28 Days Crave Veggies (Day 28)

20 April 2014

Time for a Food Change
28 days ago I made a commitment to CRAVE VEGETABLES FOR A WHOLE MONTH!! (eating no meat and fish) – I called this my 28 Days Crave Veggies Challenge. This personal meat-free challenge has been a new food experience, where I have seen myself cooking more at home from scratch, I have been more adventurous with vegetables and ingredients to replace the flavour of meat, and have felt great in doing this challenge. Kicking the ‘habit’ of eating meat and giving the veggies a chance to take centre stage for a whole month is something we should all try and encourage others to do so too.

Breakfast
Toasted hot cross bun with strawberry jam (well, it is Easter).

Lunch
We were looking for a basic bowl of vegetarian pho in London and found it here. Nothing spectacular, but tasty comfort (Sunday) food in a great location. We opted for a Vietnamese Street Food styled lunch at Pho (Wardour Street) because noodles and Pho in our Easter basket is way more fun than hollow chocolate eggs!! Pho is the national soup of Vietnam – a huge bowl of rice noodles, fresh herbs, and bean sprouts swimming in a fragrant broth.

Pho Restaurants are a cosy, bubbly place, young and with nice, fresh food, and the staff were very helpful to people who haven’t had Pho yet, explaining dishes in detail and what you needed to do with the ingredients provided. We ordered fried veggie spring rolls and the veggie Gỏi cuốn fresh rice paper summer rolls with herbs, for my mains I had their Bún vermicelli noodles tofu and mushrooms – Vermicelli rice noodles with a lemongrass & chilli wok-fried topping. Served with fresh herbs, beansprouts, veggie spring roll & peanuts and noodles served at room temp – this was a huge portion! A side of Vietnamese dipping sauce was also provided which could be poured over the dish for extra flavour or used for dipping.

The Last Meat-free Supper
Ending my last day with a tofu and aubergine stir fry with noodles and a taro bubble tea! (at Noodle ST). This was a good value restaurant, but their bubble teas are not my cup of tea.

A BIG thank you for following my meat-free challenge. In the end, it turned out just as I expected: I’m not going to be a vegetarian, but I will be more veggie than I was before. I’ve learned to be more grateful for my (meat-free) food: fresh and simple food is the stuff of life, and what it really means to be closer with nature and more experimental in the kitchen too.Let the veg love-in continue, but just not EVERY day, and now I can’t wait to eat a bacon butty tomorrow morning! :)

Missie Cindz