my first Vegan-ish Month!!

Hello friends :)

I'm sorry it's been a long time since I made a post. It's for a good reason though: education. I'm currently right in the middle of my exams period but it's all alright hah...

I wanted to celebrate my first Vegan-ish Month!! 

I just finished the 30 days challenge and well let me say I am very proud and I'm continuing this lifestyle with no doubts.

Not only did I feel great (in the last couple of days) and clean from the inside out but also I participated less in global warming, world's hunger and animal abuse.

I really enjoyed trying the different vegan treats and recipes I found along my journey and let me say that Food has never been tastier.

You actually can taste the different flavors when your plate isn't flooded by animal fat. It's like a rainbow of flavors in your mouth with every bite.  And you actually discover the use of all those different vegetables and plants that you used to pass by while grocery shopping while thinking: "what on earth do people use THAT for?"

I'm a really Food loving person and you can see it in my food habits and my jeans size hah ! And I discovered that if you really are Food loving, you would ditch the meat which is only 15% of all the food out there but strangely enough is 80% of the food you eat. It's like those 15% keeps busy from discovering the other 85% of all the food the world has to offer.

Not to mention that you learn how to balance all the different spices, great fine herbs & sauces.

I guess this is why every vegan becomes in love with the kitchen; BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING what you can  craft in there!

Now the reason I called this past 30 days "Vegan-ish", well, you guessed it, it's because I made a couple of  mistakes or cheats? (and i know that no one benefits when someone cheats :/). No, God no, I did NOT eat meat. lol but what happens is that sometimes you have no choices and you settle down with the vegetarian alternatives. Here are my confessions:

I have yet to develop my Vegan armor against cases like this and carry my lunch/snacks when I go out.

For example, at my school, the only vegan thing is a box of vegetarian sushi which contains one egg in the white sauce you see in the roll. :/ And I end up buying this when I'm extremely hungry.

On the other days though, I'd buy a bag of mixed nuts and asian rice crackers to eat for my lunch. (asian rice crackers might contain coloring that is animal derived but there is nothing noted on the back :/ I even tried contacting the company with no luck)

One night we were out of vegan cheese while we were cooking our dinner and I had to settle down to use non vegan cheese from my boyfriend. The same thing happened yesterday with mayonnaise and sour creme.

Annnd sometimes you buy unintentionally non vegan stuff; for example:

In my last grocery shopping at IGA, I was in the Faux-meat aisle checking what I could buy as a quick meal and I didn't want a "faux-meat"dinner. When I found the Spinach nuggets by Veggie patch I was thrilled and was anxious to try it. The thought of checking the ingredients didn't even cross my mind because:

1- I was in the faux-meat part

2- Who would put animal byproducts in a SPINACH nugget made by VEGGIIIIIEEEE patch?!?!?!

This is absurd... Turns out they contain milk... CULTURED SKIM MILK...

Anyways, I'm still learning as you can see. One day I'll be a flawless vegan shopper hah!

And all those mistakes still can't take my victory away from me: My first 30 vegan days !!!!