- My coworkers give me
and Jeff the hardest time,
and everybody's like, "Y'all
need to eat vegetables,"
and Jeff and I are lookin'
at each other like,
- That's a joke because I don't
even know what that means.
♪ She's so iconic she's so iconic ♪
- Hey what's up, my name is
Destinee and for the next week
I'm going to be eating a vegan diet.
I do not like vegetables.
My mom would make them for us,
but I'd always like,
turn my nose up at it.
Broccoli is a no, spinach,
most of the time is a no.
I will literally dry
heave if I eat a potato.
I feel like a lot of vegetables
taste like chewing air or water or dirt.
The idea of moving to a
strictly plant-based diet
makes me nervous.
I know when a vegetable is not meat
and I know when meat is not a vegetable.
I know when I'm being bamboozled.
My coworkers give me and
Jeff the hardest time
because we actually sit together at lunch
and neither of us has
vegetables on our plate
and everybody's like, "Y'all
need to eat vegetables,"
and Jeff and I are lookin'
at each other like,
- That's a joke because I don't
even know what that means.
What's up y'all, I'm Jeff Williams.
Destinee kind of just
pulled the rug under me.
She's like, "Hey so next
week we're goin' vegan,"
but I'm not mad, just more disappointed.
I don't really have a diet.
What I eat throughout
the week is pork chops.
People give me (bleep) about
my eating habits daily.
Do I give any?
Zero.
I don't even like the color green.
Asparagus is just like, a
long stick of greenness.
Broccoli, short stick, greenness.
Lettuce, wet green stuff.
Kale, harder wet green stuff.
Goin' into this week
I'm gonna just eat a lot of broccoli...
- So we're gonna be meeting
with a certifiable vegan chef
and she's going to give
us some tips and tricks
on how to survive the next week
and what kind of recipes
that vegetable haters
can use to become vegan.
(soft electronic music)
- Hey I'm Jenne Claiborne.
I'm a vegan chef and author, blogger
and all around vegan extraordinaire.
I've been vegan since 2011.
I started my blog, "Sweet Potato Soul,"
and then about a year after that
I started my YouTube channel,
also the same name, "Sweet Potato Soul."
So in the spirit of helping
people become vegan,
I'm gonna link up with
two vegetable haters,
Destinee and Jeff, and I'm
gonna help them be vegan
for an entire week, and hopefully
start to love vegetables.
(electronic music)
What vegetable you hate the most?
- All of them.
- Growing up most people
hated Brussels sprouts
so don't, don't try to make
yourself like something
that you know you don't like.
Instead, the first step
is just vegan-izing
things that you already know and love.
The reason you don't like vegetables
is because you've just,
haven't been eating them.
So don't start at, "Tomorrow
I'm eatin' raw broccoli
"for breakfast, lunch and dinner,"
though nobody would do that.
Let's be real.
I don't do that.
Start with, "Tomorrow, I'm
going to make something vegan,"
"or I'm gonna, you know,
get at a restaurant,
"something vegan that I
already know and love."
I think the biggest step for y'all
is changing your mindset.
- What is it about being
vegan that you enjoy?
- Like fundamentally, being
vegan has changed my life.
For us black people in the United States,
we disproportionately suffer
from the greatest causes of death,
which are all lifestyle related diseases.
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke,
all of these things can
be fixed or reversed
or even avoided through diet.
- Are there any like, quick
tips that you're gonna give us
for beginners that are going into this?
- The same seasonings that
you use for animal products,
those are vegan anyway.
The same way of cooking,
grilling, frying, smoking,
saute, whatever those are all processes
that have nothing to do with
being vegan or not vegan,
they're just cooking processes.
- For us vegan haters,
what recipes out of your
book should we try first?
- In my book I have a recipe
for sweet potato mac and cheese.
Also you gotta try the
cauliflower fried chicken,
the oyster mushroom etouffee.
- Oh!
- Definitely try the collard greens.
Do y'all eat collard greens?
- Yes, I told you that I'm,
I false claim Atlanta, I have
mushed little collard greens.
- I know and y'all hate vegetables,
but you do like collard greens.
- I feel a little more confident
going into this next week.
- I have faith in you guys.
If you need me, you can
always reach out to me.
I have got your back.
You can do this.
- All right, thanks!
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- After our conversation with Jenne,
I decided to go to her blog
and try and find some recipes
before I go grocery shopping,
and I came across a
vegan chicken and waffle
vegan soul food dish.
I am so excited!
It says something about
using oyster mushrooms,
and I don't trust it.
Right now I'm kind of just
like, scrolling through,
seeing like, a couple dishes
I can make for the week
and then I'm gonna go grocery shopping
and (exhales), start day one.
(electronic music)
I am in the parking lot at a grocery store
getting ready to buy everything
that I'm gonna need for this week.
I decided to go with the
chicken and waffle edition,
I really think it's just
like, a mushroom and waffle,
and then I'm also going to be making
her spaghetti and meatballs.
Again, all in quotations.
- I made a list right here.
I'm gonna try and make macaroni this week,
some type of Alfredo this week,
add in some snacks too, you
know I'm gettin' the Oreos,
I gotta get something
because I do not wanna starve myself.
- Half of my grocery
list, I honestly truly
don't even know how to
pronounce, like lit, lintens?
Lintelens?
Lint (sigh).
(soft hip hop music)
Is there a difference
between a zucchini squash
and a zucchini?
(soft hip hop music)
There's no oyster mushroom.
Is that like a special order?
Do I need to like, go to the
farm to get this mushroom?
(electronic music)
Here's the deal.
I am going to try and make
this chicken waffle situation.
- So we're makin' a late dinner
and we're gonna make soba noodles,
but we had to remix it.
I couldn't find soba noodles
at the grocery store,
so we're making Banza noodles.
You gotta get the noodles in there first.
- I wrote down that I
needed to get flaxseed,
but then I saw it whole
ground, and I was like,
"Does flaxseed come ground,
is that what ground,
"flaxseed that's like,
that, what that is?"
and then I also saw flaxseed in seed form,
and I didn't know what
to do so I got both.
- [Jeff] So update here from Chef Jeff,
we got the noodles cookin' so far.
I'm 'bout to put the tofu
in there in just a second.
- Okay so, I think I have
everything ready to go
for my first meal of the day.
I've got my oil frying back there,
my batter, my batter for the waffles.
This is gonna be interesting.
- [Narrator On TV] Start
by cooking the soba noodles
in boiling water.
(electronic music)
- Oh.
This mushroom is good!
Hold up!
She's absolutely right, she
seasoned this really well.
Well one meal is a success.
I'm not gonna say the rest of
the week will be like this,
though I hope it will.
- I finished the soba noodles.
I got a couple cauliflower left,
I couldn't eat 'em.
Not gonna lie to you, I'm
not a fan of cauliflower.
Still need better seasoning or something,
maybe more seasoning,
but it was a great start to the week.
- Good morning!
I started with my breakfast.
Turns out that these
veggie patties over here
are not vegan-friendly, they
are made with egg whites.
Looks like it's not gonna be happening.
- It's like 4:30, so I'm
just makin' a quick lunch.
We've got meatless tenders made out of soy
and we got broccoli cuts.
Gonna put some little
bit of seasoning on that,
nothing too crazy, obviously.
- I was very reluctant about
getting these dumplings
because I grew up in Korea
and I stand dumplings
and I was very afraid this
was gonna ruin that for me.
All right, yeah I know it's
not a super pretty plate,
but it's gonna get the job done.
Now this I would eat again,
this I will be keeping.
That's delicious.
They taste like dumplings, wow.
My whole life has been a lie.
- Two days, it hasn't been that bad yet.
Everything that I had has been filling
and has not been annoying to eat.
- For breakfast today I'm gonna try and do
like a green smoothie.
Put it on in there
(machine buzzing)
You know it's not bad.
As far as drinking my vegetables,
I don't think I'll do that again.
So we're halfway through the week,
but I haven't found it
hard to mix up my foods
or like, find things that I like
that include vegetables in them.
Later on today I'm
gonna meet up with Jeff.
He found a black-owned
vegan soul food spot
down in Inglewood.
- We're going to Stuff I Eat in Inglewood.
Vegan taco joint.
Me as a taco person, I go to Taco Bell.
It is what it is, I go to Taco Bell.
- [Destinee] Quesadilla!
What?
Is that a quesadilla?
- [Jeff] Where's the quesadilla?
- [Destinee] (laughs) Where's the queso?
What'd you get?
- I got tacos.
Rice and kale, but to be honest,
this is the first taco I've ever had
with anything green on it.
So y'all ready for this?
- [Destinee] (laughs) No
that's such a shot, eww.
- Oh that kale baby.
Yeah, it's not bad.
It's not bad at all.
- Okay.
I don't know if I'd
call this a quesadilla.
It's good.
Oh my God, if y'all tell me it's a potato,
I'm gonna lose my (bleep).
So I'm gonna try out
another vegan breakfast spot
called The Grain Cafe down on Pico.
Let's go!
I got their waffle deluxe.
Tofu eggs and vegan sausage.
I was really nervous about those eggs.
I'm not made at it.
Am I gonna be?
No.
I'm not gonna be vegan.
But I could be.
- Back in the kitchen with Chef Jeff.
This time, macaroni and cheese.
We got the garlic salt.
We got the graspee soil.
We got the lemon juice.
(machine whirring)
Yo so we're finally
done with the macaroni,
few little bacon in there.
It was all soy.
I can actually see myself like,
eating this multiple times a week.
End of day four, it
wasn't really that bad.
Had a lot of energy.
Actually comin' off of running yesterday
I ran two miles, but my
energy has been feeling good
throughout the week.
(air horn blasting)
- Happy Juneteenth!
The last day is falling on a
day that I'm flying out of L.A.
I fortunately got
some of this teriyaki chicken,
or I guess, Jackfruit,
and then I had some leftover
white rice from earlier.
I guess I could technically
have them warm it up on the plane.
Nobody would heat it up.
I had to cave this last day
and I got spaghetti and meatballs.
I'm so sorry, I really did try y'all.
I really did try but,
- Back in the kitchen with
Chef Jeff for the final day.
I talked about this the
whole time, it's the salad.
We put a little bit of
everything in there,
I'm not gonna lie.
We have the carrots, we had the apples.
We put a little bit of granola in there.
So this is first bite.
Mm, big bite.
The apples, the carrots
and the kale straight up
was better when with the,
with the soy tenders.
I don't know if this is gonna be,
"No more macaroni ever, I'm
goin' straight to salad,"
but this could definitely be a side item.
- I would say today aside,
I really actually enjoyed this.
I found some things that
I really really liked.
Like the oysters, those dumplings, my God.
Phenomenal.
I've enjoyed this experience.
Will I eat more vegetables, probably.
- The salad was good, surprisingly.
The tacos were good.
I know there's a lot of people like me,
that only eat cheeseburgers,
ribs and macaroni and cheese,
so open up your palette,
and maybe eat a salad once or twice.
Maybe just once.
(soft hip hop music)
