Despite being busy, I still made sure I was eating right. So moving on to my food diary.
On day 15, I made a really refreshing and detoxing breakfast smoothie made with avocado, cucumber and apple.
Lunch was buckwheat noodles with french beans and tofu. Garnished it with some sesame seeds. I love sesame seed, it makes anything tastes good.
Day 16- Strawberries and hemp over night chia oat. I love over night oats as they save so much time. This is good for people who are always in a rush in the morning but still want a good healthy breakfast to go. I soaked a cup of oats, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, a scoop of pea protein and some chopped strawberries in hemp milk. I soaked it overnight in the fridge and it was thick and creamy the next morning.
Day 17. Breakfast smoothie/ post workout shake. I woke up at 6:30am to get to gym at 7am. I made this smoothie with avocado, banana, kale, carrot, vegan protein, almond and almond milk. So so so good.
So since I've made a bit of vegan Chinese, Italian, and other types of cuisine. I thought lets make a vegan turkish dish. Vegan Imam Bayildi. I love this and I love aubergine!
Day 18. Another overnight oats. These cherries are home grown. I have a massive cherry tree in my back garden. It's been there over 10 years so you can imagine how tall and how much cherries I get each year. I actually picked the cherries in the morning for this as well. Lol! But I soaked the oats the night before. Together with the oat and cherries I made a creamy coconut and cherry overnight oats.
This was lunch. You might think I'm crazy for having a smoothie as my lunch but it's not the regular smoothie. I was working from home and my dad had made some peanut and black sesame seed paste. This is not like the almond milk in the supermarket where you only get 3% of almond nuts. My dad didn't filter the pulp so was really thick, super filling and packed with protein!
For dinner, I made the oven baked tomato risotto and asparagus soup. The slice wholemeal bread on the side is homemade. My dad really enjoyed this vegan dinner. During our dinner, my dad told me that he used to be a vegan but for only a year and a bit. I decorated the soup with almond milk. I tried to make a swirl but the milk was too light it just kept sinking lol.
On day 19, I made Superberries and Cream over night oats. This has strawberries, super fruits (gojiberries and baobab powder), coconut cream, hemp milk, chia seeds and oat. This was delicious!
This was such a good snack. Sweet potato tortilla sandwich. I pan fried some shallots, mashed up a baked sweet potato (I had baked sweet potato the night before but didn't take photo). Added a pinch of salt and mixed the shallots in. I then spread the mashed sweet potato between two tortillas and then toasted both side on the pan. One word, delicious!
On Day 20 my breakfast was peanut and black sesame seed porridge. This is basically the remaining of the paste I had on day 18. My dad made a big pot of this. The porridge wasn't exciting enough so I made a smoothie to go with it. I call it a sneaky green berry smoothie as I added some spinach which you can't tell right? Other ingredients include raspberries, strawberries, almond milk and coconut cream.
Because I spent so much time on my breakfast- not eating it but making it and trying to take the perfect photo- I didn't have time to make a sophisticated lunch to take to my PT class. I quickly made stir fried broccoli, cauliflower and tofu. And yes the broccoli was stinking in my bag lol
On day 21, I had oat porridge with a green fruity smoothie. After decorating my porridge I thought it looked like mozzarella cheese with tomatoes. But it's actually strawberries and banana. The green smoothie had kaki, avocado and spinach.
On Day 22. I made an avomango smoothie bowl. Avocado, mango, chia seeds, baobab powder and almond milk. Decorated with slices of apples and mango.
To finish off my last day, I went to Thai Square and had stir fried glass noodles with fried bean curd, carrots, baby corn, mange tout and bell peppers.
Throughout this challenge a lot of people have been asking:
1. "How you finding it?" " How did you find it?"
2. "Do you miss meat?"
3. "Do you think you will be a vegan full time?"
4. " What do you eat?" "What do you have for breakfast?"
5. "Are you still doing the vegan challenge?"
6. "Have you noticed any differences?"
7. "Why are you doing this?"
8. "Why 22 days and not for a whole month?"
My answer to those are:
1. I like this vegan challenge although I do struggle with coming up with new ideas. Although I use vegan blogs and Instagram to give me inspirations but sometimes you have to go to those healthy food shops to get certain ingredients if I wanted to make a particular dish. But of course I can always make something where ingredients are more accessible. But I want to explore and try new things. Also, a lot of vegan dishes are beans beans beans and I'm not a big fan of beans.
2. I do not miss meat at all. I haven't been a meat lover and don't really eat meat so this was not a problem for me.
3. I cannot be a full time vegan because I love lobster and prawns lol. Actually, I would call myself a part-time non vegan. That's the best way to call me.
4. I eat more or less the same things, squash, vegetables, starchy vegetables, whole grains and pulses. But I have become more creative with food though. My breakfasts have been vegan most of the times before this challenge. Not on purpose just the choices I happen to make. I normally have porridge and /or smoothie. Before the challenge, I often had eggs though.
5. During the challenge, some people thought I would give up and so kept asking whether I was still doing it. I was posting pictures daily of my meals and after the challenge most said they were really impressed that I kept it going. I seriously did not think it was that hard.
6. I do feel a bit of difference. I felt more energetic. Occasionally I would be tired in the afternoon but didn't have that during the challenge. It also had an affect on my digestive system. Not going to go into detail. lol
7. I did it because I was curious. I wanted to know how my body will change. I also wanted to test my discipline.
8. I actually mentioned this before. They said it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Did I make or break a habit? Yes I did. I used to crave eggs. But now, I see it in the kitchen every morning and I don't even think about having it. I don't fancy eggs at all. I also used to have eggs for the protein but now I try to get most of my protein from plants. I've always had hemp protein but will rely on that more and other plant based protein.
Also during this challenge, a couple of people told me that they have decided to do the vegan challenge because of me. They said the food I made looked so yummy and didn't think vegan food can be like that. It's always a good feeling when you have a positive affect on others.
Have you tried the vegan challenge before? Are you considering it? Let me know if you do :)
