I say Vey-gan, you say Vee-gan (Adventure Day Two)

...and I still don't know how you say it in Italian, which is fine, because I don't intend to make a big announcement to those around me any time soon.

Today was the first day back at work after our three-week Christmas break. I thought it was going to be tougher than it actually was (mainly thanks to Genki English, but that's for another post). Last night was a mega-insomnia night. Perhaps I'd had a tad too much green tea (??), too late in the day. Perhaps I was just feeling a little stressed.

So, in spite of very little quality sleep, I've been able to keep going all day, with only two coffees (in the past it probably would have been a four cup kind of day). Is it the new diet? I doubt it, after only one day. It is probably more likely that I'm just happy to be back at work. A person who loves his or her job is truly blessed.

Down to it! Here is today's menu, as it panned out. I knew there'd be no point posting my weekly menu plan until AFTER the week :-) Nothing is ever carved in stone in my kitchen.

Breakfast: Overnight oatmeal (again - easy, tasty, gets me through to lunchtime without the munchies. You have to love that.)
Lunch: I made it before I went to work, because I knew I'd be home late. I cubed some pumpkin (there is going to be a recurring pumpkin theme this month, as we had a bumper crop this year), sliced a carrot, and put them in a pot with water and salt. Once it was boiling, I added 50gr of wholemeal pasta (penne rigate), and cooked for ten minutes. I drained it, put it all in a glass bowl, and poured a little olive oil over, then covered it with a plate, and left for work. When I got home, all the flavours had melded, and it was a delicious, creamy pasta salad.
Dinner: was meant to be roasted potato salad with parsley pesto, but I didn't get it started in time. So it was back to pumpkin. I roasted it with garlic, rosemary, drizzled in balsalmic vinegar. Yummy!

The roasted pumpkin, still in the pan

And then there was the sudden rush of inspiration from Vegan Piggy, so I made stuffed mushrooms with what I had on hand. Fresh breadcrumbs, a little red onion, a little garlic, mushroom stems, basil, parsley, and baked for 30 minutes.

Stuffed mushrooms (bad photo - they look like eggs!)

And the kids have been asking for tapioca pudding for ages, so I thought I'd try making it with the home-made soy-milk I made yesterday. I needed to add vanilla essence to cover the rather strong taste, but the kids came back for seconds (and even thirds!).

Home-made soy milk. I added oil, but won't do that again. Needs a good shake before using.

And so, Day Two is drawing to a close. Any changes yet? Perhaps a little too early to ask this, but my forearms are no longer itching. Perhaps it is the clay which is doing something - Too Much Information coming up (been going to the bathroom WAY more than usual! - this is often what happens at the beginning of a vegan diet, so I've read, but not usually so soon, as far as I can tell).

So far, so VEGAN :-)