Happy New Year and Welcome to Veganuary! It’s me, LA from Black Girls Eat just stopping by to add some plant-based love to your 2023 inbox. I wouldn’t be much of a plant-based advocate if I wasn’t out here with my green pom-poms in the air for Veganuary!
Veganuary was started in 2015, with the goal of bringing awareness to the harm done to animals in order to produce food. The initiative kicked off in the UK and now people around the world are participating. Veganuary is the perfect time to lean into a plant-based lifestyle. Just the fact that you are thinking about adding more plants to your plate makes me smile.
If you haven’t heard me say it, let me share it here. About 5 years ago, I felt horrible. I woke up everyday feeling like a twisted pretzel. I hurt from the top of my head to the my pinky toe—-seriously. I went to doctors who took x-rays and ultrasounds. No one ever found anything. Sadly, I went in for an MRI and discovered I was claustrophobic. Not sure if you’ve ever had to lay on that table and glide through that white tube. For me, it was horrible. I panicked, cried and threw up.
To manage the pain, I took a lot of over the counter meds. I now know that many of those medications can cause ulcers in your stomach and colon. I didn’t know. I just wanted to feel better. Sometimes it was OTC meds. Sometimes it was red wine followed by a morning of several cups of coffee. What a terrible roller coaster I was on.
Finally, I found a rheumatologist who sent me out for a battery of tests. After some discussion, I learned that inflammation in the body can cause the kind of pain I was experiencing. I also discovered that there were foods that might have been contributing to the pain. I started slowly by removing meat, coffee, alcohol, dairy and sugar from my day. The first thing I noticed was that it was easier for me to sleep through the night.
The journey continued and that’s when I first heard about plant-based nutrition. Whole foods plant-based nutrition to be exact. I took a couple of classes and slowly began to cook and eat foods in a more simple way. I stayed away from a lot of foods that were in a can, jar or box.
The supermarket was like an amusement park as I raced through the aisles looking for new foods to try. I grew up with white rice and yellow rice. I met brown rice after college. But now, I was getting to know faro, barley and fonio. Roasted chickpeas became my go to snack and I finally stopped ignoring tofu! I realized that putting more plants on my plate was a great way to learn about new fruits, grains and vegetables from around the world.
Ways to Participate in Veganuary
Register at www.veganuary.com
Download your free Celebrity Cookbook featuring recipes from Serena Williams and NYC Mayor Eric Adams
Check out the vegan recipes at Black Girls Eat
Try a vegan meal once a day
Get your co-workers to sign up and create an office challenge
Swap out a dairy product for a non-dairy
Take photos of your vegan meal choices and share on your socials with the hashtgags #blackgirlseat and #veganuary
Ways to Get More Plants on Your Plate
Add fruit to your pancakes waffles instead of syrup
Blend an avocado into your favorite green smoothie recipe
Chop spinach or dark leafy greens and then add to your favorite soup
Sauteé onions and peppers and add them to your favorite bowl of pasta
The Recipe: Spicy Tofu with Honey and Garlic
This has to be one of the very first vegan recipes I ever tried. Since I’d never been friends with tofu, I was shocked at how often I made it. Tofu is a great source of protein and calcium. Apologies to you if you are allergic to soy. If you aren’t allergic, try this very easy recipe. I love to add it to a bowl of rice and even a bowl of rice noodles.
The Random: A Fresh Air Fund Kid
Some of you may know this but I grew up in the Bronx. Not the South Bronx of the KRS-One song but the central Bronx which wasn’t much different. I actually grew up a few steps away from where Mr. Kool Herc created Hip-Hop and spent many of my summer nights in the park watching all the B-Boys and B-Girls making magic.
I’d only really ever left the block to go to Virginia once and to Disney World. Other than that, each summer was all about the Roberto Clemente Pool where you could swim for 50 cents and get a quarter back on your way out. One day in the middle of July, my parents announced that I was going to be a Fresh Air Fund Kid. I had no problem with the fresh air of the Bronx but they had other ideas.
They shipped me up to Cobleskill, New York and I lived with a family for two weeks. Let me say more. I lived with a family on a farm that produced 2/3 of the milk consumed in New York State. There were 39 cows, 24 cats and 2 dogs. And guess what? They had their own huge pool right in front of their house. Yep. I was in the big leagues.
I remember the first night of dinner. They asked me what vegetable would I like to have. I asked for green beans and then went to kitchen cabinet to retrieve a can. We had plenty of cans of green beans at my house. Whole and the french cut! Their mom just laughed and handed me a silver pail. The whole family walked me around to the back of the house and down a path that led to—you guessed it—green beans.
I was blown away. I had never seen a garden before. I had actually never been on a farm before. They grew everything. I had the best time running around the farm choosing fruits for pies and veggies for dinner. It was a real eye-opener for me and I’m grateful for that experience. While living with that family, I came to appreciate how hard farmers work and how satisfying it can be to nourish and nurture your family with foods grown with your own hands.
Happy New Year! Good luck with Veganuary and let me know if you decide to sign up and participate. Come find me on Tik Tok and and of course Instagram. Have an awesome week and please find time to eat well, feel well and live well!