Food, glorious food....but I'm confused!

These are my non leather boots made by
Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton.
I've had them some years and they go
great with leggings!

When it comes to dietary requirements how do I describe myself? It used to be easy - vegetarian. Lately I've become confused. I am nearer vegan these days but not entirely. Two situations cropped up when I had to put down my preferences for food - a weekend conference and a week at Swanwick Writers's Summer School. I hesitated. What will I be by August? For the conference I've put myself as vegetarian. The week long writers school in August caused me the greatest anxiety. Hubby suggested I just gave up eating altogether. Thanks! In the end I put myself as vegan. Why? Well, I remembered the first night when I was served a dish with goats cheese. Can't stand the stuff and I had to pick it all out as best I could.

Sometimes it's just easier to say I'm vegan even though it restricts what I eat. I wonder what I will be served as a vegan in August? Will I regret my choice as some of the vegetarian chicken style fillets were pretty poor - though veggies were good.

So, have I managed to give up the cheese and eggs? Er...not quite. While on holiday I slipped a lot and I've had the odd slice of pizza and once devoured two custard tarts (a big weakness) but I still buy vegan cheese and vegan snacks.

Tomorrow, Mother's Day, techie son is cooking me lunch - a special mac-n-cheese with philly cheese. I can't look a gift horse in the mouth. It's not often I get food cooked for me. Though when he told it had cottage cheese as well I told him he'd have to leave that out - to me that's sick in a tub!

Often now there are whole succession of days when I eat only vegan - let down by the Horlicks at night (another weakness).

There are so many descriptions of diets now - Flexitarian, Ovo vegetarian. Then there's the raw diet (a step too far for me). There are also a lot of myths and misinformation out there and it pays to do your research. I'd rather eat fresh unadulterated food rather than stuff that's been messed around with to produce something that tastes like a meat product etc., and while Quorn products are a good standby I eat them less than before. Techie son and I recently tried Fishless Fingers but I won't be buying them again. I didn't like the flavour - fishy but not fish. Odd. It was an experiment which reminded me of what I once ate but don't want to anymore.

Today has been a vegan day, as was yesterday. Interesting dinner - sweet potato jacket, sliced aubergine (roasted). kidney beans mixed with curry paste, tomato puree and left over coconut cuisine (by Alpro). I'm not a great planner and often end up looking to see what I have in the fridge and devising something I can make with it. I do enjoy making soups and last week I made butternut squash and tarragon soup. That was delicious and just the ticket for lunch on a cold day. Make enough and you have lunch the next day too. Just fry-off some onion, add the chopped butternut squash, add water and stock cube. When the vegetable is cooked, blitz, reheat adding more water if needed and add the tarragon. Voila!