Vegan Challenge – Week 1

   An idea that had initially sounded daunting, finding vegan recipes and persuading my flatmate to join in with me left me excited to start my vegan journey.

   Getting into the vegan mind-set was difficult this week. Turning down chocolate, and other snacks with hidden dairy, was both hard to remember, and hard to want to remember! But nevertheless, it has been an interesting week where I have tried some cool recipes with flatmates, and surprisingly enjoyed eating vegan. I just hope this optimism will carry me through the coming weeks!

   Finding the ‘Free From’ section in Tesco, where I have been able to pick up vegan-alternatives to many favourite snacks and ingredients, proved to be a lifesaver. Trading soya milk for cow’s milk, and purchasing soya yogurt, dairy free butter, and dairy free cheese, has allowed me to eat fairly similarly to normal.  

Meals eaten this week include:

   Despite my enjoyment of the first week, difficulties were abundant, and started from day 1…

Difficulties faced this week:

•  Birthday Caterpillar cake – a family favourite shared out for a flatmate’s birthday. Instead, I enjoyed a soya vanilla dessert pot, an excellent dupe for custard.
• Post-POP!* Burger van burger – how else would you end a fantastic night of popping? Chips alone luckily amused my fast-food craving.
• Homemade Bailey’s Hot Chocolate – reaching by hands before I realised it contained milk! Soon replaced with a refreshing green tea.
• Parmesan-less risotto – last term I got through several blocks of Parmesan. However, I sufficed with the vegetable flavour this time.
• ‘Haribo’ snacking during lectures/workshops – a tradition made last term with a few course mates had to leave me out. This was a surprisingly tough temptation to swallow… or not, as it were!
• Vegan Cheese – yes, it tastes as bad as it sounds! I shall have to complete this challenge without a cheese alternative.

*For non-Warwick students, POP! is the ‘midweek mayhem’ of cheesy pop tunes in the SU each Wednesday night.

   This week, my motivation was mainly stubbornness; I did NOT want to give up before I’d finished at least one week! Also, the novelty of trying dairy-free alternatives was fairly fun (minus the vegan cheese tasting…).

   One week down, I look ahead to a week surely more difficult than the one just passed. Wish me luck!

Donations to my JustGiving page for the Meningitis Research Foundation would be much appreciated, and will encourage me to keep up this challenge! 

Link: https://www.justgiving.com/GeorgeMuscatt/

   George :)