Living 80/20

A couple months ago I started grappling with the idea of going vegan or at least vegetarian with no dairy (that's not exactly vegan - sorry vegan peeps).  I didn't eat that much meat on a regular basis so that was going to be easy.  Dairy is a different story, but I had cut out milk a couple months earlier and had switched to almond milk.  Cheese was going to be the hardest to break up with, or so I thought.  

So I started and went all the way in.  It was pretty good, until a few days in I was brought down by spicy crunchy tuna roll craving while out on a date - oh yeah, I ate it all right and I would do it again!  This is when I realized that going a 100% wasn't going to work for me.  So now, I do what I like to call The 80/20.

My 80/20 eating habits is that I eat vegetarian with no dairy for all the meals that I make for myself, but when I eat out, I eat what I want and not worry about it.  I pretty much cook myself all of my meals, brown bag my lunch, and rarely eat out.  So far, it's been great.  The only challenge is finding recipes that sound delicious and have a fair amount of protein - preferably without seitan, tempeh or tofu (it scares me to cook it) - but I'm making it work!  So this is going to be my little journal on recipes that I make, and my journey to maintain a healthier lifestyle.

Chickpea Piccatta was the first vegan recipe that I made and it was delicious!  I served it over mashed potatoes made with Earth Balance butter spread and unsweetened almond milk (which is a great substitute for milk in every recipe I've made now).  It's also started my complete obsession with chickpeas that I pretty much eat everyday now.

Chickpea Piccatta

Recipe by Isa Chandra

Chickpea Piccatta by Isa Chandra.