Day 20!

Wow, it has been 20 days since I last ate cheese, milk, yogurt, butter- crazy.  I think this experience has been great so far.  It has caused me to really think about what I am eating.  I will admit that last night I was tempted to quit when my vegan cookies turned out...interesting, but I decided to stick with it.  Even if that meant that I had to be a little creative.  I made black bean burgers for dinner.  They were a little moist, so I added oatmeal to the mixture.  Once again, I just kinda went with what I had instead of a recipe so here it is.


Black Bean and Barley Burgers
1/2 small red onion
2 large cloves of garlic
1 carrot, peeled
1/2 small red pepper
1 1/2 cans black beans, seperated
1 cup cooked barley
1/2 cup salsa
2 pieces of dry bread
1/2 cup dry oatmeal
a few drops of hot sauce

Mince onion, garlic, carrot, and red pepper in food processor.  Add 1 can of black beans, barley, salsa, bread, and hot sauce to mixture.  Transfer to bowl and add remaining black beans and oatmeal.  Add more oatmeal if needed, but mixture will be very wet (putting in the refrigerator or freezer for a short time will make it easier to form patties).  Form into patties and cook in large skillet sprayed with cooking spray for about 8 minutes.  Flip and continue cooking on other side.  [Tip- if the burger is reall difficult to flip, wait.  It will be easier to flip once it is completely cooked on one side.]
Serve with tomato, avocado, red onion, salsa, etc.

Also, an interesting dessert I had last week: coconut milk yogurt.  I wanted to try some yogurt, but wanted something other than soy milk yogurt.  It was actually very good, but expensive.  A special treat, i guess.

More vegan goodness to come!