Drowning in chickpeas

Oh, friends, I’m in danger of turning into a giant chick pea! I’m eating so many of them, in one form or another. Plus, post-Christmas I'm looking somewhat spherical...

Vegan food isn’t gruesome - it’s not that different to what I eat normally; it’s just that you have to be a little more creative with your cooking and vigilant with your food labels. What I am missing most is being able to have cow’s milk in my tea (and the odd coffee). The old man feels the same. Now that I’ve found vegan ‘milk-style’ chocolate, I’m relatively happy with the food (although I had a truly evil tasting ‘chocolate’ Santa earlier - half price from the health food shop...).

However, I was rather alarmed to learn that it’s impossible to get vitamin B12 from plant sources. I've just read in the Observer that: A University of Winsconsin study found 92% of vegans were deficient in vitamin B12.
You are meant to eat fortified cereal and/or fortified plant milks or take a supplement.

When we first embarked on the Veganuary thing, the old man said: ‘I don’t want to eat a load of Franken-foods’. I agree with him - I’d rather eat natural, whole food where possible.

This is the nut roast I made the other day:

And I didn't really want to reply on nutritional supplements. I shied away from taking vitamins a few years ago after reading ‘Bad Science’ by Ben Goldacre. HarperCollins, 2008, and they also make me think of Sheldon, saying to Penny, in The Big Bang Theory, when he goes shopping with her and sees her stocking up on a load of vitamin supplements, that she’s basically just purchasing some really expensive urine, as there’s only so much the body can absorb.

I’m starting to feel somewhat uneasy with the health implications of becoming vegan and here are my Top personal concerns:

1. Vitamin B12 deficiency - this vitamin is only found in animal products - meat, fish, dairy and eggs. Only veggie source (apart from algae!) seems to be Marmite - but how much do you need? A jar a day??
2. Weight gain - nuts, avocado, even the humble hummus, chilli heatwave Doritos, vegan chocolate...all pack a large energy punch. (The thing about trusty old, non-vegan quorn is that it’s low fat and low cal) I can almost hear you shouting at me - telling me to eat less and stop shovelling in the vegan chocolate, but let's get back to the real world, shall we? It's freezing, I'm worried about the future and my children woke me up at 5:20 this morning, let me have my 'chocolate'!
3. Unsociable - couldn’t have any of daughter’s birthday cake (do not want to impose Veganism on kids) - not a health concern, more a societal one.
4. Don’t feel strongly enough about this to maintain the sacrifice - see previous post. http://msmuddles.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-animals-were-harmed-in-making-of.html Although I started out welcoming the challenge, I’m not really sure why I’m doing this. If it’s for health reasons then I shouldn’t have to worry about vitamin deficiency, should I?
5. Terrible, ferocious wind!

So….why am I doing this again…?

Oh yeah, so I'd have something to write about, wasn't it. ;)