Kind of an interesting leap from my current status as someone who eats meat and eats quite a lot of it, but I’ve been interesting in leaning towards a slightly more vegan diet for a while.

I’m thinking, right now, that I will turn back towards meat at the end of this but will aim to reduce the amount of meat I eat, so I guess that makes my main aim to find alternatives to meat-filled meals that I can begin to cook and enjoy on a regular basis. 

Mostly, I’m interested to see if I can stick to veganism (?) for the whole month. 

I’d also like to build up my (fairly limited) bank of recipes in general because I’m a notoriously terrible cook and tend to survive on a lot of terrible meals.

Other motivations include the fact that beef makes me feel really ill immediately after eating it. Like I often suffer an immediate stomach ache and end up stuck on the toilet for quite some time afterwards. Maybe that’s too much information but basically the main point is that eating beef is uncomfortable for me, so I figure taking a break can’t hurt. 

I also have problems with my skin and I’m hoping cutting out dairy might make some sort of a difference. It’s not noticeably bad but I often get acne that just hurts! I’ve tried a lot of different things to help with this, so maybe I’m just one of those people that will continue having bad skin for most of their life but apparently dairy is one thing that can affect it, and I do feel like when I lived in Japan, I consummed less dairy and it helped. 

Anyway, I believe that most people in general have way more meat than necessary and that we should all try and reduce our meat and other animal product intake, so there’s a moral aspect to this as well, after all I’ve been a hypocrite to my own feelings for quite sometime regarding the environment and animal welfare and that.

But enough about why I’m doing this, let’s get on to the doing!

So today I’m not yet officially a vegan (I don’t think I’ll call myself a vegan throughout January though, just a person trying out a vegan diet). But I popped to the shops in order to prepare myself with some key items for the month ahead. 

That said, I originally planned to think this through a bit more and actually PLAN what I needed to get for what I planned to eat. If you know me in person or have been reading my blog for a little while, you’ll know, however, that planning is not my strong suit. 

So, despite my good intentions to think this through and decide on some tasty looking meals to try out, what actually happened was that I panicked. 

You see, we’re stuck in that post-Christmas, pre-New-Year limbo period, where time doesn’t really exist (or, at least, I don’t process it), so I completely forgot that January starts tomorrow and I needed to buy myself a few vegan bits and bobs. 

So, my aunt announced that she was going to the shop and I hopped in the car with her and hastily typed up a list of some essentials that I figured we probably don’t already have. 

The list mainly consisted of items that I could quickly cook/eat alongside my family. I assumed we’d probably already have a large selection of food that I can eat anyway, so I mainly wanted some meat substitutes and some ready meals so I’ve got some easy backups. 

So I entered the shop and the excitement of buying vegan things got to me, so I essentially bought anything that was on offer and that I liked the look of. This consisted of:

– Oat Milk (I already know this is my preferred milk substitute, I particularly enjoy it in the mocha bubble coffee from CUPP.)

– Soya Milk 

– Leon Chimichurri Cheeze & Herb Bites 

– Sainsbury’s Love Your Veg! Lentil Cottage Pie 

– Sainsbury’s Love Your Veg! Chili Non Carne 

– Plant Pioneers Shroomballs & Spaghetti

– Heck Meat-Free Sausages

– Naked Glory Mince

– Lentils

– Chickpeas 

– Vitalite Dairy Free Spread

– The Tofoo Co. Terriyaki Tofu 

Look it was just a random bunch of stuff to get me through the first few days after New Years where I know I’ll be feeling too lazy to find recipes and cook them. I’ll do a meal plan later on and get a bit more adventurous. 

So that’s my thoughts before starting Veganuary. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but right now I’ve got some cocktails to make for my family.