Category: Free Inquiry

Well, it’s been a slice, but as the semester comes to a close so do my blog updates…

As you already know, my personal inquiry was experimenting with a more sustainable diet (ie. eating less meat/animal by-products, trying new recipes and foods, and educating myself on what it means to be vegetarian/vegan. The journey has been fun, challenging, and enlightening, and I definitely have a newfound respect for vegans and vegetarians alike.

In the world we live in today, it is difficult to avoid animal produced foods because they tend to be almost everywhere you find food, and it can be hard not to eat whether it be because someone serves it to you, you’re buying food out and vegan options aren’t available, it’s a habit, or you simply like those foods and don’t want to give them up.  Over the course of this semester, I encountered all of the above, and while these stopped me from going full vegetarian (and obviously vegan) I still managed to render my diet more animal-friendly! I also developed an awareness of the impacts that my diet and lifestyle choices have on the Earth.

In addition to these developments, I discovered an array of new recipes and foods that for the most part I actually really enjoyed! These include (but aren’t limited to) the following:

• BBQ Jackfruit Pulled Pork
• Tofu Stirfries
• Soy Latte
• Vegan Peanutbutter Cups
• Tofu Crumble Tacos
• Hummus Wraps/Sandwiches
• Almond Butter Cookie Bars

Despite the difficulties I faced, I intend to keep progressing towards more sustainable eating habits by incorporating more plant-based proteins into my diet, expanding my vegan and vegetarian recipe repertoire, and simply making conscious efforts to eat as clean as possible and feasible for myself. I love baking so I’m specifically looking forward to finding more vegan baked goods that I like! With the newfound free time I have in self-isolation right now, I’m expecting to do lots of this, as well as finally watch the eating documentary I blogged about several weeks ago.

To anyone wanting to know my main takeaway from this inquiry, it is that everyone can make a difference in regards to this subject. You don’t have to be a full vegan to positively impact our Earth, you just have to be willing to make at least one animal-conscious eating choice every week or so. This could be as simple as having a handful of nuts instead of a pepperoni stick… Because every effort counts!

Appreciate you sticking with me through my journey😊

Update from self-isolation: COVID-19 has slightly disrupted my plans for trying new recipes, experimenting with new forms of vegetarian proteins, and attempting to stick to a fully vegan diet.

I recently found my self confined to my house and not wanting to venture out to the grocery store, so I have been living off of the ingredients I already had in my house. This has meant lots of stirfries (classic rice, tofu, and random vegetables), eggs, and canned soup which I have for backup meals when I am feeling too lazy to cook. Fortunately, with these staples, I have managed to avoid meats, and, for the most part, dairy! I also was able to try out a new baking recipe with my newfound free time.

I searched vegan cookies in google and settled on this recipe (with a couple of modifications to match the ingredients I had on hand)…

I used vegetable oil in place of coconut oil, white sugar in place of coconut sugar, wheat flour in place of almond flour and finally, milk chocolate chips in place of non-dairy chocolate chips. I could have left the chocolate chips out to preserve the full vegan aspect of this recipe, but thought what are cookies without chocolate chips… In the end, they turned out pretty well but didn’t exactly satisfy me as a cookie. I shared them with my roommates and they agreed that if you called them a bar, they were delicious, but if you labeled them as a cookie they didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Horrible quality picture, but this was the result!😁

So, its been a week since I’ve attempted full veganism and I can honestly say it’s been a struggle. I had to be inventive with my meals and experiment with ingredients I wouldn’t normally try. One such ingredient was nutritional yeast (commonly referred to as ‘nooch’)  which is a powdered, deactivated yeast that is rich in protein and boasts a delicious cheesy flavour. I experimented with this on pasta with tomato sauce, popcorn, and oven roasted vegetables!

To normalize my eating as much as I could, I bought foods to replace the things I eat or use in things regularly. These replacements included dairy free yogurt, oat milk, vegan burgers, tofu, and several others.

I also went to a coffee shop to study one day and researched a vegan place to go to. I discovered Fernwood Cafe that had a variety of yummy treats, meals, and drinks to choose from. I settled on a peanut butter cup and soy milk latte, and thoroughly enjoyed both!

In my mind, this week was a success and I plan to continue using some of the vegan replacements I found! I would also love to experiment with vegan baking recipes because I think it would be fun and tasty.

I still have yet to watch the documentary I mentioned a couple of posts previously, but it is still on my to-do list. This past week I’ve been focusing on getting back into the routine of meal-prepping and cooking regularly (with predominantly vegetarian ingredients).

I am definitely feeling more on track after reading break’s slight curveball, but I think that it is time to take another step forward with my plan now and try a vegan lifestyle for a week. I already know this is going to be a challenge because I not only enjoy a lot of non-vegan foods but also because I am simply not used to looking out for things that contain animal by-products.

Things like ordering a latte with almond milk instead of regular milk, watching for baking that includes egg, and finding substitutes for non-vegan ingredients in my own cooking are going to take a conscious effort on my part. I need to grocery shop soon, so I think the first step I am going to take towards this goal is going to be emptying my fridge of leftover ingredients that aren’t vegan, and then replenishing it with plant-based ingredients.

I really like eggs, so for dinner tonight, I am going to make myself scrambled eggs and toast, to both get rid of eggs from my kitchen, as well as have a last egg-meal before this next week 🙂

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Can’t say that mine will look this good, but a little preview of what I’m aiming to whip up tonight! (still vegetarian too)

This post is a little late but better late than never right!

Unfortunately, over reading week, my sustainable eating goal was set back a step or two. I wish I could say I stuck to the vegetarian lifestyle more than I did, but several factors definitely offset my journey!

The first of these factors was that I wasn’t doing my own grocery shopping or cooking. Back in Penticton, I was eating meals with my family and relying on the groceries my mom bought anytime I made my own food. This limited the variety of non-meat food options since no one in my family is vegan or vegetarian. I also had the luxury of my mom’s delicious homemade cooking which, more often than not, contains some sort of chicken, beef or pork component. This leads me into the next challenge I faced at home, it’s hard to turn down foods you love when they are placed right in front of you – even when you know they go against your goal. Fresh bacon and eggs for breakfast… chicken fettuccine alfredo for lunch… burgers with cheese and onion for dinner… Way too hard to say no!

While this week was not exactly on track with the rest of my progress, it did teach me that this sort of lifestyle isn’t as easy as it had previously seemed. There are always going to be temptations and obstacles to navigate, but it is important to remind myself why I made this goal for myself, as well as that my journey won’t be perfect because I am still learning about this lifestyle and what works for me.

SOOOO another week has gone by living a relatively vegetarian lifestyle… Of the past 7 days, I only ate meat once (and this was more by accident than anything)!

Out of habit, I ordered a chicken wrap from Mac’s one day when I had forgotten my lunch at home. Had I been thinking, I would have ordered a veggie wrap with hummus as the protein rather than chicken, but I fell into autopilot asking for the same order of chicken, spinach, onion and tomato that I always get on my wraps.

Even though that wrap was DELICIOUS, it’s a little frustrating knowing that that is the only meat I ate this week, and probably would have been just as satisfied with hummus.

When I went shopping for my groceries this week, I purposely didn’t buy any meat, so that I wouldn’t be tempted or feel compelled to cook with meat at home. This honestly worked really well because I made sure to buy other sources of protein and it pushed me to try a new recipe once again.

I made jackfruit ‘pulled pork’ and it was so good and so easy! The jackfruit comes in a can and all I did was cook it, add some BBQ sauce to it, and put it in a bun with coleslaw.

After the wrap experience, I discovered a challenge I hadn’t actually foreseen – eating meat out of habit, not just because I needed or was craving it. There are so many protein replacements nowadays, and ways that you can simulate meals that would normally require meat, that it is totally possible to follow a vegetarian diet. I am just going to have to be a little more conscious in the future.

So far so good😊

I made it through the week not eating meat four out of seven days, and it honestly happened without having to try. I did, however, have to make an effort to use tofu in at least one of my meals!

Before this last week, I had never cooked tofu, but it turned out to be a pretty unintimidating process. I began by pressing the tofu to get rid of the excess moisture, then cutting it into cubes, and eventually, marinating half of the cubed tofu in soy sauce. Once marinated, I cooked the tofu in a bit of oil and tossed it into my normal stir-fry mix of vegetables and rice. It was delicious, AND I honestly didn’t even miss the chicken that I normally incorporate in that meal. Even better was that I still had leftover tofu, so I decided to try out another recipe. This time I got a little more adventurous and decided to make tofu tacos. These consisted of tortillas, crumbled tofu, taco seasoning, salsa, cheese, and lettuce. Simple, but so good!

Here’s a quick photo of the stir-fry I made (my apologies for not taking a picture of the tacos, but I was so hungry by the time I’d finished cooking them that I didn’t bother).

I know it’s only the start, but I’d call this journey a success so far, and I’m looking forward to week two. I think I might attempt jackfruit ‘pulled pork’ as my new protein replacement this time.

As I posted previously, this is the beginning of my journey to a more plant-based diet. I am really looking forward to feeling as though I am doing something that will make a positive impact on the environment, as well as myself.

Although there is a potential I won’t be consuming the same variety and quantity of vitamins and nutrients that I would in a meat/dairy-rich diet, I can always supplement these and I think the benefits will outweigh this drawback. I am hoping to see improvements in the quality of my skin – since dairy often has hormones that can contribute to acne and inflammation – to reduce my risk of cancer, to help lower greenhouse gas emissions, and to reduce the number of animals harmed to create meat and other animal by-products.

I’ve researched several meat replacements and found that tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, jackfruit, eggplant, lentils, beans, cauliflower, nuts, and beets are all full of nutrients and can be made to resemble many of the textures and flavors in meat. I’m super excited to start experimenting with some of these new ingredients and have already begun to look for new recipes I can make!

I’m hoping to start off my journey by dedicating myself to eating no meat at least three days a week, as well as making one recipe that involves a plant-based protein substitute. I often make stir-fries because they are quick and easy, so I might try to make tofu to go in a meal like that!

I’ll keep you all updated on how this first week goes.

Howdy all, and welcome to the start of my free inquiry!

I’ve decided that over the course of this semester I am going to make a conscious effort to follow a more environmentally sustainable eating regimen (AKA more plant-based). Since I wanted to find a project I would actually enjoy doing, as well as one that I thought I would actually adhere to, it took me a while to come up with this idea. Eating more sustainably seemed like a reasonable enough goal, and is something I have been wanting to do for a while anyway.

My motivation for doing this stems from wanting to help protect the environment, really really disliking cooking meat, and having a lot of vegetarian and vegan friends who encourage me to find vegetarian alternatives and often give me plant-based recipes to try.

My plan is to slowly reduce the amount of meat I eat, then dairy, then eggs. I think this is going to be a rewarding process, but not all that easy. I am not a huge fan of beans (which I know is often a big protein source in plant-based diets), so I will need to dedicate some time to researching new foods and recipes that I can prepare for myself. I think it will be fun to discover some new meals and to cook without having to deal with the unpleasantness that is raw meat.

The benefits of eating more sustainably, both for myself and the planet, will definitely motivate me to stick to my plan and make a conscious effort to do all I can to eat better.

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