Vegan Challenge 2013

I received the book Vegan Planet in the mail this week, a wonderful surprise gift for Christmas from a friend. Thanks again! Since I've become a vegetarian, I've been flirting with a vegan lifestyle now and then but never really went through with it. Excuses have been:

* I love cheese too much, can't give it up. Yes there are some cheeses that I'd definitely miss, like Parmesan, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, maybe even cream cheeses because they're so easy to throw on a sandwich to take with me to work. However every time I see another report on what actually goes on in the dairy industry I know that I should get over my love for cheese. There are substitutes and while they might not be like Parmesan or Gorgonzola, they will give me the knowledge of no cows being abused for my cheese.
* I'm lazy. Worst excuse ever, I should just stock up on soy and rice products and do it. I love soy or rice milk as much as actual milk. Still gotta try almond milk. And soy cream to cook works as well as dairy cream. Definitely no need for this excuse.
* Vegan products are expensive. They don't have to be, there's no need to buy the expensive stuff and a package of dried beans and lentils will go a long way. Besides I do sometimes eat meat substitutes, not too often because I feel all the ready made stuff is not good for me, and they've become so much cheaper nowadays. The only thing that might be expensive here is vegan cheese and the likes but no need for that, I can make my own and I have been told that nutritional yeast is a lifesaver.
* What if I want ice cream? Either try to find vegan ice cream, make your own, eat fruit flavors without dairy or suck it up!
* Some people will think I've gone completely crazy. Let them think what they want, it's my life style and my decision.
* I can't eat that delicious popcorn at the cinema anymore. Now this one will be hard and I can't think of any solution. I'll just have to resign to say goodbye to this addictive stuff and resort to only making my own popcorn at home without butter.
* No mayonnaise with french fries anymore. Well veganaise yes but that doesn't really taste as good as the real thing, at least the kind that I have tasted. I'll have to try other kinds and I'll look into making my own without using eggs.

This said I have decided that in the new year I'm going to do a couple of vegan challenges. I'll go vegan for 10 days. Maybe 30 after that. Also, I'm going to try at least 52 recipes from the vegan cookbook. There are 400 delicious recipes to chose from in the book, using at least 52 should definitely not be a problem. Obviously with the 10 and 30 day challenges the number of 52 will be quickly adding up and hey, when I end up cooking 92 recipes at least, let's make it a 100 right? Or maybe more. Maybe this will be the final push I need to become completely vegan. I already don't eat eggs and honey (honestly the latter only because I never really use it a lot anyway) and I don't mind leaving out milk and milk products. It's only the damn cheese that might be a challenge but I'm going to try.

We'll see how this goes, I'm going for the proposed challenge and we'll go from there!