I cheated twice during the experiment, and both were restaurant situations.  The first time there was literally nothing other than seafood, unless I wanted to shell out $10 for a tiny salad, and then this weekend we were at Nob Hill Bar and Grill, and I had the fish and chips.  Could I have gotten a salad?  Yeah, but when it came down to it, I wanted some horrible fried thing, so that’s what I got.  Considering I used to revel in their very tasty cheeseburgers, I showed restraint in going for the fish.  Other than that, I have not had a bite of chicken, pork or beef in over a month, since I actually started leaning this way like a week or a week and a half before May even began.

I honestly want to stick with it.  I feel really good, and I feel like I really think about the food I cram in my mouth now and where it comes from.  I feel healthier, and certain things I used to experience, like crippling heartburn, have disappeared.  I have not had heartburn a single time since I did the veggie thing, and I used to experience it at least once a week!

I guess I struggle with the whole label thing, because I do continue to eat eggs and have dairy, although I have very little dairy anymore.  On message boards and other veg websites, it seems as though people who have eggs and milk aren’t perceived as true vegetarians, but poo on that I say.  Some of my most simple and happiest meals consist of some type of grain (say quinoa or brown rice) with a poached egg on top, and my body feels really good after those meals, so I figure it’s what’s best for me you know?  I do make an effort to buy from local free range people, and I’m talking farm folk, not in the store.  Some day soon I’ll have my own chickens I hope, and then I’ll have better control over the egg thing.  I am going off on a tangent though!

Oh well, back to work.

Eric grilled spring onions that we bought at the farmer’s market, and he grilled a chicken breast for himself and I had tempeh for the first time that he kindly grilled for me.  I have to say, I wasn’t wild about it, but it was much easier to deal with than tofu, and I think that it would probably be better in the context of a sandwich instead of eating it straight.  Halfway through the meal I wrapped the remaining tempeh on my plate with some grilled onions in lettuce leaves, and I found that more enjoyable.  We also had corn grilled right in their husks, and it was just a really nice simple meal.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208505896608647.html

Could be a good idea.  It could make no difference at all.  I did notice that diet drinks would not be included in this tax, which I find incredibly evil, since they are (for the majority) sweetened with apartame.  This is no surprise since (conservative family and friends, forgive me, you know I love you), Donald Rumsfeld was the head of the company which created aspartame back in the day, and wow, what do you know, it still continues to be approved by the government despite the proof of what it does to people.  And it’s in everything, literally, if you see “sugar-free” on a label, more than likely it’s aspartame.  I digress, I don’t want to preach, it just angers me that diet gets a break.  It just feels like (in the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar), that it’s a trap!  The tax on regular soda could be good in theory, but if it drives people to drink more diet drinks, then I can’t bring myself to celebrate it.  It feels like an almost purposeful attempt to get people to consume more of the crap.

I wonder what would happen if instead of getting everyone’s panties in a bunch over the mere word “tax”, the government would just lay out the truth to the public about the food they consume.  And I’m not talking about the typical BS “eat more fruits, whole grains, and vegetables” speech, I mean telling the public that if they are eating processed food, they are making themselves sick.  That it’s filled with chemicals that can kill, that can cause cancer, and it’s made with genetically modified plants.  And that even people who think they’re doing a good thing because they ARE picking up fruits and vegetables don’t realize that it’s covered in chemicals, pesticides and God knows what else.  In the age of the internet, any information is available if you seek it out, but until the media puts its fear of making advertisers angry, this information won’t be readily available to the public, and people will continue to be sick.

Anyway, that’s my rant of the day!

First things first, if you go to the Beaverton market, they added a lot of new vendors, including an incredible crepe stand called Zest Crepes.  They do both savory and sweet crepes, but we opted for sweet.  I had an amazing one with lemon curd and ricotta, and his had maripan and pears.  Yum!  Go visit them, their food is delicious, and the two people running the stand were very friendly and cool.

With the vegetarian decision of this year, the Farmer’s market had a whole new meaning for me, and I was even more excited than usual.  I admit that it’s hard to choose between the mangy organic produce at places like Albertsons and the expensive but beautiful produce at New Seasons.  It’s also a pain in the butt to have to read labels and ultimately give up on buying anything premade in a box, because it’s all processed crap with GMO food and embalming fluid…I mean, aspartame.  To walk into a place with 90% organic products, that was cheaper and had such a variety made me want to sing the Hallelujah chorus.

I was able to buy most of the stuff I needed to make dinner for family last night (Heidi Swanson’s mushroom casserole, artisian bread spread with fresh goat cheese and chives and roasted spring vegetables), and also some other staples that can be used throughout the week.  I thought they would only have basic lettuce and spring greens, but happily discovered that most stands had delicate spring potatoes, sweet spring onions, asparagus, and tons of other wonderful vegetables.  I bought a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard that’s so pretty you could put it in a vase and make a centerpiece of it, and also bought a piece of honeycomb that was $10 but I felt I couldn’t live without.  I couldn’t pass this up just because I’d never tried it, but I bought a dozen duck eggs, which I used in cooking last night and was very happy with.

This morning for breakfast I used the leftover rice I used in the casserole last night (a mixture of brown and wild), heated it up with some chopped arugula from my garden, topped it with poached eggs and chopped chive flowers.  Absolute heaven!

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, and that you went out and got a magnificent sunburn from the gorgeous sun we had yesterday! (I know my cheeks and nose are a little rosy!)

Sadly the cucumbers I planted didn’t make it, so I just put some of my extra tomato starts in their place.  I am secretly glad, because I infinitely prefer tomatoes over cucumbers anyway.  I also decided to put the kabosh on my yellow corn seeds, and dug them up so that I could plant some of the yellow watermelon seeds I ordered.

I am so happy that we did the bigger garden this year.  Even though most of it won’t be ready for quite awhile, I’ve had plenty of lettuce, spinach, and arugula from the garden for fresh salads.  The lettuce is amazing, very tender and delicate, and it’s nice to be able to pick just what I need.

I can’t wait until the tomatoes are ready!!

Before this major life change, I was pretty happy with the deals at Albertsons.  However, they are not organic or local produce friendly, and are very meat focused when it comes to their deals.  That’s all well and good for everyone else, but I guess I’m going to have to find other places to do major shopping at. 

And big fail to Chinook Book for having coupons that can’t even be used at a normal grocery store!

The saffron yogurt was interesting, although I ended up adding turmeric to it in order to get that bright yellow color, since the saffron only got it to the color of barely yellow.  I find the taste of saffron really bizarre, almost plastic/chemical like.  Since it’s like a million dollars for a bottle, this is disappointing.  Maybe I can find a recipe for vegetarian paella, and give saffron another try.

I am really surprised at how easy this transition has been.  Eric made a really delicious pesto pasta last night, and grilled a chicken breast last night to have with his portion.  He offered me one, and I can truly say that I wasn’t interested  in it.  I was perfectly happy without it, which is pretty surprising, because I really live for grilled chicken.  I ended up being more excited about finding organic carrots at Costco (now I can juice like a madwoman!), and was also really happy at the delicious salad greens I was able to clip in the garden today for our lunchtime salad.  This lovely soup really capped the night off.

Hope you all are having a lovely weekend.  xoxo

There are many options that are far tastier and more importantly, NATURAL that you can use.  I have really gotten into agave syrup, and have even used organic maple syrup in baking lately.  And of course, there is the good old sugar staple, honey.  I’ve also been pleased with raw sugar, the few times I’ve used it as of late in baking.  I guess what I’m saying is, there are plenty of natural sources that don’t have the chemical makeup of embalming fluid.  You don’t have to use poison like Equal and Nutra-Sweet.

I officially won’t pick up a soda again.  The regular ones have disgusting high fructose corn syrup (also processed poison), and the diet ones are worse.  I won’t tell anyone what to do, but I really hope that whoever is currently bored enough to be reading this (and assumingly has the misfortune to either be related to or married to me) do some research, and to put the soda cans down.

Hope all is well.  xoxo

There have been lots of films since then, mostly in the last 2 weeks (thanks Netflix Instant Viewing!) that have really made me question what I’m eating.  It makes me question the FDA and how the government handles the subject of food in general.  I have never thought so long and hard during grocery trips as I do now.  I have been label reading, and frankly, I don’t like a lot of the labels I read.  On the flip side, there aren’t many labels to read when it comes to fruits and vegetables.  It’s either organic or it’s not, and it’s either local or it’s not, so it’s not that big of a decision is it?  I watched an especially sobering documentary yesterday called “The Future of Food”  that helped me decide once and for all that I can’t eat anything except organic, if at all possible.  I learned too much about how little the FDA regulates non-organic food, and I really feel it’s the right decision for me to go fully organic.  Yes it’s more expensive, yes it’s more difficult to find, but I’m doing it anyway.  I feel that I can’t put a price on my health or on safe, humane farming practices, so I’m not bothered by the price tag.

That’s all for now, but I”ll update this as reguarly as possible to document my veg journey.  Hope you all are well!

xoxo