I ended up cribbing recipes from various online sources to make a vegan lasagna that’s relatively simple and doesn’t taste like bland mush. RECIPE GOGOGOGO:

BASIC INGREDIENTS ——–
1/2 pound lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
4 sliced zucchinis
salt and pepper

SAUCE INGREDIENTS ——–
1 16oz jar puttanesca sauce (or your favorite spaghetti/marinara sauce)
2 regular cans stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 cup grated carrot
4 cloves minced garlic

RICOTTA CHEESE INGREDIENTS ——–
1 lb. extra firm tofu
1/2 cup raw whole cashews
16oz fresh spinach
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 bunch basil
1/3 bunch cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Start a pot of boiling water for the noodles.
3. Drain tofu, mush it up in a large bowl with your hands until it’s crumbly.
4. Finely chop the spinach, basil, and cilantro. Add them to the tofu.
5. Pulverize the cashews in a food processor (or coffee grinder or blender) until they’re dust-like.
6. Mix cashews, spinach, lemon juice, olive oil, and tofu in large bowl with a few pinches salt and pepper. Set aside.
7. Mix puttanesca sauce, stewed tomatoes, grated carrots, and garlic in another large bowl. Set aside.
8. Half cook the lasagna noodles (~4 minutes in boiling water).
9. Spread a thin layer of the sauce mixture on the bottom of a 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ (or whatever size you have) baking dish.
10. Layer 3-4 noodles, 1/2 of what remains of the sauce, 1/2 cheese mixture, 1/2 sliced zucchini, 1/2 sliced mushrooms. Repeat!
11. Place lid on baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of baking.

EAT.

According to its founder, “‘veganism’ denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals…”. Because I subscribe to a pegan diet for reasons of personal health and not ethical concerns, I probably shouldn’t borrow from the vegan name. But I am. So there.

I think animals are great. But I think it’s okay to eat them if you understand and accept the methods by which they came to be on your plate. I also lament the day computers argue for rights aligned with animals. do animals have souls? Do machines have souls? (hellll no.)

It’s been about three weeks and so far avoiding mammals and dairy has been extremely easy. Hilary is on-and-off vegan and most of the meals she cooks are vegan. Eating out is not a big deal because san francisco is super veggie friendly. The only time I run into problems is late at night when restaurant options are slim.

It’s also simplified my life a lot. 50% of the supermarket is off-limits to me. I don’t spend nearly as much time grocery shopping and I’ve had to learn to cook or I starve to death — most packaged foods contain some speck of dairy. I buy fresh vegetables from the local farmer’s market and google a delicious way to prepare them. Much of chinese and japanese cuisine is vegan so I now have a great excuse to eat lunch at cha-ya once a week.

Until I am confident my body is receiving enough protein to repair muscle tissue torn from biking, I have decided to continue eating fish. I would like to ween myself off but at this point in time I don’t feel I’m a “good enough” vegan to support regular exercise. rice protein, here I come.

I encourage everyone to try being vegan for a week. If nothing else, it’s a great lesson in self control. Exercise your wille zur macht. if nothing else it’s always fun to try new things.