Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The Vegan Diaries: Day 2

Well, it was only a matter of time before I figured out what my body was hooked on.

And that would be sweets.

Oh, I'm craving sweets right now. Chocolate, soft drinks, Pop Tarts... all those processed sugars. I wasn't expecting this. I mean, it's only been two days now, and yet I can sense my urge to down a Coke or cram a bag of chocolate chips down my throat. It hasn't gotten to the point where I'm shaking uncontrollably like a smoker going through withdrawal, but I can feel it missing from my routine. I wonder if they have Sugar Patches for people in my situation.

This morning I tried a different cereal with my liquid soy. It was Organic Hemp Plus Granola, brought to me courtesy of the fine folks at Nature's Path. Talk about tasty stuff, this hemp. I could eat it all day. I'm still wondering what the "Plus" part of this cereal is all about... as if "Hemp" wasn't enough to get you to buy this product. If you look at the back of the box, though, it states in bold letters that "Hemp is not marijuana." Oh, great. Now you tell me. I was expecting to have the happiest breakfast of my life here. Now I'm just stuck reading your boring wordy box, telling me multiple times that I won't get high eating this stuff. It's like reading a medical journal on the back of the box.

Which brings me to this simple observation about health products in general: If it has a lot of unpronounceable words printed on the package, it must be healthy. The more words, the healthier. Check out Dr. Bronner's products if you ever get the chance, and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

After spending some time online today trying to figure out what vegans actually eat, I made several runs to grocery stores to stock up on supplies. For lunch, I made my very own hummus by blending together garbanzo beans, sesame seeds, garlic, olive oil, red pepper, paprika, and lemon juice from a lemon I picked fresh outside my house (doesn't get any more organic than that). We had a taste test today, comparing Trader Joe's brand hummus to my hummus. Studies showed that 3 out of 3 people preferred my hummus for its "zinginess." Not bad for a guy who didn't even know what hummus was prior to today.

For dinner, I had a salad along with an old vegan staple: beans and rice. I couldn't help but remember that PSA called Beans and Rice from the early 80s that I watched on TV every Saturday morning as a kid. Shoot... I probably saw that cartoon over 200 times. The jingle has been brainwashed permanently into my head. And strangely enough, this is the first time outside of New Orleans that I've actually eaten beans and rice. Who knew that Saturday morning television was trying to turn kids vegan?

2 comments:

Amber D. (Evans) Marcu, Ph.D. said...

Brian, You want to read the Vegan Lunchbox at http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

She gives great food hope to those gone vegan. I can even prepare the meals she has for me and my roommates and they don't even notice that "everything" is missing. :)

Brian Martin said...

Thanks for the tip! I had actually bumbled into her blog by accident a few days ago. She seems to have a little niche market on this subject. I will definitely try some of her recipes out.