Veganuary: Half-Way

Half-way through the month!
And how am I doing?

As I said at the start, this isn’t really that big a shift for me, coming from a more-or-less vegetarian diet to begin with. I’ve definitely tried to branch out from my usual recipes, and I’ve done an okay job with it – either trying new things altogether, or mixing up ways I’d do things normally.
Save for that slip-up at the start, I’ve not snuck, or even really been tempted to sneak, any dairy. I’ve certainly had it around me, in the house, at work, but it’s not been terrible. One thing I have noticed is the shittiness of the tea at work – much better with milk to mask. I think I’ll start taking my own in, something with a bit of flavour to it.

I don’t think I’ve been any more irritable than usual. Every time I’ve been in a bad mood, it felt justified – but then, it always does, doesn’t it? Had a pretty wicked headache for most of the afternoon today, nicely ensconced behind the left eye. Even that, though, likely had more to do with last night’s poor sleep than anything else. It cleared up pretty quick once I got some paracetamol in (and no, it didn’t have any gelatin, lactose or carmine, so there). Similarly, I didn’t really get a massive energy spike at the start, the way that some people describe. Neither, though, was I over-burdened with animal protein to begin with, so there was no massive decompression or anything like that. Nor would there have been any scramble on the part of my body to find it’s usual source of nutrition, suddenly absent.

Have I lost any weight? Kinda…? It’s difficult to tell – it’s pretty early on yet, as you wouldn’t expect much to change up in 2 weeks. Plus, I’ve not been exercising heavily, though I intend to ramp it up a bit for this latter half. I’ve definitely felt hungrier than I usually do, but I don’t think that has to do with a reduction in the quality of the food I’m eating so much as it does the inability to graze on biscuits or grab the customary pre-lunch sandwich. So, yeah, probably eating less over-all. I’ve been upping my use of the old fizzy-make-feel-good, on the assumption that an effervescent tablet every day or two’ll cover off any nutrients I’m missing out on. As you’ve seen, I’ve been doing alright keeping things balanced, but it can’t really hurt and it’s affordable.

So, that’s the half-month in broad focus. More proximately, the weekend saw a rather less-adventurous effort. Thursday saw the completion of that satay in a curry-style dish. Had a head of broccoli that needed using. Friday I was working late again (wooooo 11 hour days!) and so my wife gave the vegan lasagne another run. Anticipating in advance the dryness, we ended up with a much more…moist…dish. Apologies to our poor friend who had to deal with the first attempt! Saturday and Sunday saw some store-bought vegan burgers, from Aldi. Not bad, but not something I would’ve gone with if not feeling so lazy (or hungover – turns out a lot of the beer I had on hand was vegan).

Tonight, resumed the experimentation. Nothing too bold, picking up from where I left off Thursday before last with another deep-fried tofu dish.

Looking bizarrely close to that previous post, as well…

 

Did a stir-fry of hoisin sauce and chinese five-spice, and elected for a store-bought tempura batter for the tofu. I also threw in some re-hydrated shitake, which I fried a bit before adding. Didn’t come out too badly, had a good, earthy-smoky flavour. The tempura-fried tofu was alright – was able to do the whole of my 600g pack, which means I’ll have to pick some more up for another meal I intend to do, later in the week. I don’t know if I’d grab that tempura-mix again, it was a Blue Dragon number, and was suitably generic-tasting. Ah well, got the job done for tonight, and it was purchased on a whim.

Keep your eyes peeled for a post that should be coming soon – inspired by the succesfulness of the injera, there’s something else on the ferment…