Vegan Brownie Recipe and Diet Updates

So the whole vegan diet has been going fairly well 4 days into the 12 - I'm definitely feeling like I will make it the whole way through since I got past the first 2 days. The first night got rough when I had a sweet attack but no plans for sweets (big mistake knowing how big a sweet tooth I have). I began frantically searching for vegan dessert recipes and came across this rather simple looking vegan brownie recipe that had lots of reviews and looked appealing. After reading the reviews, I decided to swap out the water for soy milk and the white sugar for raw cane sugar since I got a tip from Sherry that white sugar can actually contain animal bone in some cases.

Making the brownies was super simple and a lot of fun, I was really excited about them and proud that I had outsmarted any future sweet attacks - that was until I tasted them. I'm going to have to admit that while these brownies looked amazing and were made with natural ingredients, they tasted absolutely terrible. I even waited a couple hours, gave them a second chance and they were even worse; Tim completely agreed. It was like they had a weird aftertaste or something. I felt awful doing it, but had to throw away the entire batch. At least Tim and I got a good laugh out of it and we joke now that I haven't had one of my sweet attacks since (maybe they were a good solution after all).

I'm not sure if it was my swapping out the ingredients, the heavy oil, or my personal tastes but I'm going to have to NOT recommend this recipe!

All in all throughout the process I am coming around. The first two days were a little rough since I felt like I was definitely missing out on dairy and just didn't like the texture of some of things we've been trying. Other recipes have been amazing though and really broadened up my palette like this collard wrap and this tofu dish. I'm also finding it funny how Tim and I differ in liking certain foods over others during this diet; I'll love something that he hates and vice versa. Finally when the third day came around I actually had dropped a couple pounds which was unexpectedly motivating and food options seem to expand the more I think with an open mind. It's been somewhat draining to have to think this hard about every piece of food I put in my mouth - but a good lesson as well.

I ate out tonight with a good friend at Fresca, a restaurant specializing in vegetarian and vegan fare. Man, how I now appreciate that these types of places exist - making it so easy to go out and not have to think as much about what I can't have on a menu. In case you're wondering, I ordered the hummus appetizer and Kale pizza which consisted of kale, roasted red peppers, pine nuts, and fake vegan cheese - very delicious and a fun low key place to hang out for a quick bite.

Until next time, my friends.