Having not spent a term home from school since I started (last summer I was in Japan), I never really got used to being vegan and always having to cook for myself.  Sure, cooking for myself is easy, but at the frequency of two meals a day it can get a little troublesome trying to find new things. My solution during break was always the same thing: cook pasta for lunch and pasta for dinner. Usually the same kind and always in the same way.

Well, since I’m home for good (3 months) this time, that’s just not going to work out. Especially now that I’m cycling, it’s become rather boring and nutritionally unsatisfactory to eat nothing but pasta day in and day out. Every so often I’ll mix it up with things like gnocchi, but at the base of it, I’m not really escaping the problem. In fact, the oven right now is full of baking tater tots, which, along with unsweetened ice tea, will suffice for my 2pm lunch.

Now that I’m “becoming” an “adult,” I’m faced with those terribly important problems of shopping for groceries and cooking with variety. I certainly can’t cook my favorite recipes every day because there will be repitition, but on the other hand, I’ll have to know what I want to cook so I’m not going to the store to buy ingredients every day. What is a boy to do?

Anyway, starting today I’m going to work on getting my nutrition back on track, and I hope to share that with you folks. Mehbe it’ll work out fine and I’ll no longer be bored to death with what I’m eating, and mehbe it won’t, but that remains to be seen! Does anyone have advice for a fledgling adult like myself?

Just as a follow up to my previous post on vegan relationships, I thought it would be worth noting that I am once again dating someone, but this time a non-vegan. She is definitely health conscious (probably more so than me), and very aware of where her food comes from. She believes in organics and all that, and even has her own chickens and such up at her home (not at college though).

I totally respect that idea of being conscious of what we eat, and I think the fact that she’s already that way, but never was a vegetarian might make her susceptible to converting to the dark side, but I don’t plan to push it very hard, to be honest, :).

Perhaps I sounded too cynical in my last post, but I definitely think finding love in non-veg*ns is possible…as long as the partner enjoys your cooking!

And when I say joins, I mean, darn, it sure can be rewarding even if it is a huge pain in the butt.

So this spring Dartmouth Vegan Society is coming back into force after being on hiatus in the winter due to my inability to keep up with an extra course load and other obligations. It was a bit sad to lose touch with the group, but now that we’re back in action I’m reminded how troublesome it can actually be.

We got about 10 people to show up, which, all things considered, is a pretty darn good turn out. Some new faces, but pretty much the same old folks you get to know when you’re vegan on a small campus.

Anyway, we’ve got a few plans, and I thought it might be worth going over some of them in case anyone is interested or has some suggestions (since the group can be pretty sparce for ideas when it comes down to it):

• we’re going to work on bringing back a vegan nutritionist (named Deanna Latson) next year. Last year she gave a great presentation, and it would be cool to see her back to expose some new faces.
• last year we had a pretty sweet  barbeque during  the large party weekend in the Spring (known as Green Key), and I definitely think we should do that again.
• we’re also working on doing some pot-lucks, both within and without the group, to have fun and also to get some new people interested in the tasty possibilities that are vegan cooking.

Anyway, just a short update, but I’m pretty excited, you’ll see more updates (hopefully with pictures and recipes) as life goes on.

What am I eating right now? So Delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream with a Tropical Source chocolate chip garnishing.

Why the devil am I eating such unhealthy food? Well, that’s a fair question. See, the thing is, I’ve been up to 4am every night and my mind and body are starting to crumble under the stress, so I figured, why not enjoy some ice cream! I should be able to get some rest later on in the week, but for now I need to grit my teeth and bear it.

That said, I wanted to share with you all some of the snacks that I pick up when I just feel like letting go and replacing real food with junk. You may remember the chocolate chips from my favorite cookie recipe, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that ice cream before. So Delicious (and it’s fancier counterpart, Purely Decadent Soy Delicious) is made by Turtle Mountain to strict vegan standards and is also registered organic by the USDA.

I prefer the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor for the ice cream with it’s the only thing I’m eating (yep, dinner tonight was ice cream), but if I’m bringing ice cream to a dinner or hosting a social event, I will usually get the richer chocolate version. This stuff is rather good, and I’ve had it (especially the fancier stuff in the pint tubs) with many non-vegan friends and they all enjoy it. There are tons of flavors to try, and if you’re getting Soy Delicious, I would recommend Peanut Butter Zig-Zag (have you noticed a pattern?).

Anywho, if you’ve never tried it, don’t be scared! Vegan ice cream can be great and So Delicious leaves nothing to be desired (though I have had vegan ice creams that are not quite up to par). So, go out to your grocery store and pick some up. If they don’t have it leave them a note to tell them to buy it and head to a Whole Foods, local co-op, or other more hippy-friendly store and get some!

Well, that’s my quick aside, it’s back to work for me! Perhaps tomorrow night I’ll pick up some bananas instead of ice cream to keep me company through the long night.

What do you eat when you’ve got to be up and can’t fight the hunger pangs?

My gosh, I sure hope so!

But seriously, in every vegan and vegetarian’s life, there usually comes the question of how our beliefs will affect our interpersonal relationships and love lives.

I’m still a youngin’ (19 as of writing this post), so I can’t offer the life’s wisdom that goes along with finding and settling down with that one special person, but I’ll take this time to look forward and see think about how my veganism will affect my future with the ladies.

So far I’ve had two “significant” relationships, both of them with omnivores at the onset. During the first was when I made the initial transition to vegetarianism, and to be honest, it was one of the things that drove a wedge between us. She didn’t understand and didn’t want to, and the change just seemed to be emblematic of a greater drift. In the end, after we broke up, she became a vegetarian (and might be a vegan these days), but at that point I definitely felt a bit antagonized.

My second serious girlfriend also started out as an omnivore, but in relatively short order she became a vegetarian and then a vegan. Thankfully, I no longer had to worry about kissing her after she ate something I found ethically reprehensible.

Hypercritical? Maybe. Truthful? Yes.

And I think that’s really the most important thing to keep in mind here: you’re going to feel a certain way about people with different eating habits than you. Eating is a big part of life, and if you try to put those feelings aside, it may come back to haunt you. Be honest and upfront, with yourself and your partner.

That said, I really don’t know where I’ll be going. I don’t feel like I mind too much, but cooking and vegany things are definitely on my top lists of fun things to do, so it’s not easy to discount the role veganism could play in a future relationship.

Time will tell, I suspect!

Has anyone else given this issue any thought?