The first weekend

This is the first weekend on my road to veganism and so far so good! Officially, I am off all red meat, and although poultry, fish, eggs and dairy are still on the menu, I have managed to avoid all of these except for one egg (to make pancakes, and I used soy milk instead of dairy) and the cream in my coffee. That's it. When we had family over to visit on Saturday, it was pizza - one veggie and one with pepperoni - oh yeah, I forgot to mention the cheese on the pizza. Ok, now that's all...

One egg, cream in the coffee and cheese on the pizza. No meat at all.

So, what did I eat in place of chicken or fish? I had curried tofu with egg plant on black bean sauce and rice. Delicious! There was some consumption of chocolate, licorice and marzipan (the best dessert made with almonds ever). Having company is a great excuse to have treats.

The plan tonight is cream of leek and potato soup. I will be making the soup stock from scratch using lots of veggies and spices - the recipe will be posted on here later. Enough soup to last for the week, or at least half the week (the whole family really likes this one). The reason for making the soup (and stock) from scratch: avoidance of monosodium glucamate. That stuff is horrendous....and it's in almost everything you buy pre-packaged at the grocery store. With the exception of natural food and health stores, try this little exercise when grocery shopping: look for a can of soup that does not contain MSG - and good luck finding one! I have found this to be nearly impossible, unless there is a natural food area in the store. I'm one of those people that reads labels and ingredients on everything, so grocery shopping with me takes at least an hour - if only for one basket of goods.

The plan is off to a great start!