December 6, 2008

A new fast food

For the past 30 days, God has had me embarking on a new eating lifestyle that would be considered severely vegan. I thought I would get a reprieve for Thanksgiving, but, after my SIL suggested that I pray more about it, I realized that, while God would probably allow it, what He really wants me to be is thankful no matter what kind of food I am eating. So I made it through the holiday eating no meat, dairy, leavened products and very little sugar. Thankfully, God provided a recipe for sweet potatoes that was very yummy without all the brown sugar and full of protein to help me be satisfied and thankful. I have realized three things in the past thirty days: there are so many delicious foods that do not involve meat, dairy and unleavened bread that I could be happy leading a mostly vegan lifestyle; I have been feeling much better since eating vegan diets; vegan food can be prepared pretty quickly. The last concept has surprised me the most.

When I started out, I thought that I would be having to spend a lot of time preparing the foods I was to eat. However, lunch can be as simple as grabbing some nuts and cold veggies and dipping them in hummus or spreading hummus on a wasa cracker and adding cucumbers and salt. Prep time is minimal. Making tabouleh is pretty simple too. Pour boiling water over bulgur, add mint and parsely and wait ten minutes, add some chopped tomatoes and green onions and pour a dressing of olive oil, pepper, and lemon juice. TLT's (tofu, lettuce and tomatoes) on crackers takes ten minutes to fry the tofu in oil and soy sauce (thanks Dad J. and Momma K. for that recipe). There are no worries about undercooking anything because you won't get sick from undercooking it, it might merely be extra crunchy or less flavorful. I found a wonderful blog site this week called Vegan Footprints that had a yummy recipe for Gana rice and beans. I have added it to my list of blogs that I am following.

I must confess that there are times when I really want the grilled cheese sandwhiches everyone is eating or the roasted chicken the rest of my family had tonight. However, I am not dying or starving and I made it through the Thanksgiving holiday without gaining weight, which is a MAJOR breakthrough. At this point, I have ten more days until I feel God is releasing me from the fast, unless something happens along the way. It means I will be able to eat Christmas cookies and monkey bread and other holiday treats. However, I am planning to make vegan meals more of a staple in our family's diet. My DH approves of this plan. And I am hoping that God has used this time to help break my addiction to sweets and rich foods in general.

"'Everything is permissible for me'--but not everything is beneficial. "'Everything is permissable'--but I will not be mastered by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12-13)

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