Vegetarian challenge – pondering questions

The actual challenge beings Sunday April 27.

Several questions, and some excuses, come to mind while I ponder my vegetarian days ahead. I do have to keep in mind that I have babies to feed. And I have to decide how strict a vegetarian I will be. For example, will I allow myself to eat butter? Eggs? What about cheese? I grew up in Switzerland where cheese (and chocolate) was a daily staple, so switching to imitation cheese, or even tofu, isn’t really part of my plan. Besides, making my spinach-mushroom risotto without cheese would just not do. So I will probably try to eat pretty much everything I eat now, and just leave the actual meat out of my diet.

Will my 3yo join me in the challenge of eating vegetarian? He likes eggs, so that will be at least one quick dinner on a night when I may or may not be at my wit’s end. He likes lentils, and raw veggies like peppers, tomatos and cucumbers. He likes pasta, and cheese…and so do I. Maybe this will work…

Perhaps I can try out a few new veggies. Maybe a type of squash I’ve never had. I do want to try and stay within the “local/fresh” kick that seems to have everyone in a tizzy these days, which shouldn’t be too difficult really, but then again, I don’t want to eat cardboard tomatos from Canada’s greenhouses all day either.

I have decided that the baby will continue getting her meat portions, conveniently tucked into the freezer in the shape of ice cubes. 6 month olds shouldn’t be subjected to my folly.

And what about visitors? Will they expect me to hand them a burger? Guess only time will tell.

I wonder too about fish. I make these cool salmon rolls with smoked salmon. Will I allow myself to eat fish? 

What about stock? My vegan cookbook states that for soup you should use your own, home-made vegetable stock. I guess I could make some…I made plenty of chicken stock recently and wonder if that would be cheating if using it, rather than a store-bought version. I definitely want to have at least one pot of soup available for my never-ending, insatiable appetite. Will have to revisit the stock issue.

And then there is dessert. I may have to make another batch of this to tie me over the meatlessness next week. Which would make the reduced calorie intake moot, really. But it was sooooo gooooood, and soooooo addictive… (thanks Andrea!)

So it all begins tomorrow. DH is leaving in the early afternoon. I don’t typically need or eat meat for breakfast, so that won’t be a problem. We had a lovely steak dinner tonight, steak from our butcher on the Queensway who gets his grass-fed, pasture cows from a local farm not far from here. It was lovely…

We’ll see how it goes.

 

Vegetarian challenge

note: the original post which was published on Wed April 23 has forever disappeared into cyberspace. The first comment, by Dan White, followed the post into oblivion. (Thank you Dan for your words of encouragement.) So here is another attempt at reciting my lost post from memory.

Yesterday, as I was chopping bacon for my baked bean dish, I considered becoming a vegetarian for a few days. I actually don’t have any intentions of becoming a permanent vegetarian, mainly because I enjoy a variety of food, including meat. My family’s focus is to eat whole foods, local, and organic when possible. We also strive to purchase our meat from a local butcher who obtains his meat from trusted sources where animals are humanely treated, grass and pasture fed, and free range in the true sense of the word.

Great reads that enforce, explain and detail this type of food choice can be read by authors like Michael Pollan here and here, and by Barbara Kingsolver here. 

I have a variety of reasons for wanting to challenge myself to go meatless for a few days. This idea however has to take place when DH is out of town, aptly happening this coming Sunday for several days. Although he, and the rest of the family, like vegetables of all kinds, he meets my suggestions to forgo meat for a few days with an eyeroll.

So  Sunday I begin my challenge. Here are my reasons why: