Vegan CHALLENGE

On Tuesday my husband began a 30-day vegan challenge.  He's eating lunch at Arnold's Way, so all I had to do was provide breakfast and dinner.  I am undergoing my own challenge as I try to pull together nutritious and delicious vegan meals...I have cooked vegetarian entrees, but vegan is the next level.  It's even more challenging because of Arnold.  Each day my husband texts a picture of his lunch with a caption raving about how delicious and filling it is...how can I compete with an expert, and of course my meals aren't raw...

I've literally been winging it...and that doesn't work for me.  I like to plan my meals and I try to be organized when I cook.  This week I've found myself cooking late in the day and things are haphazard because of all the dishes.  There's no way I can sustain cooking multi-component vegan meals and our regular meals without a sous chef and a larger kitchen.

My husband is loving veganism and plans to take a raw foods prep class so that he can ease the burden on me...I will likely take the class as well because I certainly wouldn't mind having "carrot cake" for lunch.  Thus far he's enjoyed everything that I prepared, but I have no idea what I'm making next week.  He loved the beans for breakfast and requested that the buckwheat sweet potato 'grab and go' be layered like a parfait to maximize the flavor.  Making that was more than a notion...first I made almond milk to cook the buckwheat, then I pressure cooked the sweet potatoes with coconut cream and pineapple juice, and I topped it with walnuts and chia seeds; everything else was relatively simple - lentils, sautéed vegetables, and roasted cauliflower leek soup.  My favorite is the raw apple sauce.

Greensgrow was selling unsightly apples 6 for $1, I bought them thinking I'd use them in green smoothies or perhaps I'd pull out the juicer again.  Then I thought about apple sauce, which the kids love as a lunchbox or after school snack.  I gave it a shot with 3 apples and literally had applesauce in less than 5 minutes (including the time it took to cut and core the apples) thanks to my trusty Vitamix.  My son said it was the best applesauce he's ever tasted...the best part is that all of the nutrients are maintained because the apples aren't cooked. We enjoyed it so much that my husband went back and bought a dozen more apples.  If all goes well, the kids and I will go vegan...with meat on the side.  It wasn't too bad tonight with our Eritrean meal...timtimo for him and zigni for us.  I'm up for the challenge...just not every night of the week.