February is a great month.
Sure, it’s hot here in Crazy Upside-Down Land, but it’s the last month before a welcome seasonal change. My city has a multicultural festival during February, meaning actual people are in the city at nighttime for once. There’s a day devoted entirely to love and sometimes one devoted to pancakes. Elizabeth Taylor, Chopin, Anais Nin, Ansel Adams, Charles Darwin, Rosa Parks, William Burroughs, James Joyce and Charles Dickens were born in February. More importantly, so was Dr.Dre and so was I.
February is kind of weird, because how many days it has depends on the year. It is a renegade month, a loose cannon. If you want to do something for a whole month, February is a good choice, because it isn’t as long as the other months, but you still get to say, “I did X for a WHOLE MONTH”, earning you acclaim and acknowledgment from your peers. Hence, the point of this rambling ode to February.
I’ve been thinking about trying a vegan diet for a while now. When in Cairns, I met a kick-ass raw food vegan and despite seeming at first like the most complicated way to eat possible, she managed to impress upon me how easy it was, so long as you’re fond of large amounts of fruits, vegetables, nuts and olive oil.
I eat mostly vegetarian at home, because it’s cheaper, less hassle for food storage and preparation and indulges my deep love for tofu. But I rely heavily on eggs and dairy for quick meals, especially cheese (delicious, delicious cheese) and it’s making me lazy. I figure going vegan for a month might force me out of my current snacking habits, get me cooking a greater variety of food since most takeaway will be off the menu and continue to save me money. Plus, I’m interested to see how hard it will be to give up full-fat yogurt, milk chocolate and the occasional McNugget.
Ah, anti-foaming agent. How I shall miss thee...
The deal was sealed by Naomi from Gluttonous Vegan, who offers support through her lovely website for people wanting to try out being vegan.
So, come next Monday, February is Vegan Month for me. I’ll keep you posted on how I go with all 28 days of it. I’m allowing myself one Get Out Of Jail Free Card, as I might slip up, accidently or otherwise. Or I might just want some brie on my birthday.
Tips from fellow vegans, or directions to awesome vegan websites are much appreciated. Wish me luck!
29/01/2010 at 7:28 am Permalink
shitballs. it’s as easy to be a lazy vegan as it is a lazy vegetarian. chips and vegemite sandwiches still get a good workout here when I’m feeling waaay too lazy. carbs are a lazy vegan’s best friend (bread, pasta, etc)
there are hundreds of blogs out there though – you’ll find plenty. a lot of them will use North American kinds of things, which I find to be different from typical Australian food, so you might have some more luck on vegsoc than random blogs.
personally, I’m not a fan of “veganising” food – substituting meat for tofu/seitan/tempeh/whatever (which seems common in North America). I’d rather embrace the fuck out of a celebration of veganism.
I’m all for indulging in coconut cream (with tomato, or pumpkin, or pesto kinds of sauces – so rich and awesome), nuts and nut butters, a shit-ton of fruit (and it’s summer there! I’ve just been snacking on a shit-ton of apples, haha), etc. for protein, you might wanna try quinoa instead of rice sometimes. beyond that, just a lot of beans and such – kidney beans and chickpeas are gonna be easy. same rules as vegetarianism all work here though – leafy greens, nuts, pulses, grains, etc.
shitballs, it’s summer there. get some hummus, tomato and rocket leaves and have a party. what I wouldn’t give for that! haha
and, well, the milk substitutes in Australia are pretty solid, so dropping dairy isn’t really an issue at all. except cheese, apparently..but I found that super easy to get away from. (protip: most vegan cheese in Australia will likely disappoint the fuck out of you – don’t bother)
of course, then you have all the Indian and generic Asian meals that are p.easy to go vegan with..but I’m kinda sure you’ve got that kinda thing all sorted.
haha Canberra is pretty ballsack for it all though. move to Melbourne for the month and drain your bank account..you won’t even need to cook a meal for yourself!
I guess if you were doing it longer term it’d be a bit more of a deal.. over the course of a month you’re not really gonna do any real harm, even if you’re a lazy vegan. B12 and omega-3s and all of that nonsense. who needs to be healthy anyway?
hassle me if you have any specific though!
29/01/2010 at 2:37 pm Permalink
That’s awesome, hope it goes well! For eating out, I found I could handle almost any situation by asking for “X without the cheese” (this works surprisingly well for pizza) and “X with napolitana instead of cheese sauce” for pasta.
Ooh, I also recommend Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/) if you’re after something sweet :)
Good luck!
Rohan
29/01/2010 at 9:19 pm Permalink
^ ha! I had one of Isa’s photographers as a couchsurfer a few months ago. guy could sureee cook!
31/01/2010 at 11:09 am Permalink
Josh – know what you mean about ‘veganising’ food – if someone’s vegan because they don’t like meat, why make everything taste like it? There were restaurants with that kind of food when I lived in Taiwan, but people there, if vegetarian, were doing it for religious reasons, probably missed eating BBQ pork, but didn’t want to violate Buddhist principles.
But yeah – hummus, rocket and tomato! Summer makes things easy. I’m going to be eating a whole lot of salads and summer stir-fries.
Rohan – thanks for adding to my collection of vegan baking websites. I’m surprised how easy it is to bake awesome stuff without dairy. I’m interested to see how tricky eating out will be – this whole thing feels like a bit of an adventure right now!