Throg want... carrot?

Meatgasm, The Beginning

2011-06-01T15:54:00.000-04:00

Stupidly, I waited to eat my first meal of the day at 1pm.

The moment you've all been waiting for.... drumroll please....

My first meal as an omnivore was a hot open face turkey sandwich at Marlton Diner. It was covered in horrible diner gravy and tasted AWESOME. I ate every bite of meat on my plate. I missed meat so much. I almost cried. The meatless aggression I was developing left me in an instant.

Yes, it was not Five Guys, but I needed an oil change, and the diner is right next to a Pep Boys. So, convenience won this battle.

Tonight, I'm feeling wings.

I'm back bitches... I'm back.

And so it ends...

2011-05-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

THANK GOD.

Seriously.

Let me list the list the pros and cons from this month. Let me be positive first.

Pros:

I gave eggplant a chance and like it now.
I made several meals I will make again in the future. Cheese enchiladas are quick, easy, and yummy!
Regularity. Figure that out.
I lost a few pounds. I'm not sure if that is because we ate at home more, or just because there was no meat.
Beer.

Cons:

I like meat.
Going out for dinner was a pain because some foods that should be vegetarian could be made with meat in them. Oh, plus
My friends teased me with sausages and anytizers last weekend.
I couldn't eat all the yummies at the baseball game earlier this month!
I like meat.
There are only so many salads I can eat.
There is only so much pasta, pizza, and rice I can eat.
There is virtually nothing I could eat at Wawa. No good man, no good.
I had more heartburn this month than I had in all of 2010 combined.
Zucchini is still really gross and I ate way too much of it this month.
I like meat.
I like meat.
I like meat.

So, just in case you noticed, I like meat, and there were way more cons than pros. Sure, the pros are way awesome, but food should be enjoyed... and I did not enjoy skipping seafood, steak, and poultry.

And for the record, the bug I swallowed earlier did not make me lose the bet. That was an accident because I stuck my head out the window while we were on the AC Expressway going 70mph with my mouth wide open. I wanted to feel the wind in my cheeks!

So, tomorrow I am blissfully going back to consuming meat. I can say we'll probably have more meatless meals. But I refuse to skip things I like because they are made with meat.

Never again, mi amigos. Never again.

At midnight, I'm considering eating my spaghetti with meat sauce or running to Wawa for a hoagie. Mmmm hoagie.

Tuesday night super MEGAPOST!

2011-05-31T21:18:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't written in a little over a week. Things got crazy.

For the most part, we closed (we're closing?) out with lots of things we already tried.

Last Monday I made the open face tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. I loved them. Scott hated them. In all fairness, he hates tomatoes, but I was hoping since I used yellow heirlooms that he might enjoy the meal. He didn't. In fact, he was pretty angry about the meal. I suppose that is what he gets for saying it was okay for me to make this meal without actually listening to me. :)

Tuesday I attempted to make Moroccan vegetables with couscous. In the process, our sink clogged and I spent 45 minutes trying my level best to fix it without much success. I'm sure some of you saw my facebook melt down. :) The good news is I chopped 60% of the vegetables needed, so I kept them for the next night. In the meantime, we ordered a cheese pizza.

Wednesday night we ate Tuesday night's planned meal. In was way spicy-- I could only take a few bites before I declared myself done. Even after that, I still suffered from heart burn In the future, I would add only a pinch of cayenne and no hot sauce.

Thursday, I made pancakes and eggs for dinner. Always solid!

Beyond those, I ate a lot of my normal breakfasts and lunches. Working calls for convenience and routine.

On Friday, I left for Atlantic City to celebrate Amanda's bachelorette party. For dinner that night, we ordered from a local Italian place. I had an eggplant parm sub and split cheese fries with a Jamie. The cheese fries were pretty bad. The eggplant parm was okay, but the slabs of veggie were a tid bit thick, and hard to eat in a sandwhich. This was chased with some delicious drinks mixed courtesy of Nickki and Shari.

Saturday was a real test for me. For breakfast I had Apple Jacks (one of the cereals of champions) and several Miller Lights. For lunch I was shit out of luck based on what was in the fridge. There were pounds and pounds of really delicious lunch meats. So while my friends enjoyed their sandwiches, I picked at some chips. Luckily, Jamie, Jen, Clang, Emily, and I all went to the outlets in AC, and stopped for lunch at a local Mexican place where I had a bowl of blackbean soup and refried beans. (Jamie and Jen were then a little leery to share a room with me that night...)

When we got back, some of the girls fired up the grill and the oven... they made burgers, hot dogs, and Anytizers. The lowest moment of the month came as I attempted to grate the skin off of the Anytizer so I could enjoy the crispy saucyness of it. For the record, the grating did not work, and Amanda ate my intended snack. Lame. I ended up eating a plate of pasta salad. (Oh, and I had three jello shots, and at least four shots of Captain.)

I never got any penis cake. :(

We then piled into vans, went to The Borgata, and went into a night club in which I was not drunk enough to enjoy and not willing enough to pay their ridiculous drink prices. It was a long night, and I do not plan on hitting up a night club any time soon in the future. My ears just stopped ringing today-- 3 days later-- and my right hip still hurts. I'm too old for this crap now.

I didn't get to bed until 4:30 Sunday morning and was up by 8:30 in agony. Jen, my ride home, agreed to bring me home so I could be in my own space. We ended up going to dinner with the guys, where I had fried mozzarella balls and a stir fry with jasmine rice.

Monday, for lunch, Scott and I ate at Elevation Burger for lunch. We both had their veggie burgers and fries. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. I'd be interested to see how their regular burger stacks up against Five Guys.

For dinner, we went to Maggiano's in Cherry Hill. We split their chopped salad without the crispy prosciutto. My entree was eggplant parm with spaghetti in pomodoro sauce. Solid meal. The coolest part is their "classic pastas" come with a second serving to bring home, so I ordered their spaghetti with marinara sauce for today. (Scott had their gnocchi, and ordered eggplant parm for tonight.)

Today, Scott and I took a day trip to Ocean City. On the way down, I accidentally swallowed a small insect-- stfu-- so Scott thinks I lost our bet, but I really didn't. We stopped for some pizza on the boardwalk, and then baked ourselves by the ocean for a few hours. We also bought salt water taffy, fudge, and caramel corn to bring home. Calories don't count on the boardwalk!

For dinner, I was looking forward to my second helping from dinner last night. I went into the fridge, opened the container, and they gave me spaghetti in meat sauce. FML. Good thing I had part of my dinner from last night left. When midnight comes, I might eat some. LESS THAN THREE HOURS... WAHOOOOOO!!!

I'm still covered in sand, so I'll post my final thoughts on this month a little later. :)

Megapost 3: The Reckoning

2011-05-22T20:38:00.000-04:00

Having gotten all of my angst off of my chest earlier, now I can focus on getting through this and not wanting to slit my wrists. Food is serious business.

On the docket for this week:

Sunday (aka Tonight): Leek Potato Soup and Cheese and Spinach Puffs
Monday: Open-Faced Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Sandwich
Tuesday: Morroccan Vegetables with Couscous
Wednesday: Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup
Thursday: Pancakes

Friday I'll be in Atlantic City, so we'll both be on our own for dinner that night. $20 Scott ends up with pizza. $20 I end up with pizza, too.

As you can see, I'm getting a little bit tired of skipping meat. Only nine more days of this farce then sweet freedom.

Yesterday was a typical busy Saturday. My friend is getting married in two weeks, so my big plan was to go out and get a dress to wear. Luckily, another girlfriend of mine was looking for a dress (hi Colleen!), so we went together to look. Before that, we stopped in at Don Pablos for lunch.

a. I love Mexican food
b. I love Don Pablo's chicken

I couldn't have their chicken, but I do like their enchiladas. I did a "create your own" combo with one cheese and onion enchilada and one spinach and pablano enchilada. It came with refried beans (DP's is vegetarian, yay!), and rice. I have had their cheese and onion enchilada before since it comes in their "Three Amigos" meal; however, this was the first time trying the spinach and pablano. At first it wasn't hot, but their was some definite kick.

The red is the cheese, the white is the spinach.

Dress shopping was a huge success-- again thanks for the help, Colleen!

After I got home, Scott and I decided to go to Ikea in South Philly. I need a bedside table, so I figured we should check there. I found one I liked, but when we got down to the warehouse, it was out of stock. Major bummer. We did walk out with some random things though-- a spatula, bed linens, and straws.

We decided to stop at La Posata for dinner after our letdown of an Ikea trip. I love that place, Scott's okay enough with it. I'm obsessed with their pasta fagiole soup and their "Chicken de la Casa." Problem is, both have meat in it. So, I got their house salad and rigatoni with vodka sauce.

Anything with vodka is okay in my book.

It isn't their Chicken de la Casa, but it was yummy. I ate about half of it, and brought the rest home and ate it for lunch today.

On the other side, I could still have their cream cheese spread and roasted peppers.

Blissssss.

Pros: I didn't cook, leftovers are always awesome
Con: I didn't get exactly what I wanted :(

Today, as I mentioned, I ate my dinner leftovers for lunch. I then sat down, and worked on this week's menu. We hit up Wegman's, spent too much money, and got down to business.

Tonight, I made spinach puffs and leek potato soup.

It was TONS OF WORK. I was in the kitchen, chopping, peeling, stirring, and blending for almost 2 hours. I'm still a sweaty mess, but I'm a satisfyingly full sweaty mess.

The soup was good. It primarily consisted of leeks, butter potatoes, vegetable broth, and heavy cream. I made a bit of a mess pureeing the soup in the blender (I forgot to hold the lid down, whoops!), and I cut off the tip of my finger nail while peeling potatoes... but it was worth it. The soup was silky and had a nice leek flavor. Two thumbs up.

I enjoyed the spinach puffs enough. I used frozen puff pastry, and filled it with a combination of chopped spinach, fontina cheese, parmesan cheese, heavy cream, and garlic. The puff pastry was yummy, but I felt the filling was really heavy. I'm not much of a cheese person, so the thick, creamy consistency was off putting to me. Scott seemed to really like them though.


I speak squirrel. Squeak squeakum.

The only thing that could have made this fancier was creme fraiche and lobster foam!

Pros: Dinner was filling, I really enjoyed the soup
Cons: My back is now killing me because this was a lot of work, I'm not sure I loved the cheeses in the puffs

Time for some TV, a mug of hot tea, and a blueberry scone. :)

Until Monday...

JUNE 1st CANNOT COME FAST ENOUGH.

2011-05-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

Hi.

I need dinner suggestions. Read through my blog to see what we've already had, and suggest something new... PLEASE. Our previous week's worth of meals was uninspired at best.

I'm also finding I am resenting the hell out of being a vegetarian. Again, our decision to do this is purely experimental. It has nothing to do with ethics. As far as I'm concerned, I'm higher on the food chain and animals are yummy. I want them in my belly, and I'm sick of not having them in my belly. Without getting into too much of what I plan on talking about in my megapost later, we went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner last night, and I couldn't get two of my favorite foods there, one because it uses bacon for flavoring, and the other because it is chicken. This is getting ridiculous. I'm completely unhappy cutting out an entire food group.

Worst, I feel like a freaking quitter every time I contemplate eating meat. I enjoy all foods and I do not enjoy giving up things for what amounts to no reason. And even worse than that, my husband is being ridiculous and saying he's going to continue being a vegetarian. Good for him. If I cook, I'm gonna make meat. I was freaking sausage with pasta, I want chicken in my stir fry, and occasionally I will want a cheeseburger. He can then just eat side dishes for all I care. Will some of the things I've had this week follow back into my meat eating ways? Definitely. But I absolutely cannot keep up this charade of meatlessness.

God, I never thought I'd be this pissed off about food.

What came first? The eggplant or the Lynne?

2011-05-20T22:19:00.002-04:00

Probably the eggplant... but whatever.

Today started with the normal shake and yogurt. For lunch, I boiled up some frozen raviolis and scraped 1/99th of a jar of sauce onto it so the pasta didn't stick together. Shocking to all the Jersey Italian folks, I use jarred sauces because their easy. And I call it sauce, and not gravy, since I'm not a flaming douchebag.

I digress. We usually keep several jars of sauce in the pantry since pasta is an easy enough dinner, so I was very surprised to see that we were out of it. Partially sticky, not very saucy raviolis are edible, but not earth shattering.

Unusually enough for myself, I wanted to snack while at work earlier. Until recently, the price for a bag of chips was $.80, so after I walked like 16 miles from my desk to the kitchen and found out they had increased the price to $.90, and I only grabbed three quarters and a dime, I was annoyed to have to go through the waist deep snow and uphill to get back to my desk for another nickle so I could get my snack. I worked for those Doritos, dammit.

Oh, and that sentence in the middle of that paragraph really annoys me. I'm pretty sure it is the worst thing I have ever written. But whatever. You get the idea... I wanted chips and had to go back and forth for them.

A little bit about me. I love most foods. I don't espouse to hate many things. Until tonight, one of the foods I swore up and down that I "hate hate hate HATE HATE with a burning passion" was eggplant.

I was a lucky kid; my mom was able to stay home with us. (Okay, maybe I wasn't lucky since I couldn't get away with shit, but whatever.) But this meant lots of homemade dinners. One thing she made was ratatouille. This was literally a pot of disgustingness: stewed tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, etc. My sisters and I HATED this. We used to feed 90% of it to our cocker spaniel under the table, it was that bad. And any other experience I had with eggplant was negative. Maybe my mom just doesn't know how to cook eggplant. I cannot explain why I hated it so much. It was always super gross to me. (Sorry Mom!)

Scott and I decided to hit up the Red Lion Diner at the 70 and 206 circle tonight. This is literally my favorite diner in South Jersey. I would rather drive into the middle of nowhere to eat there than slum it at Sage Diner or Medport. Two enthusiastic thumbs way up for this place if you're feeling diner food and are in the area. I just wish they had Matzoh Ball soup!

Luckily, diners have a pretty diverse menu. I was between the Belgian Waffle with fresh strawberries (had it before, yum!), grilled cheese with tomato (also a safe favorite!), or the eggplant parm. Mind you, for 28 years, I have had nothing but negative eggplant experiences courtesy of my mother, so the eggplant parm sounded repulsive. On the other hand, this month is about opening my mind and trying new things... so WHAT THE HECK. I went all in with the eggplant parm. Scott was Mr. Safe and got an egg salad sandwich.

The dish came out and looked way similar to chicken parm. It is always a good thing when I look at my plate and I'm not immediately repulsed. Reluctantly, I cut into it, and take a bite...

Oh my god, it was REALLY GOOD. It didn't taste like the donkey butt eggplant my mom used to make when I was a kid. I actually busted out laughing it was so good. I was so shocked!


Dinner before... looks pretty safe!

Dinner after! No, I didn't clean my plate, but it was a HUGE serving!

Scott, meanwhile, has never had any experience with eggplant. He took a bite and he seemed to like it. Perhaps I will have to try to make this at home!

WINNING.

Pro: I tried something new and really liked it. Look at me now!
Con: Zilch.

For the record, my mom is a really good cook. She just shouldn't make eggplant... ever.

As a side note, Scott and I spent ages at Walmart tonight feeling up Lego mystery figurine pouches. He found out they make a garden gnome one... and I love garden gnomes. So, they have a plastic tub of the pouches in the Lego aisle, and we went through 90% of the bin feeling up the packs for what felt like a fishing pole. (We were using a picture on our smart phones as the guide.)

Guess what I found!

He's actually shorted than regular Lego men! SO CUTE!

We also got a sailor, a punk rocker, and a viking. Previously we found a hockey player and a geisha.

Now if I can convince Scott that we NEED to drop $100 on the super huge Lego Castle... hmmm...

It's Thursday!

2011-05-19T20:47:00.000-04:00

Oh, man... I'm getting lazy about posting daily. I really do need to try harder. Oh, and the distinct lack of photos is also killing me. I must be a better over sharer... I must be a better over sharer...

Wednesday... breakfast was a yogurt and a Fiber One bar. For lunch, I made a grilled cheese and tomato on whole wheat bread. It tasted yummy, but it definitely upset my stomach. I really think I have developed a dairy problem.

For dinner, Scott made tortellini and pesto-- so a repeat dinner from week one! As a side, he made pesto roll ups. Essentially, he took refrigerated crescent roll dough, smeared some pesto inside, rolled them up (homie), and baked them into flaky, greasy deliciousness. Two major thumbs up to a quick, easy meal!

Pros: Lots
Cons: nope

For breakfast this morning, I had a shake and a yogurt, and a side of upset tummy. (I really do need to do something about this!) For lunch I was bad... really bad. I've been having cravings for fries all month. After doing my research, I found I can eat Wendy's "natural cut french fries with seasalt." I like them, although I do prefer McDonald's beef injected fries a little bit more. To supplement my carbtastic lunch, I order a side garden salad with pomegranate dressing, and an unsweetened ice tea. This lunch would have been perfect, except that I wasted twenty minutes in line at the drive through. Evidently, the Wendy's on Route 73 in Mount Laurel doesn't realize they are supposed to be a fast food place.

For dinner, I made a teriyaki stir fry, consisting of carrots, bell pepper, broccoli, zucchini (yuck), string beans, and snap peas. I threw it over white rice and sprinkled it with sesame seeds. This is a pretty typical meal for us, it usually just has chicken in it.

Pros: I like this meal enough to eat it all the time
Cons: prepping all of the veggies is a bitch

Being a vegetarian is getting easier as time goes on, but I find myself longing for chicken and beef constantly. It's a little bit gross how much I miss meat. The good news so far is my pants all seem to be getting bigger on me... the bad news is I think my bras are, too! But yeah, weight loss is a total win in this situation.

Tuesday Twofer!

2011-05-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not posting last night, y'all. I had a bear of a work day, followed by a (wise) decision to sack out on the couch last night to read a book.

So, we have some catching up to do!

Monday started with a shake and a whole lot of coffee. It proved to be a day I would need it. If it could go wrong at work yesterday, it really did. I ended up eating a penne with vodka sauce Smart Ones at my desk, which I normally like, but was not satisfied with because by the time I was in a spot to eat it, it was cold. Bleh. There is nothing remotely appetizing about a cold heated up frozen diet entree... ever.

For dinner, we ended up ordering chinese. Scott went with plain fried rice and "triple green" (snow peas, broccolli, and string beans), I went with moo shoo vegetables and an order of sauteed string beans. Both dishes are variations on things I normally order: moo shoo chicken and chicken with string beans.

The moo shoo really needs the meat element. I like the veggies in it normally, but texture wise, it lacked. Even still, it tasted good (especially because I love to smear the hoisin sauce all over the pancakes.) The sauteed string beans were good, and they came with carrots sliced in, so they added a pleasant crunch and were pleasing to the eye.

I cannot believe I would even say that, about the food being easy to look at. That scores high on my foodie douche-o-meter scale. I shall flog myself later.

I was stressed and wanted to just snarfle down my dinner, so I did not take any pictures. Sorry hombres.

Pros: I didn't cook
Cons: I didn't cook (Monday was supposed to be bulgur stuffed pepper night!)

Today started with more coffee (I was up late last night reading) and a lemon pie flavored yogurt. For lunch, I had white rice with leftover/visually stunning string beans and carrots. I don't understand Chinese food rice. When it comes it is sticky and delicious... like 20 minutes later the grains of rice are getting hard and not edible. I ended up using a lot of soy sauce to rehydrate the rice so I could eat it at lunch. (Good thing I enjoy soy sauce.)

For dinner, Scott made pepper, onion, and cheese enchiladas with a side of vegetarian refried beans. These were virtually identical to the ones I made two weeks ago, but instead of a red sauce, we used a mild green chile sauce. Delicious, and no risk of heartburn for Lynne. YAY!

A complete enchilada dinner... I actually took a picture before scarfing it down.

Pros: This is full of cheesy, veggies goodness! And I'm not going to have a tummy ache tonight. :) WINNING.
Cons: Cleaning the casserole it was baked in kind of sucked.

So, we're officially into the second half of our month. We're both still alive. For a number of reasons, I know come June 1st, I'll be back to eating meat. I'm a little concerned about my protein intake. My autoimmunity problems are kind of creeping up, so I need to keep my body in check. I'm not 100% it was wise to go off the flesh at the same time the half life of my Methotrexate is running out. Maybe this would have been a better idea come September or October. (Definitely not November, because I freaking LOVE Thanksgiving.)

Oh well, I have a book to finish... then I can start using my new Kindle. :)

Until tomorrow, amigos; until tomorrow.

Megapost!: The Revenge

2011-05-15T20:25:00.000-04:00

As of, like, noon, tomorrow, we're officially half way through our month as vegetarians. We're still alive.

Looking back at the last week, it is pretty clear what I really liked and what I really didn't like. The blackbean burgers and quinoa salad and the pasta dish totally did it for me. They will be repeated, even after I go back to meat. I can probably do without the shaksuka.

Saturday, we ran errands early on and hung out with some friends later that night. I typically skip breakfast on Saturdays because I sleep in, and I'm lazy. Einstein (my 2 year old shih tzu) had a grooming appointment at 11am at Jake's in The Promenade, so Scott and I stopped in at Chipotle for lunch. We both had vegetarian salads. Mine had lettuce, blackbeans, pico de gallo, sauteed peppers and onions, roasted corn, cheese, sour cream and guacamole. It was pretty filling, and tasty. I'm a fan of that place though.

For dinner, we went to a local sushi and hibachi place. While our friends had delicious chicken and seafood, I had an order of tempura vegetables. I typically like tempura shrimp, but I couldn't get into the veggies. There's just something not tasty about a battered and fried vegetables. I think part of the problem was I couldn't identify a few of the vegetables I had. There were two different whitish veggies, and I don't think either of them were potatoes. Meh, the meal was just, heavy. I don't eat fried foods very frequently, mostly because they don't tend to (ahem) agree with me, but I generally like them. I just was not satisfied at all. (I did have a cucumber roll and an avocado roll, too. There were good.)

Oh, and I ate about 1/4 of a family sized bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Am I proud? Yep. Doritos are awesome, so hush you health nuts. I eat what I want. Except for meat.

Today was more errands, no friends though. (Awww how sad... not really.) We stopped in at Bertucci's for lunch and split a "personal" margherita pizza. The personal pizza there is more than enough food for two people, so it was a good choice for us.

As I was busy earlier today, I had Scott come up with this week's menu. His first choice was that tonight we could eat whatever we wanted. Score? He ended up with cheese bread and sauce, I had two poached eggs and hashbrowns with onions. Not a very exciting dinner, but hey, it was easy and filling.

Speaking of Scott's menu, here's what we have planned for this week:

Monday: Bulgur Stuffed Peppers
Tuesday: Enchiladas
Wednesday: Tortellini and Pesto
Thursday: Apparently we're not eating this night!
Friday: Blackbean Burgers with Quinoa Salad
Saturday: Pizza Soup

We didn't have the stuffed peppers or soup last week because things got jumbled up food wise, so we'll eat them this week. Thursday is a huge blackhole, and we're already repeating stuff. Sigh. I'll definitely do some research this week so we close out the month with a full menu of new foods.

Speaking of closing out the month, I got a call from my friend's sister yesterday. I just so happens that over Memorial Day weekend, I'll be in AC for several days residing in a beach front mansion to bachelorette the shit out of my girlfriend who's getting married the following weekend. I get on the phone with her, and she immediately asks, "Are you not eating meat at the bachelorette party?" Nope, I'm not. I want to, but I'm not. Her concern, which is valid, is that part of the money I put in for the weekend goes towards food. I do not have any expectations that people go out of their way to accommodate my temporary diet. I'm not that kind of person. As long as there are staples there, I'll be fine. And since we're ordering out for dinner, probably pizza or Chinese, I should be fine. And when I'm on my own for lunch, I'll be fine. And I fully plan on bringing some stuff with me. I won't starve, I promise. :)

Yeah, and no pictures tonight. I'm lazy!

Tonight's stop on the vegetarian world tour was Israel.

2011-05-13T21:13:00.002-04:00

***NOTE - THE BLOGGER UPDATE MESSED UP SOME OF MY LABELS. IN AN EFFORT TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM, WHAT I DID MADE THIS POST APPEAR TO BE A NEW POST DATED TODAY. THIS, IN FACT, IS FROM WEDNESDAY. SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION.***

Oh, how I wish I could have scarfed down a bagel and lox instead. Not that that is Israeli. But whatever.

Typical morning, a shake and a yogurt. Lunch was leftovers from last night, sauteed quickly in olive oil and garlic. It was still as fabulous as ever. I'm definitely forever in love with myself for Tuesday's dinner.

Tonight Scott made an Israeli dish - shaksuka. Essentially, it is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce with feta cheese crumbled into it. As a side dish, we had Naan bread.

The idea of the dish is weird. I mean, it is eggs cooked in tomato sauce. And it was weird, especially thinking about it. I eat eggs, I eat tomato sauce, so there shouldn't be a problem, right?

Wrong. I just didn't like the combination. I'm not a huge egg eater anyway (we don't always get along), so I was not really going to be in love with this anyway. The only saving grace was that the eggs kind of reminded me of raviolis texture wise.

That's a whole mess of cheese and eggs and sauce.

The sauce was also a little killer. It was olive oil, onion, anaheim chile peppers, and crushed tomatoes. That is a whole lot of acid and heat. My stomach was not too thrilled with it. (Not to be graphic, but I burped before and it literally BURNED.)

My dinner bowl.

This was definitely not the worst thing we've had this month, but I cannot say this is a meal I plan on repeating any time soon. On the other hand, Scott seemed to really enjoy it. He can have the leftovers.

Pro: Well, it was different.
Con: It burns.

After dinner, I really wanted some McDonald's french fries. Scott cracked a joke that they probably use some kind of meat to make them so tasty (they really are good, shut up you health freaks.) So, in a bid to prove him wrong, I went to their website to check the ingredient list... lo and behold, they use BEEF EXTRACT in their french fries. What. The. Frack. I proved Scott right! This was devastating news to me for so many reasons. Good thing I haven't had any this month, I would have unknowingly consumed meat!

The good deal is we found little ice cream cups at Walmart tonight! Nothing like vanilla ice cream to make me feel better! :)

Two enthusiastic thumbs way up!

So, that's it. I'm eleven days in and still alive. Until tomorrow, amigos.

Friday Twofer

2011-05-13T21:04:00.003-04:00

Damn you, Blogger! Last night, the posting server for Blogger was down, so I was not able to make my daily post. This means that I am spamming you all today! (Three posts in one day seems excessive to me, too.)

Thursday's menu was less than interesting. I had my normal morning foods of a shake and a yogurt. I'm incredibly lucky to work less than two miles from where I live, so if I'm able to take a lunch, I go home. It's a good thing for my mental health to be able to be in my own space in the middle of the day and make my lunch in my own kitchen.

Thursday was not one of those days.

Work was unusually busy (read: hectic), so Scott dropped lunch off for me: egg salad on wheat, with lettuce, tomato, and onion from Wawa. Not exactly healthy because it is swimming in mayonnaise, but it is within my diet. The best part is my coworker saw me eating my lunch (she's aware of my diet this month), and she thought I was eating lettuce, tomato, and onion only. I quipped that if I had gotten to that point, I'd be sobbing at my desk. :) (Or would have at least gotten cheese!)

Then, around 4:45, I got a call from my little sister. She had been driving around with a friend and they were rear ended at an intersection. She was in the ER right outside the army base in the middle of no where and couldn't get a hold of my mother. Long story short, I left work early, got a hold of my mother, picked up my mom, and drove about 45 minutes into the Pine Barrens. She's ok... just has some whiplash. Poor kid is probably aching today.

By the time I got home around 8, I was not in any mood to do any cooking. I went from one stressful situation to the next. We ended up going around the corner to the new pizza place and grabbed a couple of cheese slices to go and some garlic knots.

Thursday was by far the least healthy day I've had this month foodwise. Oh, and there are zero pictures of my food escapades. Sorry.

Onward, to Friday. A new day! After a stressful, shit-tastic Thursday, I was awoken by my dog at 5:30am. He was preparing to puke into one of Scott's dress shoes. With ninja like reflexes, I jumped out of bed and pulled him back so he puked next to his shoes. Needless to say, I thought today was going to suck.

It didn't. It ended up okay. I had a shake for breakfast and a Fiber One bar later on. For lunch, I managed to get home and had a Smart One's penne marinara. It was ick. I consumed about half of it, and finished lunch up with a chocolate ice cream cup. Ice Cream > Diet Food

For dinner, we took an idea from Jill (Morningstar Blackbean Burgers) and an idea from Susan (Quinoa Salad.)

The salad consisted of:

2 servings of quinoa
1/4 of a cucumber, finely chopped
about 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
half of a red onion, finely chopped
1 small orange pepper, finely chopped
parsely
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil

Banging.

Voila. It was tasty. Susan's original recipe included olives. But I hate olives with a burning passion, so I left them out of this.

After the Not Dog incident of last week, I am reluctant to try any food that is not a meat but tries to be a meat. The Morningstar brand Spicy Blackbean burgers are AMAZING though. (Major kudos to my sister for this suggestion.)

They even kind of look like burgers.

I really enjoyed how these tasted. It didn't taste like a beef or turkey burger, but that was almost a good thing. They had a nice texture, and they weren't crazy spicy. They just had a good amount of kick. There were whole blackbeans in the patties, but they worked.

I served the burgers on whole grain bread with romaine lettuce, sliced avocado, and some grainy mustard.

Ooooh grainy mustard.

Dericious!

I cleaned my entire plate tonight! I hate to even admit this, but I enjoyed this meal slightly more than the pasta dish from earlier this week. But only slightly more. It's very close!

This weekend ought to be interesting. We have some social stuff planned, so going veg with friends and family is going to be an experience!

I want a Throg army.

2011-05-13T19:19:00.003-04:00

Let's be real here, food is intrinsically linked with life. Not only do we need it to live, but so many life events focus on food. What's a barbecue without burgers, a baseball game without beer, a birthday party without cake? Feasts abound throughout every culture to celebrate everything and anything.

I've been giving a lot of thought to what becomes of Throg after our month long experience away from meat. Truth be told, I enjoy writing, and I enjoy eating, so this is a pretty good outlet for me. But, at the end of the month, when I go back to carnivorism, do I cannibalize Throg and move on, or do I keep this going?

I've decided to keep this going... but I want to include some more voices!

If you are into food, have a unique perspective to offer regarding food, and are not half bad at writing, I want you to join me!

My only criteria:

You're able to write. Typos happen and no one is perfect, but I don't want someone who cannot put together a coherent sentence or figure out how to use a spell checker.
You enjoy food. Do you cook for a special diet? Do you make your own beer? Do you bake fancy deserts? Do you like to sample random ethnic cuisines?
You have time to write at least once a week.
You want to take photos of what you're eating and share it with the world.

If you're lighthearted and not embarrassed easily, I encourage you to join me. Shoot me a message if you're interested. :)

Friday night mighty post...

2011-05-13T12:37:00.001-04:00

Last night the Blogger website was down so I was not able to make my daily post. Tonight I'll post about both yesterday and today! Plus there will be a special invitation! Until later...

I ate a next level bowl of awesome tonight.

2011-05-10T19:39:00.004-04:00

Day 10. Still alive. Yay me.

Breakfast was a breakfast shake around 8am, and then a yogurt around 11. Surprisingly I wasn't hungry. I've been taking some prednisone for the past several days to clear up some inflammation issues, and this stuff makes me hungry. The good news is it is only giving me 'roid rage. Poor Scott.

For lunch I had a Simply Asia spicy kung pao noodle bowl. Mediocre. It was spicy and had some flavor, but I followed the directions on the box, and it wasn't very saucy. It was kind of sticky. I'm not sure I'm going to try any more of these in the future.

Now dinner... I impressed myself. I took Dan's suggestion from last week about his pasta dish - pasta, spinach, mushrooms, canned diced tomatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes, and bacon... but without the roasted cherry tomatoes and bacon. Instead, I kicked it up a billion notches.

Dinner, before it knew it was my dinner. Shit got real tonight.

I took a can of Italian packed diced tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, shitake mushrooms, fresh spinach, cannelloni beans, a handful of grape tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh basil (from my garden!), and SHERRY and sauteed and simmered it for about 20 minutes. What I came out with was FREAKING AMAZING.

You wish you ate this tonight.

I amaze myself sometimes. Seriously. I'm trying not to hurt myself patting my own back.

I mixed it with pasta, and topped it off with some parmesan cheese and called it a meal. The best part it that this took me 20 minutes from start to finish.

An artsy shot of my bowl of awesome.

The only thing I will change in the future, because I will make this again, is I will use a second can of tomatoes so it is a bit saucier, and a crap ton more garlic... because I like garlic.

Pros: Best meal to date. Sherry should be in every meal. And spinach. And mushrooms.
Cons: I used an entire box of dry pasta because I am a stupid head.

Tomorrow night Scott is making Shaksuka for dinner. It is a dish where eggs are poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Um. Yeah. I hope Scott saved tonight's leftovers!

Hello international friends!

2011-05-10T14:14:00.001-04:00

This is totally off topic for my blog, but my humble little blog has been getting hits from Canada, the UK, and Germany. Hello to my foreign readers! :)

"You just keep on trying till you run out of cake."

2011-05-09T22:30:00.002-04:00

The title really has nothing to do with my post. C'est la vie.

So, anyway, Monday means back to work and a new week's worth of food. Breakfast was a yogurt, I had a Fiber One bar for a snack, and a Lean Cuisine ravioli for lunch.

For dinner tonight, I made one of Jill's suggestions, curried veggies with coconut flavored rice.

The veggies included were carrot, red bell pepper, zucchini (gross), green beans, snap peas, and broccoli. I mixed a sweet curry sauce into the veggies after I lightly sauteed them and let everything simmer together for about ten minutes.


EXTREME veggie closeup!

For the rice, I took one can of coconut milk, and boiled it together with three cans worth of water. I added the rice, cooked it... and voila, coconut flavored rice. I have to admit, I was hoping for a more coconutty flavor. Instead, I was just given a slight hint of coconut. I can definitely see myself tweaking this until I obtain the perfect flavored rice. It will happen.

My plate. I even ate the vegetable I don't like.

Tonight I definitely was missing meat. Not because dinner wasn't good, but because I spent about two hours ironing Scott's clothing. During that time, we had the Food Network on-- which I just discovered we have in HD. Almost everysinglething they featured tonight was a fried meat covered in sauce of doom. Everything looked delicious, from the homemade meat raviolis, to the meatball sliders, to pulled meat sandwiches covered in onions, to the fried chicken. Actually, I take that back. I also watched snapper soup being made. GAG.

People eat these. I'm not among them. Gross.

They boil a whole turtle for stock, and then use the meat. It was described as "chicken of the swamp." Disgusting.

However, I am already calling it that on June 1, I am going to be feasting on animals nonstop. I guess it is a good thing that I am off from work that week!

Sunday night "Megapost!"

2011-05-08T20:44:00.003-04:00

Sundays will bring you the "Megapost!," where I will present a retrospective on the current day and the entire previous week, and I'll discuss what's coming up.

I think we will look forward first. The meal plan for this week is--drumroll please:

Curried vegetables and coconut rice - idea courtesy of Jill
Morningstar Blackbean burgers - idea also courtesy of Jill
Pasta with spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes - idea courtesy of Dan
Quinoa salad - idea courtesy of Susan
Shaksuka - Scott found this idea on a forum he frequents
Pizza soup - a recipe I found in one of my cookbooks, similar to French Onion Soup
Peppers stuffed with cinnamon bulgur - another recipe I found in a different cookbook

I'm going to pair the quinoa salad with the burgers.

We just got home from doing our weekly shopping trip, and our cart was full of all sorts of things that are new to our grocery shopping experience... coconut milk, curry sauce, bulgur, quinoa, zucchini... I hate zucchini, but we got it. We got tons of beans and tomatoes and pounds and pounds of vegetables. We're going to have naan bread with the shaksuka on Wednesday night. I've had naan in the past, and like it, so it will be the high point of that meal since I'm dreading the shaksuka.

Since we did purchase a whole series of things we've never bought before, we spent a lot of time wandering through aisles and bugging employees for directions. At one point I asked an associate there where I can find the quinoa, and instead of just telling me, she prattled on and on about how "in" it is right now and how it is probably all over the store... which, for the record, it wasn't. But I was happy that she made me sound like a yuppy elitist foodie asshole who wanted to eat something stylish, and not someone looking for a high protein meal. Eventually she told me to check near the rice. (It was there, and there was also some in the "Nature's Marketplace" section.) Thanks lady restocking the soft cheeses!

I need to figure a little bit more about Dan's pasta dish, like how I plan on making it. He did make it for us for dinner once, but included bacon in it, which is obviously out for this week. As a protein substitute, I'm considering tossing in some cannelloni beans. I also am going to add cheese to it, since his recipe doesn't have any and I think it would really work.

My one sister, Jill, is apparently a vegetarian guru because of her circle of friends down in DC. She was tossing all sorts of ideas at me and Scott yesterday, many of which sounded really good. I'll probably spend the rest of the month bugging her for ideas. :)

As for the previous week... I think the best thing we made all week was the veggie and cheese enchiladas on Thursday. It was my first attempt at homemade enchiladas, and they turned out really good. The only thing I might change is the enchilada sauce. The stuff we had wasn't bad, but it wasn't great and it did give me some heartburn. I think the worst thing we had all week was the portobello burger on Friday night. The recipe was not very good and it ruined some perfectly good mushrooms. Towards the end of May, I might attempt a different recipe.

But as you can see, we survived an entire week of this. We're both still alive and we're both not constantly hungry. I KNOW we can make it an entire month based on getting through seven days-- one of which we went to a baseball game and could have had meat eating contests at. (Seriously, the meat was endless last night. There was a million to one ratio of hot dogs to guests in the suite.) I'm not going to pretend I don't want meat, I absolutely do, but I enjoy food enough and have an adventurous enough palate that I can be satisfied trying different things. I get bored with food pretty easily, so as long as we're eating different things, I'll be fine.

Since today was Mother's Day, we had both of our mothers and two of my three sisters over for brunch. Scott made a fruit salad that had pineapple, grapes, strawberries, bananas, and blueberries. Jill made a breakfast "bake," which was essentially a pepper and onion sauteed together, then mixed with cheddar cheese, Bisquick mix, frozen hashbrowns, and four eggs in a casserole dish, and then topped off with more cheese. The original recipe also called for sausage, but it was omitted out of courtesy to me and Scott. I made the bacon (didn't eat it, but my hands did smell delicious!) Pam and Ray brought over a ton of bagels and the world's largest bottle of champagne for mimosas.

I didn't have a bagel or bacon, but the breakfast bake was surprisingly good, and I always enjoy a fruit salad. The breakfast bake wasn't really eggy, but I could tell they had been used, if that makes any sense. And for the fruit salad, since we bought all of the fruit, it was only stuff we like, and none of that crappy melon filler that you get in a premade salad.

Seriously, it was a huge bottle of champagne.

The breakfast bake, prepared by Jill. She's the best cook ever, and so forth and so on.

Scott's fruit salad. Yum!

Pros: I enjoyed the entire meal and was full afterwards. I love mimosas.
Cons: I couldn't have any bacon, despite being the one who made it. :(

For dinner we ate at Wegman's before we began shopping. I had a vegetable sushi roll (carrots, cucumber, and avocado), their seaweed salad, and a sampling of basmatti rice and stir fried asparagus, peppers, and carrots.

The sushi roll was acceptable. But then again, I drowned it in wasabi infused soy sauce. The rice was a bit too sticky, and it could have used more avocado and less carrot. Oh well. I've already waxed poetic about the seaweed salad-- seriously, you have to get it. The stir fried veggies were decent, and the basmatti rice was really super dry, but the flavors were good. So it is a toss up. It might have been better with a sauce covered anything on top of it.

Overpriced sushi. Yay.

Pros: I didn't cook it and I didn't have to clean my kitchen up when we were done
Cons: The rice was really dry. The roll was way overpriced.

Tomorrow, I'll be making the curried veggies with coconut rice. I'll post more then. Not that I need to post more since I wrote a mini novel tonight. :)

Free beer makes all the pain go away... AKA I'm editing my drunken Saturday ramblings on Sunday

2011-05-08T14:49:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of my husband's department, we had an opportunity to sit in a luxury box at Citizen's Bank Park and watch the Phillies play (and beat) the Atlanta Braves last night. I originally wrote a post when we got home, but I was pretty intoxicated and Scott encouraged me to save what I had written and edit it when I was sober. Probably a good plan since I have a big, stupid mouth when I've gotten a couple of drinks in me. So, this is a sober edit of my drunk ramblings from last night.

The Phanatic - I didn't eat him, but I did see him.

Since the beginning of our "experiment," I have to say that last night was particularly challenging. Hello, we were at a ball park. We were surrounded by delicious edible flesh gratis to us since we were guests of our company.

In our suite, there were hot dogs, sausage and peppers, chicken fingers, cookies, crudites, and lots of booze and liquors. Because of the lack of vegetarian friendly food, I settled in with a beer and a couple of sliced red bell peppers. And then another beer and some peanuts. And then I got the idea to ask our concierge where I could grab a slice of pizza, and he ordered a pie for the entire suite. Yay pizza! Then after my slice of pizza, I had a rum and diet, and then another beer. There was even an ice cream sundae bar for us (which I skipped because ice cream and beer doesn't seem like a good idea.)

I was feeling pretty awesome and drunk by the time we got to our car. We were in the preferred parking lot up against the stadium, which was really awesome, and we managed to make it from South Philly to home within forty minutes of the game ending.

This was the view from our suites before the game started. Really sweet!

Earlier yesterday, I enjoyed a croissant for breakfast, and a cucumber roll and an avocado roll from Whole Foods for lunch. I didn't snack much, but I was running errands during the morning and afternoon.

All I can say is I am grateful that beer is vegetarian safe!

Portobell OH NO

2011-05-06T22:54:00.001-04:00

Title courtesy of Scott.

Not surprisingly, we've gotten through an entire work week as vegetarians.

Typical morning, a shake and a yogurt for me. For lunch I ordered a cheese hoagie from a local chain. Appropriately enough, it was called a knuckle sandwich. Sharp provolone, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, oil and vinegar all on a hoagie roll. Dericious.

Yeah, you want this sandwich to hit you, too.

For dinner, we decided to try this portobello burger recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com. Good in theory, not in practice.

Let me say right here that I love mushrooms. I could eat them every day and be pretty happy. But the above recipe was an abomination against this noble fungus. The red wine vinegar was overwhelming, and combined with the garlic and the grill seasoning, the meal was almost not edible. I picked the mushroom off of the bun and ate it as quickly as possible. Scott took two bites, spit the second bite out in disgust, and declared himself done. Thank good he had made corn on the cob as a side.

It looks way better than it tastes.

Pro: The mushroom kind of looked like a real burger at first. Freaking tease.
Con: The recipe was horrendous

I might be willing to consider a different recipe for this in the future, but for now, I'm okay with shelving my desire for a burger. Not that this is an acceptable substitute anyway. It's a grilled veggie sandwich, and anyone who says this is similar to eating a real burger is full of shit. Seriously. I like grilled veggies, and I like burgers. Saying one can be a substitute for another is a complete lie. They both have their place in my heart and in my tummy.

I finished the day with a seaweed salad from Wegman's. If you like seaweed at all, I would totally recommend it. I get it almost every time we go. It can be found near their sushi. Scott supplemented his lack of dinner by eating some cheese bread from Wegman's. (Can you tell we went to the store tonight?)

That's all for now. Tomorrow ought to be interesting. We're going to the Phillies game tomorrow night and are sitting in our company's luxury box. Hopefully there will be some veggie selections. Last year when we went there was lots of meat. But I guess this is for tomorrow's post. :)

Dinner suggestions needed!

2011-05-06T10:13:00.001-04:00

Amigos,

I'm looking for seven days worth of meal ideas. So, throw some ideas and recipes at me!

I'm especially looking to try quinoa and ethnic-y kinds of foods this week.

Thanks in advance. :)

And on this, the fifth of May, we celebrate the Mexicans kicking ass and taking French names...

2011-05-05T20:23:00.003-04:00

... by eating "Mexican" food and drinking Coronas!

Except I didn't have any Coronas... so.

Day five is pretty much over, and true to my stubornosity, I'm still meatless.

Breakfast was a shake, and a yogurt. Lunch was a shake (I need to hit the grocery store because I am running low on Lynne foods.) I also consumed a handful of gummy bears. Thank goodness I can still eat candy!

For dinner, I made veggie and cheese enchiladas with a side of vegetarian refried beans. I sauteed the peppers and onions in some olive oil and salt and pepper to soften them a bit, and then I wrapped them up with some cheese in some tortillas and covered them with enchilada sauce and more cheese and baked it for 20 minutes.

Yum!

The vegetarian refried beans tasted just like the normal ones. And the enchiladas actually turned out really good. I added some sour cream and fresh cilantro to the top and it was a perfect meal. I will probably make this again in the future. Yay, a meal that I didn't feel was missing meat!

Pepper and Onions sauteeing.

Baking in the oven..

My dinner... messy but good!

Pros: Filling; Tasty; Read the above blog post :)
Cons: messy to make! I made a huge mess cooking tonight. Oh, and I have heartburn now.

"Oh man! How'd you get the beans above the frank?"

2011-05-04T19:20:00.002-04:00

Keeping count? Yeah, it is day four sans meat.

I had my morning shake--chocolate malt, and a lemon cream pie flavored yogurt for breakfast this morning. Lunch consisted of a garden salad with lite ranch dressing from Salad Works. I regretted it though-- after eating, I had a bad stomach ache throughout most of the afternoon, and it made work pretty lousy for me. Damn you salad.

Dinner was something else though. Tonight we feasted on "not" dogs, vegetarian baked beans, and crescent rolls.

Yeah, I said "not" dogs. As a hot dog snob, I was not looking forward to this meal. I only ever eat Kosher hot dogs because I know they taste good and aren't made of random slaughterhouse scraps. And what's better than eating food that has God's seal of approval on it?

The texture was weird. Biting into them lacked that initial snap you would traditionally get in a normal hot dog. They were less juicy, too. They had a weird mealy texture, like the inside of a soggy french fry at McDs. They were also pretty flavorless... and this is despite them being mixed with vegetarian beans and my need to dunk them in a grainy mustard.

We have an entire package left... and I'm not confident they'll ever be consumed.

We did both clear our plates. I had a childhood habit of eating the stuff on my plate that I didn't like first, and then eating everything else after that. I cleared the "not" dogs first, and then enjoyed the beans and crescent rolls at my leisure. I'm pretty sure Scott did the same thing as me.

Pros: I'm full, beans are the magical fruit
Cons: The "not" dog

I have a half of a pint of Chunky Monkey in my freezer that I am considering eating tonight. I deserve it.

Points for recognizing the quote I used as the post title.

Tuesdays used to be wing night...

2011-05-03T21:10:00.002-04:00

Day three... over and done with. Yeah haters, look at me now.

Admittedly, I didn't eat as much food today as I probably should have. Until dinner I consumed a peach yogurt, a Fiber One bar, 1/4 cup of dried blueberries, and my morning Carnation shake-- dark chocolate today. I did drink a lot of seltzer throughout the day.

I had my semi-annual dental exam this evening, so I wanted a relatively easy to eat food because my mouth usually aches when I escape the dentist's chair. Scott ended up cooking since I didn't get home from work and my appointment until almost 7:45, and he was even really awesome and cleaned up when we were done eating. After a long day, I really appreciated it.

He made cheese tortellini in pesto for dinner. My favorite pesto comes from Trader Joe's, but it can be pricey, so we often use the Kirkman brand from Costco. Go go go bulk pesto! The tortellini is also purchased in bulk at Costco from their frozen section. We eat this meal frequently, but we usually add (chicken) sausage to it. All in all, we were both satisfied and happy (and my mouth didn't ache after eating it!)

As always, I took a photo of tonight's meal. I was starving by the time Scott served it to me, so I ate about half of it before I realized that I hadn't snapped my dinner's picture yet. I sprinkled some cheese on mine since I wanted to make my meal as unhealthy as possible!

Pros: We normally eat this and like this, it is easy to make, it is filling
Cons: None!

Oh, and someone was eating a cheesesteak at work today and it smelled FABULOUS. I plan on celebrating getting through May with a cheesesteak... and maybe some wings... and a filet... and some crab legs... and a garden salad since I need to watch my girlish figure.

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”

2011-05-02T21:04:00.004-04:00

So far it appears we've made it through the second day of our trial as vegetarians.

I think Scott has had some eggs, a Fiber One bar, some cake, and tonight's dinner...

I've had a glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast (French Vanilla), an apple turnover flavored yogurt, a Lean Cuisine (mushroom "tortelloni"), a Fiber One bar, and tonight's dinner. I apparently eat WAYYYYYYY more than my husband.

And WTF is tortelloni? I'm pretty sure I have never heard about this pasta before Olive Garden-- an abomination against Italian food and people who actually give a shit about what they eat-- began advertising their tortelloni and deep fried ("sauteed") meat covered in nasty cream sauces on TV in the past several years. Now LC has at least two steam bag varieties with tortelloni in it. But I digress...

For dinner tonight, I made a green bean, carrot, and pepper stir fry in a sesame soy glaze with white rice. I like every single thing in this dish... but it lacked in something. Oh yeah, chicken... and teriyaki sauce.

I kid about the chicken... maybe. But I should have skipped the sesame soy glaze and gone with teriyaki sauce. I might have enjoyed the flavor better. I shall attempt a variation on this in a few weeks when I am more settled into my role as an herbivore.

Scott doesn't really like green beans, or cooked carrots, or large pieces of pepper, so he wasn't thrilled by the meal, but he did eat all of it.

Pros: dinner was filling and pretty healthy
Cons: it needed some more flavor

Oh, and what's the deal with people thinking I'm going to give into eating meat first? The lack of faith you all have in me only fuels me to keep going. Hate is the new chicken and I feed on your hate. ;)

Tofu can die in a cave.

2011-05-01T22:59:00.005-04:00

Still no meat... so we're going strong. Except my family has been trying to tempt me all evening with delicious animal flesh. Jerks.

For lunch, we each had a soda and a slice of plain cheese pizza. Safe, and easy. We were both satisfied.

For Mom's birthday dinner, we ended up at Seasons52 at the Cherry Hill Mall. They had a vegetarian menu, so we were able to dine with my carnivore family happily.

As a starter, Scott and I split an "organic" mixed garden salad. Lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, toasted seeds, and a balsamic dressing. We enjoyed it.

For dinner I had ponzu glazed tofu with mixed veggies and roasted potatoes. The mixed veggies were peppers, broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, and asparagus. The roasted potatoes were just roasted potatoes. The sides were really tasty. The tofu... NOT SO MUCH. It was like eating a wet, flavorless sponge. It came out as two grilled tofu patties. Bleh, bleh, bleh. Unless it is in miso soup, I will probably skip tofu going forward.

Pros: I was actually full after eating my meal; the total calories I consumed was about 500
Cons: Tofu sucks

Scott had a roasted spring vegetable sandwich on ciabatta with a mixed salad. He actually liked it. The veggies were asparagus, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers... with cheese and marinara sauce. The salad was the same exact one we had as a starter.

Pros: Scott liked his meal and would eat it again after this experiment
Cons: He didn't exactly know what he was eating. (Maybe that's a pro?)

More tomorrow...

And so it begins...

2011-05-01T10:57:00.002-04:00

Day one. As of now, all I have consumed is coffee. Scott left for (I presume) Shoprite to get stuff to bake my mother a birthday cake and this week's groceries. Heavy on the veggies, light on everything else. I guess it is a good thing that I have a decently stocked pantry.

Last night, Scott and I went to The Pub in Pennsauken with Amanda and Vince. I said good bye to meat with a sirloin and baked potato, Scott had chicken fingers and fries. My steak was undercooked; I prefer my meat well done, because I want to make sure it is REALLY dead before I consume it. Plus I actually like the way it tastes. The texture of meat when it is still pink kind of grosses me out. Worst, they had butterflied the meat and it STILL wasn't thoroughly cooked. Lame.

Tonight it looks like we are probably going to La Posata for Italian food. Score. I can do gnocchi with pomodoro sauce or penne a la vodka. My favorite there is Chicken de la Casa... but it isn't like I will never be back there for dinner, so I will survive.

I should get back to scouring the bathroom. Bleh. I'll post later about my food choices today, since I don't think coffee counts.

Food craving: croissants and avocado rolls
Mood: smug - I'm a vegetarian now! (I kid, I kid.)

Adios, carnivorism.

2011-04-30T11:08:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, Scott and I are going to be embarking on a journey into the world of vegetarianism.

"Why?" you ask.

Because we're freakin crazy, that's why. Scott introduced the idea earlier this month (I presume as a joke), and I went with it. I don't know why. We both love meat. Give me a steak and him a stack of bacon and we're in our happy places. Ultimately, what it comes down to is he wants to see me fail at this, and I want to see him fail slightly more. Ahh, being the world's most stubborn couple.

We're not going vegan, but we're also not eating seafood (not that he eats any seafood besides canned tuna, gag.) This rules out most sushi-- thank god for cucumber and avocado rolls-- but it doesn't rule out eggs. We also can still have some stuff we normally love such as pizza and meatless pasta dishes.

We also began testing out protein and fiber rich supplemental foods this week to see what we like. Because of the myositis, I need to consider my protein intake. (For the unaware, protein helps build muscle, and I have a muscle atrophy disease; therefore it is important that I consume protein to maintain what muscles I do have.) Losing meats could hurt me, so I need to find a quick, dirty alternative for the beginning. Especially if it is covered in chocolate. :)

For the most part, I think that this will be smooth sailing. The only real wrenches we have are Mom's birthday (May 1st-- TOMORROW!!!) and Amanda's bachelorette weekend (Memorial Day). For Mom's birthday, Pam introduced the idea of going for seafood, which at the time sounded good, until I realized that I won't be able to partake in that seafood. Poop. So now I am on a 24 hour mission to convince my family (Mom, especially) that they want Italian. La Posata anyone?

I'd like to say that we're going on a meat binge today, but I doubt we will. I kind of can go for a burger from Five Guys, but would regret that later (Five Guys + Lynne = frowny face about an hour after consumption.) We are having dinner with Amanda and Vince tonight to discuss some stuff, so maybe I'll have a good bye steak then. We shall see. I do need some red meat at one point today.

I came up with some menu ideas for this week. In no particular order:

Cheese enchiladas and vegetarian refried beans - might add some peppers and onions to the enchiladas for texture and fiber
"Notdogs" and vegetarian baked beans -- we purchased these items in anticipation of our grand experiment. I'm kind of scared of this meal, not gonna lie.
Cheese tortellini and pesto -- we actually keep these items around, so yay a familiar easy meal.
Green bean and pepper stir fry over white rice -- Scott balked, but I love both veggies, and I love stir fries.
Portobello burgers - Scott also balked at this ("I don't eat portobellos!"), but I found a recipe that involves stuffing the caps full of cheese

I'll post recipes, reactions, and thoughts on this. I want to keep honest, so I will post my daily menu. (Hopefully I can convince Scott to, as well.)

Wish us luck. For now, I am contemplating a juicy burger. Mmm, meat.