Veganuary
The month of new diets, gym memberships, and New Years resolutions is winding down, and I am sure there are several people re-writing and re-prioritizing their goals for 2023. While there are many statistics out there, it is estimated that approximately only 8-16% of people complete their New Years Resolutions with the majority of these resolutions centering around dieting, exercise, money, and finding love. Unfortunately, the majority of people give up their resolutions at the end of January citing lack of motivation, time, or resources that prevent them from accomplishing their goals.
While the New Years resolution I am referring to is predominately of western culture, the tradition originates from the Babylonians approximately 4,000 years ago. Sources state that they would make promises to their gods in order to earn good favor with them throughout the upcoming year. Other similar traditions were popular with ancient civilizations like the Romans, but the modern history of New Years resolutions can be traced back to Methodist church founder John Wesley in 1740. Wesley decided New Years Eve and Day to have a Covenant Renewal Service where members sang, prayed, and made promises for the new year.
New year's resolutions centered around diet programs can be traced back to the 1860s when one of the first diet books was published. By replacing his diet of bread, sugar, and potatoes with meat, fish and vegetables, the author raved of his success. Over the decades we have seen many fad diets rise and fall including the grapefruit diet from the 1930s, the cabbage soup diet from the 1960s, and the Atkins diet where carbs are the enemy in the 2000s. In addition there have been some crazy diets noted over the years including the cotton ball diet, the air diet, and the baby food diet.
One diet that has risen to the forefront of western culture in recent years is Veganism. Vegans follow the general guidelines of not eating any animal products including meat, eggs, and dairy products. While many follow this lifestyle for health reasons, there are others who cite environmental reasons as well. As someone who has grown up in the south, even our vegetables are flavored with bacon so being vegan was a foreign concept for me until college. However, over the past few years my husband Drew and I have found ourselves accidentally vegetarian for days at a time. This made me wonder, how hard can it be to be vegan?
Trader Joes had many vegan items, but my favorite had to be the banana bread. I also enjoyed the Thai vegetable gyoza, vegetable samosas, and almond butter granola.
Veganuary is a challenge that started in 2014 by a crowdfunding non-profit group in the United Kingdom to highlight environmentally conscious diets. According to the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization in 2020, meat and dairy production accounted for approximately 14.5% of greenhouse emissions. (Coffee made up a good percentage as well which hurt my heart a bit). While I still have many questions of how “environmentally conscious” it is to be vegan due to all of the processed and pre-packaged food that has come with the influx of this lifestyle, I was interested in general to try this diet and see how sustainable it is. After all, Daniel was basically vegan and ended up being healthier than the other men who ate the rich food from King Nebuchadnezzar’s table.
Update: it was really hard at first to be vegan. It didn’t help that we started off the first of the year traveling because I had planned delicious meals to make but failed to think of what to do eating out. I also had to figure out what to do when we had other people cook for us because I didn’t want to be rude and refuse the food people spent time making for us. This challenge was by no means perfect, but in the end I did figure out a few things I would like to share with you.
The goal is progress not perfection. I may or may not have gotten frustrated when we were traveling and gave up one night and had Chick-Fil-A. It happens. Instead of being done with Veganuary completely, I re-evaluated what I needed to succeed. This setback was followed by a great grocery store haul and delicious homemade meals. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.
Dairy hides in food you would never expect. I went to pick up some BBQ chips to take to a party, and I was surprised to find that they contained dairy! I definitely had to read labels more this month and found dairy can hide in processed grains and meats as well.
You have to find foods that keep you full and fulfilled. For me it was black beans, rice, avocados, bananas, and potatoes. A lot of times I would make a rice bowl with various toppings or a big pan of roasted potatoes and veggies. This made it effortless to make meals for Drew and I both. I would stick to the vegetables and grains, and Drew could add meat or dairy as he saw fit. Meat doesn’t have to be the focus of delicious meals.
Spices are a vegan’s best friend. Long before western culture made Veganism a trend, there are several cultures that have famous dishes that are naturally vegan. Many Indian and Thai dishes use coconut milk and a delicious blend of spices. There are also easy to find recipes with chickpeas, tofu, or tempeh. Most of my dishes this month centered around Indian, Thai, and Latino flavors. My favorite spices included cumin, chipotle chili pepper, garlic, ginger, and yellow curry spices. Pasta dishes with red sauce were also a favorite.
Processed doesn’t beat homemade. Since Veganism has grown in our culture over the past decade, so has the demand for easy and fast vegan meals. Even when I was shopping in Wal-Mart there was a vegan area within the frozen meal section. While this is nice to make this type of food more accessible, I am not going to lie the taste reminded me a lot of public school lunches. Instead, I found myself shopping the perimeters of the grocery store for fresh fruits and vegetables and in the canned aisles for rice and beans. I even ended up making my own broth with vegetable scraps from carrots, celery, and onions.
Spicy Thai noodles with edamame and plenty of fresh cilantro.
Overall, I am glad that I did this challenge. I generally feel better and I learned a whole new side of cooking/baking that I had not investigated before. Some websites and accounts that helped me through this journey was Sadia and Robin from the Pick Up Limes team, Carleigh Bodrug from Plant You , and Ella Mills from Deliciously Ella. I would also like to give a special shout out to my former roommate Skylar who has been vegan for years. One recipe we ended up making a few times this month was sweet potato tacos with adobo sauce. This does have an option of being a vegetarian meal as well by making the sauce more of a crema. We did not limit this delicious mixture to just tacos either. We ended up making burritos and bowls as well! I hope you all give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did. This is definitely one of the vegan meals we will be adding to the mix of weeknight meals. Until then, I am going to grab a pack of turkey bacon because I truly have missed that for breakfast.
Sweet Potato Tacos with Adobo Sauce
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, diced
1 head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 tablespoons olive oil, or enough to coat vegetables
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 can black beans (14oz.)
½ yellow onion diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
Adobo Sauce:
chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (7oz can)
½ cup milk alternative like almond/oat milk or heavy whipping cream
Avocado Salsa:
2-3 ripe avocados, diced
½ red onion, diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
Cilantro, chopped (as much or as little as you desire)
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
Pickled Onions:
1 red onion
1 cup white vinegar
Flour or corn tortillas
Other topping options:
For burritos we like to add cilantro lime rice, lettuce, and/or shredded cheese to the mix. You can also do homemade or store bought corn salsa, pico de gallo, or your favorite jarred salsa.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash sweet potatoes and cauliflower and chop into bite sized pieces and place on baking sheet.
Cover sweet potato and cauliflower with olive oil, chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Toss vegetables with a spatula until coated with oil and spices. Put on middle rack in the oven and roast for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender, flipping halfway through.
While vegetables are roasting, make black beans, pickled onions, adobo sauce, and avocado salsa. See directions for each below.
Black beans: Dice yellow onion and green bell pepper. Add in a saucepan to beans along with salt to taste. If you want, you can add a dash of paprika and chili powder as well. Let cook until bubbling, then reduce to low heat until time to serve.
Adobo sauce: Use a blender or food processor to combine chipotle peppers in adobo sauce with milk of choice until smooth. If sauce it too spicy for your liking, add more cream until desired spice level.
Avocado Salsa: Roughly dice avocados, tomato, onion, and cilantro. Combine together with lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Let set for 15-20 minutes so vegetables can marinate.
Pickled onions: Slice onion into strips and put into jar with lid (I like to use a large mason jar). Add enough vinegar until completely covers onion and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Take vegetables out of oven and let cool for a few minutes. Assemble tacos with vegetables, beans, adobo sauce, avocado salsa, pickled onions, and any other toppings of your choosing. Enjoy!
