Invasion of the Food Trucks

Just up the street from me, not a 10 minute walk away, is an amazing event named Supercrawl that is going on right now. Despite cold, rainy weather this year, thousands of people have taken over about six city blocks to celebrate with music, art, culture, and...

Just one of many options to avoid.

FOOD!

The streets are lined with food trucks. From gourmet to greasy, dinner to dessert, there are food trucks everywhere. With those trucks comes the constant wafting of thousands of flavors as you walk down the street. Each one tempting and titillating and making you say, "I want food!"

The downside? Most of those food options involve meat. Everything from pigs to cows to chickens to curiously miscellaneous. Options without meat often involve cheese, dairy, honey, and who knows what else when ingredient listings are available. Were those fries cooked in vegetable oil or animal? Did that potato get baked with butter? Who knows!

Who knows what's in those dogs.

Now, the main point of this blog - at least for now - is that I am a very new vegan. I've been vegan for just shy of two weeks at this point. I know I will never, ever take another bite of meat again, but boy was I tempted. Seeing meat, touching it, neither of those things are appetizing, but the smells. They were... Amazing.

But all it took was one look at the heaps of greasy, steaming meat for me to go, "Oh, no way," and move on. It was easy, and no just because of moral resolve, but because of the options. The smell of meat may have dominated, but it wasn't the only option available.

Salvation! (And healthy too)

If you looked for them, vegan options were everywhere. From soups, to wraps, or my favorite place up the street - The Green Smoothie Bar - I was covered. I got my muddy monkey smoothie and my chocolate peanut butter macaroons, and enjoyed my night listening to music and viewing the art while never having another desire to do something that I'd regret.

Labour Day & Eating Out as a New Vegan

Happy one week anniversary to me! I know it's not a huge milestone, but hey, why not?

This weekend saw not one, but two social outings for me as a new vegan, and I was kind of excited to see how they went. I wondered, Will people be accommodating? and, Will I have to answer the same question about protein eighteen times? Either way, I was very interested to see what the outcome would be.

Let me preface this by saying I do not expect anyone to be accommodating to my personal dietary choices. If they are, great. If not? Oh well! So let’s get started.

DAY ONE

Day One was Saturday, and we'd been invited to our friends' house for dinner and general hangouts. I'd let them know I'd moved to veganism a few days before, and they were very accommodating! They did make-your-own pizzas for dinner, which included pitas for the crust (dairy free!), and then put whatever you want one them. Choices were pepperoni, bacon, two kinds of cheese and mushrooms, zucchini, green pepper, and spinach. Lots of choice for everyone!

For us, I brought vegan chili to share, which was really well received as well. I made it with lentils, black beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, mushrooms, green peppers, and chipotle peppers. Overall, it was spicier than I would have liked, but still tasty. Surprisingly, it went unbelievably well with Fritos of all things!

A few questions came up, the protein thing came up, but overall everyone was supportive. No one looked at me funny or acted like it was a huge deal. For my first time going out with friends as a vegan, it was a huge, roaring success. My friends rock, what can I say?

DAY TWO

Day Two of this lovely (and way too hot) Labour Day long weekend was spent with my in-laws and their extended family. Including aunts, uncles, grandparents, and a baby (not mine), there were twelve people and it was officially a BBQ.

The good news was, my fiancé’s one uncle is a long time vegetarian for health reasons and he brought veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs. Not so good, I found out after eating one hot dog that they were Yves and I've seen some Yves products contain milk ingredients so... hopefully not. Upon Googling, I seem to be fine, but it's a lesson to check before eating in the future!

Now, there was one thing that put me off the whole day. One person contacted me ahead of time to confirm a few things I will and will not eat, which I found exceptionally polite and considerate. I was excited to try what they brought, especially since the item I brought (quinoa salad) was something that I decided to make since it fit their dietary concerns as well as my own.

So I'm about to dig into their dish without even checking since they'd asked ahead of time and I hear, "Oh, you can't eat that."

All I could think at that moment was, What was the point in asking which ingredients I won't eat? I wouldn't have cared one little bit if they hadn't asked or informed me ahead of time that they were making something to fit my dietary concerns. As I said, I don't expect anyone to make special things for me, but they did ask ahead of time so it was a bit of a letdown to see they didn't bother after all.

Overall, the rest of the day was fine. I had a small selection of foods to eat (everything else had either egg or mayo on it. Such an egg group), but the quinoa salad I brought went over well and I still have plenty of leftovers. There were almost no questions about my switch to veganism, no one got offended by it, and no one really cared (good enough!).

It was an excellent weekend, all things considered. No one bitched at me to eat milk/dairy/eggs, no one got insulted by me turning down food items, no one insisted it would be too hard to get my protein, and everyone tried my vegan alternatives. I'd call it a win!

Saving animals and your wallet at the same time!

I know this one is kind of cheating, but I thought, "Hey, it's my first vegan shopping trip so why not post about it?" Why is it cheating? I've been shopping vegetarian for a while, never buy eggs (ick), and rarely buy processed food (which is where milk hides), but still. I wanted to share what I managed to grab - and for how much - by shopping vegan.

Like always, I went to the store with a very loose plan of what I was looking to purchase. A few protein items, some veggies, and some starches. I plan on making myself some vegan chili, so I bought ingredients for that...

And promptly forgot the chili powder! 

But I can pick that up later. What matters is that I bought enough food to feed me and my omnivore fiance for the better part of a week or more on...

$43.99

Even better? It would have only been $36.35 if I hadn't bought some beef for said fiance. Not including that, I got 16 items which means my average spent per item was only $2.27, which is pretty incredible if you ask me.

Downside? The location I went to didn't carry a wide selection of meat replacement items. I grabbed tofu, and they had some Yves items, but only ones that warned they contained milk and eggs, so those were out. Still, I have enough food to last me for quite some time, and healthy food at that. All for less that $45!

And people warned me being a vegan would be expensive.

But What About the Stuff I Already Own?

 Going vegan, despite my newness, has felt like a completely natural switch. I've had no cravings for meat since going vegetarian a while back (save one time I smelled chicken fingers and just.... ugghh), and the only cheese I ever really actually loved was goat cheese, but even that was rarely eaten. It feels like the hardest hurdle will be finding hidden milk.

But today I realized - what about all the stuff I've bought in the past that's not vegan? Not just food, but items normally made of leather like boots and shoes, handbags, belts, etc? I own a fantastic pair of leather driving gloves that I use all winter long. So what about that stuff?

And then there is the last of the non-vegan food I've bought myself. I've been vegetarian for a bit now, so I haven't bought meat for me to eat, but that doesn't mean everything that I've purchased is free of animal products. Most is, thankfully, but there are a few items like a box of organic squash soup from Imagine. No milk or eggs, but it does have honey, so therefor it's not vegan and I know my omnivore fiance won't touch it. Do I eat it? 

After reading a lot of different posts about this kind of thing, I'm going with the, "Don't just throw it out and waste it," path. The money has already been spent, and while if I were independently wealthy, then sure I could replace the boots I bought on sale last month with new vegan ones, but wealthy I am not and I need those boots for winter. The gloves I bought years ago? I'm pretty sure I can keep on wearing them.

But in good news - some of the items I thought were leather were in fact, vegan! Last summer I grabbed a fantastic Betsy Johnson on deep, deep discount at Marshalls and when I looked at the materials tag last night I discovered that yes, my favorite bag is in fact vegan! No need to replace it when next spring comes around.

Thankfully, very few things that I have right now in my fridge are non-vegan, and most that are my fiance will take care of for me. Until then, I'll finish off this soup and keep a closer eye for honey in the future!

via Exploding Dinosaur