teaberryblue | Mama Vegan, Papa Vegan, day 5, 6,7, part 2 (Reply)

I got to talk to my mom about Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!

Sharon: On Thursday, I ate Caribbean beans and rice from a package and they were delicious and I realy enjoyed it. And I occasionally eat those for dinner when I get home late so that wasn’t anything unusual for me, but I was glad that I keep them in the house. Both Thursday and Friday, I was in interviews, so I ordered salads from a deli. It was a little hard, because all of their regular salads have meat or eggs or cheese on them, so I had to get them to make me a salad. So I ordred their regular spinach salad without bacon or egg. And with ceci beans. But when it came, it had kidney beans, because I don’t think they know what ceci beans are. Because the next day I ordered the same thing with chick peas and I got them. Both days I ate bananas– oh, no, actually. One day one of the other principals brought bagels from up the street, and I ate a plain bagel because I called the bagel place to find out and they said that they don’t use eggs or dairy in their plain bagels.

Friday night for dinner, I made fried zucchini with hummus and pita chips. And that was yummy. And I did the fried zucchini the way PC does the eggplant.

(PC is my friend, Paul Reilly, who is the executive chef of Encore in Denver, CO. Encore is a restaurant committed to using sustainable practices and local, green & organic products.)

That’s in half-flour, half cornstarch. It was really nice.

I thought the pizzas were good. I like to make unusual pizzas anyway. I do think both of those pizzas would have been beter with cheese on them. I thought they were both yummy.

I’m not likely to do it again for a week, but I would certainly do it on and off. I do think that it made me much more cognizant of what I put in my mouth. I used to be really careful about that stuff, and I’ve gotten away from it, so it was a really good reminder to me. I don’t normally eat food that has chemicals, but it did elevate my awareness.

Oh, and I lost weight, which I didn’t expect. It didn’t even occur to me, and when John said he expected to lose weight, I…

John:Yeah, but I got a swollen knee, that’s why I didn’t lose weight.

Sharon At the beginning of the week, I missed meat, and now I don’t miss it at all. I don’t even care about eating it. I do think that even though I don’t eat a lot of dairy, it’s a toss-up between cheese and eggs. But since I was hungry for an egg this morning…that was probably why!

Other than that I I just think that with all the focus there has been lately on things like trans fats, while I didn’t think that all of that was necessary, I do think that better labeling in restaurants and stuff is important. For anybody who wants to make any food choices should know what’s in their food and not have to be embarrassed or made to feel inconvenienced in order to find out what’s in their food.

I think [the idea that some companies are permitted to keep their "secret formulas" off the label is] just plain stupid. You should be able to keep the amount of the ingredient, but not the ingredients, secret. I personally don’t think that dyes should be allowed in any food products. That’s just part of my personal belief. There is nothing about dye that enhances the quality or taste of a food.

I think before someone does this, they should actually plan their meals for the week. I just went to the store and tried to find things that were vegan and that was stupid. You should get a cookbook or go online and plan the first three or four days and what you need. I think if you did it like that, you would be more successful.

My mom really liked both the tempeh and the vegan bacon we ate! She had never had either before and she thought the tempeh was really nice baked on the pizza because it got all crispy. She said that the vegan bacon didn’t really taste like bacon but had a nice flavor and nice crunch.

Here are some pictures from our vegan pizza feast on Saturday night.