Pump Up The Jam

me before the big experiment....
So I've made several allusions to it in a recent blog and conversations recently but I haven't officially come out of the closet and declared it for all to see: I am a vegan. Well, for one week only.

It's something that' s been on my mind a lot in the last few months- could I do it? Is it something I would want to do on a full time basis? Is it even practical given that I live in one of the top meat eating countries?

I set out to try this for one week and started last Saturday. My main motivation was actually laziness. When I got back into town from Romania, I couldn't be bothered going to the supermarket for a proper shop but I did manage to get to the organic supermarket which gave me the idea. They've got loads of vegetarian and vegan products so I thought I'd stock up and give this idea a whirl.

There are a couple of rules- as well as cutting out milk, cheese, yoghurt etc from my diet I can't buy anything which I know for certain has any dairy products in it. I have had a few pieces of chocolate which I know has got milk in but that has been my only concession so far.

For the first day at home everything went quite well because I didn't have to leave the house. My first day at work was a different matter and resulted in my subsisting on some bread and an apple although I headed home to a lovely stir fry. Before I set out to do this I didn't think I'd get past the 2nd day without giving in and eating cheese and I did indeed do this- I bought vegan cheese thinking I could slice it up and stick it in a sarnie but it was absolutely disgusting. A sort of light pink/grey in colour with a very weird texture, it was only today that I realised this stuff is meant only for heating and cooking with, not just putting in your sandwitches.

I might make some pizza to use the rest of it up at the weekend. I am also planning to make hummous and soup I bought a load of chickpeas to do this but so far had no time in the week to do this. Tomorrow's dinner is one of my favourite's which I've been making for years anyway- tofu in black bean sauce with pepper and noodles. Yum yum!!!! Anyone fancy dinner at my place?


me (hopefully) after a week of veganism:



Mental note to self: Must watch Wallace and Gromit at the weekend again...