Recipe | Vegan lunch bowl

For the last couple of months, I've been experimenting with the way I eat. I noticed that I always felt like I had eaten too much after a meal, when in fact I was eating a very normal portion. That got me thinking that the problem might not be how much I eat, but what I eat.
I think it was about a year ago that I decided to switch over to non-dairy milk, because I'd heard that it might be better for people with acne, and it would also help with my cholesterol. That switch came back to me and I decided to try and reduce my meat consumption, which led to me completely cutting it out.
I have been a vegetarian for about a month now, and I can tell you my stomach is thanking me. I digest a lot better now, and I get hungry multiple times a day, which never use to happen before; it's like meat took forever to be digested (I know, TMI, but whatever), and I never felt hungry. I don't feel heavy or bloated after I eat now, and I get to experiment a lot with new foods.
That brings me to this: I am reducing my consumption of other animal products as well, to see how my body reacts to it, and so far it is loving it. I think that the closer I get to a fully vegan diet, the better my body is going to feel.
So, to kick things off, I wanted to share with you my favourite vegan experiment so far: the lunch bowl.

A lunch bowl is really just a fancy name to say "I cooked a bunch of veggies and arranged them in a bowl", but that doesn't mean it isn't completely awesome. To make this one, I used a sweet potato, half a zucchini, a carrot, some edamame beans, and couscous.

I put the sweet potato in a big bowl and mixed in maple syrup, olive oil, chili sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, smocked paprika, and turmeric. I then did the same with the zucchini and carrots, but left out the chili sauce. 

Once the sweet potato, the zucchini and the carrot are all seasoned-up, I put everything on a baking sheet and baked it for about 25 minutes, at 350°F. A couple of minutes before time's up, I boiled some water and put in the edamame beans for three minutes, and heated the couscous in the microwave because I had it left-over form another meal.

When everything was cooked, I just plated it in a bowl and added some sauce. I sometimes make my own by mixing humus, tahini, lemon juice and garlic powder, but today I used Aux Vivres' Dragon Sauce. 

Eating vegan may sound very daunting at first glance, but there is nothing hard about cooking vegetables, beans and grains, and drizzling a bit of sauce on top, especially when it ends up being so delicious! If you were considering giving veganism a try like I might, I hope this encourages you to do so.

Thank you for reading :)