Keepin' It Simple

I have been thinking about what I want to eat my first week as a vegetarian. I want to keep it simple. I’m a pretty good cook when I take my time but I am also very lazy when it comes to cooking. My work schedule is different everyday so I won’t always be able to go home and cook a big dinner. I’m sure that there will be times that I am eating leftovers or just a salad.

I am not a big fan of breakfast so I am keeping that very simple. I am not what you would consider a morning person. Okay, I’m not a morning person at all. I don’t like being spoken to until I am fully awake. That takes at least half an hour. With that being said I doubt that I will want to stir it up in the kitchen making a tofu scramble.

So here is my menu for this week. It might change once I get to the store. I might buy all this stuff and say “To hell with this I’m frying some chicken”. I doubt the latter will happen. I’m pretty committed now. I’m excited for this challenge. If you plan on joining me let me know. Or if you are already a vegetarian leave me some tips in the comments section.

Breakfast:

               Healthy cereal with soy milk and raisins, apple slices, green tea with lemon slice

Lunch:

               Vegetable soup and cut raw veggies

               Spinach, feta cheese and walnut salad with balsamic vinegar dressing

               Leftovers from dinner

Dinner:

               Zucchini, tomatoes, penne

               Vegetable pizza on flat bread

               Baja Black beans corn and rice (a recipe I found on allrecipes.com)

               Salad, veggie soup and mixed fruit

Snack:

               Mixed nuts

               Fruit smoothie

               Whole wheat crackers

So I am waking up early on Thursday morning to head to the grocery store and make my first vegetarian purchase. Hopefully I don’t get sidetracked by a manager’s meat special.

              

              

Getting Ready to Dump The Meat

I love food. It makes me happy. Even on a day when I am late for work, have been bickering with my boyfriend, and am having the worst hair day of the year, thinking of food can turn it around. What kind of “tarian” am I? I would classify myself as an eat-it-tarian. Meaning if it is edible I will eat it.  However, vegetables rarely cross my plate. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good salad. And I was always taught that I should have a vegetable with every meal. I don’t know where I went wrong. Somehow green beans have turned to french-fries and my broccoli has been smothered in Velveeta. So I asked myself, “What if the food I made available to myself were vegetables?” It will be quite a challenge. I can go a whole day without eat a vegetable and now I am talking about only eating them. I want to do this. I have to do this but I see more red lights than green. Here are a few:

·        STOP!  Being a vegetarian takes a lot of planning ahead. I am the opposite of a planner. I’m not sure what the opposite of a planner is but that’s me. I don’t know what I am eating day to day. Vegetarians have to plan ahead for weeks. At any given moment I could be somewhere and not have anything to eat. Not cool.

·        WATCH OUT! Being a vegetarian is terribly expensive. A two piece a Church’s Chicken on a Tuesday is cheaper than a salad. I’m on a budget and the joy of processed food is that is cheap and doesn’t parish.  And don’t get me started on those meat substitutes. I could get a pound of meat for the price of a little pack soy meat substitute.

·        CAUTION! Being a vegetarian sssssoooooooooo boring. I love food. I love eating. And if I have to eat boring and tasteless food, this won’t last long. I’m an okay cook but not very creative. I’m afraid that I will be stuck eating salads and bags of Steam Fresh frozen vegetables every night.  

So I’ve given myself a $50 budget for groceries and I am in the process of making a meal plan and shopping list. I think I will look up some recipes so I won’t want to go back to meat after a couple days. My first day as an official vegetarian will be September 1^st  so I have just a few days to prepare.  I wonder what I will be able to come up with.