Veganpluseggs

I'm about to be real honest with myself...I know that I always have to be "doing" something.  Whether it's stressing about getting knocked up, training for another half marathon (which, oops, the training isn't going so well..heh), figuring out how to become a Zumba instructor, blah blah blah...if I have nothing "to do" I get bored and can't handle myself.  Ha!  So while I'm waiting to start my crazy pills again I decided to give being a vegan a shot...ok, ok, I'm still eating eggs, but I've been pretty damn close this week! I wanted to try for just a week to see if it's something I/We could actually do. It's something that I have been researching for quite a while and something I wanted to see how it fit into our lifestyle, etc.  Much to my surprise, Josh hasn't completely resisted this idea.  Perhaps it's because this was how the conversation went:

Jill - "Hey, do you want sloppy joes this week?"
Josh - "Um, yeah!"
Jill - "Ok, what about a sheperd's pie?"
Josh - "I would love that."
Jill - "Ok, how about spinach and mushroom sandwiches?"
Josh - "This all sounds awesome!"
Jill - "Ok, I'm going to the store."

What he didn't know was that I was on the computer searching vegan recipes and looked LONG and HARD (that's what she said) to find things he would eat.  I found these amazing recipes and hit the store.  Everything I bought was vegan & gluten free (because I'm insane and do that too most of the time) except coffee creamer for Josh, and much to my surprise, it wasn't that expensive. 

Things that I had never bought before:
-gluten free English muffins (they're freaking delish...and also $6...uh...)
-tempeh (used this to make the sloppy joes and my goodness it was awesome)
-portobello mushroom tops (in all honesty, giant mushrooms kinda freak me out)

So far I've made an amazing giant salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, chick peas, with fresh lemon and olive oil dressing (shout out to Val for this one), portobello tops in balsamic vinegar and garlic (they did not creep me out when they were deliciously swirling around in my mouth), which we ate with salad and a sweet potato, and last night I made the sloppy joes on GF english muffins.  I'm not about to lie about it...they ruled.  I even took a picture to remember them by :) Don't mind my janky place mat...that's what happens on a random wednesday night...

 

 

 

Josh even liked them!  SWEET SUCCESS!!  Whatever, I'm a loser, and this excites me.  Tonight I'm making the sheperd's pie...which I've never made a non-vegan sheperd's pie, so needless to say this will be an adventure.  Oh, also...I'm not doing this to "save the animals".  I think it's very admirable for people who are vegan to do that, but this is about 99% to do with the fact that I recognize what foods make me feel good and what foods don't and about 1% because I think baby pigs are cute.