Here I go, talking about food again. Sorry, it's kind of what's going on in my life right now. I'll be going on two weeks vegetarian tomorrow and I feel great. I've lost 10 pounds since I started trying this. That's ridiculous, 10 pounds in 13 days?! Plus I'm now just a stone's throw away from dropping below 200 lbs. I'm so excited. I'm pretty sure I'll get there by the end of the week, it's less than a pound and a half away. I'm super excited. It's been so encouraging lately to hear, even from people I wouldn't expect to notice, that I look like I'm losing weight and looking really good. It really feels great, and that's in addition to just feeling healthier overall. :D I'm loving it!!
So, last night I needed to get some grocery shopping and I did it smart, possibly for the first time in my life. I rode my bike to/from work yesterday so when I got home I was starving. Rather than first going to the grocery store and buying way more than I needed to I actually did it right. I sat down with my veggie cookbook and found something I could make with things that were already in the house. I ended up making "Andrea's Puttanesca," which is a spaghetti with marinara cooked with fresh garlic, spinach, tomatoes and topped with olive. Add to it a nice green salad and I was feeling full and almost ready to hit the grocery store.
Now this next bit I think is really incredible. Two weeks ago I spent some money and stocked my spice cupboard and pantry with a few of the basic ingredients needed for most of the vegetarian recipes I had. I went through what I had on hand and leftovers in the fridge and made a complete menu for every meal between now and my next payday. I then hit the grocery store and bought everything I need (excluding some fresh veggies that won't keep) to make those meals for less than $45!! Awesome right? I have meals planned for almost the next two weeks and the most I'll need to spend between now and then is maybe $10 on veggies here and there. Way friggin cool!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Veggie Catch-Up Blog
Ok, I haven't been as good about writing as I wanted to be, but, things are going great! I have, however been rocking this vegetarian thing. It's been way awesome. I'm trying new things, cooking more and definitely eating healthier. Regardless of whether or not you think meat is healthy/unhealthy the simple fact that I have to supplement my diet with more vegetables drastically increases the amount of veggies that I'm eating (duh) and subsequently makes my diet healthier. Since I last wrote, I've made some delicious chick-pea enchiladas blancas, a whole variety of awesome veggie sandwiches and salads and tonight, vegetarian shepherd's pie with sweet mashed potatoes. For those of you who have never tried sweet mashed potatoes, do it. Seriously. They are crazy good. Anywho, short and sweet, this whole thing has been an awesome experience so far and I've got leftovers for a couple of days which means that finishing out my goal week is going to be a piece of cake. Now, I've got so many great recipes left to try, do I stick with vegetarian for a while, move to mostly vegetarian and eat meat only very occasionally or just screw it and go back to what I was eating before? Opinions?
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Vegetarian Day #1
Okay, so, strange announcement. I'm going vegetarian for a week, at least. Some of you may know that as of late, I have been working on improving my overall health. I've quit smoking, started to increase to a regular workout schedule and worked towards a healthy diet. I've already been on a diet that is (with rare exceptions) free of red meat. This particular change wasn't a huge deal. I don't eat beef a lot in any form so it was only cutting out the occasional hamburger (which was usually fast food and needed to go anyways) and maybe not ordering a steak every time I had the opportunity. There was nothing wrong with that particular diet, (that's diet as in eating pattern, not hokey weight loss strategy) in fact I was, and still am, losing weight but a vegetarian lifestyle has recently been rather intriguing to me. My interest was piqued this weekend when I watched a documentary called "Forks Over Knives". The documentary primarily interviews two doctors who have spent a large portion of their careers doing field/clinical research regarding the link between meat/dairy products and obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other killer diseases. While there is no concrete evidence of any definite link between any of these, the correlation data and limited clinical results were very convincing. At least enough so to convince me to try it.
As of right now, I have no intention of going full and permanent vegetarian but I'd like to just give it a shot for a while at least. I've decided on a minimum of one week with no firm end date. It may be that I adopt a "mostly vegetarian" lifestyle after this experiment and only very occasionally eat any kind of meat. I thought a week sounded like a good starting goal to evaluate the idea. I'm probably going to be blogging on this a fair amount if nothing else than to get my thoughts on it written down. I'd like to keep an eye on my morale through this experiment and be able to look back at it and remember what I was thinking at the time. This isn't going to be a major change for the majority of my day. My typical diet currently consists of meatless meals for 2 of the 3 meals of the day. I typically have oatmeal for breakfast, followed by a banana or other fruit mid morning, PB&J for lunch and some veggies and maybe string cheese in the afternoon. It's dinner that's going to be the kicker. Almost every evening meal I have made over the past few months has included chicken in one form or another. That's what's going to be tough. In order to kick start my creativity and get me some ideas to get going, I purchased a book suggested by the makers of "Forks Over Knives" entitled "Everyday Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay S. Nixon. The cover boasts that the book contains meals that can be "on the table in 30 minutes or less." With my current lifestyle, this is exactly what I need. Something fast, cheap, and easy to make.
Now, on to the experience! Today was my first day as a temporary vegetarian. Not surprisingly, it wasn't much different from any other day. I had a typical breakfast and a mostly typical lunch. I went with some co-workers to The Tea Rose Diner. Tea Rose is a a Thai restaurant in Murray that we frequent, (seriously, some of us 3-5 times a week) and I usually order a massamun curry with chicken. Being a day one temporary vegetarian, I couldn't quite stick to that so I ordered the same dish but with tofu instead of chicken. While the meal was still satisfying and very enjoyable, most of the tofu didn't leave the table until the bus boy cleared our table. That was quite a shock. I'm not sure exactly what I expected but I sure didn't enjoy the stuff. It was rubbery on the outside and a nearly liquid gelatin on the inside. I think I'll explore other protein sources and meet substitutes. Dinner, on the other hand, was a roaring success. I tried my hand at making my first vegetarian meal out of my new cook book and ended up with a couple of delicious black bean burgers with a crisp spinach salad. I was very pleased with how the burgers turned out and very satisfied with the meal.
I don't expect to be noticing any huge life changes in a week of eating veggies but there is one thing I noticed right away; I wasn't full like I would have been with a meat meal. If I had eaten two similarly sized hamburgers, I would have felt bloated, lethargic, and uncomfortable for hours. After my first home-cooked veggie meal I felt great. I was full but not uncomfortable and after sitting for maybe 20 minutes to finish an episode of Breaking Bad, got up, cleaned the kitchen and my dishes and went for a three and a half mile run. Pretty impressive for after dinner eh?
Wow, sorry to anyone who read all of that. I just noticed how long that got. Thanks for hangin' with me through that. I'm going to try to keep this going once a day at least through my first experiment week of vegetarianism so I'll have lots more info on what I'm eating in the days to come. I know, that's just what everyone wants to read on the internet, right? Wish me luck! :)
As of right now, I have no intention of going full and permanent vegetarian but I'd like to just give it a shot for a while at least. I've decided on a minimum of one week with no firm end date. It may be that I adopt a "mostly vegetarian" lifestyle after this experiment and only very occasionally eat any kind of meat. I thought a week sounded like a good starting goal to evaluate the idea. I'm probably going to be blogging on this a fair amount if nothing else than to get my thoughts on it written down. I'd like to keep an eye on my morale through this experiment and be able to look back at it and remember what I was thinking at the time. This isn't going to be a major change for the majority of my day. My typical diet currently consists of meatless meals for 2 of the 3 meals of the day. I typically have oatmeal for breakfast, followed by a banana or other fruit mid morning, PB&J for lunch and some veggies and maybe string cheese in the afternoon. It's dinner that's going to be the kicker. Almost every evening meal I have made over the past few months has included chicken in one form or another. That's what's going to be tough. In order to kick start my creativity and get me some ideas to get going, I purchased a book suggested by the makers of "Forks Over Knives" entitled "Everyday Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay S. Nixon. The cover boasts that the book contains meals that can be "on the table in 30 minutes or less." With my current lifestyle, this is exactly what I need. Something fast, cheap, and easy to make.
Now, on to the experience! Today was my first day as a temporary vegetarian. Not surprisingly, it wasn't much different from any other day. I had a typical breakfast and a mostly typical lunch. I went with some co-workers to The Tea Rose Diner. Tea Rose is a a Thai restaurant in Murray that we frequent, (seriously, some of us 3-5 times a week) and I usually order a massamun curry with chicken. Being a day one temporary vegetarian, I couldn't quite stick to that so I ordered the same dish but with tofu instead of chicken. While the meal was still satisfying and very enjoyable, most of the tofu didn't leave the table until the bus boy cleared our table. That was quite a shock. I'm not sure exactly what I expected but I sure didn't enjoy the stuff. It was rubbery on the outside and a nearly liquid gelatin on the inside. I think I'll explore other protein sources and meet substitutes. Dinner, on the other hand, was a roaring success. I tried my hand at making my first vegetarian meal out of my new cook book and ended up with a couple of delicious black bean burgers with a crisp spinach salad. I was very pleased with how the burgers turned out and very satisfied with the meal.
I don't expect to be noticing any huge life changes in a week of eating veggies but there is one thing I noticed right away; I wasn't full like I would have been with a meat meal. If I had eaten two similarly sized hamburgers, I would have felt bloated, lethargic, and uncomfortable for hours. After my first home-cooked veggie meal I felt great. I was full but not uncomfortable and after sitting for maybe 20 minutes to finish an episode of Breaking Bad, got up, cleaned the kitchen and my dishes and went for a three and a half mile run. Pretty impressive for after dinner eh?
Wow, sorry to anyone who read all of that. I just noticed how long that got. Thanks for hangin' with me through that. I'm going to try to keep this going once a day at least through my first experiment week of vegetarianism so I'll have lots more info on what I'm eating in the days to come. I know, that's just what everyone wants to read on the internet, right? Wish me luck! :)
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