reading!
My husband wants to go vegetarian; so we may try these suggestions and see how he likes it!! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome!! I hope it works out for you guys! Thank you for reading!!
I loved hearing about your experience of going vegan for a day. I think it’s great you were open to trying it! I agree though, it’s hard going a whole day without cheese!
Yes, I’m pretty open when it comes to food lol! Thank you for reading!!
I love this post! And I enjoy your humor and personality that’s so evident in it! I’ve been thinking more and more about going vegan. The problem is, I love cheese, and my husband and kids don’t want to, so even if I went vegan, I would still have to cook meat for them. I may try to start having a vegan day, once a week though🤔
That’s kind of how I started. Just taking meat out of meals slowly each week. I don’t believe I can be a full time vegan, but it was nice to switch it up. Thank you for reading!!
That sounds like such a fun and interesting experiment. Good for you on trying out new things. also, those meals sound so delicious. (expect for the snack) Great post xx
Yes, it was definitely a great experience! Thank you for reading!
Well done, you! Every little bit adds up 🙂 I went vegan for a month (only had ONE cheat meal a week), but as a vegetarian, I’ve significantly cut back on my dairy consumption ever since.
WOW! A whole month! That’s amazing! That is my plan going forward to limit my diary. Thank you for reading!
Your dinner looks especially delicious! I can do vegetarian but vegan is a real challenge for me 🙂
Yes! It was challenging for me as well! Vegetarian is a lot easier. Thank you for reading!
Way to go! Amazing job with the Cauliflower Wings recipe. It looks so good. The veggies look wonderful too. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for reading!!
Well done! I’ve been a vegetarian for years now and with the number of vegetarian/vegan products being released today, it’s a great time to make the switch. I love watching more and more people make the change to improve their own eating habits or support their own moral beliefs. It’s truly empowering, isn’t it?
Yes! As I get older I’m discovering that diet is a major part of being healthy. And that’s what I’m more concern with more than just losing weight. Thank you for reading!
Good food, good mood. I feel myself healthier and weight loss after taking the vegan diet, and 80% is raw food. Only need little time to prepare, and the taste is great. You mention use tofu for the ingredient, I heard soy has a dark side producing bad effects on female hormones, suggest you to check more information about this.
I will definitely check that out! Thanks for sharing that info and thank you for reading!!
I believe that if we are born omnivorous there is a reason. Animal protein is mainly needed for the health of our brain. Then that you can love eating vegetables is another matter, I love it too! xD
You sound like my Mom lol! 🙂 She believes we need meat to survive. I believe you should do whatever you feel is best for your body and lifestyle. Thank you so much for reading!
Those recipes look pretty good. What did you think about the taste?!?
They actually taste great! I was impressed! I followed each recipe and didn’t make any changes. You should try them! Thank you for reading!
The more I grow old, the more health conscious I am. I feel Like I want try to be a vegetarian in a day too. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I feel the same way! We have to watch what we put in our bodies. Thank you for reading!!
We went vegetarian and I love it!!! My husband lost 20 lbs in a month and a half!!
Wow! That is amazing!! Congrats to him! Thank you for reading!!
You are so funny girl! Love this blog post! I am vegan on and off but I did it for 2 weeks straight last week and it was amazing! There are so many different recipes I have even made vegan desserts (blueberry cheesecake)…. you did a great job though meal planning!
The recipes you made you great! I just don’t know if I could go Vegan!