Vegan for a Day

After becoming a vegetarian (with pescatarian tendencies) a year and half ago I have decided I want to try becoming a vegan.  Over the next month I am going to slowly transition to a vegan lifestyle.  For the record I will NOT be saying no to ultra fresh seafood while living so close to the ocean,  I will eat sushi at least once, and will occasional eat eggs, dairy , and yogurt.  This transition is meant to be slow, but I hope to be a full blown vegan when I move to Colorado to start graduate school! 

Yesterday marked my first attempt at actively being vegan.  All in all I had a great day, despite the unbearable heat wave that has overcome the city of Boston.  

Yeah, this was the temperature INSIDE my apartment.  

I normally go for a bowl of oats in the morning, but opted for (unpictured) overnight oats instead.  For some reason it just did not hit the spot for me! I put all the goodies in my jar, but I felt something was missing.  There is just nothing better than the warm creaminess of melted nut butter on my morning bowl of awesome oats.  

Luckily lunch was much better.  I am officially really bad at this blogging thing because I have no evidence of my meal, but I guess that just means it needs re-created!  I splurged on some baked teriyaki tofu at whole foods recently, and packed up the fixings' for some lunch time tofu tacos! 

Evening came, and I made possibly the easiest dinner I have ever had.  I was in no mood to slave over a stove in this heat (wish I had a balcony for a grill!) so I sliced a spaghetti squash in half, tore out the seeds, gave it a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, and placed it in my oven at 350 degrees.  I then ran away to my bedroom and sat under a fan for the next 30 minutes.  

After a half hour fan session, the squash was soft enough to be pierced with a knife, and I took a spoon to scrape the insides into a bowl.  This was my first time making spaghetti squash and I didn't realize it was so easy!  For some reason I thought I was going to have to create strands with a fork or something, but all you do is scrape the insides out with a spoon an instant veggie noodles!! I seasoned the strands with a little more oil, salt, and pepper, until it reached the flavor I wanted. 

Seeking a protein, I went to my pantry and found some vegetarian baked beans.  I already felt like I was inside at a barbeque, so it seemed pretty appropriate.  I dumped the can into a bowl, threw it in the micro and added the beans to my squash.  So simple, so delicious.  

I avoided the dairy ice cream hiding in my freezer, and snacked on some frozen berries throughout the rest of the evening.  

My first successful day as a vegan!