Monday, May 19, 2008

Update on my undercover status

Well I have been an undercover vegan for awhile now (4 months) I have not been the best vegan always, many slip ups but luckily I did it for health reasons rather than other reasons that may have made me feel worse for cheating. I have learned more about how my body reacts to foods in the last 4 months than in my whole life. I have definitely found a correlation with eating dairy and then feeling more pain the next day. Another thing that makes me feel worse are potato chips and deep fried foods. Chickpeas also make my stomach hurt. I have also noticed that eating lots of pasta or bread makes me feel sluggish. So these are all things I can work on now! So far very interesting undercover work. People are excepting everything much better now than at the beginning. My parents have become 10 times as excepting. People who we don't really discuss our life and meal choices with who we meet at potlucks always ask for recipes of what I make. My husband is starting to become a great cook btw. I'll point out a recipe and ask him to make it and it's always fabulous.

As for my family, at first my mom was like, I'll never be able to make you anything again!! Then I was letting her know what I was making and how good it was tasting. Then we went home to visit and my mom had bought us soy milk, made us brown rice and beans to have in the fridge, and she made vegan wheat germ, walnut, banana bread (with carob chips!) She must have done a lot of research, i was surprised she even knew what carob chips were. Then they have noticed how much better I feel and how much more energy and less pain I'm in. So obviously they are very happy I've made this change for myself. When I was home this past weekend I made a huge salad for lunch hoping to share and everyone had some and enjoyed it and then I made dinner and made portabello mushroom fajitas from scratch for dinner. True my mom made some chicken with taco sauce on the side but I think my sauce was damn good! And everyone enjoyed dinner. So my fajita mix is what I thought I would share with everyone!

I fried some garlic (3 cloves) in olive oil and added some sliced onions. Then I added some green and red peppers for about a minute. Then I added my sauce (a teaspoon or so of the following: chili powder, cumin, cornstarch and 1/2 tsp of onion powder, 1/4 tsp oregano, a little salt, juice from a lime and enough water to make it a sauce (1/2 - 3/4 cup) and I added the portabello mushrooms. I served it in whole wheat wraps with cut up lettuce, tomato, salsa and fresh guacamole. Yum Yum! I've discovered an amazing affection for portabello mushrooms since I found the portabello mushroom salad in Veganomicon. Justin also made us the maple mustard glazed potatoes which have made it into our regular rotation. Another recipe I try to use all the time is the tahini dressing from VWAV. I made it into a dip for a potluck which went over amazing. Oh and lastly I modified my pancake recipe again with chocolate almond milk, adding cocoa and mint extract with chocolate chips. Pretty yummy, more of a dessert pancake rather than breakfast though, lol

Well that was my update and I even managed to throw a recipe in there! The last four months have been an amazing learning experience and I will continue my adventures in vegan cooking!