Slight detour, and meal planning

Well, my vegan project took an unexpected sideline when I got what was either food poisoning or a really nasty reaction to day old mac and cheeze. we'll never know, but i spent 12 hours huddled in the bathroom reliving my vegan project a little more vividly than I wanted. SO had an upset stomach from day two of the mac and cheeze too, but he didn't eat the whole thing, stopping after two bites to switch to beef taquitos. smart man apparently. Anyway, I didn't eat anything Thursday until the evening when I was able to keep down some brown rice congee. It derailed my cooking, but not my enthusiasm (now that I am not green and shaking). I was worried at first that it might be a severe hypoglycemic reaction, but I am hoping that's not the case. Insulin resistance and needing to manage my blood sugar is why I stopped being a vegetarian in the first place back in 2000, after 7 or so years of vegetarianism. I'm feeling ok now, but if I get unexplained severe nausea again, I will derail the experiment and go back to eggs at least. In the meantime, back to the veganism!!

Yesterday was date night at my house, and I had a very mild mannered lunch, both in respect to my still slightly tender stomach and my anticipation of a big yummy dinner. I had red quinoa (leftover from my muffins, which have continued to be eaten with delight), with mixed frozen veg, a vegan griller from morningstar, and some cilantro pesto i still had kicking around. A freezer bento lunch. But dinner... we headed to one of my fave restaurants, vegan or no, Pure Luck, a vegan pub. (I had wanted to go to the new LA location of BabyCakesNYC, a vegan cupcakery, but I think no one told them about LA geography, bc they are downtown on Spring St. Just too much driving, even for supposedly awesome vegan cupcakes. Maybe next weekend). I had blackberry cider, hubby had a dark ale from eagle rock brewery (all their beers are vegan, not being a beer drinker, i didn't know that this can't be said about all beers), and we started with their incredible dill pickle chips with bbq sauce. These are cornmeal breaded dill pickle slices, deep fried and served with homemade bbq dipping sauce. For main I had what I always have there, a pulled 'pork' sandwich on ciabatta. They make their fake meat from jack fruit, which is the awesomest, yummiest, most digestible meat alternative ever. The sandwich kicks butt. I got the spinach salad, which was a bit grotty actually, but mainly served to keep me from getting, and eating, sweet potato fries, which would have really done in my still slightly tender tummy. J had a jack fruit burrito with vegan caesar (cashew based dressing - i can only eat cashews in tiny quantities, so i declined, but he loved it).

We toddled out, very contented, I got a giant black tea with soymilk at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, because then we went to a midnight showing of Conan the Barbarian at the Regency Fairfax. Not especially vegan activity, but definitely awesomest date night in a while. :)

J woke me at 9:30 am bc he was going to finally try one of LAist's 'recession obsessions' the 2.39$ bfast specials at Tokyo 77 cafe in Culver City. I was too incapacitated by tiredness to resist, so I went with him. I brought a little container of soymilk, thank god, so I was able to have coffee. The only vegan breakfast I could assemble was white toast with margarine and a side of tomato slices. I came home and had a tablespoon of peanut butter. I'll go back there when the month is over, because it's a Japanese diner, and I love rice for breakfast.

After I finish drinking more coffee here, I'll haul out Veganomicon and do my week's meal planning before we go grocery shopping. Need to get a few more 'ready to eat' things, and make sure that J has stuff he can take for lunch. If I don't cook or he doesn't like it, he tends to eat out, which is expensive and unhealthy.

Ok. Sipping some more coffee and soymilk.