I have endured the teasing when we go out and people make jokes about my only eating “sticks and leaves”. I have brushed off the taunting when I prepare my meals of Chickpea Masala or Tofu Shirataki Noodles while my husband tries to tempt me with his beef tacos. I have even laughed off people changing my name at work to, “Hey Vegan”. Now, I have been pushed to the point where it is time to start teaching some lessons around here. It’s on like Donkey Kong!
- Me eating “sticks and leaves” for dinner on my wedding night
Last year I started to feel like our grocery bill was getting a little high. With my husband fiercely holding on to his dedication to meats and my fiercely trying to remove all animal products from my livelihood, I was buying for two separate grocery lists and preparing two sets of meals each day. One night I made a vegan chili and decided not to share with him that it was vegan. He liked it so much that he decided to take it for lunch the next day. Well, I was so pleased that my plan was carried out so successfully that I had to tell him. That didn’t quite turn out how I thought. I genuinely thought he would be impressed with my ability to transform a food he loved into the great tasting vegan version. Instead, he felt deceived (I can’t tell this story without laughing, it’s so ridiculous!). For a while after that he would watch me a like hawk when I cooked our meals. In the past few weeks he has stopped watching me cook, yet the taunting still continues. So, I am taking a stand. My goal is to show him that the vegan diet is delicious. He just won’t know it is vegan, not yet anyway.
Eventually, I want to get to a full day’s worth of meals, but just to start out I will post one replacement “vegan-ized” meal. I will rate each meal to reflect how intense I am getting with the cooking for that day:
- “Just dippin’ my toes”- For those who just want to experiment with a few vegan dishes
- “I’m kind of a hippy”- dishes that may be a little more advanced to prepare
- “Proud to be a crunchy, granola-eating, nutritional-yeast loving vegan”- This person won’t even eat animal crackers.
Operation The Great Switcheroo Meal#1: Creamy Tomato Soup
Rating: Just Dippin’ My Toes
Click on the link to checkout this recipe for a delicious creamy tomato soup. Being vegan doesn’t have to be all tofu and granola like most people tend to believe. Try this recipe and let me know what you think! Operation: The Great Swithcheroo, Initiated!
The Broke Vegan 