Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ottomania!

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about ottomans. A ridiculous amount of time, actually, given the number of other things I truly should focus my thoughts on. I find, though, that when the world outside gets scary (and scary is a truly relative term these days) I turn to online shopping for things I don't really need. Actually, it's more like online browsing; I rarely purchase. I spend hours searching for, oh, erasable colored gel pens or standing desks or all-natural curly-hair gel or the perfect black sweater. (Yes, these are things I've fixated on over this winter; I still haven't clicked "buy" nor settled on any of them.) This week, it's ottomans. By the way, my girl  Brené  Brown would call this behavior numbing . I'm okay with that. Because online browsing is way less detrimental (so far) than chain smoking, which is what I'd really like to do when the world is scary. It's a way to escape, to daydream, to focus on things tha...
16 comments
Read more

Grown-up words and what to do about them

We know our children are little sponges who soak up all our words, actions, mannerisms. They are often parrots, but even more often they are fun house mirrors, amplifying and exaggerating our own idiosyncratic behaviors until we cringe, laugh, or hang our heads in shame. Yesterday while cleaning up his toys, Sweet Boy got frustrated trying to put one of his train pieces together. Instead of crying or raging like he would have a few weeks ago, he threw the toy down and yelled, "Oh, fuck it!" Oh. My. Lord. The air was sucked out of the room. We were suspended in time and space, frozen as our eyes met. I took a split second to consider my options: (1) Freak out and yell at him---scare him into never saying it again; (2) Ask him to repeat what he said, because maybe I heard it wrong and I don't want to overreact; (3) Ask where he heard that word, stuff his mouth full of soap, then call the offending child's parent immediately (a la The Christmas Story ); (4) Ignore it so ...
4 comments
Read more

Why I Occupy

I marched in the Occupy Philly protest last Saturday, and I've been trying to find the words to describe it all week. People who know me look puzzled when I tell them, and I've been trying to explain why this movement has taken root in my heart. Last Saturday, for a few brief hours, I stood up to the anxiety, anger, frustration, and fear that has gripped me for the last few years. For a few brief hours, I marched with people who want better for me and you and this entire country, people who may be ideologically different but stand together because they believe there’s still hope for this democracy, that there’s still a chance that our government will take action for the people and not for the corporations that fund their campaigns. There’s a perception that the Occupy Wall Street movement is simply a mob of young, disenfranchised 20-somethings who have nothing better to do than sleep on city sidewalks to disrupt the lives of those of us with jobs. Revolutions are ...
8 comments
Read more