Day Seven: Final Day

Both my husband and I are sitting here waiting for midnight to strike. Pepperjack cheese in the fridge is calling our name!

To kill those remaining 10 minutes, let me share our interesting trip to Costco this afternoon as well as some other ramblings of my findings during my *vegan* week. After a week of no animal products, this Costco visit was going to be a true test in our challenge. I felt it was going to be more torture than anything. ...And it was.

Why of all days of sampling did they have to have all the yummy animal products out today! Pork chops! Bacon! Quiche! Even twice baked potatoes we couldn't sample! Bah! The boy was disappointed but was good about inquiring at each sample station if it was a vegan safe choice and if it wasn't...why not. I'm sure people were completely confused by our vegan conversations while we had a cartful of cheese, eggs, pepperoni and milk. We chuckled in between our grumbling of having to turn down yummy samples. The hardest part of the whole shopping trip was not going to the food court. It is a treat for us in our bimonthly trip to Costco for the boys to get hotdogs while I get a piece of pizza or the chicken hot pocket style food. To appease the boy, we did buy a vegan safe snack, sat down to eat a couple handfuls each. The boy wasn't thrilled but obliged. Wish he could be this good while in class. That is a whole different rant altogether!

Wanted to make something festive and sweet for the family. It is the holidays afterall. Hey! Smores would be an excellent idea. I'll make them in the oven for easier eating and less mess. Made a point to check labels for animal products...organic graham crackers (check), dark chocolate chips (check) and marshmallows. Just made about 3 squares per person. Enough to enjoy but not overindulge. Naturally, right after eating them, my husband pipes up....doesn't marshmallows have gelatin in them? Oh crap! I thought I checked the labels...all but the marshmallows. Shit! They have gelatin in them. Oops, we didn't have many...scouts honor! (they were delish though!)

We had a Vegan Goulash for dinner. No recipe needed, I just pulled out some veggies that needed to be cooked (onions and cauliflower) tossed some seasonings while cooking. Added sundried tomatoes and leftover wild rice and called it dinner! :)

I would like to Thank my friend, Barb, for challenging me to go beyond my normal healthy eating regime. Being a vegetarian is not always easy but I was able to get more of a birds eye view of what a typical vegetarian goes through and even tougher as a vegan. The choices are just so limited. Not just in grocery stores but out in the real world of restaurants, food courts and social gatherings.

This took longer than 10 minutes. It is a quarter after midnight so off to the fridge we go!