Week One

Sunday I congratulated myself. I've been a Vegan for one week. WHOOP! It's been a ride let me tell you.  It's crazy when you take the time to notice what you are eating how much you realize you don't focus on what your eating hardly at all. Confused? Let me explain!

My 2 year old is always wanting snacks. I find as I give him his snack I'm one to pop a bite into my mouth too. Mindless eating throughout the day. Also, a BIG challenge: HOT FOOD for my 2 year old. Supper, lunch, breakfast...I always bite into his food 1st to make sure it's not too hot for him. Cause most of the time the outside of the food is fine...the inside would "burn" him. (he likes his food almost cold...so I use burn lightly)

The sneakiest non-vegan food for me is eggs. For some reason I don't associate eggs with dairy or meat so therefore, I've been known this past week to be eating something and realize it has eggs in it. (Like the bread I bought---that I read EVERY ingredients on it making sure it had NO DAIRY.) I bring it home and it says: CONTAINS EGGS. I ate it anyway.

My 1st weekend of Open Houses came. I was ready. Strong. And sure I could do it. The 1st Open House was a BREAKFAST Open House. Um...YUM. I mean, divine. They had ALL sorts of breakfast foods. They even had fruit and I loaded my plate up with all this yummy fruit...and the veggie pizza. Which had cheese...but I thought the veggies would cancel out the cheese just this once. We sat down and I dove right in. Not that much cheese. And the fruit was soooo good. And then, my Mommy brain took over. All you Mama's know what I'm talking about. When you go through lines at church suppers you hardly put anything on your plate...because you will know your kids won't be eating everything off theirs so you will finish it for them. And that's what happened. Easton got "done" eating and he still had half his biscuit and gravy...and without thinking, I started eating it. It wasn't until my husband said, "Rachel, are you eating meat?" that I stopped myself and said, "Yes. I am." Random. Just trying to clean the plates off...Mommy brain. (CONFESSION: It was SO good. I am SUCH a huge fan of biscuits and gravy.)

And then from then on that day, I gave up being Vegan. My husband and I went out on a date and I told him I was gonna get ice cream. And I did. So, Saturday, this Vegan wasn't Vegan. And broke EVERY Vegan rule out there. (My 2nd Confession!)

But, Sunday, I went right back to being Vegan. And I have stayed true today. I managed to attend 5 Open Houses and only the 1st one fell off the bandwagon. I recovered. And today, I felt good. Easton had a fever this weekend and now has Strep AND an Ear infection. So, maybe that's why I needed ice cream this weekend. (or the coffee pick-me-up this afternoon.)

Speaking of coffee, I have switched to soy milk and have them hold the whip cream. I refuse to even ask IF the vanilla is vegan in my Vanilla Frappe with one shot drink at the local coffee shop. I refuse. I FINALLY after 33 years, have found a coffee drink I love. And so. I did the best switching to soy and holding the whip. :) I also don't wanna know the calories either.

And speaking of calories. I am concerned I may gain weight being Vegan. So far I have lost 2 lbs in one week, BUT, have you ever googled VEGAN DESSERTS? Um. Yeah. They LOOK divine. And I'm sure just looking at them made me gain those 2 lbs back. And, I am being serious about me gaining weight being vegan. This week I let myself eat as MUCH vegan food as I wanted. 2nd helpings. 3rd helpings. More peanut butter. 3 cookies? Let's make it 4. Extra veggies on the side. Do you know what I realized? This past week I have NEVER once been STUFFED TO OVERFLOWING. Think after Thanksgiving feeling. Or the Super bowl party feeling. I've been known to overeat and feel TERRIBLE for hours afterward. I've learned with this life you can 'overeat' and not feel terrible. Maybe it's the veggies. Maybe it's the combo of veggies with other things. Who knows. But I haven't felt sick at all and I feel good.

I don't miss meat hardly at all. What I miss this week (or today) is sour cream. It makes everything better. HA.

Tonight we had pizza for supper. I needed something quick and easy (sick toddler+working husband+8 month old baby=EASY supper) And so homemade pizza it was. I followed THIS recipe from the only Vegan I know personally. We also tried her soup. (that's the soup I might of had 3 helpings of.....) This website is awesome and has some amazing recipes that are quick and easy and "normal." Julia's boyfriend (get ready) is my sister's husband's brother. Follow that? Anyway, Alex just graduated from high school and his Open House is next weekend. Julia is doing most of the cooking and told me their will be Vegan options there. I'm going hungry. And leaving my snacks at home. Anyway, I'm super excited. I may never leave. ;)

So, friends. Week one is over. It's been fun. I've tried new recipes and even my husband has tasted them and thought they were not bad. When I made Julia's soup I added ham chunks to his bowl so he could get his meat in. :)

The BEST part about this life is that my 8 month old can eat off my plate at ANY point in the day. He is loving all the veggies and loves them even more when they are off of my plate!

So, on to week 2. If ya got any good recipes send them my way!!!

Happy Eating!