Vegan Day Four - Left Out and Oprah Did It!

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work. Or, you can think of it as I do, as my break. I teach pretty much all day. Because of this my kids are in school and my mom is nice enough to pick them up. On Tuesdays she takes them back to her house and generally, we all meet up there for dinner. Tonight's dinner was my dad's chicken and dumplings. I love his chicken and dumplings, but they aren't on my diet. Luckily, it is what we had last Tuesday, so I will just think about that. My dad was gracious enough to offer to let me chew on some twigs and grass, but I decided to stay home and grade test. Exhbit A, my war room:


Since I was on my own for dinner, during my lunch break, I came home and started some butternut squash soup and some homemade bread. I know, I hate me too. However, the butternut squash soup is really easy. I made it for one of my monthly challenges and loved it. Took me about 15 minutes to get it going. As for the homemade bread, this didn't go so well:



I do usually put both butter and powdered milk in my bread machine bread. This recipe was a little different with almond milk and gluten. In all fairness, I assembled this early, then used the timer. Maybe as things sat there, they didn't work as well. Crust ended up...um...crusty, but the inside was ok.

I got soup, bread, and a tasty beverage to watch the most recent thing on the DVR.


That is right...Oprah! I never watch Oprah. Never Ever. Not that there is anything wrong with Oprah, I just prefer some Grey's Anatomy. But my mom told me about the people at the Oprah Studios did a 7 day vegan challenge. Well, let me tell you, I had never heard about this until after I started my challenge. Man, now everyone is going to want to to a vegan challenge. It was an interesting episode. It did talk about a meat processing plants and what vegan means. They had Michael Pollen on there (In Defense of Food) and he just made the point that it is important to realize where food comes from. And I think that is why I am doing this, to be mindful about where my food does come from.

Now Oprah, she always put the silver lining on everything and talked about how much better everyone was feeling, how they were losing weight, and pooping better. Let me assure you that I will be honest. Right now, to be honest, I am a little cranky. Although I am not craving meat and cheese as much. We will see how the rest of the challenge goes.