hooray veggies

I've been toying with the idea of going vegetarian for awhile now. The thing that always holds me back is that reoccurring craving of a cheeseburger. I love a good cheeseburger. However, when I cook at home, more often than not, I end up making meatless dishes, because it's quicker, cheaper and more difficult to screw up/give myself food poisoning.

When I was a child, my father became vegetarian, so in a sense, I've already done it for a period in my life. All I really remember was the lack of a tasty tofu dog in 1993. Of course I'm not sure any tofu dogs are made for eight-year-olds.

Anyway, I was at a Greek restaurant last week, enjoying some spinach pies and a vegetable pita sandwich, when the idea came back to me. Lent is coming up next week, why not give up meat? It's already not an option for some of those days, why not just go all out?

Once I made up my mind I took to the kitchen to do a rundown of all the meat products I need to keep frozen or eat before next Wednesday. Thanks to that I've been eating sausage jambalaya for four straight days and finally finished today. I separated all of my bookmarked recipes so the vegetarian ones are in a special folder.

And now I'm on my last hurrah - getting in my last cravings before it's veggies and seafood for six weeks. I have to admit, my last hurrah isn't that hardcore - a turkey sandwich tonight and chicken nuggets for lunch tomorrow.

Treehugger had a great article today about being a weekday vegetarian, where as the name implies, you only eat meat on weekends. It cuts down on meat consumption enough to make an impact, but you won't have to swear it off forever. Paul McCartney has also started a Meat-free Monday campaign, though it's not as much of an impact as cutting out meat five days of the week.

Reducing meat consumption helps to slow global warming, reduce carbon emissions, fight global hunger and improve animal welfare. Plus, it'll save you money and possibly keep you from getting sick. In these times, it's not complete culinary torture to give up meat - there are so many delicious vegetarian dishes. It's not just tofu or bust!

So, February 17 - April 4. Let's do this!

2 comments

donny* said...

ahem! seafood? ;)

Anonymous said...

What about it? It's allowed. :)

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