My Meatless Month

So, at about 2:43 pm on February 17, I made up my mind to accept the challenge that had been brewing inside me for several weeks: No meat for one month.  Why do such a thing, you might ask? Have I always dreamed of the special privileges of the vegetarian diet, such as being able to give a half smile and say, "actually, I don't eat meat"? 

No.  

Have I reached a crucial point in my not-quite-as-young-as-I-used-to-be life in which I needed a drastic change? 

Nope.  

Is it a condition? 

No.  

Does the mental image of a fluffy young lamb frolicking in a flowery meadow cause my appetite to shrivel? 

Nope, lamb is delicious.  

The truth is that I came to the realization that somehow, someway I had developed a 'foody' bias towards vegetarians, or more precisely the vegetarian diet.  But when I asked myself what my reasons for thinking vegetarian fare to be lesser, the only real answers I could muster were that it doesn't contain meat, and is probably bland.  Neither of which is substantial reasoning; the first is part of the definition of vegetarian, and the second is more of an hypothesis...one that I decided should be put to the test.  So to sum it all up, I challenged myself to a meatless month to face my prejudice head on and to find out in a real way once and for all if vegetarian is as horrid as I thought.

Here are my rules: No meat (duh!), dairy products and eggs do not count as meat, fish and shellfish do.

"Hmmm...", you say, "and what did you learn, strange person?"  

Actually I did make several important realizations during the past month.

First, the way 'pasta' is pronounced in a British accent sounds eerily like the way 'pastor' is pronounced by New Yorkers or Bostonians. (I am not exactly sure the implications of this, but it certainly has deep meaning).

Also,  there are many ways to cook both zucchini and red peppers.  In fact, going meatless wasn't nearly as hard or complicated as I had expected.  Some of our recent favorite dishes, such as Nasi Goreng, Pasta with polenta, and even fajitas actually lend themselves quite well to vegetarian versions.  Additionally, taking lunches to work didn't end up being much more of a chore either.  Peanut butter and honey sandwich, Cheese and crackers, trail mix,  none of these require any real change.  So did we make any changes, then? (I say we, because Kim actually was super supportive and went along with me for meatless dinners).  Yes, we did try out Lentilloaf in place of Meatloaf, Curried Chickpeas with Veggies in place of Curried Chicken, Roasted Veggies with Hummus, and also Tofu in place of Shrimp in the Nasi Goreng.  And the honest truth is that the vegetarian fare did not lack in flavor.  An added bonus  is that while I wasn't really planning on this being a weight loss type of effort, when I started eating meat again I noticed that my stomach had gotten used to much smaller portions, and I am not eating less at a single sitting than before.  A very interesting side effect, don't you think?

So to wrap this whole thing up, I learned over my meatless month that a vegetarian diet can be just as satisfying as a meat-filled diet, and that it doesn't require buying special, expensive food or living off of lettuce.  In addition, there is some sort of connection between eating veggie meals and portion control, although I am not sure what since I only noticed this after I started eating meat again.  

Phew, that was quite a post, time for a steak or maybe a grilled mushroom...oh the choices! :)