Sunday, February 19, 2012

Grocery shopping...nutritional yeast???

Hi everyone!  Welcome to my first official post.  This is my first blogging experience, so PLEASE bear with me!

So, yesterday I went on my first official vegan shopping trip to prepare for this week.  Wednesday is the official start of 40 days of Lent, so I must be prepared.  I've tried to go the "vegan" route before, and was less than successful.  Looking back, I know exactly what went wrong.  For starters, I tried to buy EVERYTHING at an expensive grocery store.  I quickly realized I couldn't afford that for even myself, much less my family.  Second, I bought weird things my family wouldn't eat.  Instead of looking at what we already ate and modifying (a term commonly used by my fellow educators) I bought odd things they didn't want.  This lead us to preparing different meals each night.  The last reason totally did me in...I became pregnant with my third child.  I don't eat much of anything during my first three or four months of pregnancy, and strange foods I wasn't used to were just not cutting it.  It got to where I was eating all the WRONG things, so I quit.  Even though I couldn't handle being a complete vegan I have never eaten beef or pork again, nor has my daughter.

Unlike last time, I'm hoping dinnertime will be for the WHOLE family to enjoy, not just myself.  I have found 4 meals to start with....Lentil and Black Bean Chili, Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans, Sunflower Mac served with broccoli, and Tomato Chickpea Soup wit a Nutty Gremolata for my lunch.  I'll let you know how each of them turn out later.  I headed to my local Aldi to stock up on inexpensive produce and then headed for Tom Thumb for the rest.  I honestly had never purchased "lentils" before, but concluded that they must be a bean because the recipe asked for them to be dry.  The only two things I left without were saffron ($20 for a spice...really?) and nutritional yeast.  I found nutritional yeast and will let you know all about another time...

For now...I'm off to have a happy Sunday afternoon grading papers and going on a date night with my husband.  The countdown to my vegan days is on!!!

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