Day 20: Get schooled!

Can you believe it’s day 20 already of my challenge?? You probably can, but I can’t! It seems like this has gone on… forever! Being vegan is a lot harder than I imagined. Well, actually it’s not really hard when I’m at home cooking for myself, but when I’m being lazy/poor/rushed, I definitely fall into the vegetarian trap. Example? The other day I was at Safeway with my roommate (we were there for staples like milk, orange juice, ice cream (for her) (it’s a staple)) and I saw Safeway’s ‘Bella Minestrone’ soup… o.m.g. my favorite soup in the whole world!

Seriously, I would marry this soup

(source)

I grabbed it and, without checking the ingredients, threw it into my cart. “Are you sure that’s vegan?” asked my roommate (she didn’t say it to be helpful… she likes to point out how hard grocery shopping is with me) “Of course it is!” I said, “It’s vegetarian!” Knowing that vegetarian and vegan aren’t the same thing, I checked… and lo and behold, ingredient 12 or 15 was ‘cheese.’

W.T.F. Why is there cheese in my minestrone?? Is there always cheese in minestrone?? How did no one ever tell me this before? I was crushed… but I bought it and went home and ate it with toast and (Earth Balance) butter.

I know, I know, I know… minestrone soup is probably the easiest soup in the world to make if you have any random veggies and some vegetable stock. I mean, come on. It’s just veggies and soup. And maybe some tomato sauce, I don’t know. But I bought it. (Let’s leave out the fact that I spent $4 on a soup that I’ll get 2, maybe 3 servings out of).

And that’s, my friends, what brings us to day 20 of the VegNews challenge: Get schooled. As VegNews describes it:

Want to know all the ins and outs of eating for health? Consider getting a certificate in plant-based nutrition, designed by co-author of The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. It’s available as an online program from Cornell University.

You can actually ‘attend’ and enroll here. From the description of the course:

The first course in the series, Nutrition Fundamentals, identifies the true causes of degenerative disease – poor dietary practices – and offers scientifically based solutions to reduce disease risk. The second course, Diseases of Affluence, presents solutions to the crisis facing America’s health care system and a dietary solution for your own optimal health. The final course, Principles in Practice, demonstrates practical applications of plant-based nutrition in a variety of contexts illustrating the powerful effects of a whole food, plant-based diet on our society and the positive impact its acceptance could have on our future.

I think the part that I would be most interested in is Principles in Practice because I’m definitely a visual/hands on learner, and I think seeing concrete examples and applications of plant-based nutrition would be really helpful. Maybe if I were better schooled, I wouldn’t jumping on dairy train out of desperation… I’m still bitter about that minestrone!

Seeing as I’m already in school, and very close to being 100% stressed, I’ll skip the class for now, but I definitely think it’s nifty and, eventually, worth pursuing!

Questions for you all: What do you think about pursuing a plant-based nutrition course? Have you ever taken nutrition courses, and what has been the value of them to you? Also: did you minestrone has cheese in it?! Say WHAT?!