As I mentioned in my New Years Resolution post, we are trying to be mostly vegan this month. When we made this decision, we decided we would cheat a few times–for Ben’s birthday later this month and anytime we were invited to eat at someone’s house. So far it is going pretty well. I was feeling a little drained the first few days, but I think that was due to a variety of factors. I also think I needed to adjust how much I was eating since a vegan diet is naturally lower in calories. I did already lose the 5 lbs I put on over the holidays, so that was pretty great!

As for why we decided to do this, the main reason is to broaden our horizons and learn to cook (and order when eating out) more vegetable heavy foods. I will always go for cheese over veggies when given the option, and I want to try to adjust my palate to be a little more veggie heavy (am I making any sense?). I am pretty sure we will never be full-fledged vegans, but there are lots of reasons to eat a primarily plant based diet.

Wednesday: Lucky New Years Dinner

We had a traditional southern New Years dinner, but veganized: vegan cornbread (really good, I promise!), vegan collard greens (definitely prefer these to the “hammy” kind), and my favorite black eyed peas, Texas caviar.

Thursday: Sweet Potato Chickpea Wraps

My friend Diana told me about this recipe a few weeks ago and raved about it. It sounded like an unusual combination to me, but I decided to try it for one of our vegan meals (plus Diana and I tend to have similar taste in food). It was really good!! The whole family gobbled it up. So go ahead and give it a try! Oh, but be warned–the recipe is from Thug Kitchen and the writing is colorful!

Man, I love these Field Roast Sausages. Seriously, they are really good! And they are not full of all the fake stuff that vegetarian “meats” often are. We had them with some mini rolls from Trader Joe’s (their hot dog buns are not vegan but these worked great), roasted Brussels sprouts, and roasted fingerling potatoes. We topped our dogs with ketchup and veganaise, which, I KID YOU NOT, tastes exactly like mayonnaise.

Saturday: Dinner with the Owens

We were invited to dinner at our friends’ house for dinner on Saturday. Sam and Campbell are good friends with their daughters, and we love their parents, so we all had a great time. We had delicious guacamole, veggie pizza, and cookies for dessert!

Sunday: Dinner with the Hobbs

After a little break due to the busy holiday season, we are getting back into our dinner routine with the Hobbs. As usual, Nicole made a delicious meal: cheese sticks with marinara sauce, tomato-mozzarella-pesto paninis, and Caesar salad. And ice cream pie for dessert! Yuuumm!

Monday: Crispy Avocado Tacos, Rice, and Beans

This is a recipe from one of our favorite restaurants that I have been wanting to make for ages, but I have never gotten around to it because I was a little intimidated (frying makes me nervous!). But I am so glad I finally made it! It was delicious!! And really not that hard, and easy to do in little bursts over the course of the afternoon. For leftover lunch the next day, I didn’t fry the avocados, but instead just made a simple guacamole (smashed avocado, lime juice, salt), which was also good. Either way, you should try this recipe!

Tuesday: Spicy Beans and Coconut Milk

This recipe calls for light coconut milk, but since we are being vegans all month, I decided to really live it up and use coconut cream, which I found at Trader Joes. Not surprisingly, this really kicked it up a notch! I also made some vegan naan to serve with this (the one I usually get at TJs is not vegan), which was fantastic and not super hard. I would like to try making some and freezing it for a more convenient weeknight meal.