Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Happy Friday!

Sandy and I were invited to a dinner party this evening.  I have been asked to bring a dessert.  I thought, thank goodness we are still in the hybrid stage.  I’ll  buy a key lime pie.  Everyone loves key lime pie! Happy with that decision, I let it go.

A weird feeling, similar to guilt started to creep into my subconscious. If  I was so relieved to not have to make or bring a vegan dish, than how would I stick with this for a month or a lifetime??  Were Sandy and I going to cloister ourselves in the house with our Tofu and Tempeh steaks….never entertaining or going to our friends homes again?

For the first time I realized that I have been planning, buying things  and collecting recipes for the “Challenge, ” as if there would  never be a time when I had to put these things into practice.

So triumphantly I went to my new vegan cookbooks,  proud of my realization  and excited to right my own wrong.  I started looking through my books for the perfect vegan dessert to share with my Meatatarian girlfriends. I was looking for something quick to prepare that would not require me to seek out every health food store within a 50 mile radius.

I started to panic. I don’t have all these ingredients. I don’t have half of these things! How in the world am I going to fit this in to the one hour I  have to dedicate to this task??

This is the exact dilemma  we all face everyday. There is an emotional battle between  our desire to be healthy and eat delicious foods while spending most of our days  doing things that suck up and spit out our energy, willpower and time.  This is why typically,  I would  buy something unhealthy (but delicious) to bring to a friends…or make those cookies that come in the fridge section.  Who has time to make their own peanut butter to then make vegan peanut butter cookies?? Seriously??

In fear and anguish I sat at the computer one more time. Machine of all knowledge, please help me find a middle ground. There it was on About.com. A simple recipe for Vegan Lemon Poppy-seed cookies. The reviews were outstanding. They were a big hit around the country with the vegans, the yogis and the Meatatarians.

Lesson learned:

Life is rarely black and white. You can’t expect yourself or others to go from a diet  of convenience foods  to a strict regimen of whole foods bought that day and carried home on your bike in a recycled bag.  Life is messy….my life is messy and full of excitement and unstructured days.

I am willing to learn and I am willing to change. I am also going to be gentle with myself as I try new things, learn new skills and fill our pantry and fridge with the ingredients I need to be successful. Not all at once, but little by little as I find them.

With a tiny bit more research I found the perfect recipe to fit our needs and my available time. The vegan cookies are scrumptious,  sophisticated  and  will be a huge hit with our girlfriends. I was going to bring something easy and crappy  for my body because I was pressed for time. The truth is, these didn’t require a lot of time and I am worth it. The people we chose to share a meal with are also worth it.

That is exactly what this is all  about. Taking small steps that bring about change.  Honoring our bodies and giving them what they deserve, not what we believe we only have time for.

I’ll let you know tomorrow how the cookies were received at the party.  Thank goodness Shiraz is vegan.

Tags: 30 day challenge, compassionate eating, dairy free, trying vegan, vegan, vegan dessert, vegan experience