Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Celebrations & Consequences

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.

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