For one week this month I decided to eat vegan. Inspired by the stories of many of our cruelty-free friends, and equipped with a new eye for finding great recipes on the internet, I set off to create a menu for the week that was totally vegan. Since I’d heard of other people finding it difficult to do, or being a bit discouraged by so many of the fake meat substitutes, I decided to choose only dishes that I would eat regardless of whether they were vegan or not. I also chose recipes that didn’t include any meat substitutes, but rather, one’s that celebrated the beauty and deliciousness of vegetables and beans.

I started by going to my trusty friend, Pinterest, and browsing the site for vegan recipes while pinning them to my new board “Vegan Inspiration/Motivation.”

I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with too many recipes to choose from, so I very carefully decided what to add. A couple of breakfast items, some lunch ideas, dinners and a couple of desserts were enough to get me through the week, and to easily narrow down the choices to things I could really work with.

I also made sure to choose recipes that included mostly things I already have in my fridge or pantry. One thing that can be an awful deterrent to trying new eating plans is the expense of re-stocking everything.

With a good guide to begin, I went shopping, filling my cart with fresh fruits and veggies, some vegetable stock, several cans of beans, and a few new spices I was eager to try anyway.

Here are the menu items I ended up using:

Breakfast: Good ol fashioned oatmeal with bananas and a mocha “latte” made with chocolate almond milk. I’m happy to eat this everyday, but you may have to mix it up. Perhaps granola and coconut milk yogurt would do the trick!

Lunches: Veggie Loaded Avocado Toast: I ate this for three days (SO good) and wrapped it in Ezekiel sprouted whole grain wraps instead of using toast. For the other 4 days I ate a delicious salad made of spinach, romaine lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and sliced almonds. I topped it with avocado and some homemade dressing.

Dinner: For 3 of the nights I ate this delicious Curried Butternut Squash and Kale soup. It’s one of the best soups I’ve ever had in my life, no joke. I also made these amazing Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers, which I placed on top of the salad we ate for lunch. One of the nights I made an Overstuffed Sweet Potato and had the last of the butternut squash soup as a side.

Dessert: I ate one of these vegan Peanut Butter Fudge cups every night (sub agave for the honey to make it vegan). No apologies for that one.

At the end of the week I felt amazing. My body was happy to have all of the extra fresh veggies and of course, making it from home let me know exactly what I was eating.

I plan to do Vegan Week at least once a month from now on! Share your favorite vegan recipes with me in the comments, please and thank you!

-Sasha Huff