Vegan for Lent Begins!

Last night Mr. K and I made an appearance at the Taste of the South End and ate our happy little hearts out on some great fare from some of the top restaurants in the South End of Boston. We had pizza, cupcakes, red velvet whoopie pies (ok, I might have had 2 of them and wished I'd had 3), arancini balls, samosas and saag paneer, naan, plantain soup, crab salad, smoked salmon, trout pate, raclette, cheddar and blue cheese from South End Formaggio (definitely went back to that table about 5 times), biscuits (Mr. K ate the chicken part of the deconstructed pot pie, while I stuck to the biscuit), masa, octopus, ceviche, some sort of caramely chocolate goodness, veggie empanadas, mini eclairs, scallops, among other delights. We sampled some fancy drinks including a watermelon jalapeno margarita, a pomegranate drink with vodka and mint, a cucumber gimlet, and a coconut martini (yes, it was a Tuesday night, but please keep in mind that all but the vodka drink were about the size of a shot).

Note to self: never wear tights and a cincher belt to a food tasting again. Bad choice. Though we did get our photo taken for some online magazine...so maybe we'll be famous!

The event was a fundraiser for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, a great organization that serves a lot of people. I did my internship with them earlier on in my degree program, writing a training manual for the facilitators of their "BE SAFE" collaborative program, which trains youth workers in issues such as violence, substance abuse and other hot button issues.

So back to food. Today is Ash Wednesday, which means its the first day of Lent. Mr. K (who went to Catholic school and therefore has a much better knowledge base of these things than I), has informed me that Lent does not technically start until you go to mass and get ashes on your forehead. As I am not planning to attend mass today, I just began my "lent" when I woke up this morning.

Be Involved and Join Me!

I'd like to chronicle my progress and share what I cook and eat to provide you all with some ideas of how this process looks for me, and perhaps some ideas of what you can make if you'd like to cut out some animal products from your diet. Please leave comments to tell me whether you'd prefer a daily (concise) update (so you can follow along with me and cook some of the recipes I post), or that I post only weekly (there are 6.5 weeks between now and Easter, so that would mean roughly 7 posts). Weekly posts would then be a little longer as they will contain a week's worth of information.

Remember, if you'd like to join me but aren't ready to start today or don't want to align your own experiment with Lent, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is hosting a 21 day vegan kickstart online. You can check it out here. Also, you can "like" it on facebook and you'll get some posts with recipe ideas, news articles and information to encourage you and answer any questions you might have. The site itself it full of some great tips and some useful information about nutrition. It also has recipes!

You might also consider trying out "Meatless Mondays" with your family, and choosing to try one completely vegetarian (or vegan) meal per week. The New York times has a great series called "Recipes for Health" which usually operates under a particular theme every few weeks. The recipes are generally very simple without too many crazy ingredients. The posts also include information about the ingredients, and often notes about what makes them healthy. I think most of them are vegetarian (I subscribe to it with my google reader and I don't think I've come across any meat-filled recipes, though I could be wrong), and the current theme is vegan recipes, as many people give up animal products during Lent (hey, I'm not alone!). The recipes are hearty and definitely full of nutrition and substance. I'll be reposting (or linking to) my favorites in the coming weeks. Another great recipe source is 101 Cookbooks, an all vegetarian blog written by a woman who not only understands great food, but is a stellar photographer to boot. She has several vegan recipes (see the side panel to pull up the list of them), and many of her recipes can easily be made vegan by swapping in soymilk for milk, oil for butter, and eliminating cheese.

Please also feel free to comment with any of your own recipes, challenges, questions, or misgivings about vegan or vegetarian diets. What would be the hardest thing for you to give up? For me, it's looking like yogurt and cheese.

And Finally: The ultimate goals!

Any experiment needs to be accompanied by a goal of sorts, or a purpose. First, here are the parameters:

1. Eliminating dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt), eggs, meat/fish (already done), gelatin (made from animal parts)
2. Avoiding natural flavors (These are typically made from tallow, or animal fat. Fat is the part of the animal that stores most of the toxins. It's also an animal part, not just an animal product).
3. Replacing the milk, cheese, yogurt and eggs that I have been eating with complex, protein and nutrient rich whole grains (couscous, brown rice, barley, wild rice), legumes (lentils, beans) and vegetables (which I already eat a lot of).
4. Avoiding the temptation to satiate my craving for rich eggy, cheesy, creamy foods by increasing my intake of junk food (which is already pretty minimal, I just don't want it to increase).

And here are the goals or expected outcomes:

1. Losing weight. I am currently 20 lbs heavier than my "normal" weight, and 25-30 lbs heavier than my "ideal" weight. (I attribute this to my shoulder injury and resultant inability to swim, the holidays and a new sedentary job).
2. Having more energy and "feeling good." This is totally subjective, but essentially I'm looking to find greater harmony and balance internally, acting on my conviction that eating something because it's "easy" or "tastes good" or "everyone else does" doesn't outweight the negative environmental, ethical, economical and health impact such an act has.

Please join me! Please comment and be involved. Any encouragement or recipe ideas are greatly appreciated!

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