Vegan Week: Complete!

After I made my plans for vegan week, I made my grocery list and went shopping, and it was on! I was actually looking forward to starting. In the three days before vegan week started, I'd eaten two meals worth of Panda Express, as well as barbecue at two different restaurants within a 24-hour period. It was time to try to eat cleaner.

Having a plan actually did help me succeed pretty easily. In fact, I can't believe I thought it would be hard; the hardest part was ignoring the constant ice cream cravings for the first three days. (And Friday's cheeseburger craving, even though I don't like cheese.) I really didn't feel deprived of any nutrients either. Making sure I had snacks on-hand that I could eat was super helpful, even though Matt kept trying to eat all my snacks. ;)

That said, I'm glad vegan week is over. I don't think I'm meant to be vegan long-term; I was interested to see how I would feel and if cutting out dairy and animal products would help solve some of my stomach issues. In fact, I felt kind of sick on a couple of the days. So it's back to being an omnivore for me.

Desserts
I did make a few dessert-type items to abate my sugar fixation. The first time I was craving sweets (er, on Monday morning) I made this chocolate soft-serve recipe. It tasted good, but my still-used-to-ice-cream palate did not think it tasted like ice cream. The further into the week I got, though, the more I thought it actually tasted like soft-serve.

Bananas in disguise.

On Wednesday, I made this cookie dough dip that Sarah recommended (made of chickpeas!). I was super hesitant to try it, because really? Chickpeas tasting like cookie dough? Psh. I don't know if I was just super deprived of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream or what, but it actually tastes similar to cookie dough. I even got Matt — a self-declared hummus-hater — to eat some! Don't judge it before you try it. It looks and smells weird, but it's actually pretty good.

Mmmm. Dessert hummus.

And really, those are the only desserts I felt like I needed. SHOCKED!

Snacks:
I found out that I really don't like kettle corn. When I buy "homestyle" popcorn, I can usually polish off a bag by myself for a snack. I felt sick when I tried to do that with kettle corn. It's too sickly sweet.

I had to buy two things of mixed nuts, because Matt ate more of them than I did and we ran out mid-week. I also ate a few apples. But let's be honest, I pretty much just snacked on my dessert foods.

Pre-Planned Dinners:
Some of the dinner recipes I planned (Peach Gazpacho, Pesto Minestrone) were pretty good, and one was a standout: Balsalmic Grilled Veggies and Quinoa. I don't know how to use our grill, so I broiled the veggies. I pretty much wanted to bathe in this stuff, it was so good. Broiled balsalmic-and-olive-oil zucchini may be my new favorite thing EVER. The other meals I had planned weren't really that good.

Conclusions:
My husband is a saint for eating everything I put in front of him this week. That includes mushy tofu and fruit soup.

I spent way more than my allotted grocery budget this week. I don't know if it's because buying food for both a vegan eater and an omnivore means twice as much stuff, or if fresh veggies are just that much more expensive and I never noticed because I usually buy them in much smaller quantities than I did this week.

Cooking vegan made me not enjoy cooking. Shame; I typically like the time I spend in the kitchen!

Would you ever try a vegan week? How about dessert hummus? :)