This is our first dinner for vegan week. We don’t plan on turning vegan, we just wanted to try some new recipes. So why go vegan though? Well, one reason is we decided we wanted to reduce the amount of meat and dairy we consume. We’ve heard a lot about the benefits of a wholefoods plant based diet and wanted to see how we could incorporate more of that into our current eating habits.
Also, when I think about vegan food, I think about tempeh burgers, bean burgers, mushroom burgers, and soy hot dogs. I like vegetarian meals, but going vegan seems so much more restricting. I know my perception of a vegan diet is a little flawed. There is so much more to this cooking I don’t know about and I really wanted to explore and educate myself.
I have also been bored, unmotivated and uninspired in the kitchen lately. I wanted to try something new to reignite my efforts in the kitchen.
I know eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. I could eat french fries all day and be vegan, but that wouldn’t be very healthy. So I wanted to avoid the soy cheeses, soy hot dogs and a lot of those types of processed imitation products. I wanted to focus on fresh natural ingredients as much as possible. I tried to select a diverse menu from simple typical dishes, to some of the more complicated unique (in my eyes) recipes. I also didn’t want to break the bank either. I had in my head that eating vegan would be expensive. But I came in under budget for this week’s grocery shopping even after I had to by some specialty products I don’t have in stock.
So hopefully after a week we’ll get a good idea of what we like, don’t like, and what we think is practical for us to incorporate into our regular habits. And hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.
First up for dinner was potato broccoli soup, portobello mushroom paninis and a salad. Day one went really well! Everything had a ton of flavor and was very filling. The soup was great, but definitely better as a side. I couldn’t eat the soup and a main dish just because it had such a strong flavor. I know Ellie loves mushrooms so I thought starting with the mushroom sandwiches was the way to go. She ate her whole mushroom and most of the bread. She said she liked the soup but only ate a few bites. The artichoke tapenade for the sandwich was great. Extremely flavorful. Prepping and preparing these meals were very simple and not super time consuming either. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
RECIPES:
