L.E.N.T.

Ack! Just realized we're having a major food-related overhaul here at good old apartment #1D and I haven't blathered to you about it yet. No more!

Around here in kitten heaven*, aka the batcave, aka we don't actually call our apartment any of those things, we've decided to face Lent with gusto this year! We've sworn off meat AND dairy this year, and frankly I'm oddly into it. It's not only a fun and exciting challenge (Can we do it?!) I'm also ALREADY feeling healthier, and we're just 5 days in.

Yes, it's a major change. Yes, I love cheese. No, I don't miss it yet. And here's why. I filled our house (well, over the course of about 4 trips to the grocery store, which is probably the only downside so far) with all kinds of things that we CAN eat and then we go to town on delicious fare as we see fit.

Here's what our fridge is looking like these days :



Although initially I was going to stay away from them, I pretty quickly said screw it and bought some useful (and really shockingly not gross) milk/dairy alternatives, seen here :



(coconut for me, soy for the D)



Maybe the reason I'm having such fun with this is that it's forced me to mix it up, foodwise, in quite a few ways. I had to think outside our usual recipe rut, outside my usual snacking ruts and we've had to rethink where we go out for food AND what we order. It's like playing with your food - MIND playing with it! Totally fun.

I made this granola- the famous Nigella Lawson/David Lebowitz one which I'm pretty sure I told you about before :



And this vegan split pea soup - thick and really filling it totally hits the spot. I know it looks like barf, but I am including a picture anyway. I don't know why.



And - I'm really proud of this because David's bonkers for it - vegan egg salad. I just sort of made it up - a crumbled up loaf of firm tofu, a bunch of vegannaise, some tofutti sour cream and a bunch of mustard and celery. It makes a CRAZY good sandwich, and I actually think it's cheaper than regular egg salad. Uglier, too!



Otherwise, we're keeping lots of nuts and salad stuff around for quick fixes, as well as spaghetti with red sauce, and I'm pretty excited because I've got all the stuff to make THIS, hopefully some night this week. I've got a major sour tooth, so this is one of my favorite snacks, and since I'm foregoing lots of other treats, I sprung for the fancy brand :



Mmmm fermentation!

I feel like we're doing a little moral/physical/mental spring cleaning and it's pretty great. I enjoy feeling really haughty and telling the kittens that I'm not eating any of their little animal friends these days.. to which David says they don't care and would probably eat me if they thought they could get away with it and I should stop talking to our cats. He's probably on to something there, but I feel pretty great so I'm not going to dwell on it.

OH! and here's something else that eases the pain of life without cheese. I highly recommend it for Lent, or any time you choose.



*see Miranda refrain from kitten picture posting. see previous post and about a million others for heart-melting kitten shots.