So, I set myself the challenge of trying to eat a vegan diet during Earth Day. Interesting.

On the face of it, I thought I had this covered. Thursday happens to be the Farmers market in Taunton where I live and so a walk into town on what has been a very warm spring day was a nice treat. I bought fresh bread, fruit and veg and headed back home. Just a little niggle in the back of my mind. I had visions of local, seasonal foods – I managed that for some of the veg – but I also bought salad items from the green grocer and that just reminded me how much food is imported and/ or eaten out of season………….

So what did I eat?

Breakfast – cereal with oat milk and a banana. Tbh this is my normal breakfast – the morning is more about getting small people out through the door for school than contemplating delicacies for breakfast!

Our zero waste shop in town stocks oat milk made in the southwest, supplied in glass bottles that you can return to the shop, so I could have made an effort earlier in the week to buy some of that but I had to go with what was in the fridge.

The banana sports a label indicating it flew in from Colombia……….

Lunch: after the walk into town I needed something simple to prepare and quick to eat. I filled a tortilla wrap with hummus, slices of pepper and green salad. Nice. Just nice. Again, if I had thought harder I might have searched for something a little more inspiring or prep’ed in advance. The Farmers market yielded a vegetable samosa which was delicious and made me feel I could realistically call lunch a success!

Family evening meal: Much more difficult! Do I measure success in that I actually cooked vegan recipes or by whether anybody else in the house eats it………?

I prepped up three salads, one green leafy salad, a pasta salad which my eldest created with me – sweetcorn, a little red onion and red pepper (we normally add a bit of chicken to this but obviously none today) and a baked cauliflower and brocolli recipe from a vegan cookbook with chickpeas and a few chestnut mushrooms, I didn’t have any of the ingredients for the sauce to go with that so put out some mayo and hummus to accompany it. Fresh bread thickly cut with spread, cucumber and tomatoes rounded off the selection.

Compared to how some meals go in our house, I claim it as a success! The youngest only ate the tomatoes, cucumber and bread (and asked for a cheese and ham sandwich !(his comfort food) ); Hubby got himself some cheese to accompany the prep’d things and eldest son gave everything a go (awesome) but sulked because of lack of chicken in the pasta salad.

As a start, it has given me encouragement – at least they all came to the table! The baked brocolli and cauli dish was a last minute addition in place of raw veg crudites which we eat quite often. Don’t think it made any difference not having the recipe sauce!

We also tried making vegetable crisps with carrot and parsnip………that seems to be a dark art and I clearly need more practice. Burnt doesn’t adequately describe how badly they came out!

The reality is the children are very rarely faced with new foods, let alone ‘no meat options’ so I’m not really surprised that the unfamiliarity of it freaked the little one out. Very proud of the older one as he was open to the ideas and did try things and full marks to Hubby for following me into this!

The ‘meat in most meals’ is going to be a difficult habit to break. Wish me luck!

Anyone got any top dishes for us to try next?