Milkless Mondays

So as many of you guys know the period of Lent started this past week. The idea is that you give up a certain lifestyle choice for 40 days. Now in our family we often times give up a lifestyle but sometimes we add an act to our every day lifestyle, for example, one year Michelle did a daily Bible verse every day for 40 days. This year I decided to do a sketch every day and post to my art blog. I also decided to alter my diet. Now most people go vegetarian or participate in meatless Mondays for this time period. But seeing as I am already a vegetarian, I decided to come up with milkless Mondays. So every Monday until Easter I will stick to a Vegan diet, which means absolutely no animal product of any kind. No dairy products and no honey. My first day was last Monday and it went well, even with the temptation of a coworker bringing in Krispy Kremes for everyone. I realized that being vegan is not only about discipline but its also about being observant of all indgredients in every dish. I didn't realize how many foods have dairy in them.

Well tonight I decided to cook a meal that I was supposed to make last Monday. Turns out lots of Indian food is not only vegetarian but vegan. So I decided to pick up some Curry sauce and make a tasty meal that I could eat this coming Monday. For my Curry I used 2 red potatoes, 2 celery stalks, 1 green pepper, and some chickpeas. I first half cooked my potatoes by boiling them in a pot of hot water. While the potatoes were boiling I started to cook my brown Basmati rice. Now I have never cooked brown rice before let alone Basmati rice and ended up having too much water but hey, you live and you learn. Once my potatoes started to boil I drained them and then in a separate skillet I sautéed some yellow onion in 2 tsp of Sunflower Oil. Once the onions were soft I added the pepper, celery, potatoes, and chickpeas. I seasoned the ingredients with lots of Cayenne and some extra Curry powder cause I like my food spicy and flavorful. I then added the Madras Curry Sauce and let the mixture simmer for 15min.

Once the mixture was done simmering I topped it on top of a few scoops of Basmati rice. Overall, I was very pleased with my dinner. Since I used brown rice, a little went a long way and I only ate one serving. But it allowed for plenty of leftovers for during the week. If I could make any changes though, I would get a 'Hot' simmer sauce rather than 'Medium' because I found myself adding extra seasonings.