This recipe is slightly different from the version I found online. I added a few extra ingredients (celery, white mushrooms, red pepper) and substituted the beef strips for tofu to make it 100% vegan.

• Rice vermicelli noodles — 1/2 pound
• Sesame oil — 2 tablespoons
• Tofu, thinly sliced — 1/4 pound
• Red pepper, thinly sliced — 1
• Onion, thinly sliced — 1
• Carrot, peeled and grated — 1
• Shiitakes, stems removed and thinly sliced — 3
• White mushrooms, sliced — 4-5
• Garlic, minced — 2-3 cloves
• Spinach — 8 ounces, or about 1/2 bunch
• Celery — 1 stalk
• Scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces or thinly sliced — 2-3
• Soy sauce — 2-3 tablespoons
• Sugar — 2 teaspoons
• Salt and pepper — to taste
• Sesame seeds, toasted — 1 tablespoon

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
2. Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large sauté pan over medium flame. Add the tofu and sauté about 3-4 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil to the wok or pan if necessary and toss in the onion, carrot, celery and red pepper. Sauté until the onion is just translucent. Add the mushrooms and garlic and sauté 2-3 minutes more. Finally add the spinach and scallions and sauté until the spinach is just wilted.
4. Add the drained noodles, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper to the sauté pan and cook, stirring, to heat through. Adjust seasoning.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the toasted sesame seeds.

Makes 4 servings

This recipe makes 4-6 servings. I halved everything and only used white flour as I didn’t have any whole wheat flour. I didn’t have canola or safflower oil and used regular sunflower oil. I also didn’t have any frozen blueberries and used fresh ones instead.

Halving everything makes about 3 large pancakes or 4 average ones.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. baking powder (I didn’t use any because I used self rising flour)
1 tsp. sea salt
2 cups vanilla soy milk
3 Tbsp. canola or safflower oil (I used regular sunflower oil)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and sift together. Add vanilla soy milk and oil and mix until smooth.

Ladle onto hot pancake griddle or pan. Add frozen blueberries. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Serve with fresh blueberries and maple syrup (optional).

I poured the mix onto a fying pan and added the blueberries. I used my finger to push them into the mixture.

Posting what I eat every day is becoming a little redundant as the majority of my meals (with the exception of dinner) are nearly identical. I eat a bowl of Special K with soy milk for breakfast every morning, a bowl of fruit for my morning snack, and a salad with either leftovers or a piece of brown toast for lunch. I will occasionally throw in a veggie dog if I’m feeling hungry.

The last few days have been a little up and down. I’ve felt more tired & run down than usual, but that could also be due to PMS. I haven’t had any cravings for dairy or meat, nor do I miss those foods.

I’m having a bit of a difficult time coming up with things to make for dinner, though. I’ve never really enjoyed cooking in the first place, so having to be creative in the kitchen tends to make me feel a little overwhelmed at times. Plus, many ingredients are just impossible to find in South Africa.

I’ve been looking at vegan cookbooks and think I’m going to order these:

Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen – Ani Phyo
Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen – Donna Klein
Veganomicon – Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Vegan Planet – Robin Robertson
Vegan Brunch – Isa Chandra Moskowitz

As much as I’d love to switch to a raw vegan diet, I don’t know if it would be possible for me. Some mornings I have to force myself to eat my bowl of fruit. I find most fruit to be bland and not very satisfying. I love berries and could eat those all day, but they are a bit on the expensive side and are not as readily available as other fruit. I do love smoothies, however, so perhaps investing in a blender would make the transition a bit easier.

Day four was mostly uneventful. My headache passed, and physically I felt pretty much the same I felt prior to starting this experiment. I did notice that at moments I felt more clear-headed, and when writing was able to formulate my sentences a bit faster.

I ate 100% vegan today.

Breakfast:

1 cup Special K, 1/2 cup soy milk

Snack:

1 apple, 1 peach, 2 apricots, 1/2 cup papaya

Lunch:

1 piece brown toast with olive oil, garlic and cucumber
Salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, carrot, onion, mixed nuts, fresh lemon juice)

Dinner:

Eggplant lasagna

Snack:

I wanted to make an avocado and roasted garlic dip to go with some carrots and celery, but when I cut open the avocado I noticed that it wasn’t ripe. I had a veggie dog with ketchup, instead. Not the best choice, but I didn’t feel like making anything else after the avocado disappointment.

So far, so good. I haven’t gone full-blown vegan yet — I’m still eating chicken just to finish off what we have in the house & will continue to consume fish for a while longer.

Breakfast:

1 cup Special K, 1/2 cup soy milk

Snack:

1 banana, 2 apricots, 1 peach, 1 cup papaya

Lunch:

Leftover chili with crackers and a salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, alfalfa sprouts, mixed nuts, fresh lemon juice)

Dinner:

Red pepper stuffed with rice, vegetarian ground meat, tomato, mushrooms, garlic, basil, onion.
Bruschetta on brown bread with olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, onion.

Snack:

Chocolate soy pudding, 2 cups watermelon

A few weeks ago I started contemplating the idea of becoming a vegan. Not for moral or ethical reasons, but simply because I wanted to be healthier. I stopped eating red meat two months ago, and yesterday I dropped dairy and eggs from my diet. I currently consume chicken and fish, but will be removing chicken very shortly. I’m still not entirely convinced that fish is bad for you, so I may keep it as part of my diet for a while longer. Currently, I’m finding it a little difficult to get all my calories for the day and only managed to consume about 1000 yesterday. Ideally, I should be getting around 1650 if I want to maintain my current weight. My first day being dairy free looked like this:

Breakfast:

1 cup Special K
1/2 cup soy milk

Snack:

1 apricot
1 apple
1/2 banana
1/2 peach
8 pieces papaya

Lunch:

Salad with carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, mixed nuts and cucumber

Dinner:

Chili containing beans, mushrooms, chili peppers, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, ground chicken
Crackers

Snack:

chocolate soy pudding
strawberries
raspberries