Veganuary? What is it and Why We are Giving it a go.

We like to add our support and join in with campaigns which are positive and especially when they will have an impact on our health and most of all our planet earth.

Perhaps one of the most popular campaigns going on now is Veganuary. I quite like the sound of it, a combination of the words vegan and January.

So what is Veganuary?

According to UK.veganuary, since 2014, Veganuary has inspired and supported more than half a million people in 178 countries to try vegan for January – and beyond. Throughout the year, Veganuary encourages and supports people and businesses alike to move to a plant-based diet as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering and improving the health of millions of people.

You know at the start of each new year, many folks make a pledge to change something about themselves, usually something to do with their health or lifestyle?

So as a new year’s resolution some people choose to give up smoking, exercise more, walk more or try a vegan lifestyle. Some people actually carry on with it as a lifetime change and others decide to follow more of a vegetarian lifestyle and others choose to eat less meat.

All are good I think. They will reduce our negative impact on the environment and also (hopefully) help us to be healthier.

In our household, most of us love meat, and honestly, I don’t think we have an enormous amount of it. We have tried going vegetarian (not vegan) a few times but somehow we have not been able to stick to it for an extended period of time.

And whilst we do understand that our meat-eating choice has a negative effect on the environment, and perhaps on our health, it has not overwhelmed us enough to make us go totally meat-free.

We don’t even think we would be able to manage a month of going meat-free, hence our start so late into January. So we are going to try to not have meat in any of our meals this month. You can follow us on Instagram to watch our progress or lack thereof.

Is Veganuary Difficult?

I am not thinking that it will be too difficult. We already love colourful looking foods. Take a look at those we have had in the past. You know they say you eat with your eyes first?

Well whilst I don’t believe it strictly (some foods I love don’t have an appealing look), I do agree that the more enticing the food looks, the more likely we will be to enjoy eating it.

We will vary the textures and flavours for each meal.

We will be having soups, smoothies, salads, steamed vegetables and we are also going to try a range of vegetables and fruits that we have not tried before as well as some that we have rather infrequently. This is a great way to vary your diet and to get other nutrients in.

We will try to make most of the meals at home (we are a frugal family) but we will have perhaps one treat day where we try to have a meal prepared for us by some vegetarian restaurant. Yum takeaway idea! I am so looking forward to that.

Usually, we enjoy doing batch cooking as part of our frugal lifestyle, and we will still do that during this week, however, it will be scaled back somewhat as only two of us will be trialling the vegetarianism for the week.

Shopping will be somewhat the same, except that we have decided that we are going to catch some really good deals on reduced price fruits and vegetables. The veggies we will use for soups. Some of it will then be frozen for use at a later date when most likely it will be cold and frosty outside.

We have good to excellent cooking skills, we know how to adapt and adjust recipes so we think in that department there will be lots of success.

we watched a program on tv this morning that showed us how to make, among other things, peanut butter, pecan butter, vegan apple crumble with vegan custard and the perfect vegan breakfast fry up! Did you see it? It was presented by two guys and it was really inspiring. There are still many ways to really enjoy food without eating meat.

In our pantry, we have a wide array of herbs and spices from the Caribbean to Oriental so I will certainly choose and change as we have a like (or dislike) for different flavours.

I can’t think of anything that will make the experience uncomfortable or hard to deal with and after all, it will only be for a few weeks so hey!

And before you think we might totally give up meat by the end of it, I don’t think so. But you have to watch this space if you really want to know.

See our latest veggie soup and bread rolls made at home.

Have a good week ahead and try, if only for the sake of our planet to have less meat. And of course, we would be interested to know how you get on. Leave us a comment if you feel like it. Cheerio.