A Vegan Superbowl

My name is Callie and I'm a cheesaholic. It's been one day since my last cheese-out.

We were invited to a Superbowl party and I was ecstatic because my friends were all vegan's. That was going to make staying on track on one of the hardest days in the year easy, right? (My philosophy of veganism was that I was going to eat whatever I wanted on certain days of the year like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, birthday parties, 4th of July but I am fast realizing that American's will find a way to make every day one of those days so I have had to shave back on my "whatever" days and the Superbowl was one of those days that didn't make the cut.)

Well, I bought all kinds of yummy vegan food for the party. I took Izzy soda, couscous, fresh guac, humus, pita, veggies and a fruit salad. I was totally going to be the best vegan there. I walked up to the food line and my VEGAN friend had made the yummiest looking CHEESY enchiladas! What the heck?! Here I was trying to be good and we were all supposed to be vegan (except Andy and one other guy.) We were all standing around pretending like we were not eyeing the cheesy goodness but in the end, the girls demolished the CHEESY enchiladas. So much for being good but boy were they yummy. Now I have to do P90X for the whole month to make up for it but it was WORTH IT! They were AWESOME! Valentine's Day was just stricken from the eat-whatever-you-want-day list in favor of yesterday's fiesta. I'm going to have to wait for the girl's birthday party to eat FROSTING! Get ready for that post. I'm sure it will be epic.

For now... bring it on Horton! I'm back on the wagon.

Allure of Dairy

Veganism is an issue tonight. I'm trying desperately to give up cheese but in order to get rid of the cheese in the house without throwing it out, I made a several macaroni and cheeses and froze them for days when I didn't feel like cooking for the family. Tonight, I had a migraine and I told Andy to take out one of the casseroles and bake it up for the kiddos and himself. He fed the kids and headed out to study leaving me alone (after putting the girls to bed) with the delightful combination of cheese and pasta sitting all hot and steamy in front of me. It just tantalized me until I took a spoonful, just to get it off my chest. It snowballed from there. You know how it is. I had to cover it and put it in the fridge but before that, I almost ate the whole dang thing. I will wallow in guilt over that later while looking at my huge thighs in the full length mirror. For now, I'm sitting here, all warm and yummy feeling while watching reruns, listening to Abby sing in her bed, and sipping a soy decaf latte. That makes me feel a little better...

It's a New Day

I heard a story once about a man who smoked. He was addicted. He asked his pastor one day, "How do I give this up? I know it's killing me but I love it."

The pastor said, "How did you start?"

"One day, I just picked up a cigarette and started smoking. It didn't take long for me to love it."

The pastor suggested, "Today, don't start." It's not about stopping. It's about not starting.

Today is a new day. What are you not going to start?

I'm going to eat healthier. I have been working on this for a while so it's not like I'm starting something totally new. I have eliminated soda (which used to be a problem). I'm slowing down on the caffine alot. I used to live on coffee but I'm down to one cup (8 oz.) a day. I have also just stopped buying things that I eat as snacks throughout the day that were helping me to pack on the lbs. like Little Debbies (yummy...) and stuff like that. If I don't buy it, I can't eat it! Well, now I'm going to see how "naturally" I can eat. How much chemical crud can I cut out? How many raw fruits, vegetables and nuts can I eat to fill me up? Can I get back to the Daniel diet? We'll see. I'll log whats good about this plan. I'll also warn about what's hard.

Don't think I believe this is going to be easy. My biggest problem is CHEESE! I love cheese but frankly, it's terrible for you. It's all fat. The fat overrides whatever good qualities it may have. And don't tell me we need fat in our diet. There is plenty of natural fat that is already perfectly balanced in things like avocados and nuts.We'll see how much this logic helps me when I have a craving for my famous macaroni and cheese. Had vegan pizza last night from Papa Murphy's and it was wonderful!

Healthy Doesn't Have to Be Icky

My mother-in-law is here. She is a vegan. Needless to say, I'm not even a vegetarian but when she's here (especially when Mommy is preoccupied with the kiddos) she does alot of the cooking, cleaning and whatever. Now, whether she is doing the cooking or not, she has never made me feel like I have to be a vegan or cook vegan food for her but she is my guest and I feel a certain obligation to at least provide some of her normal foods so she doesn't waste away to nothing. I have discovered a few things about healthy/vegan living:
1. You don't know it's vegan if no one tells you. I make "vegan" fajitas and they are just that way. I didn't intend to make them that way. I just don't like to cook meat at home because I'm always worried about whether it's well done and I end up making chicken/beef/fish jerky all the time so I don't even bother. I don't really love vege-meat substitutes and they are dang expensive. I don't put cheese on fajitas because I can't taste it well and it brings up the Weight Watchers point value. The only non-vegan thing I may sometimes have on fajitas is sour cream.

2. When you fake it, people know. If you try to make vegan Mac and Cheese, you are going to fail. Mac and Cheese is a dairy based thing. You have to just make things that don't require dairy or that have very little dairy and you know you can hide the substitute. If you are making stew and it calls for chicken, just leave it out. If you are making a baked product and it calls for butter, use the sub and don't tell anyone. It's just easier not to try and make a tofurkey that is going to taste like sawdust and everyone knows you are faking it.

3. FRESH STUFF IS BEST! If you can get fresh avocado and make it into a spread and put it on your sandwich so it's not dry, you are really doing good. If you can get fruit and make a nice salad, no one is going to complain. Just know that it's going to be more expensive but you are going to live longer.

I am not going vegan. I'm not even going vegetarian but I know that when I am around people who are, it's not going to be a problem because I know how to cook stuff that will make us both happy. I just can't give up my twice a year steak. I am addicted but I do learn alot from those who are stronger than me.