Food Stuffs

I've been experimenting with several different types of diets, because the whole "eat like a college student" thing isn't working out too great. With my busy class schedule and being in another theatre production, I need to be eating better. Add to that, it's Lent right now.
For our Eastern Orthodox Lent, the fasting rules consist of not eating meat, fish, alcohol, eggs, dairy, or olive oil. That's especially hard for me and not exactly practical, since no one else in my house is Orthodox, and I don't buy the groceries. So I'm just going to stick to the Level I fasting, which means not eating meat on Wednesdays or Fridays. (This practice continues year-round, not limited to only the Lenten period.)
I've scoured the internet and spent hours on Pinterest (no surprise there), looking for different healthier diets to try out. I've found recipes for Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Paleo, and Mediterranean, and variations and combinations of any of these.

Gluten Free- This may be one of the easiest, for me, at least, since my mom is Gluten Free, and our kitchen is filled with an abundance of alternate flours and whatnot. Quite a few of her recipes are good, and I've started replacing the wheat flour in my regular baking recipes with brown rice flour or oat flour. The only thing I hate is Gluten Free bread. Yeeechh. No matter what kind, what recipe, I cannot find one that doesn't taste like Xanthan Gum and cardboard. Really gross. I'm keeping brown rice flour and oat flour from this diet, but I love my carbs (especially bread..) too much to go 100% Gluten Free.

Vegetarian- Nothing really out of the ordinary here. I'm going to be Vegetarian on Wednesdays and Fridays from now on, but that's not really too hard.

Vegan- I tried this. For one week. And dang was it hard. I had to make literally everything I wanted to eat from scratch. I found some good recipes this way, like Bean and Veggie Meatless Chili, Vegan Skillet Cornbread, Vegan GF Chocolate Cake, and Roasted Potatoes. And I learned some things about substituting in recipes, mainly replacing eggs, olive oil, and milk.

Paleo- Another "meh" diet. Like I said, I'm big on carbs, so it's not really the diet for me.

Mediterranean- This one is the winner, big time. Being Greek Orthodox, this encompasses a lot of the Lenten recipes I've found, and Greek food is amazing. The Mediterranean Diet consists of eating mainly white meats, beans, rice, and lots and lots of fruits and veggies. It also uses more natural sweeteners, like honey, instead of a lot of sugar. With this diet, I can still eat lighter meats like chicken and fish, along with bread and rice, mixed with lots of grilled vegetables.


Eating healthy is kind of difficult for me, given I'm actually ridiculously picky when it comes to fruits and vegetables. I think the list of stuff I won't eat is longer than the list of stuff that I will. It's really hard to be vegan when you refuse to touch tofu, avocados, squash, chickpeas, and edemame. Oh, and I'm allergic to bananas. So that eliminates almost all of the bases for vegan food.


Substitutions:
Eggs-- I've used both applesauce, and flax eggs, which consist of mixing a tablespoon of ground flaxseed with three tablespoons of water, per egg being replaced. It gels when you let it sit, and has the same consistency of an egg. It works perfectly well. I used applesauce mainly in baking, I used it in the Vegan GF chocolate cake.
Olive Oil-- I replaced it with coconut oil.
Milk-- Unsweetened almond milk. My mom accidentally bought vanilla flavoured almond milk and I used that to make tea. Best. Stuff. Ever. It tastes just like a milkshake.
I've also experimented with replacing sugar with Honey or Agave Syrup. I personally like honey better, and it's a bit cheaper, but they have basically the same consistency, so either will work.


~Michelle