What's the vegan option please?

Welcome to Day #15 and apparently, I'm becoming more like Switzerland... Today saw a conversation emerge regarding the consumption of 'meat-imitation' foods like quorn mince and veggie sausages with one side of the debate - for that is what we'll call it - being of the stance that "Well, if you're going to be a vegetarian/ vegan/ herbivore/ etc. then why eat meat flavoured, meat smelling, meat looking not-meat?", and the other side being "Well why not?" And to be honest, I'm torn.  Because there is the question of why pretend to eat meat if you're not actually eating meat?  But then there's the moral decision of managing to get all the flavour with none of the "Go straight to Hell; do not pass Go, do not collect £200".  And then there's the argument that the 'not-meat' tastes better even when there's no comparison because the person hasn't eaten 'meat' - not so much a topic of today's disc...

Day #14 and we're two weeks in, which is good going really considering I demolished two & a half burgers and two & a half hotdogs for one of the meals the weekend before starting this thing.  We were installing a new bath, I'd worked up an appetite. I'm feeling good today actually.  We had beans on toast for breakfast which set us both up for the day.  We had a small bike ride just before dinner, so Nats could give her Buttercup (yes, she called it Buttercup - think The Princess Bride!) a proper test drive.  For dinner, we had pea and mint soup with a hunk of bread, and tea has been baked sweet potatoes with salad.  It's not been the most active day, due to weather, but it's done a good job at staving off hunger.  We also amended the shopping order to give us enough to throw those burritos together again because, well, they were awesome!!! I got a facebook tag today as well to a page called Bosh which had a video on how to make a Big Breakfast L...

Welcome to Day #13 and, firstly, apologies for not doing a blog past for Day #12.  It would not have made interesting reading.  Dinner was a rushed affair due to spending the whole hour in the bank trying to sort bank stuff and tea was leftover pizza from the night before.  To be honest, that would have been yesterday's entire blog post. That being said, whilst I was at home eating leftover pizza, drinking cider and binge-watching episodes of House, Nats went out for drinks with friends.  Apparently, trying to order a vegan option in the pub is like trying to convince a vegan that the dairy industry is quite humane.  I.e. you're flogging a dead horse. Whoops, was the humane milk thing a little too soon?  It's something I'm going to get into over the next few days because I think it's a topic worthy of discussion.  I need to do more research myself before I start spouting off at the mouth because, presently, I'm just not informed enough and there's ...

Welcome to Day #11 and I'm starting to get a little more adventurous in the kitchen. Nats made some courgette bread last night - to be honest, she baked a ridiculous amount last night but the courgette bread was the only think I took into work.  It went down a storm.  Really nice.  I've been guilty of not actually eating the vegan food that comes into the office before because, well, it's vegan and what do I want to eat that for?  I was suspicious of the substitutions and, quite frankly, I just didn't really trust it.  Not so much the baking quality that my colleague can produce but rather the limited ingredients with which she could use.  I may need to re-evaluate that because I was the one taking vegan baking in today and it was good. I got a text from Nats saying she was going to yoga tonight so I was on tea making duty.  What to make?  What to make?  I rooted in the freezer and found mexican spicy bean burgers and sweet potato fr...

Welcome to Day #10 and we're pretty much a third of the way in now!  Yesterday I said I would try to dream up some lessons I've learned over the past ten days and, to be honest, I haven't had much time today to dwell on it.  I suppose the most important thing I have learned is that it is possible to eat well on a vegan diet.  Save for Sunday afternoon when I nosedived after my bike ride, I haven't gone hungry at all and the meals I have had have, for the most part, been good healthy balanced tasty meals.  Previously, my own naivety lead me to believe that to follow a vegan diet was going to leave you both hungry, bored and probably rather malnourished but vegans did it anyway through some self-righteous holier than thou "meat is murder" attitude.  Don't get me wrong, from what I've seen there are still people like that out there but you know what?  There are people like that from every denomination out there.  I suppose, when I really think about it, I...

Welcome to Day #9 and it's Tuesday.  That means it's shopping day!  Ordinarily, we get somewhere between two and three crates of food a week for the price.  Some weeks, it feels a lot less and you actually start to wonder what you're paying for but that's another rant entirely.  Not this week though!  As with last week, we got four crates of food!  Four!  Some of it's brand names as well like Alpro and Linda McCartney.  T his just goes to show that it's genuinely worth really contemplating adopting a predominantly plant-based diet purely for cost reasons alone if nothing else.  And you don't eat half bad!  Okay, some of it is half bad.  Some of it is ALL bad.  Remember those not-fish fingers from Day #1 ?  Awful. See how I'm slowly getting better at this blogging thing too?  I've linked back to 'Accidentally Vegan' on Day #1 there.  I think.  I hope it's worked. Today's been much the same and I've mai...

Welcome to Day #8 and we're a week in!!!  A whole week.  A lot of people thought I wouldn't even last 24 hours.  Some gave me a little more credit.  My boss thinks I'm going to fall off the wagon at the final hurdle - about 3 weeks in - and he's just going to walk into the office to see me completely unconscious on the sofa surrounded by dozens of Big Mac boxes.  Well, if you're going to fall off the wagon, you might as well do it spectacularly. We opted for pizza in the end yesterday, rather than baked sweet potato or chinese food.  I phoned the local pizza spot; a small artisan sourdough pizza place just outside of town to ask if they do a vegan option.  The chap at the other end of the phone recommended The Good Life; mozzarella, red peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and black olives... only, you know, without the mozzarella.  We got sweet potato fries too, with a sweet chilli dip. In fairness the pizza tried its bes...

Welcome to Day #7 and, if I'm totally honest, I'm struggling a little.  Not so much on the temptation front as on the motivation one.  I'm struggling to find the motivation to even write this.  I woke up feeling fantastic and then had fresh fruit and yogurt (dairy-free of course) for breakfast.  That was great.  I enjoyed it.  I don't know who I am or what I've done with the real Mike, but ordinarily Sunday morning would warrant bacon or egg & chips or something.  As the weather was absolutely nothing like forecast and was actually really nice - we're talking blue skies and sunshine - I decided to get the bike out and off I went.  I cycled down through the villages, mixing in a few hills for good measure, and was finding it quite within capability.  My stamina is currently down but that's to be expected as it's only my second time out on the bike this year and the first time was hard.  Like, really hard!  Remember, I got...

Welcome to Day #6 and the first Saturday I've been doing this.  Now, I know what you're thinking, what does the day of the week have to do with anything?  Basically, this is the first day I've not been in work so I've had nothing to distract me from the fact I'm cutting out a huge food group.  It would be easier to give in to temptation... but I haven't. It's also the first day I got a lie in.  Nats was first up and, whilst I wasn't in a hurry to get up, she went ahead and made breakfast for us;  porridge with chia seeds and jam.  It was okay actually - not the worst porridge I've ever had, although apparently you're not supposed to say that when your wife has fetched you breakfast in bed. Oh no, the worst porridge I've ever had was when I was walking in Knoydart with a friend.  Carrying milk was extra weight in already really heavy packs so we forwent it, instead choosing to mix the oats with stove heated river water, with a little b...

Welcome to Day #5 - Almost a whole week!!!  Most people didn't expect me to last 24 hours. Well I slept well last night.  I don't know if that's anything to do with the diet or if I just happened to sleep particularly well.  Either way, once again, I woke up feeling refreshed. Today was the Foodie Fest which I mentioned yesterday.  I worked only a half day and Nats came and met me before we wandered in to have a look at the stalls.  I must be honest, I was a little nervous.  When we first decided to go to the Foodie Fest, we hadn't decided to go vegan for a month.  Naturally, this is going to limit the food available for eating. Vegan Friendly Churros What I didn't anticipate was by just how much!  Only one stall, which sold churros, advertised itself as 'vegan friendly'.  Another Greek option was a little more obvious, selling vegan options which as olives, olives and more olives but, as much as we love olives, we wanted dinner. ...

Welcome to Day #4. Well that plan for an onion bhaji sandwich fell by the wayside due to discovering that that particular W.H.Smith don't do sandwiches, let alone vegan sandwiches.  I was short on time so, you guessed it, falafel and houmous again for dinner.  I'm going to try Marks & Spencers tomorrow, although there is a Foodie Fest on in the city centre which may yield some results. Today, again I've felt pretty good despite being four days in.  I'm getting used to the taste of black tea and have been having some Earl Grey just to add a little more flavour to certain brews.  Never used to like Earl Grey but it's grown on me over the years.   Note:- I just had to google very quickly to see if Earl Grey was actually vegan - mild heart attack!!! - but apparently it's fine. Nats was at Yoga at tea time so by the time she got home, we just had beans on toast for tea.  Not the most imaginative or exciting meal but still, it was good. On ...

Welcome to Day #3 of being 'Accidentally Vegan'. I'll be honest, I woke up this morning feeling great.  Ordinarily I need a coffee to get me going in the morning; I call it my 'wake-up juice'.  Don't get me wrong, I still had coffee this morning - I'm going vegan; not caffeine free! - but I felt good BEFORE the coffee.  I also felt less bloated.  I don't know if that means I've been doing my best impression of a band of marching trumpeters whilst I've been asleep or it's just that there's less processed rubbish in my diet but, all in all, it contributed to a good feeling this morning. I had my usual for breakfast.  That's not so much down to a lack of imagination as it is a lack of time.  There are three certainties in life; death, taxes and the one time I am running late is the one time the train will be on time. Dinner was also similar, again due to Tesco's fine selection of vegan friendly sandwiches and wraps in the chill...

Hi, I'm Mike.  I'm a pretty avid meat eater.  I always have been a fan of meat, whether that be in the form of burgers, steak, a full English, sausage and egg, minted lamb henry (although I'm not allowed to eat lamb that much anymore - wife's orders), steak & ale pie, etc.  I've always, ignorantly, viewed vegetarianism with an air of "Well, why? What's the point?" and veganism was another level all together. My lovely wife Nats, who is also a meat eater, has been watching quite a lot of Youtubers of late about veganism and the vegan lifestyle and, inadvertently, because I've been in the room at the time, I've caught snippets of it. Don't get me wrong, some of it is bonkers and I really doubt the credentials of some of the so called 'nutritionists' out there but, on a whim, as I had my head buried in a book and only half listening to somebody talk about the merits of eating a plant-based diet, I casually dropped the old ...