A Little Experiment

I was thinking today, like usual. I don’t know how this originated, but I decided to become a vegan for the month of September.

It will be difficult, but most worthwhile experiences are. And I know it will definitely have an end point, so it might be easier to stick with it. My body says: Give up cheese forever?! Do you want me to die?! Yeah, definitely needs to have a time-limit.

I am moving to a new apartment on September 1st, so what better time to start something new and radical like this?

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter:

• the purpose would be multi-fold: it will be cleansing [of body, and hopefully also of mind, spirit...and perhaps, though unrelated, of finances]; it will be healthy; it will be interesting and a challenge.
• also plan to remove alcohol from my diet for the month. That will make me less fun at parties, but hopefully this pudgy beer belly will start to diminish.
• I don’t want dinners to be a monotony of standard stir-fries, so some culinary experimentation will be crucial [I have a huge cookbook of low-fat cooking that has many vegan options].
• hopefully I can renew my love of tempeh, and find a suitable remedy for the post-soy milk indigestion I usually experience.
• I’m sure I will find non-vegan products in recipes, restaurant menus or prepackaged items and groan with anguish — so hopefully I can just stay away from dining out and stick with the produce section of Stop & Shop.
• cheese and dairy products will sit, alone and sad, not being eaten by me. Or maybe, more likely, I will be beyond consoling in my longing for brie. Se la vie.
• haha, that last line rhymed.
• should I cheat, there shall be dire consequences. Like…something really bad, though no ideas come to mind yet.
• but when I succeed, I should be handsomely rewarded. Again, nothing comes to mind. But i have a few weeks to brainstorm.

So that’s about it for now. I would love some ideas, recipes, or other advice. And also, if anyone wants to become vegan for a month with me, let’s do it!!

I also plan to blog about it, so stay tuned…

Empty Fridge.

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who lets her refrigerator’s contents disappear until there was nothing left but cheese and condiments. But apparently, I am. There is literally nothing of substance in my fridge, which is usually the powerhouse of my kitchen: ranch dressing [two kinds, both almost empty], a couple sticks of butter, salsa, half a bottle of margarita mix, a jar of chocolate fudge sauce [I use it for crepes], green curry paste, soy sauce, maple syrup, ginger ale, and a Brita pitcher of water. Oh, and there are those blocks of cheese. If it wasn’t for cheese I think I’d starve to death. So I guess that’s something.

My freezer is an even sadder story: paltry amounts of frozen vegetables, chicken fingers, old bananas [I freeze them when they’re overripe, then later thaw them for use in banana bread], four kinds of coffee grounds, rainbow sherbet, some homemade crepes and pancakes from April [I make a big batch then freeze the rest], birthday cake from March, and Thanksgiving leftovers in the form of a small container of mashed and sweet potatoes and a gallon-sized bag of turkey pickings. I am not even sure why I brought that home. There is also a bit of breakfast sausage and some tomato sauce my mom made, so I pulled those two to the fridge to thaw. Maybe I can eat them with something from the pantry…

The pantry is usually the well-stocked, but lately it’s been pretty pathetic, too: pasta [elbow macaroni, spaghetti, ziti, and some strange colored fancy kind that I got from Marshall’s – yes, Marshall’s, the clothing & accessory store – they have fancy kitchen stuff, too], jasmine rice [it has moved from the nasty,
maggot-infested lower kitchen cabinet to the pantry], various flavors of oatmeal, a few canned vegetables, some fruit preserves, baking basics [flour, sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips], couscous, bouillon cubes, tea, half a sleeve of Ritz crackers, and a couple Campbell’s soups.

Saddest part: I’m too broke to visit the grocery store. Well, I guess I could visit…you know, just walk around, with a sad face, thinking, ‘Hello, fresh produce! Apples, how are ya? Lookin’ good, French bread. Deli meat, what’s happening! Maybe next week we can hang out…but I can’t bring you home today.’

I am going to have to pull out the creativity to make a meal of any of this. Even watching Rachel Ray on Food Network doesn’t help…it just makes me hungry, then depressed when I think of my empty fridge.

Sigh.