I’ve been blown away by the support for doing this little challenge. From complete strangers emailing me with kind words to friends leaving treats by my back door which really make me happy. I’ve had recipes sent to me of tried and tested dishes and also fellow Veganuary experimenters with success stories. It’s helped to make this month (so far) really quite easy.
The main comments I’ve had really interest me, mostly saying how they couldn’t give up cheese, milk, chocolate etc etc. No one seems to care about giving up the main meat or fish dishes. I’m not sure if that’s because people think they eat more veggies than they actually do or because we just live on a dairy rich diet?
The biggest disappointment I’ve had was last weekend though. I had planned to meet a friend for lunch as a local restaurant. Picked for many logistical reasons but also the food is always good, local and interesting. I won’t name them as I think that’s unfair, I have emailed them directly instead. But out of a very large menu covering breakfasts, brunch, lunches and afternoon teas I could only pick two items. The gluten free and vegetarian options were really good and actually well above average. My lunch date is vegetarian and she was struggling to decide. I, however, felt let down. I’d looked forward to not cooking and having a different type of dish in front of me but I ended up with an open sandwich with Houmous (not Rod and Ben’s) and yet more olives. I think this is where cafes and restaurants need to focus if possible. It’s about offering interesting flavours and ideas not just substituting ham for houmous.
I did swing by the local supermarket on my way home and bought pretty much everything that was Plant based, mainly to try things even if I wasn’t sure when. As I enter my last week of this challenge I’m being asked if I’ll continue to be honest at this point the answer is yes, however, lets see how bad the weigh-in is, as I seem to be eating more peanut butter than is entirely healthy!!
Growing good 