I don't like labels, unless they're designer.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Didn't you miss me? Don't lie. I know you did.

I'll be upfront and honest. I took a month and a half hiatus from veganism. It did not fare well. I realized I don't even really like meat, so why was I eating it? And every time I did I pictured all the horrible images from Food, Inc. and felt quite guilty about myself. However, this is not why I have re-veganized myself. Along with all the guilty feelings came my sicknesses. They came back in full force times 5,000 of whatever they used to be. It sucked. I'm not happy. And now I'm a vegan once again.

This is not to say, though, that I'm not going to have happy eggs every once in awhile. I think having the proper amount of protein consumption is essential and I have a tendency to not get enough when eating vegan. It was also the deal I struck with the madre to have her back aboard the vegan train. I think seeing how sick I got when I stopped with the veganness was enough to get her cheerleading for the campaign. However, she did now warn me not to go and carboload like all those other vegetarians and vegans and gain tons of weight. Thanks for the warning, madre.

And while some of you may now say that I'm not a true vegan if I'm occasionally eating happy eggs, that's fine. I don't really like to label myself a vegan anyway. The madre told me I would be considered and omnivore if I eat eggs (looks like somebody was doing some research). But I have yet to eat eggs since I reveganized and I don't think I'll really eat that much of them anyway, so I don't know that I'd call myself an omnivore either. Maybe I should change the title of my blog to "The tales of the sometimes vegan." We'll see. I really just dislike labels in general in all aspects of life, unless they happen to come on shoes or purses and bear some sort of fancy designer's name. In that case, I love labels.

My first week back to veganism was not without some drama. We had friends up to visit this weekend and we went to Restaurant Row for dinner. After wandering for a bit, the huz was annoyed and chaperoned us all into a Chilean restaurant. There was not one thing on the menu that was vegan happy. I was going to just sit and enjoy with everyone, but then it was discovered that there was nothing I could eat and a nice little hub-bub occurred and we created a little scene and left the restaurant. Luckily, I found out my friend was not impressed by the menu and also wanted to leave (and, by default, her huz therefore wanted to leave, isn't that the way marriage goes?) so I didn't feel as bad. We ended up at a Thai restaurant and ate like kings and everyone was happy. Gotta love Thai for all of the vegan happy options you can find there. Plus, a free appetizer with every cocktail? What other restaurant does that? Love.

My house had also unfortunately lost a lot of its vegan friendliness over the last month and half, so the huz and I did a major shopping trip to Fairway yesterday to stock up. Love that market. Look at my lovely kitchen table now! I've decided I must always have a fresh fruit bowl full to the brim in my house from now on. It just smells so good and looks so pretty!

I'm excited for all the fun recipes I'm making this week. Tonight is homemade falafel. For lunch today I made an almond butter, strawberry and soy milk smoothie. Delish.

All in all, I'm glad to have returned from the dark side. I even kinda missed this blog. :)

It's my anniversary.

So I've been a vegan one full week. So far, so good. I don't even miss cheese... yet. I did get a whiff of the Famiglia Pizza on 111th today when I was walking past, though, and that caused a small pang of desire. However, it was easily overcome with my uber yummy tofu stir-fry I'd made the night before.

Well, only a week into this relationship and I've already proved to be a liar. I said I'd post about my shopping trip yesterday and I did not. However, that's ok as I think I'm the only one who reads this blog.

As for the grocery trip, it was gooooood. I went to Fairway in Harlem. Love that market. Basically everything you could want. I hate that all the refrigerated goods are in a huge refrigerated room, though. I was in there for so long checking out all the tofu goodies that I nearly became hypothermic. Who knew so much could be made from tofu? I got Tofutti cream cheese. It's delish. I also got a whole lot of different varieties of straight-up tofu. They sound like the belong in a sex shop, not a grocery store... Silken, soft, firm, extra firm...

Last night I made a stir-fry with my extra firm tofu. I just sautéed the tofu with fresh garlic, peppers, squash, carrots, onions and snap peas and threw in red pepper flakes for spice. I combined that with four servings of brown rice and then added soy sauce to taste. So yum. That's a recipe I used to make all the time with chicken, and I honestly think I liked it better with tofu. It's true what they say. The tofu does just suck up all the flavor around it. Look at my yummy photo. So pretty.

At the store I also found these super delicious vegan-friendly cookies by Newman's Own. They honestly taste better than Oreos. I have a feeling they will be my savior as keep up my battle against dairy. Screw you cream. Paul Newman's got my back.

At the grocery store, I also decided to buy brussels sprouts. I have a small obsession with random veggies like brussles sprouts and turnips. However, they are very intimidating so I usually give them a wide berth at the grocery stores and only confront them at restaurants. But I decided with my new vegan diet should come a new vegan confidence, so I bought a bag. I decided I'd steam them without bothering to look up how to actually cook the sprouts. After steaming for a half hour, they were still too hard to spear with a fork, so I finally broke down and looked up on ehow.com how to cook brussels sprouts. First, I should have soaked them for ten minutes in lukewarm (or tepid for those of you with a bigger vocabulary) water to get all the little buggies out that might be hiding in the leaves. As soon as I read that, I knew I would not be eating my brussels sprouts. I don't do bugs. THEN, after soaking, I could have steamed them if I liked. Or boiled. Or microwaved. Whatever I very well pleased.  However, the possibility that those little buggies were just waiting to hop into my GI tract meant this batch of brussels sprouts was toast. I still have half my bag left, so I'll let you know if the next time goes any better. They are so pretty and cute though, aren't they??

So as part of my Yoda-esque vegan ways, I've also been trying to give up caffeine. So far, not so good. I'm exhausted all the time and crave it more than cheeeeese. For that reason, I must be off to bed.

So until next time, leave the cutie pie animals alone. That means you.