Super Healthy Dinner: Vegan Tempeh Marinara Pasta

This dish is the perfect combination of healthy and tasty. Which is great because I so rarely think of pasta as being “good for you”. But this dish is full of nutritious goodies. And I finally feel like I understand why Italians love making their own marinara sauce. The taste is so much better! I followed a recipe I found on Healthy Happy Life with a few minor adjustments:

• I used sliced portobello and button mushrooms instead of of shitake.
• I doubled the amount of kale (for some extra green goodness)
• I used about half the amount of olive oil recommended just because 1/4 cup seemed like a little two much
• I realized at the last minute I didn’t have any onion which was too bad, but I’ll make sure to have some on hand for next time!
• For the sauce I did a small ziploc bag of plain tomato sauce that I happened to have in the fridge and then cut up one roma tomato and one normal tomato. I also chopped up a red pepper and added it along with the garlic and spices.
• I ground raw cashews into a powder as topping instead of getting a Parmesan cheese substitute.

Next time around I think I’d like to use whole wheat pasta or maybe soba noodles. This was my first time using tempeh which was cool. It was very interesting. I’m excited to try grilling it to see how that works. Definitely a day of firsts!

Day 7 vegan discovery: Delicious wraps

I am pleased to say I have finally solved a mystery. In the past when I have made a wrap for myself it typically just involved me throwing some cheese and maybe a little ham in a whole wheat wrap, warming it up and calling it a day. So it’s no wonder I didn’t find it as exciting as when I got a wrap at a sandwich shop or restaurant. But when you have the right ingredients — a wrap made at home can be even better than one you buy.

Seeing as I’m not spending money on meat, cheese, or dairy products anymore, I have some extra funds to buy ridiculously awesome produce that I would otherwise have talked myself out of. And that lead to creating the best wrap of my existence. I filled a whole wheat pita with tomatoes, red pepper, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, shredded carrots and the “piece de resistence”: lentil hummus.

I found the recipe on Oh She Glows and it was unbelievably easy. I’ll be making it a lot more when I want a change from chick pea hummus. So simple and so good!

Mushroom and Kale Gravy over Millet

Oh She Glows is overflowing with healthy and delicious recipes such as this scrumptious Mushroom and Kale Gravy over Millet. The gravy is creamy and delicious while the kale adds a nice chewy texture and the millet adds the perfect tender crunch. I followed the recipe quite closely except that I used red onion instead of white because it was all I had and I substituted 2/3 button mushrooms and 1/3 portobello mushrooms because I didn’t have cremini. I also doubled the kale quantity for some added fibre and leafy greens. And because I didn’t have nutritional yeast I ground cashews into a powder instead. It was so good I literally closed my eyes to savor it. Enjoy!!

The 30-Day Vegan Challenge

For a couple of years now, the concept of going vegan has been bouncing around in my head. There are many aspects that have always drawn me to the lifestyle. But it always seemed like too much. It was too big, too daunting, too restrictive, too expensive, too time-consuming… and on the list went. Could I live with never eating yogurt again? Could I turn down the plate of turkey at Christmas? I didn’t think so. So I kept putting it off. But over the last few months, every time my vegetarian roommate cooked dinner I thought… “well that looks easy!” And in her warm and inspiring way she would tell me about some of the documentaries she has watched and what she’s learned and things in my head started to shift. I took out books from the library. I looked up facts and recipes on the internet. As I learned about what animals endure to fill the needs of human beings — how cruel the methods are, how wasteful, how unnecessary. I was saddened. I was deeply, deeply saddened to know how much of a role I had played in their suffering. And I felt foolish at having pushed away my concerns or questions about what they go through simply because I didn’t think I could handle the truth. And with that new knowledge, making a change started to seem more doable. And most importantly, more necessary.

But it wasn’t until I came across the book The 30-Day Vegan Challenge that everything clicked. There was suddenly a resource that made it all seem within my grasp. Really, what can’t you do for 30 days? Especially when it’s something you believe in and want to commit to? I’ve commited to countless things for well over 30 days that I’ve had absolutely no interest in simply because I “had” to. So why wouldn’t I commit to something that I’m passionate about? And clearly there is no good answer to that question because I am now on day four of the 30-day challenge!

But despite how excited I am and how easy and fun and invigorating it has been so far, there is still something that has been nagging at me just as it used to over a year ago: what if I can’t stick with it forever? What if I desperately want to enjoy the Christmas dinner I’m used to? What if the dish at a restaurant that I really, really want has cheese, or eggs, or salmon? How will I feel about giving in? Now that I know all that I know about the industry such products come from? Seeing as I have 26 days to go, I can’t answer that question yet. I don’t know how I’ll feel. Maybe 30 days without animal products will make me lose interest in them all together. But it also may be the case that there are certain products I don’t think I can live without. And it may also be the threat of always feeling I am inconveniencing others when I go to their place and can’t eat any of the foods they offer. I truly don’t know what I would do in such a situation because hurting their feelings or inconveniencing them would greatly upset me.

As I’ve been reading The 30-Day Vegan Challenge I have been bouncing these worries around in my head to no end. And then finally, when I reached the very last chapter I was presented with a notion that changed it all:

“Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything.”

Attempting to diminish my footprint on the world doesn’t have to be all or nothing. No one is perfect. No one can do everything. Someone may not eat meat but they may buy grains that have been cultivated by a worker who was paid next to nothing for the task. Another might bike to work rather than drive but buy running shoes that have been made by child workers. I might not be able to live a 100% vegan lifestyle forever, but have I done any harm by trying?

In just four days I have learned many new things that I feel will contribute to diminishing my impact on animal suffering for the rest of my life. For example, ground cashews can add the creaminess of Parmesan cheese to a pasta dish. And gravy can taste equally divine when made with vegetable broth as with beef or chicken. And tofu, when done right, can taste every bit as savory and decadent as the best cut of meat. And as the days move forward I hope to discover some other great alternatives such as coconut milk based ice cream and soy yogurt. If nothing else, living without animal products for 30 days will open my eyes to all the alternatives that are out there in order to help me reduce my negative impact on the lives of animals. I may never be the perfect vegan. Or the perfect person. But who is? All I can do is open my eyes to what is going around me, absorb the knowledge and do my best to live my life as open-mindedly and compassionately as possible.

Cheers to day four!