Project Vegetarian Update 10/24/11

Over halfway done with Project Vegetarian.

It’s been a struggle at times with lots of temptation. For instance on Friday, my brother was making pork chops and asked if I wanted one. It smelled so good; I was tempted to go sneak one in the middle of the night. Instead I settled for Bella Luna salad.

Earlier that day, I tried some Pho for lunch. I saw an option for tofu instead of meat at Tsunami and went that route. The Pho was delicious but the tofu was just awful. I’ve had tiny little bits of tofu before in my miso soup but never big chunks. Tasted nasty, I will probably avoid tofu for good now. Throughout the day for lunch, I snacked on peanuts, grapes and pineapple. I forgot how good grapes and pineapple were for snacks. I immediately went after work on loaded up on a “Vegetarian’s Shopping List”

Jars of peanuts
Bags of groups (did you know that grapes are just left sitting out at Dillon’s for all hands to touch? I was pretty turned off by it but somebody said to me “Eddy, you can always wash the grapes when you get home”. It made sense, so I did)
Baby Carrots
Salad
Bread
Apples
Yogurt
Crackers
Some noodles
Frozen vegetables
(And other odds and ends)

Saturday was the hardest.

A few of us went to Lawrence for the KU/K-State football game. Before the game, they decided on going to Dairy Queen before for lunch. While glancing at the menu, I saw no veggie burgers, no vegetarian options. Just meat and dairy products. Perfect. I ended up with a little side salad that was horrible and a thing of fries. I figured beer would hold me off until dinner.

Instead of going home right after the game, we made a brief detour by the casinos in Topeka. Brief turned into seven hours later. There was a little grill and snack shop in the casino we stopped by to eat at before heading home. Once again, no option for vegetarians. I ended up with the same thing before at Dairy Queen. Salad and fries. But I purchased a bag of peanuts to snack on as well.

Boy……. was I hungry. When I eventually got home, I made a peanut butter sandwich and at some yogurt.

Insert Sunday. A new day! Finally a chance to stay home and eat a good meal. For lunch before football started, I made some steamed vegetables and rice. For a little dessert, I had some yogurt. Overall it wasn’t that bad. Throughout the day while watching the game, I snacked on peanuts. Later that evening I drove over to the Dillon’s salad bar and loaded up on a great dinner. Salad, pickles, pineapple, grapes, macaroni noodles, eggs, baby carrots, and green beans. That lasted me until the end of the night.

That’s not to say Sunday had its fair share of temptation. My mother calls me over for burgers and brats. I had to pass. My aunt wants to know if I wanted any homemade beef jerky. I told her I couldn’t eat meat. I think she gave me this “Are you crazy” look. I survived the temptation though and lived to see another day.

Monday morning…. eggs.

So I’m halfway done. I must say that I haven’t been as hungry as I thought I’d be. Part of me feels like I’m eating healthier but who knows. Do I miss meat in general? Yes. I’d love to eat a porkchop. I’d love to eat some beef jerky. I’d love to eat some real bacon in my salad.

Pushing through the week though. I’m guessing for dinner it’s going to be some pasta for dinner with baby carrots and some toast. If that idea sounds less than appealing, I’m going to try my first fully cooked vegetarian meal  tonight with some recipes some of you have been e-mailing me. IT BETTER BE GOOD!

Project Vegetarian continues!

I’m hoping to knock out Letter O tomorrow though, we’ll see how that goes.