Friday, April 8, 2011

It's not always happy being a vegan

Day 8 - 4/8/11
I'm in this "super frustrated with veganism" mood right now. Like whoa. Allow me to share my experience with you:
My roommate and I went to a place on campus called The Connection to get salads. Unfortunately we were unaware that the salad part closed 15 minutes before we got there. We walked over to Subway only to find it was closed too. Really, close at 8pm on a Friday? So we went back to The Connection and found out we could still get sandwiches. After having a conversation with a guy that worked at the sandwich place, he told me I could have a grilled veggie and hummus sandwich on the wheat bread, perfect! So I ordered the sandwich at the kiosk and waited about 10 minutes for it. Another guy brought me my sandwich and said, "Oh, by the way we ran out of grilled veggies, so I loaded you up with lettuce and tomato." I looked at him completely dumfounded and said, "So there's lettuce, tomato and hummus on this sandwich?" "Yeah." OOOOOOOKAY - wow. I went to pay for my sandwich and the girl asked me if I was able to find something vegan and I explained to her what happened and she kindly didn't charge me for my sandwich. I was grateful for that. I got a pickle with it so I cut it up and opened my sandwich to add some pickle and what did I find? Southwest sauce, which is a mayonnaise; I was officially irate. I took the sandwich back up to him and politely informed him that there was southwest sauce on it when I was certain I asked for mustard. His reply? "The ticket said southwest sauce." So I firmly said, "I can't have dairy, so I wouldn't have ordered it. I asked for mustard." I think he was irritated too, so that room was one big ball of tension. After about 30 minutes of going back and forth and trying to get something to eat, I finally sat down with a wheat sub roll lightly schmeared with hummus, one tomato and about a 1/2 handful of shredded lettuce. Loaded me up, huh?
I am completely dissatisfied and frustrated. I ate hummus twice today and as much as I love it, I need MORE. More variety. I'm just really getting perturbed by this whole thing and need to figure some things out, make my diet more diverse. But all I want to do right now is SCREAM. On the upside, my mom sent me a package of vegan peanut butter cups; I might eat them all tonight.

4 comments:

Angela said...

you should try The Lunch Cafe's Veggie Grill ;) our panini bread is vegan and if you ask for no cheese we only put italian dressing on it. its an awesome sandwhich. mix up your hummus flavors.... get plain and then add your own ingredients! mix hummus and tabooli together and it makes for an AWESOME spread on a veggie sandwhich. idk if youve had tofu but apparently if its cooked right it can be really good! definitely use the internet and look up recipes.... that will be your best friend lol. i completely forgot that you were blogging about your journey. i love reading this!

Julie said...

Angela - I CAN NOT WAIT to come to the cafe and gobble up all your tasty vegan foods. Even if its just that one sandwich! haha. I have recipes and have done a lot of searching. I need to do more, but at this point its an issue of prep time and the cost. So I'm trying to be cost effective at this time. I have had tofu and it is good. I just need to get better - its only been a week so I need to give myself a break I think :] Thanks for reading and enjoying!

SnugPlug said...

Julie...my favorite vegan dishes are stir fry's since you can change it up with different types of veggies (and the right kinds of sauces of course). I've made a delicious mango curry with jasmine rice as well...onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, mangoes, coconut milk, and curry paste. I'll post the link to the recipe if I can find it.

Gwyn said...

Sorry, sis... but I'm proud of you for not getting so frustrated that you just ate it (or something non vegan). It will get better - and how nice that you have a mentor to help guide you along!