Today is day 10 of our meat free (disclaimer: unless you consider fish a meat... which is clearly is) experiment. We haven't been too creative with our meals so far. Just the basic stuff reworked. I did buy a great cookbook, but haven't actually cooked anything out of it because that would require a meaningful and thought out trip to the grocery store. Overall, it hasn't been too much of a challenge. Matt and I have bravely faced fried chicken, bacon, a cheeseburger joint, and a bag of frozen meatballs without caving. I think we're going to extend the fast until Christmas, or Christmas Eve in my case. Three words: homemade Swedish meatballs.
I couple points of interest about non-meat life that might be worth sharing:
1. Not eating meat has resulted in lots of meat dreams. I'm fairly certain this is a me-specific result of a change in my eating habits and not an overarching issue that plagues vegetarians - but I'm sharing anyway. I've had separate dreams where I've eaten beef tacos, steak and bacon. Each time I know I'm not supposed to eat it, almost like I'm eating it on accident. Then, Matt usually walks in and I either shove the rest of what I'm eating into my mouth or throw it away and try to act casual.
2. Giving up meat (land meat?) is kind of like quitting smoking. You can insert your own "cold turkey" joke here. Every part of your brain has to be ready to let it go. At first, I thought in terms of, "I only have to get through this one meal. I can handle that." But now I'm thinking long term. Who knows what will happen. Matt is completely ready to give it up. I think I might need some more convincing before I swear off of it for life.
3. I'm terrified of telling my parents. I'm already the freak of the family. Telling them, "Matt and I are taking a meat hiatus to further explore our political/dietary views on meat," may send them over the edge. My dad does have a really great sense of humor though when it comes to my liberalness. He always tells me, "I didn't raise you to think for yourself." It probably won't be that bad. If they panic about the no-meat thing, I'll just throw Cat under the bus and remind them that she has tattoos, which is way more freaky. :)
4. I tried buying frozen meals for office lunches and my options were pretty much the following: pasta, pasta, pasta, pasta, pizza, pizza, pasta. This is also how I discovered that salt is considered an adequate substitute for flavor in most "vegetarian" dishes. I feel bad for real vegetarians when they're trying to eat outside the home. They kind of get the crap end of the stick .
5. Everyone keeps commenting that they/me would loose like OMG so much weight on a vegetarian diet. Umm... hello? Have you met my friend Cheese? He likes to hang out with my other friends Potato and Noodle.
6. Yes, fish it totally cheating but I don't really care. I tend to do things half-assed. We limit it to twice a week though as recommended by the FDA.
Anyone else considering or doing some kind of change in diet/habit? What are your reasons?
True Sib Love Always
2 days ago
2 comments:
I have been toying around with an entire overhaul of mt diet as well. As I get older, meat weirds me out, but I cannot seem to shake burgers. The toughest part for me is that Mike is a meatosaurus and without him going along with me, it will be really tough to make the switch.
I would like to recommend the lean cuisine fish meals... they are pretty good (when you are comparing to other frozen meals). Amy's organic meals also have a pretty good variety of meatless frozen meal options. They are a bit pricey, but they actually taste like food and are organic.
HA! "They actually taste like food." Very true. My expectations are never too high when shopping for frozen dinners. I'd still like something half way good though! I've tried a couple of the Kashi ones before too. They were ok. I'll check out Amy's next time I'm shopping. I also feel like an idiot trying to eat "healthy" and then buying some frankenstein dinner out of the freezer section. Who knows what's in those things...
Mike is a tough one to convert. He loves meat and he hates vegetables. I definitely don't think I could do it if Matt weren't on board with it. Tomm and Leslie make it work though. We should all go out to dinner and talk marriage/meat with each other. :)
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