Day Two has come and gone. Nothing terribly noteworthy about today, except for a couple of conclusions. 1) Some vegan foods taste fantastic and 2) if I ever hope to cook nonvegan foods, I have to be okay with tasting whatever I've made to be sure it doesn't suck. Case in point: I brought dinner to a friend tonight who has just had a baby. I don't really follow recipes and as I mixed the sauce for her macaroni & cheese, I found myself freaking out a little, afraid it would taste off because I couldn't check it. I suddenly had this image of never being able to have others over for dinner because I'd be too afraid to "blindly" cook for them. My mind played over several scenarios and basically ended with myself dying alone in an apartment being eaten by dogs.
Just kidding.
But seriously. Cooking requires taste testing to make sure the dish becomes what you want it to be. How am I supposed to cook for my husband and kids and friends and family etc. if I'm not able to do something as crucial as a taste test?
Now, some may argue that this is cheating. But guess what! I get to make the rules of my veganism! And the rule I concluded on today is that tasting a bite is okay, swallowing the bite is not. I took two tastes of the sauce tonight and then promptly spit them out. I even rinsed my mouth for good measure. I feel a little like I cheated, but I'm hoping those are feelings that subside with time.
But the most exciting news of the day was finally making it to the store to pick up a couple of vegan-friendly foods to make life feel more normal. I was not disappointed! I bought some vanilla coconut milk (for my dear cereal), vegan butter (toast! toast! toast!), daiya mozzarella (pizzzzzzza), nutritional yeast (cheese flavoring? Highly suspicious), and some coconut ice cream.
Coconut milk was tasty. I'm going to start making my own though, since I don't like all of the extra crap they add to the milk. That's one thing I'm really noticing about vegan/vegetarian animal product substitutes. The majority of them are "fortified." Well, here's the deal. I don't like it. I don't want extra garbage added to my food, even if it is a vitamin. I prefer to get my vitamins either from an approved supplement or the food I eat. My general rule is that if it's not something I keep in my kitchen to cook with, I probably don't want to be eating it. I looked at several different types of hemp milk and the additives were really off-putting. Needless to say, I'll be making my own hemp and coconut milk from here on out, methinks. Anyway, back to the reviews.
So coconut milk=tasty. Vegan butter. YES. It's Earth Balance spread and it actually tastes better than margarine. It even looks like butter and spreads like it. It was quite enjoyable on my toast. Pleasantly surprising, I say.
Daiya cheese- haven't tasted it yet, but my hopes aren't high. It looks like Playdoh. Yeah.
Nutritional yeast flakes are an interesting thing. Everything I've read about vegan cooking seems to sing their tiny, flakey praises. But let me tell you, that crap tastes just like yeast. Brewer's yeast, to be exact. True story: when I was trying to increase my breast milk supply, I bought brewer's yeast to add to my food. One day, I thought to myself, why not just cut out the middle man and eat a spoonful of brewer's yeast? I'll just come right out and say that I did it, and it was one of the worst decisions of my life. That stuff sticks like glue to your mouth and teeth and it is impossible to get rid of it, even with brushing. The flavor.... ugh, the flavor! Just awful! And as I ate those nutritional yeast flakes, the terrible awfulness of the brewer's yeast incident threatened to overthrow me. So gross. But I will try using it in a recipe and see if it is still as repulsive then.
Coconut ice cream.... mmmm..... the one I got is chocolate and hazelnut and it's delicious. It's nice to know I can still have the occasional treat whilst avoiding meat and milk.
So there are some of my new discoveries. More word later on the daiya. Some things were great, others disgusting, but what I've really concluded throughout today's shopping experience is the answer to one of life's most interesting questions. The fact of it is yes, you can be a fat vegan. I hope to be one of those thinner vegans in a few years' time, but we shall see. I'm pretty attached to this ice cream, but my goal with this whole thing is to eat more produce. And ain't nobody ever get fat on produce.
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