My week as a vegan – Day 3
Hours spent cooking: 6
Hours spent enjoying cooking: 1
Ok, so maybe I got a little overenthusiastic with my food prep today. In my pressing need to have go-to meals and snacks ready for all occasions, I ended up cooking enough vegan food for several armies and their horses. Luckily horses are vegan too, so there you go.
7.30am Time to try a new plant milk in my coffee! Here we go oat milk, wow me.
7.31am Distinctly unwowed. Tried heating it as suggested by one reader and while it delayed the inevitable split by a few minutes, the split still happened. There’s something about coffee with dodgy floating bits that I can’t get into – strange, that. Drank it begrudgingly. Beginning to despair of ever having a decent cup of coffee again.
8.00am Toast with hummus. The breakfast bit is fine – I usually have low fat cottage cheese with aromat. This is the richer, creamier version and I actually like it better. Also full disclosure: wtf else am I meant to have on my toast and don’t tell me avo.
11.00am Coffee at the parents. Took my oat milk and prayed it would taste better the second time around. It didn’t.
11.15am Mom broke out the chips. Had to decline on account of their cheese au gratin flavour. Felt smug and healthy. Mom broke out the plain salted despite my protests. Ate them by the handful.
11.20am Began the Hummus Assembly Line. Place 1kg of chickpeas in blender and frantically toss in tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and any other liquid within reach as blender creaks and lurches under crushing weight of chickpea deluge. Pause each time motor begins to smell of burnt rubber. Pour hummus tsunami into 7.5 tupperwares and where the bloody hell is all this going to go? Take one batch and blend in cooked beetroot. This is the best part because how pretty and pink? Also very tasty.
12.30pm Lunch – repeat of yesterday’s Denny crumbed mushroom burger. Seriously, these are better than beef and I’m not just saying that. Do you think if I live on mushroom burgers alone it still qualifies as healthy?
1.00pm Made raw chocolate protein balls. At this point I should mention that my husband is attempting to add shelves to our kitchen cupboards while I cook. The counters are covered in DIY impediments. The floor is covered with crates of cupboard contents. The dishwasher is piled with a complicated mix of clean and dirty dishes. The toddler is in the dishwasher. The dog is hiding under the bed – I want to join her.
2.00pm Toddler is napping, kitchen is clean, another miserable cup of coffee is made. Time for lunch prep. It should be noted that there were no snacks to report on this day as we were too busy trying to stem the tide of what the ef has overtaken our previously orderly existence.
From 2pm for what seems like (and is) hours and hours
Cooked the following: several bucket loads of quinoa, a midi saucepan full of red kidney beans, a pot of almost-done, watch them carefully, don’t overdo….aaah ffs, overdid it mung beans, a jug of lemon-tahini dressing, a pan of toasted pumpkin seeds and a wok of Thai stir-fried veggies, pre-cut and packaged because looking at this schedule do you actually expect me to chop my own veggies.
6.30pm Food prep for the week is done! What’s that, dear? You’re hungry and you want dinner?
The End because husband was killed in unfortunate kitchen mishap
6.31pm Just kidding – he actually made the tastiest mushroom stroganoff for us, recipe coming soon.
8.00pm Rooibos tea (oh black tea, I have a new and glorious appreciation for your simplicity) and a vegan biscuit we picked up while shopping whose name I won’t mention because we will not be buying it again. This is why I have a blog dedicated to making my own snacks.
Day 3 verdict
Do not attempt to cook all your vegan food for the year in one afternoon. Do not attempt to work side by side with DIYing husband during food prep. Do not let toddler climb in the dishwash…aaah this one’s ok actually, at least I can see where she is. Despite those hiccups, a smashing success! As I’m writing this on Day 4 I can now see through those rose-tinted spectacles we call hindsight, which in this instance leaves me super grateful for my heroic prep efforts. Today has been a breeze because of it.
Will I ever find a pleasant milk substitute that doesn’t make me gag on my coffee? Is there more to vegan life than hummus (spoiler: not really)? Find out the answers to these questions and more on Day 4.
Catch up!