ONE-WEEK VEGAN ADVENTURE: the results

Firstly, I should mention that I did not embark upon this adventure solo. My husband was happy to join in. We were fortunate enough to have my parents staying with us during this time and they too agreed to support me in eating vegan for a week. Although my parents seemed keen to aid me, they seemed rather… sceptical themselves. Although they eat/cook with vegetables and animal product-free ingredients on a regular basis, the word “vegan” seemed to throw them… make them nervous and intimidated somehow.
I have to say that one of the biggest impacts this week made surrounded my parents attitudes to vegetarian/vegan cuisine. My dad (who loves his steaks, seafood dishes and “fancy cheeses”) was so impressed/surprised by the tastiness and heartiness of the vegan meals we ate that he commented extremely favorably on each and every one. My mum who is already a veggie lover exclaimed, “I could eat this everyday!”. My husband (whom Kelly Freston might now describe as being “veganish”, although I have some issues with that term) has substituted the organic cows milk in our fridge with organic rice milk. And me? Well, I feel that each and every goal I had prior to this week has been met and perhaps exceeded. I feel inspired, less intimidated, more aware. I have added new recipes to my collection, made my own pasta sauce, hummus and cherry jam, tried delicious and exciting vegan products and enjoyed learning more about cooking/eating vegan food in general.
I will say that having a little baby (and all the responsibilities that go with that) has meant that I have eaten lots of leftovers during the week. Some folks probably would prefer varying the family meals each day. I don’t mind at all really, but I did find that eating vegan required a little more effort in sourcing certain products (I couldn’t just rely on my local supermarket for everything) and researching products/ingredients/recipes. With the luxury of more time, I could have experimented even further. And I intend to in the future. As baking is one of my big passions I plan to add this little gem to my recipe book collection.

I first heard of Babycakes NYC whilst flicking channels and pausing for a few minutes on Kanal 9 (Channel 9) when I saw some baking action going down on Martha Stewart a couple of years ago. I also hope to attend one of Cupcake STHLM‘s cupcake baking classes at some stage in the near future. They make lovely vegan cupcake options (including the cupcake known as “Björnen“), so hopefully I’ll get an even more in-depth insight into the world of vegan baking.
In terms of what I set out to achieve during this One-week Vegan Adventure , I can sum up my experience with one simple question and a one-word answer:
Was it a success? Absolutely!