Going Vegan day 12 - Denver Veg Fest 2008

Denver vegans have a reason to celebrate! Denver will have the first ever Veg Fest & Health Expo on April 12th. This festival is meant to bring people with common veg values together and celebrate a healthy, environmentally responsible lifestyle. There will be food tasting, and it's only $10 a ticket. I am really excited to go and check out all the different vendors and speakers, and I'll definitely be reporting back to the blog with pictures.

Speaking of pictures, to your left you will see the result of my first craving for pizza since going vegan. City O' City serves pizzas with cheese, vegan mozzarella or cashew ricotta. We chose the cashew ricotta, and wow. I have to say I did not miss the cheese at all. I am really beginning to think I may have made the switch to vegan for good. It is really limiting my ability to eat on the fly, but in my case that's exactly what I need right now. I'm losing weight because I'm planning my food better and I'm forced to look at healthier comfort foods.

Speaking of comfort foods, our pizza was followed by an incredibly delicious vegan mint ho-ho cupcake. Mint and chocolate is my all time favorite flavor combination so this was a real treat. I am really looking forward to checking out more great vegan foods at Veg Fest. Of course, I forgot to pick up my tickets last night (they're at Watercourse or City O' City) so I guess I'll have to go back sometime in the next few days. Which is maybe something I was planning subconsciously anyway!

Becoming Vegan Day 8 - Evil Essentials

This week has been great! I’ve had so much more energy, been less grumpy, and I am better able to handle stress. Nothing about going from vegetarian to vegan has been very difficult so far except for one thing - treats.

By treats I mean all those “evil” things you really shouldn’t indulge in because they are peripheral to what you need to survive. Things like alcohol and chocolate. They are not the healthiest things to focus on, but I have learned a lot about them this week. I haven’t been indulging in ANYTHING without checking the label. Here’s what I’ve found out:

Alcohol
Many alcohol drinks are filtered with animal products like isinglass (derived from fish) or bone char. And if you are drinking a glass of wine that has hints of chicken or beef, you may not be imagining it. Some companies put these things in their drinks for flavoring, and they aren’t required to list it. Some common ingredients include gelatin, egg albumin and other proteins.

Here’s a great Web site I found to help vegans navigate the liquor store: http://www.tastebetter.com/features/booze

Chocolate
There are a lot of vegan chocolates out there, especially if you have a Whole Foods nearby. What I’ve found is that a lot of them won’t claim to be vegan because they are processed in plants where milk chocolate is made. If they make dark chocolate near the milk chocolate, they always say that “traces of milk may be found.” If you are vegan because you don’t support the use of ANY animal products, you have to only buy your chocolate from a place that doesn’t also sell milk chocolate. Today I found a brand that says it doesn’t have any dairy on site: Tropical Source.
There’s great information on chocolate and dairy on the Chocolove Web site: http://www.chocolove.com/faq_product.htm#vegan

I have to sign off now because we are about to try vegan cheese nachos for the first time!

Wheyz out! Becoming Vegan - Day 1

One of the first things I noticed today was that Honey Bunches of Oats contains whey. Wah. I have officially begun my 30 day challenge of going from vegetarian to vegan.

Luckily, I am well prepared. I had fruit for breakfast, and Drew and I went to Wild Foods last night to buy ingredients. I always thought I was just a few slices of cheese and a milk chocolate bar from being vegan, but now I’m not so sure.

As a vegetarian, I cringe when people say they are vegetarians and they eat fish. So I want to do this vegan thing right. I am reading every ingredient on everything I buy. And I was definitely suprised by a few things I saw.

Amy’s soy cheeze pizza has milk protein. Some bittersweet chocolates “contain trace amounts of milk,” and even some fake cheeses have milk proteins.

My question to vegans out there: As a new vegan, what are some products I should watch out for that are suprisingly NOT VEGAN?

Today’s answer to the question, “what do you eat anyway?

• Fruit
• Green Goddess Salad (from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!))
• Seitan Enchiladas with Mole Sauce (from The Angelica Home Kitchen: Recipes and Rabble Rousings from an Organic Vegan Restaurant)

Skinny Bitch - Going Vegan?

I’ve been a vegetarian most of my life, but the only dairy I consume has been organic cheese, non-vegan dessert and the occasional half-and-half. I could easily give dairy up completely if it weren’t for the cheese. After reading Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Bornouin, I finally got the inspiration I need to try to go vegan.

The book says that dairy is actually and truly addictive. What a simple way to make me realize that I don’t just love cheese, I am an addict! As they say, admitting the problem is the first step in the road to recovery.

Every time I return from New York, having eaten at any of the city’s hundreds of 100% vegan restaurants, I think I could go vegan. We eat these incredibly delicious meals, I am fully satisfied and cheese doesn’t even enter my mind. But then at home, with no vegan chef to entice me with wonderful culinary creations I fall back on cheese because it’s tasty, comforting and easy.

What a weight off my shoulders to know that it isn’t my poor convictions or lack of willpower that keep bringing me back to cheese. It is just that dairy contains naturally occuring addictive chemicals. It makes so much sense to me now.

It helps too that the book talks about how the whole purpose of cow’s milk is to help baby cows gain weight and get big. Baby cows are 90 lbs, and in two years they grow to 2,000 lbs. As someone who needs to shed some pounds I do not need to be eating food that calorie-dense!

I feel so fortunate that these days vegetarians and vegans have SO many choices and resources compared to just a decade ago! It has been a good five years since I tried a vegan cheese, but I will try again! Stay tuned to see what I find out!