As someone who's been a pescetarian for 4 years now, I've dabbled in out an of vegetarianism to try and eat as little fish as I can help. But last weekend whilst watching the final episode of Victoria (Also, can we just take a moment of appreciation that there'll be a series 2!) my mama suggested the idea of becoming a vegan and was curious whether she'd actually be able to do it. Now the idea of being a vegan to me has always been something I'm interested in, but there is one thing stopping me - CHEESE. I'm an addict. I'll admit. Recently my mama has been watching a lot of vegan YouTubers for inspiration, and after talking to a friend who's also vegan, I said I would accept the challenge with her and become a vegan for the week.
Immediately my first thought was, what can I do about cheese? Priorities though, right? And I'm not gonna lie, it's been tough this past week seeing friends are diving into cheesy chips or a feta salad, but I like to think that I've achieved my goal and resisted temptation. Of course before becoming vegan I did already have some multivitamin tablets, needed for all of my vitamin needs, and I already knew that I would be alright without certain animal products such as eggs as recently I'd not been eating them anyway - So it wouldn't be a huge shock to the system. After planning it out the next step was the task of food shopping and what to buy. To some this would freak them out, as almost everyone who I've ever met when I say that I'm a veggie, responds with 'So what do you eat?' Well, food mainly.
For breakfasts I'm usually on the go anyways, so a few Brazil nuts and raisins is a must for a little energy, as well as some juice too. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not a big breakfast lover, but on the weekend when I have some time to make something, porridge with some peanut butter and maple syrup is the one. Of course if I'm going to have a cuppa then I've found soya milk to be the best alternative, as almond milk just leaves a funny aftertaste in my opinion. In fact Alpro even do some vanilla flavoured soya milk which is the actual bomb - Even my brother grew rather fond of it! For lunches, since I'm at drama school I try to eat relatively healthy for the physical element of the training. So this week I found myself with a lot of bagels from the New York Bagel Company, avocado, hummus, wraps and spinach. As extra snacks I've also been loving mango, other pre-made fruit pots, Naked bars, and other fruit and nut snack bars. When it comes to the evenings, I've found my tea/dinner to be the easiest, as now more than ever the vegan range available to supermarkets is pleasantly surprising. This week I've had risotto with vegan cheese, soy chilli tacos, lentil shepards pie, vegan Quorn spicy burgers, and sweet potato fries with smoked paprika (which in fairness has been a family fave for while now anyway).
I think it's safe to say that I've managed pretty well in this past week, and it's made me realise that being a vegan isn't anything major anymore. In fact, I went into Manchester this weekend and the variety of vegan cafés is great to see. Everyday I'm discovering foods that I had no idea were vegan, and supermarkets now even having their own 'Free From' ranges, where today I found a vegan millionaire's shortbread - Let's just say we'll be stocking up at Christmas. I also found this LIST of vegan foods quite interesting if you fancy a browse, I think you'd be surprised to see what actually is vegan!
So within all of this, what happens now? I think me and mama are going to try another week and see how that pans out, I'm not making any strict promises, but if I can have a vegan option then I will. But with the options that are available, this new lifestyle is definitely looking up, and I think will for sure benefit me in the future. Speaking of, once I do get into the full swing of things I might try and do a 'What I Eat in a Day' type-post, so stay tuned...
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