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Chicago "Flirt", anyone in the area?
Started
by Martha Rauch
on January 24, 2011
Hello! My name is Martha and I am new to going vegetarian/vegan. I'm easing into the new lifestyle. I have been able to take certain meats out of my diet, learn how to cook new great meals(I come from a meat and potatoes, midwestern upbringing), and I'm constantly finding new resources to help me along my journey. I just learned about The Kind Diet and bought it this past weekend! I'm so excited to jump in! The recipes look delicious!!!
I'm looking for any help, tips, support, and hopefully some fellow Chicagoans! Many of my friends are not as like-minded as me. I joined this site looking for support in my eco-friendly lifestyle.
Thank you for listening!!
Martha
I'm a Chicago "flirt" too! I'm up on the far north side. I just started slowly doing more and more vegan meals (started in November) and am now eating vegan pretty much all week long, and then still having some non-vegan stuff on weekends. But I'm loving how I feel already and experimenting with new recipes/trying new foods. I just saw there's a group in another section of the forum trying to organize a monthly meet up at a veg restaurant- check that out too. I'd love to keep in touch for motivation/ideas!
We have a very similar story! That's great! Have you read Alicia's book yet? I'm looking forward to going to the Whole Foods off North Ave and buying some great treats to make! And a meet up in Chicago? I didn't see that, I'll def. look into that!
Do you have any awesome, filling snacks you bring to lunch? I'm hungry every couple hours (always have been, fast metabolism and small stomach) and I find myself very hungry between breakfast before work, lunch, and after my commute. I make yogurt parfaits with greek yogurt, granola, and fresh blueberries (ahh NOT vegan!) and crackers but i'm looking for something super tasty and easy to travel?? idea?
I get pretty hungry mostly in the afternoons at work. in the morning I have a huge bowl of oatmeal with rice milk, or I've also tried cooking up some other grains with dried fruit and nuts. That usually tides me over til lunch. For lunch lately I've been packing leftovers of whatever I've made for dinner (last week it was a vegan gumbo, this week kasha with mushrooms and dill, another time it was a vegan shepherds pie) and then I'll just bring cut up veggies, fruits, and nuts to much on in the afternoon. I'm trying to get into non-dairy yogurts but they just aren't cutting it for me so far. Another thing I like for lunch is just a wrap made with hummus, avocado, and whatever other veggies I have on hand. Sometimes I feel like I need a sweet in the afternoon and I had made these raw date/prune/cocoa/coconut balls that admittedly wouldn't fool anyone into thinking they were actually candy, but did the trick. Another thing I've discovered in one of the produce markets up by me is "sesa kiss" - it's in like a little candy bar type wrapper and it has four thin crunchy crackers that are basically made out of just sesame seeds and honey. Those are pretty awesome too. So that's what's in my bag of tricks for now! I am nuts about food and always looking to try something new.
Oh and I did read the book, but I had checked it out from the library and don't own my own copy yet. I copied a bunch of the recipes but now am thinking I might buy a copy because there's other good stuff in there to reference.
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