plums in the icebox

vegan in february!

So, I'm going vegan for February.

Orrrrrr for most of February. I'm waiting until after this Sunday's Super Bowl to actually start eating vegan because the Ravens are playing, which means I'll be in Baltimore around bad food. Which means it'll just be easier not to have to eat vegan amongst all the wings and pizza and nachos that come along with football watching. Because although I don't like football, I do like football junk food. 

But back to veganism, starting Monday, February 4th and ending, I guess, March 4th. There are a few reasons why I want to try out a vegan diet. I've watched Forks Over Knives and Food Matters and Vegucated (holla, Netflix Instant) and I want to give a serious plant-based diet a try. Mark Bittman, one of my food heros, thinks it's a good idea and it just seems like the good evidence towards a vegan diet is mounting all the time. There are many, many reported health benefits and I have to admit I'm curious. Will I lose weight? Will I feel amazing? Will my digestive issues clear up? I want to know how my body will react.

I like meat, although I don't eat a lot (that's mainly because I don't like most of it, to be honest. Basically, I like chicken, turkey, bacon and burgers. That's it for me on the meat scale). I'm still curious to see how I'll do without it, especially as I order chicken dishes pretty frequently when eating out. Dairy, I eat like it's going out of style. Yogurt for breakfast, cheese on everything, chocolate after dinner every night, butter on my GF waffles and in baked goods and in sautes. But I think I rely too much on cheese as a flavorer (flavorizer? Or maybe it's just flavor?) in my cooking, so it will be good for me to learn to make a soup or a pasta dish that doesn't taste five times better with Parmesan on top.

I actually don't drink regular milk (I've transitioned into using mostly almond or coconut milk), so that won't be a problem. Baking without dairy and eggs hasn't been hard for me in the past, so I imagine chia seeds and applesauce will get some additional play this month. I should also mention that I am going to continue to eat honey during the month, just because I'm not going vegan for moral or ethical reasons. Some vegans do eat honey, anyway, although it's a source of controversy. 

Another reason why I want to try out a vegan diet is because although I eat pretty healthfully now, I'm kind of in an eating rut. I rely on the same kinds of foods and the same kinds of recipes to get me through the week--tea and yogurt or toast for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, pasta or quinoa or chicken tacos for dinner. I'm hoping that changing the parameters of what I can eat will make me look at food and eating in a different way. And obviously, it will be a fun cooking challenge, too! I'm always inspired by the vegan food blogs I read and I'm excited to make some good vegan recipes.

I might try this website's 30 Day Vegan Challenge, where you get all kinds of emailed tips and recipes. It seems kinda gimmicky and I'm pretty sure I could get by without it but hey, it's only $20. I have this awesome cookbook, too, which I'm excited about utilizing.

But I need more recipes and more resources! Do you have any good recipes? Any tips? Suggestions for an initial grocery list? Ideas on what I can eat for breakfast every morning without eggs or dairy? If so, let me know in the comments or email me at plumsintheiceboxblog@gmail.com. 

I'll of course be blogging along with the challenge, so look for an update (and hopefully some recipe posts!) very soon.

this food blog and where it's going

As you may have noticed, posting here on Plums in the Icebox has dropped off quite a bit in recent months. Once upon a time, I'd hoped this blog would grow larger, gaining readers and sponsors. I was going to perfect my food photography, I was going to post a few times a week on an editorial schedule, I was going to "grow my readership" and " brand the blog" and all those kind of internet marketing-y kinds of phrases those of us in the blog world hear about so often.

But things have changed. My increased freelance, teaching, and doula work load has made it hard to post here as much as I'd like. When I'm writing all day for my job, the last thing I want to do is write more, even if it is about cooking and food. I still love cooking and eating healthfully as much as ever, but my interest in taking impeccably staged photos of my recipes and endlessly promoting Plums in the Icebox around the foodie blogosphere has seriously waned. I still love the blog, but it's become something I feel guilty about not working harder on, rather than something I do out for fun, as another creative outlet.

But I'm not going to stop blogging. I do, however, think I am going to end the "literary slant" aspect of this blog. When I started Plums in the Icebox, I felt like I needed a niche, something to distinguish me from the legions of other food bloggers clogging the internet. Being vaguely literary was what I came up with, and although it's been fun to do the Eats and Reads roundups and the Writers Eat series, I've decided not to continue them. After all, there are WAY better food bloggers that have that "literary slant," like Eat This Poem and Paper and Salt. And although I'm still a poet participating in the literary community, you'll have to follow me on Twitter or Tumblr to find out what I think about people who claim "poetry is dead" and all the other ridiculous and awesome stuff that goes on in the online literary world. 

From here on out, this blog is going to be your basic food blog. It'll slant towards "healthy" and nutritious food as it always has, but I'm not going to worry as much as posting regularly (not like I have been that much lately, anyway. but you know what I mean). I'm busy and that's ok. I cook dinner most nights in the week but I don't have to photograph it and blog it to feel like it really happened. I don't have to write "Plums post" on my weekly to do list each week, because this blog should be for fun. It always has been, but I think taking away some of the behind the scenes "business of blogging" stuff that's been distracting me will make it even more so. 

Look for recipes, as always, but also look for more one-off posts about foods I've been eating frequently, websites and blogs I'm reading, random eating and food-related things I find interesting. I'll probably post a lot more Instagram photos, because I snap pictures of my meals A LOT. I might just post quick links to recipes I've made or recipes that I find interesting. I might do some cookbook reviews, or I might not. I might blog five times a week or I might blog once or twice a month. Whatever it ends up being, I hope it will be fun for me to make and write, and fun for you to read. 

I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you for reading Plums in the Icebox! In the year and a half I've been blogging here, I continue to be overjoyed and amazed that there are people who regularly read this blog, people who actually cook my recipes. If you are one of them, thanks so, so, so much and I hope you'll stick around.