Nothing like a good challenge!
Day One…eh not so bad! We began our day with fresh juice and
sweet potato pudding before our daily 45 minute walk and snacked on lentil and
brown rice sauté in lettuce cups when we returned. I made smoothies with
homemade nut milk to drink while we got ready knowing that we needed to get as
much nutrition in as possible before we left the house.
My efforts last night to create tasty vegan masterpieces
came with great appreciation from my mom as she returned home to find a kitchen
full of treats. I spent a great deal of time researching the transition process
and how to make vegan foods taste incredible.
While my mom and I had to attend a memorial service for my
godfather’s wife today I spent a good hour preparing our food for the day to
avoid the hunger pangs of searching for acceptable foods on the first day of a
new eating style. You know what they say “proper planning prevents piss-poor
performance!”
Unfortunately, this morning in our hustle to leave the house
to be on time for the service, the bag was left packed with food and ice packs
in the kitchen!! Needless to say, day one became a bit of an adventure.
Thank
goodness I made sure we consumed plenty of food before we left…
So what would become of us on day one being away from home
and all the vegan foods I had prepared?
HA!! We survived with flying colors!!!
The reception was at a fish restaurant on a wharf that is famous for their fish and my mom says “well, we could always start again
tomorrow…” “NOPE…we committed,” I said.
We arrived early on a hunt for food as by then we were very
hungry. They say the first week as a vegan is the hardest, and while I don’t
feel it to be hard, the journey is definitely one requiring detailed research, planning, patience and acceptance.
Walking the pier we found a “grill” that served burgers,
fried fish, chicken salads and such. My mom has always been one for a big salad
so she was all for it but I couldn’t bring myself to consume a cheaply made
iceberg mess so we kept walking. We stumbled upon a large fish market and
walked in to find rows of fish, shell fish, places to order fried fish etc. but
settled on one particular place that offered a side of veggies and corn
tortillas.
For $5.75 we agreed that this side order would be a good
pre-meal snack to avoid having to go hungry and make a bad choice at the
reception. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised! When our buzzer went off, I went
to the counter to collect our supposed side dish. I was greeted with a large
blue plastic tray, the ones you usually use to carry your plates at a buffet,
that was FULL of sautéed veggies in a killer achiote sauce! We were in heaven!
Attending the reception we found salad drenched in mustard
dressing, steamed veggies tossed in butter, rice cooked in chicken stock,
chicken and beef with cheesecake for dessert. You can imagine how glad we were
to have taken that preventative measure and eaten first!?
Given the events of the day I would say that it was quite a
success. You can check out my food blog to find the nut milk recipe I adapted
from a few that I found online as well as the recipe for sesame kale that I made last
night. (while I made it for today, mom loved it so much that she ate it all
last night LOL)
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