17 Days Meatless

My last meat meals ever?

Ok.  So I promise that eventually I'll do a post on my own blog about something other than my recent lack of meat-eating.  But hey - I decided to do something and did it and have stuck with it for 17 days now!!  I'm pretty proud of that, darn it!

<<--- These are the receipts from the last 2 meals I ate that contained meat.  The burger was too big and overpriced.... like a lot of burgers.  It was at the Richmond airport going on a work trip.  The pool-side hotel bar fare?  I shouldn't have ordered the wings but I was sooooo hungry and pickins were slim (and pricey -yikes!).

At this point, I hadn't thought about no more pepperoni pizza.  No more crock pot pork roast.  No more Thanksgiving turkey. No more corn dogs or beef jerky or other iterations of meat products that have become near staples of society.  When I do think of those things, I do frown a little bit.  But strangely, I don't miss it and I don't want it.  I have great memories associated with eating those things, but I think my emotions have to do more with the convenience and the company and very little to do with the content.

Some pretty cool things that have happened related to my vegetarianismness:

1. We've cooked and eaten at home more!
2. I feel like I've lost a little bit of weight.  
3. I got the kids to eat veggie corn dogs and veggie sausage!  Okay so they have the words 'sausage' and 'dogs' in them.... but they were veggie so they count!
4. My dear husband has eaten things he has before sworn he would not.
5. I've been proud of myself for not simply replacing meat with cheese and eggs.  Seriously - we're eating more veggie and seriously loving it.

Have you ever thought of becoming vegetarian?  Get on the train!  Let's figure it out together.

Look Mom, No Meat!

credit:  lablasco

So I've been a vegetarian for a week.  Woo hoo!!!  I may have gone this long without eating meat before, but not intentionally, and now it's permanent.

Here's an interview with myself about this recent lifestyle change.

{Mary Beth, Why did you become a vegetarian?}

A switched turned inside of me, one that's been slowly moving to the 'off' position for a while, as I was reading "Eating Animals."  I haven't bought raw chicken in ages because I really hate touching it and cooking it.  I've always had a fear of eating meat that's not cooked all the way, of being the lucky one to get poisoned.  Then I read some books.... like Omnivoire's Dilemma, and Fast Food Nation.... and Eating Animals just took me over the edge.  Whenever I see bacon and think - yummm - I also think, Wow, I don't want to vote with my dollars for the way meat is currently produced in our country.  This is personal for me.  I actually like meat.  I kind of can't believe I won't eat bacon ever again.  But I don't want to.  I'm really committed to this.... shockingly committed, considering how fast I "turned off the switch."  And I don't miss it.

{Has it been difficult, not eating meat?}

Nope.  It has frankly been a lot easier than I thought.  I eat what I eat, without the meat.... and with a little lot more planning and thought.  I've already bought cool new things I've never eaten before like Quinoa and can't wait to try it.  I feel more free.  Does that sound weird?  I can't explain it.  I'm gradually feeling free from the guilt I've been feeling for years that I've just been ignoring.  And I'm feeling like there are so many other fun, neat, non-meat things out there to eat that I am resisting the urge to spread my new foodreligion to other people.  I'm excited.  I feel happier.

It's difficult figuring out what to do with all the meat in our freezer.  It's not a lot but....  it's an issue.

{What about your family - are they going to be vegetarians now too?}

Probably not.  Roy has already said he'll eat what we cook/buy at home (veg because I don't want to even purchase meat any more if I can help it).  But he'll do his own thing when he's out which I respect.  I need to investigate some veg alternatives to the things our kids love - chicken nuggets, hot dogs and corn dogs mainly.  But they gobbled up veggie sausage like it was the real deal!  I think it's more about the texture and the weight than the actual stuff that's in it.... which begs the question, why are we eating meat again?  

{Any interesting observations?}

At the airport the other day I couldn't find a single 'salad' that didn't start with the word 'chicken'.  All the 'salads' available started with the word "chicken" or a variation (chicken strip salad, fried chicken salad, etc.).  What's up with that??  Also, I was able to eat vegetarian at a North Carolina BBQ joint!  How crazy is that?  They offer the "vegetarian plate" but reader beware, because several of the "vegetable sides" have meat in them.  Ha ha.

{Do you think you'll stick with it?}

Yes I do.  I might even get more and more tough about it.  I already want to start asking questions like - "Can you tell me what kind of broth is in this soup?" and "Were these beans cooked with bacon?"  Somebody once told me they liked me because I never settle for less than 100%.  That will be tough here because we are so meat-centric as a culture. 

{Are you worried about anything?}

I'm worried people may not invite us over for dinner....  This doesn't happen a lot anyway, but I feel like this will even further get us on the do-not-invite list.  So - If you were ever thinking of inviting us over for dinner - please don't change your mind just because I happen to be a newborn vegetarian.  I may not eat the meat, but I may eat all the brownies!  Ha ha.