What's the vegan option please?

Welcome to Day #28 and all I can say is it's finally over.  As of sunset this evening, which is at 20:27, the gloves are off.  We have a Dominos pizza on order with ALL the chicken.  Cannae wait. So, let's summarise shall we.  What have we learned through all this?  Here's 28 things learned in 28 days as a vegan: The PETA statistic claims that being vegan saves 198 animals per vegan per year.  With that in mind, Nats and I have saved 30.5 animals... although I imagine the 0.5 animal isn't really saved; A vegan diet doesn't necessarily mean a healthy diet; A vegan diet doesn't necessarily mean an ethical diet; There is Palm Oil in EVERYTHING!  It's the culinary equivalent of Asbestos; We are far more conscious of what's in our food now from having to read the backs of EVERYTHING; You have to think about your food intake and which good stuff (and not so good stuff) you're getting from where ALL THE TIME; I can't help but feel that the on...

Welcome to Day #27 and all I can say is, it's the eve of doom.  That is, to say, tomorrow is the day it finishes which, if I'm honest, I'm over the moon about.  Don't get me wrong, I've eaten some good meals through this thing and I've eaten some shocking meals but, most of all, I've eaten the same damn things over and over again because, quite frankly, there's little choice.   For our last 'vegan' tea, we made burritos again because we were at a complete loss as to what to actually eat.  It's the one meal that I can say with confidence which leaves me satisfied.  There's no longing for something more substantial or anything after it.  It's just... it's satisfying.  It reminds of something that Twilight kid in the films... or is the books? "You can survive off of animal blood but it's like tofu - it keeps you alive, but it's not fully satisfying." Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's how I feel about this...

Welcome to Day #26 and apologies for not doing a Day #25.  At this stage in the game, I'm really running low on things to say.  Not today though.  I've finally found one!!! Ignoring the conversation currently going on on my social media about what constitutes 'milk' and what can legally allowed to be called 'milk', e.g. soya isn't allowed, I've finally discovered, after almost 4 weeks of some pretty terrible coffees, a 'milk' that can do the job.  Oh, I've had some which were kind of milky and others which were down right malky, but this has been sat in the fridge for about a week whilst we ploughed through the cashew (which was awful and gave me a stomach upset), the almond (which was okay-ish but a bit gritty), the soya (which curdles rather like milk and ruins perfectly good coffee) and the coconut (which is a milk but bloody shouldn't be!).  This one though is smooth and creamy, looks normal without the nastiness when added to cof...

Welcome to #24 and it started off hard.  Just finding the energy to haul myself out of bed was hard enough without having the rest of the day to limp myself through.  I didn't even bother trying to drive to work because I didn't trust my concentration levels.  I took the train instead.  It's hard.  Some friends who've been following this blog advised that I'm not eating enough and they're probably spot on.  A mate reckons if I do some calorie counting for Omnivore Mike and Vegan Mike, I'm probably massively deficient at the moment and another friend said I need to eat more to get the same amount of what I actually need but bloody hell, how do I eat more?  Unless I'm prepping the stuff myself, I'd spend a fortune trying to but every falafel and houmous wrap in Tesco... of which there were none today. Instead, I wandered up to Marks and Sparks for dinner and discovered, to my disappointment, that the falafel and spinach wrap they do is also laced wit...

Welcome to Day 20-something and... <sigh> Honestly, I just can't be bothered anymore.  I'm headachey, tired, lethargic, more tired, struggling to concentrate and between this vegan diet and peoples' stupid attitudes, I'm just struggling to care about it anymore.  But I will persist.  Because I must.  <sigh> This week is going to drag...

Welcome to Day #22 and I'm just on count down now until I can walk away from this thing and never look back.  I swear, if I ever see another vegan thing again...  Just give me cow.  Doesn't even have to be dead; give me a knife and fork, and I'll run it down myself.  Nats' doing the order for next weeks shop and it just reinforces how restrictive this nonsense is.  She asked if I wanted anything special.  "Bacon!  All the bacon!  And pork.  And the Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.  And more Bacon.  Haggis!  Black Pudding!".  Apparently, if sounds like I have food tourettes.   Oh, and well done Tesco for ruining my f###### day.  Well, you didn't ruin it but you certainly contributed.  How the hell am I supposed to eat if you sell out of the only vegan thing you have available?  Honestly, I'm like two samosas away from getting scurvy.  If they weren't vegetable ones, I'd already be there. ...

Welcome to Day #21 and today, supposedly, is the day to form a new habit.  Oh I'm forming a new habit okay but not the one everyone expects it to be. We went out for tea tonight with the family and, I swear, I almost jumped off the wagon.  I'd have done a flip as well if it meant I could have eaten fish or a burger or anything.  As it happens, after some asking, I got bread and houmous and olives, with a side of chips.  Why would anybody do this to themselves?  It's so restrictive!!!  Especially eating out.  I miss the spontaneity of being able to eat anything; order whatever I fancy, devour a chocolate bar, buy a snack without having to read the back to find it has 0.0000001g of milk protein in.  I tried to buy a vegetable samosa from Booths and it had milk protein in it.  Not allowed that.  I bought strawberries.  STRAWBERRIES!!!  I like strawberries but I didn't want them.  I wanted that samosa.  I was hungr...

Welcome to Day #20 and I am feeling a lot better today following yesterday's post.  We had burritos for tea and if that isn't enough to cheer you up, I don't know what is.  Nats swaps out the sour cream for vegan cream cheese and the guac for chopped avocado and, you know, it works!  I even started singing that Despacito  song by Justin Bieber ft. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee but changed the lyrics to; "I like burritos, when they're made by my senorito..." Go on, sing it.  You know you want to.  I had more lyrics last night but it was spur of the moment and, whilst Nats almost choked for laughing, I can't remember them now. Anyway, the dairy industry! There's been adverts flying around recently claiming that humane milk is a myth and that it should not be bought.  The precise wording was; "I went vegan the day I visited a dairy.  The mothers, still bloody from birth, searched and called frantically for their babies.  Their d...

Welcome to Day #19 and I'm seriously contemplating just sacking it all off because, well, what is the point?  You know, as well as seeing if I could actually do a month of 'veganism', it was also to try a get a greater understanding of the lifestyle and the people who follow it.  Big mistake apparently! I was trying to have a conversation today about what I'd learned and what my impressions were, highlighting the apparent differences between 'veganism' as a lifestyle and 'plant-based' as a diet, and how they appear to be different.  I've had to do a lot of reading up and a lot of research to support anything I've been saying because I'm not a fan of just shouting off at the mouth and throwing unfounded accusations around. I certainly wasn't expecting to get my head bitten off by an actual genuine vegan and be accused of thinking I'm an expert on it all over this person.  That certainly wasn't my intention.  In fact, I'd ho...

Firstly, apologies for no Day #17.  I really had nothing to say.  But without further ado... Welcome to Day #18 and I was going to talk about the dairy industry today.  There's been a lot of articles shouting about how inhumane the dairy industry is and the 'myth of milk', etc.  I really wanted to talk about it.  I was thinking about how I was going to present my arguments and counter-arguments.  I went out at lunch time, bought a falafel and houmous wrap from Tesco, went back to the office and sat down to write about it. Unfortunately, or fortunately (whichever way you look at it), I put the wrap down on my desk face down and something caught my eye.  See if you can work out what it is.  I'll give you a clue; it's the fourth row down, second in from the right. What the hell do I eat now?  I've been living off this stuff for my dinners for almost this entire thing!  Now it's contributing to what is a pretty vile industry, and that ...

Welcome to Day #16 and this #veganforamonth thing has really garnered some interest.  The blog is getting quite a bit of traffic; yesterday's blog post received well over a hundred views and I presume it was read as well, and people are really quite interested. I've been off work today as we were driving out to the coast for my grandad's birthday.  It was a big one so, whilst it was a trip, it was worth it.  He's been a great grandad (note - not a great-grandad) through my entire life. The day started slowly and the intention was to go out for a bike ride, although that fell by the way side when it was raining with the same intensity that prompted Noah to build his ark.  I'm a fair weather cyclist so, you know, a lie in it was.  Breakfast, unfortunately, consisted on this bog water smoothie of unknown and indiscernible concoction. Nats has made these things before.  On more than one occasion.  The first was foisted on me after I'd been out o...