As I mentioned, we had a birthday to celebrate this past
weekend. It’s a long tradition in my family to serve ‘Birthday Breakfast’ the
morning of birthdays and I was excited to tweak some of our most loved winter
specialties.
On the menu was Banana Pancakes, Cranberry Oatmeal, chicken
sausage for The Boys and my first try at Tempah Fakin’ Bacon.
Where to begin. First off, I see the error above, similar to
our Thanksgiving meal. Not a lot of variety, heavy on the carbs. I am in no way
a strong believer of going intentionally cutting carbs out of my diet, but
obviously overkill with anything is not good.
I was already feeling the ill effects that the weekends tend
to have on me and wanted so badly to just heat up some greens to go with
everything, but when it was all said and done, I was just too tired and
everyone was too hungry. But back to that later.
The Banana Pancakes were good, though I think I added too
much banana. I don’t have any non-stick pans and always fail to use enough oil
when I start to make pancakes, so you can see on the right what I started with –
ha! (Also, note above who got to eat that poor little pancake.)
I make my pancakes like I make my cakes, I suppose – while others
can beautifully decorate their boxed cakes, I just focus on mine tasting good.
It’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?
The Fakin’ Bacon was my splurge for the week. The Hubs took
one bite and said, ‘Here, do you want the rest of mine?’. I wouldn’t discourage
anyone from buying or trying it, however, we just both agree that it’s a pretty
far cry from bacon itself, and not the best on it’s own. It would serve better
in a dish that maybe called for bacon bits in it.
THANKFULLY my favorite dish, the Cranberry Oatmeal turned
out beautifully. I was so glad since this is one of my weekend winter staples.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not at the top of my game on
weekends and I’m starting to notice a trend. I have read plenty of articles and
heard people discuss how bad white flour and sugar are, but I honestly couldn’t
relate. ‘Maybe bad for some people, but it doesn’t bother me.’ It’s funny how I
used to feel that way about eating pepperoni pizza and now the mere thought of
it sends me running to the bathroom.
Apparently while I was calculating what exactly I *needed*
to eat on my vegan journey in order to stay healthy, I didn’t realize what I
was omitting: the flour and sugar. On the weekends though, I tend to get off
track. I don’t have my ready made salad available, I sometimes make my pizza
using only white flour and with the holidays, I’ve been taking in way more
sweets than normal.
I don’t know why I’m surprised to realize what a horrible
effect this has had on me, but I’m glad to have yet another reason to continue
down this strong plant-based path. I know there are a ton of dishes out there
and ingredients that try to mimic dairy/meat items, but I ALWAYS notice feeling bad afterwards. One
of the reasons I started this way of eating in the first place was to eat ‘cleaner’
food, not replace a chemical mixed dairy ‘butter’ with another chemical mixed
vegan ‘butter’. I guess I’m not hurting the animals – but I am definitely
hurting me. Don’t get me wrong, those Almond Joy cupcakes were amazing and once
in awhile that’s fine. But I am even more excited to keep forging ahead to
eating better, whole-r (if it wasn’t a word before, it is now) foods. I am asked by several people, 'How long are you going to do this?' I honestly and sincerely hope that I never stop.
