The struggle is REAL

I am currently in the middle of Day 7 of the 22 day vegan challenge hosted by @heart-to-heart, and it truly has been quite the challenge! I thought maybe I shouldn't participate since I'm already a "healthy eater", but I had no idea how much animal products are in almost everything. I won't dwell on this too much because I talked about in my last post, but it is definitely the biggest realization I've had thus far. Some of the things I've loved about the challenge is just that - its REALLY challenging me. HAH! From just little cravings of things, or wanting to grab something to eat on the go and not really having a vegan option. I've really enjoyed exploring new dishes and making new concoctions, as well as having the understanding of what vegans have to go through when having a limited meal selection at a restaurant. The worst part BY FAR has been having to turn down happenstantial meals or offerings - for example I went out with my friends this week, and at the end of the night of drinking we stopped by a pizza place. So here I am at 2 am with a huge pizza in front of me and the temptation was REAL. I wanted to partake so badly, but ordered a side of fries instead. One of my friends ended up crashing at my apartment, and that meant leftover pizza just staring at me the next morning, basically begging to be eaten. SO DIFFICULT! I ended up wrapping it up and putting it in the freezer with all my non vegan food (I HATE wasting food, and refuse to - so the contents of my freezer are now full of things I am not able to eat until post-challenge, or to give away to a friend - since I live alone and there's no one to give it to).

Day 3

I was in a rush waking up for an appointment on Day 3, and still had not been to the store to pick up almond milk, so I begrudgingly made a small cup of granola cereal and used water instead of milk - bleh. Then I scarfed down an English teacake and a couple pieces of fruit, then rushed out the door. I decided that immediately after I was going to the store to stock up on some vegan friendly items and ingredients haha:) I also decided that these pictures were not looking the prettiest, and I am HUGE on presentation, so decided I will prove myself in the next day that I can take nice photos ;p

When I arrived back home after grocery shopping I started right away on making a late lunch, grabbed a snack pack of mixed tropical dried fruits and nuts. Lunch was a mix of cooked brown rice I prepared, mixed with fresh spinach greens and roasted peppers on top , using the roasted pepper juice as a dressing of sorts. I added some of the raisins and nuts on top and it was actually pretty tasty:)

Here is a closer up shot:

I must admit that I'm not that into cooking, so the dinner I made was the real treat. I also dont usually eat such a large supper but I think my body just felt like it was hungry all day, so I decided to make a heavy Italian style meal with my own spin on it. I boiled some gnocchi and mushrooms, and was planning to use some pesto sauce I had, but when I read the ingredients I was surprised to find animal product in it (grano pandano cheese containing milk and eggs). Luckily I had just enough tomato pasta sauce left to add on top, added some fresh cut tomatoes, fresh basil from my garden plants, some spices on top, and it turned out great! I was really proud of it!

Day 4

I had another early morning meeting today and made a bowl of grain cheerios cereal with chia seeds and cinnamon on top ( I much prefer granola, but I had this left over from a while ago when I had friends visiting). Finishing after lunch, I was too hungry to wait to come home and cook, so I picked up a nice falafel and hummus salad. I realized there was a few pieces of feta cheese when I opened it, so I just picked around them (it was literally only a few in the entire package haha, so I dont know why they even bothered;p).

When I got home I was still pretty hungry (again, I eat bigger lunches, or many smaller meals throughout the day instead of 3 normal meals sometimes), and I'm literally a granola fiend so sometimes it's just what I need to satisfy a little mid day snack meal:)

Then a bit later I made a plate of sliced carrots with this amazing healthy peanut butter I picked up at the grocery store. It is so tasty! And peanut butter and carrots are one of my favorite snacks! I can literally eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one setting if I'm hungry enough;p But this time I ate about half the carrots and ended up eating the rest the next day.

Dinner was absolutely deliciousssssss. I bought a tomato basil base soup at the grocery store, cooked up some mushrooms, cauliflower rice, and mixed them into the soup, then added a load of fresh basil and an assortment of other herbs and it was perfection. Probably the best soup I've ever made. I don't usually make a lot of soups but in the UK where I am at the moment, they sell these simple base soups which are fun to experiment and add things into. I love it and it definitely brings out the creative side of me without feeling the pressure of being a pro chef;p

Day 5

As you can see I started getting better at documenting and photographing the foods;)

For breakfast, I made my typical granola cereal (literally nothing makes me happier than jumping out of bed in the morning and relishing a simple delicious breakfast like granola and fresh fruits:

Also this was the day I mentioned on the beginning of the post where I randomly went out with my colleagues the night before and they bought a couple of pizzas and I wanted to eat it SOO BADD. But I didnt cave! Arent yall proud?;p Instead of leftover pizza I made this delicious lunch: quinoa with cooked cauliflower rice, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, with sliced avacado topped with tomato chutney and sliced tomatoes. It was absolutely divineeeeeeeee and one of the yummiest dished Ive ever made!

I had a little snack by making a bowl of mixed nuts including cashews (my fav), and will munch off this for the next few days:) I also ate the rest of my carrots and peanut butter as an additional snack:)

You can read more about the challenge here:
https://steemit.com/contest/@heart-to-heart/eatlikeasuperstar-100sbd-giveaway-challenge-starts-now

Are you vegan? Have you ever thought about being vegan? I would love feedback and to know that I'm doing right or any improvements I can make, or suggestions for recipes. I'm not big on cooking but I will try to do a few things for this vegan challenge :)