Two successes of the day. First, I did not consume any food that came from an animal- completed my first vegan day ever. Second, I did not drive my car anywhere... I walked to church and rode my bike anywhere else I needed to go.
Started this morning with a little leftover action from last night's dinner- 1 whole wheat flour tortilla with the last night's lentil mix and diced mango on top, and soy milk... yummy breakfast!
Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta (not made with egg) and a white sauce made with homemade rice milk, flour, olive oil, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, onion, fresh basil, minced garlic, salt and pepper, and fresh thyme leaves.
After digestion, I ran a hilly 10 miles in this almost 90 degree heat and recovered with almonds, sliced pear and almond butter, and soy milk.
For dinner, I rode my bike to Subway and got a veggie delight void of cheese and loaded up the vegetables and topped it off with vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, and oregano... this was also to give my poor wife a break from my crazy experimentation, she had seafood delight (I'm sure she'll be delighted that I included this in the blog).
To not lord it over my family, I did make eggs for my son for breakfast- but these are cruelty-free eggs as I get them from our neighbor who raises free-range chickens for the eggs.
What I am surprised by is how easy and yet complicated this actually was. I certainly have an affection for eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and many meat products; but what I'm also surprised by is how good I feel. My run, while grueling at some points, wasn't really all that bad in the long run. I don't feel any more hungry than I usually do and I don't feel any more tired... if anything, I have more energy.
This little experiment is very interesting, I'm not sure how long I'll go, but I consider it a challenge... I've become a bit of a food-adventurer. Things would be a lot easier if I could find some tofu, because there is a LOT I'm going to be able to do with tofu, but, for some reason, my local Boyers grocery store doesn't carry it and I've been on a very successful Walmart fast for well over 6 years now and have no intention of checking there. The closest whole foods/natural foods store is about 45-60 minutes away, so I'll have to check there in the near future.
I did look at how to make tofu at home and learned that tofu is basically vegetarian cheese because it is made from the curd of soymilk. Making soymilk is a lot more involved than rice milk, so I've got some learning to do on that front.
I'm certainly not sure how far this will go, but I consider this my little food adventure, and, so long as I'm enjoying myself, I'll keep it up. Maybe I should start going by Hippie Paul?
I'm just thrilled I was able to do it for a day! Thanks for reading... and any suggestions, advice, or ideas, please do not hesitate to share.
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