My main aim today was to not feel hungry by the end of it! Big thanks to those of you who are more experiences vegetarians/vegans who confirmed my protein suspicions and offered some suggestions to help.
I also had a virtual date night planned (if you want to hear more about how to have your own virtual date night you can click here for a post from my ‘rona ramblings series all about that!). Fraser agreed to do a veggie date night (he had normal cheese, while I had picked up my first ever packet of vegan cheese), so I was massively looking forward to that!
Breakfast – Porridge & Coffee
Yes, absolute insanity, I woke up and made myself some porridge. Of course, I wanted it a little sweeter (this is me, after all), so I added cocoa powder and maple syrup. It was another ugly looking dish but damn did it taste good! Of course, breakfast involved a coffee, but by now I think we can safely assume that’s a given.
Lunch – Starbucks Sweetcorn Fritter Wrap & Mocha with Coconut Milk
At lunchtime, my sister and I went on a Starbucks run. She works there so I like to take advantage of her staff discount. Also picked up some almond milk from the Waitrose next to it and, boy, I do not recommend service station Waitrose for your milk subs. Service Station Prices + Waitrose Prices = Sad Wallet (and Sad Ellie). But that’s the price I paid for the convenience of not having to go somewhere else afterwards.
Anyway, I got a mocha with coconut milk because Mimi insists that the Starbucks coconut milk is nicer than the one I bought (is she trying to upsell to me? Maybe, but then again she paid) and the sweetcorn fritter wrap.
The wrap was pretty damn good, very sweet (but in a compliments the savoury flavours way), which I guess was the sweetcorn. It was also very nice to just pick something up from the shop rather than sorting something myself, so extra points for convenience.
And I definitely approve of the Starbucks coconut milk. It went nicely in the coffee, unlike the one I had at home. I’m still not sold on it being a perfect choice for a cow’s milk sub in hot drinks on a whole, but it’s definitely one of my top choices for cooking and just for drinking straight.
Mid-Afternoon Snack – Nakd Cocoa Orange Bar
I went to the shops and these bad boys were on offer, so of course I had to pick them up.
Also I bought some stuff for my date night dinner, and the lady at the till noticed that I was buying a lot of vegan things, so we had a little chat about how Veganuary was going for me, and how she had done it four years ago and stayed vegan ever since. It was really nice to have a little chat about it, so I left feeling pretty happy.
Anyway, I’ve liked these little bar things for quite some time, ever since one of my friends at school started having them in her packed lunch and telling us how good they were. It really hits that sweet snacky spot.
Dinner – Burritos and Nachos
For date night, Fraser and I decided to make roughly the same thing. We settled on burritos so that even if we ended up buying slightly different ingredients it would still be the same basic concept.
I shoved some black beans, corn and tomatoes into a frying pan and added some various spices (I was loosely following several internet recipes because none quite struck me as exactly what I wanted). I also added some vegetable stock dissolved in water.
Then I fried some red onion, a red pepper and some mushrooms in a separate pan, again with some various spices.
For my rice, I just had a bag of wholegrain microwavable stuff.
I also made some nachos (using vegan cheese, don’t worry!) with jalapenos, of course.
When everything was ready (on both my side of the screen and Fraser’s), it was burrito construction time.
I started with a bed of my rice and a dollop of yoghurt (I couldn’t find a vegan sour cream and it was just plain yoghurt which worked, I can assure you), then added the black bean mixture and the fried pepper, onion and mushrooms. I also added some salad (health), vegan cheese and some of my nachos (for extra crunch!).
But, much as Icarus fell when he flew too close to the sun, I succumbed to hubris, as it turned out I had over-filled my burrito.
Still, I marched on and did my best to hold it together. I happily munched on my tasty meal. The mushrooms were an especially novel idea, they added a flavour to the whole thing that I never really have with this kind of meal.
The burrito (apart from being too full) was a great success, and left me feeling incredibly satisfied afterwards. I didn’t even feel the need for pudding.
Day Six Summary
An incredibly good day. All of my food was great tasting, and I went to bed with a very full feeling. This is good because, as I mentioned yesterday, I have been feeling hungrier than usual.
Ellie May Sibley 