One week a veggie

Today marked one week into our vegetarian experiment. And altgough it's not been simple, it's been easier than I'd expected. Mostly, I think, because we're all pretty easy-going about the rules. What's nice is we the opted in -- even the kids -- so it seems we're all trying to stick with it, but it's no big deal if we don't stay 100% veg. So that seems to take some pressure off, and actually makes it less tempting, I think, to eat meat.

I spent the first couple days obsessing over recipes, then realized around Wednesday that nobody here really cares how long I spend in the kitchen as long as their bellies are full. So I stocked up on some frozen "alternative meat" products like vegetarian chicken nuggets (which taste better than the scary "real" chicken nuggets), veggie sausage and beef crumbles.

I had some trouble by Thursday too feeling like if I ate one more grain product, I would cry. I also don't think I was eating enough protein, despite all the beans in every dish. Enter Morningstar Farms grillers, which made really delicious burgers. Yum. Even my biggest carnivore seemed pleased.

Campfire nachos. Yeah, they were delish.

We camped at the beach this weekend, which could have been problematic. However, my camping buddy is quite understanding and we agreed to just bring our own meals. Each night we ate a huge salad of fresh greens from her garden, and the kids noshed on goodies like mac-n-cheese, pizza roll baked on the fire, and bean-and-cheese nachos (also baked on the fire...we don't fool around). The pizza had pepperoni in it, but I only had a couple bites, so it hardly counts, right?

I have been letting the boys eat meat if they chose to, and on the drive down to the beach, Happy ate a sausage and egg sandwich (which he declared to be the second-best sandwich of his life). Otherwise, neither child has balked at this veggie thing. By the way, roasted marshmallows are vegetarian fare, thank goodness.

In that light, here's a list of yummies that we've all discovered are favorite foods that just happen to be vegetarian:

• Cereal, scrambled eggs, pancakes
• Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Popcicles, water ice, ice cream sandwiches
• Spaghetti with broccoli (Happy's fave)
• Cheese pizza with olives (Zippy's fave)
• McDonald's french fries (godsend halfway home from the beach when we were all tired & hungry)
• Strawberries from our garden!

I feel good. Like we're all learning a little about food choices that we can make in the future, too.