It’s that time of the year again when I experiment on myself with what happens to me if I didn’t eat any animal based food for an entire week. This is something I’ve been doing for more than a decade already. And, in all honesty, I’ve become very good at it. But sadly, like with the previous year, I actually couldn’t be 100% vegan this time around as well. I did mostly recover from the terrible crunching sound my left knee would make when I would bend it. That’s mostly because I’m now exercising much smarter by not really going all out when I work out my legs. I can still do regular squats but, whenever I do, I hardly add any weight.

But a big contributing factor might be because I’ve been supplementing with some Type-II collagen. Although there is research supporting the theory that it helps, I understand it might be more of a placebo effect on me. But still, if my knees feel much better while I’m taking Type-II collagen, then I don’t see the harm… even though it just might be all in my head. The problem is there isn’t a vegan option for Type-II collagen. So, like with last year, besides the Type-II collagen supplements, I did spend the entire week just eating plant based products.

This year did prove to be a little more, shall we say, challenging. You would think it’s because I live in the Philippines, a third world country (which is why the name of this blog site is 3rd World Geeks, don’t ya know?). Well, that used to be a problem before but, in all honesty, it’s become much easier as I guess companies here have seen more people embracing the vegan lifestyle. Not a lot but enough so there are actually some vegan options in some restaurants. Even Burger King has gotten into it as they do have a Plant Based Whopper here. I mean, it’s pretty okay based on what I remember from it.

There are more vegan options now. What’s the problem then? Well, it’s something that’s affecting a lot of people now and it’s the rising cost of pretty much everything. Vegan options are already pretty pricey and I really didn’t want to break the bank too much this year. So, I decided to be a little more creative as well as pretty much plan out what I was exactly going to eat for my entire week of (almost) veganism.

There were still some staples I had to pick up. Once again, I went to good ol’ Healthy Options as I’ve done with previous years of doing this. I got myself a bag of Bob’s Red Mill TVP as well as a bag of their soup mix. I got Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix this time around. That was it, though, as all of that came up to around P1,000 Philippine pesos. That’s already a lot of money in this economy! Like I said, I wanted to be more budget conscious this year. To add more, shall we say, bulk to my food choices, I went to a nearby supermarket and got myself a big can of Molinera Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce, a pack of the cheapest dried somen noodles and some vegan pho bouillon cubes as those were the only vegan instant soup option available. Thankfully, I do like the taste of pho!

Finally, I went to my local Korean supermarket, Giyummy Meats and Supermarket. I usually go there to buy their beef samgyeopsal slices to make a big batch of gyudon. But I also know, from my frequent visits there, they also have prepackaged vegan mandu and tofu. I got myself a big bag of the Bibigo Vegetable Mandu and some firm tofu there. I also went to a discount supermarket in the Philippines called Dali on a lark and I did find a couple of things I wanted. The first was a kilogram bag of cut up vegetables and several cups of cold taho, which is essentially silken tofu with tapioca balls and a sugary syrup. Finally, I went to a local bakery here called Pan De Manila as, based on previous experience, I know they have a vegan ice cream made using coconut milk. I got myself a couple of pints of that.

So, this may annoy a lot of you but, as I was very strict with my food options this week, I also had to be very strict with my meal preparation. This meant there were some meals where I would eat the same thing over and over again. A good example was my breakfast, which is where the tofu comes in. The thing that I age for breakfast for the entire week was a dish called agedashi dofu with rice. Well, I modified it to make it much more simple. Most recipes call for coating the cubed tofu in a flour, deep fry them and then pour the agedashi sauce, which is just water, soy sauce, mirin and sake blended and simmered for a while, on the fried tofu and then top with grated radish. Who has time for that when you’re hungry for breakfast? I just pan fried each side of the cubed tofu and then just dipped it into the agedashi sauce before I would eat each cube. Like I said, very simple. And, like I said, eating this each and every day for a week might be maddening for some people. Not me because I did like how easy and uncumbersome it was to make.

For lunch, this is where Bibigo Vegetable Mandu comes in. I would just fry around six or seven (or eight) of them as the main part of my lunch. Then, I would alternate either eating that with a portion of the mixed vegetables and rice or switch things up by making some of the pho broth with the soban noodles. So, while my breakfast we admittedly very repetitive, my lunch did have add some variety to the proceedings. But I’m sad to say my big bag of Bibigo Vegetable Mandu did run out after around five days. So, I had to improvise a bit, which is where the Bob’s Red Mill stuff comes into play.

Over the years, I’ve gotten incredibly good at using Bob’s Red Mill TVP and one of my go to recipes is making a vegan chili with it. But this year, it was even easier with the Molinera Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce as all I needed to do was rehydrate the TVP, fry it a little, mix in whatever spices I wanted then dump in the Molinera Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce. There, vegan chili done! This is also where I did get a little more creative as, initially, I made this to be one of my dinner alternatives. So, my first batch I added some leftover elbow macaroni, which I then separated into six portions. But, as I did run out of the vegetable mandu, I did have to take out two of them.

Thankfully, I still had the Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix. This was supposed to be more of a supplement to my dinner but it got elevated to main meal as well as this was much easier to make a big batch of as it actually doesn’t involve a lot of actual cooking!

As I do have a slow cooker at home, all I did was portion out some of the 13 Bean Soup Mix, put in the necessary amount of water and, to make feel more like a meal, my second batch didn’t just have spices blended in. I used a good amount of tomato sauce to give it more body when I needed to make a “main meal” batch. I just threw all of it in the slow cooker and then left it alone for around an hour until all of the beans softened.

For dessert, I would alternate between the taho and the Pan De Manila vegan ice cream. Sometimes, if I felt it wasn’t enough or I needed to sort of treat myself, I’d get both in one sitting. That may seem like overindulgence but, hey! It wasn’t every day, right?

And this is essentially what I ate during my entire week of being a vegan. Honestly, despite eating the same foods over and over again, I really didn’t get tired of it. Maybe as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more in control of what I want to eat. Or, at the very least, I’m not desperate to eat the foods that I find super delicious. I guess I’m better at suppressing my cravings now.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make myself a big batch of gyudon since the week is over. Hey, I may be able to control my food urges. But that doesn’t mean I have to!

Have you ever tried changing your diet for an entire week? How did that affect your budget? Let me know in the comment section below!