To be honest, so far it’s not been as hard as I thought it would be. I’ve been enjoying eating lots of fresh healthy fruit and veggies and feeling the benefit.

Most days I’ve been having quite a lot of variety with my food actually. Breakfast is either fruit and yogurt, a veggie wrap, baked beans and veggies, a smoothie or porridge.

For lunch I either bring a salad with beans in it or have some kind of stir fry out. Grill’d near my office has nice vegan burgers but I kind of got sick of eating their after i first started work in the area!

Snacks are usually fruit, yogurt or crackers or frosty fruit icy poles as it’s been so hot!

For dinner I usually have potato or rice, lots of salad from the garden and perhaps some  veggies in a stir fry or curry with lentils or some such. We had vegan schnitzel last night which I bought at Radical Grocery. It was delicious but I was not impressed that it came all the way from South Africa, not sure if the carbon miles would be any worse than eating organic beef in terms of emissions and such?

I’ve a few photos here from my camera of meals I’ve had out.

The first is my most favourite meal in Chapel St, Grandma Po tofu. Since it was a friday a had a glass of wine to boot.

I’ve not been paying too much attention to vegan alcohol, I think it will perhaps be another challenge for another day!

I work near a thai restaurant who do a lovely chilli and basil tofu stir fry. It’s a great lunch if you need a change from a salad or sandwich.

On sunday Chris and I went to Como House. It was very hot and amidst some arguing we decided to wait until we got there for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to find a salad complete with roast pumpkin and walnuts ( I asked for no cheese) and some lovely elderflower soft drink which I love.

The cons so far:
A lot of people seem to have a very limited idea of what vegan cooking entails and just can’t get their heads around it. I’ve three events this week where rissotto is on the menu. It’s like people think of a plate of vegetables, then think no, it needs to be better than that, then they get stuck!

Yesterday for work we went to a conference centre. Vegan food was requested ahead. For morning tea everyone had muffins. They even had gluten free muffins, but no dairy free ones. There was no soy milk. But I did get fruit.

For lunch I got green salad and a really bland vegetable rissotto. No protein at all to speak of! My dessert was fruit. Afternoon tea was  (you guessed it),fruit whilst my colleagues had pastries. I guess the moral here is, even when you are catered for, bring along some extras just in case, something I will be instigating from now on at such occasions.

Socialising is fine, if a little less festive. We went to a friend’s birthday saturday night at a seafood restaurant and had the only veg option on the menu. It was nice enough, but not comparable to the 8 course feast most of the guests were having. I didn’t mind not eating it, more that I felt a bit left out in the occasion of it all. But this is my an attitude than anything else I guess.

That said, I’ve discovered that Tart n Round in Thornbury will be starting their 5 course degustation menu next week, definitely something to check out! We’re also planning a vegan dinner party for next week and a trip to the East Brunswick Club on the weekend for some of their excellent fare!