I tried Veganuary and I didn’t hate it

Every January, we ask, and are asked, "What are your New Year's Resolutions?" "What will you be giving up this year?" Which usually gives me some anxiety. Why do I have to give up something? I truly dislike having the perspective of "giving up" because then I start to look at how my life will be lacking in that department. If I can't have this, I want it more. At which point, I'm setting myself up for failure.

Rather, I want to look at my new year as a way to gain something. Specifically, gaining strength; with my body, my resolve, and my discipline. It's a challenge, you see? And I do enjoy a good challenge. (Me? Competitive? No…)

As I'm keen on learning new skills and expanding upon the ones I currently have, I decided to go vegan for January— affectionately called Veganuary. This was going to definitely test my resolve and discipline.

I've toyed around with the idea for the past few years, but even with a background in culinary arts, I felt intimidated by the prospect of only being able to eat plant-based items. No meat? Okay, I could do that. No seafood? Okay, this is a bit harder, as I love seafood. No dairy? I use non-fat Greek yogurt in and on everything. Truly, everything. No animal byproducts? I'm definitely going to be reading lots of labels, aren't I? This is going to be interesting.

So, I ordered some vegan cookbooks (America's Test Kitchen was my favorite!), spread out on my couch, and started to digest what the next 31 days were going to look like.

One thing you should know about me is that I eat a lot. I mean A LOT. My family, friends, and colleagues can attest to the fact that I'm usually snacking on something at least every 2 hours. Homemade hummus, protein balls, and apples with peanut butter have been staples for me for a while and typically make it into a majority of my Zoom meetings, so it was great to see I could continue eating those. Phew!

What I really needed, though, was vegan dinner ideas. I searched through our site and came up with a robust list of possibilities. I've already made this vegan pesto (doctoring it a bit with some vegan Parmesan cheese), cauliflower and fennel pesto pizza with homemade whole wheat dough (I used organic sugar to keep it vegan), and our vegan tofu scramble. All were super tasty and pretty filling, without feeling like I had an anvil in my stomach. (Okay, vegan foods, I see you!)

While I've been struggling with not having dairy (whoa, did I quickly realize during this experience how much I used it as a go-to snack or topping), I'm excited about how creative I can be with my meal planning.

On the menu for this upcoming week: I'll be making that delicious vegan pesto again, pairing it with fettuccine and this cheesy vegan garlic bread that has me drooling; I'll be making vegan chickpea burgers, to satiate that burger craving I get every once in awhile; and these delightful looking cauliflower tacos.

For more insight into how Veganuary is going, check out this article detailing my journey.

Are you vegan or enjoy plant-based cooking? Share your favorite plant-based recipes with us on Instagram and tag us @thespruceeats!

- Victoria Heydt
Editorial Project Manager, The Spruce Eats