Day 4: March 27th

Day 4th: 
It's getting easier not eating meat - at least outside food :( Since Spring Break is almost over, we have to go back to reality - school, homemade food, etc.

Lunch: 
My brother-in-law brought us lunch. He brought us a quesadilla with rice, beans, and salsa.

I do want to say I'm a little concerned about eating outside food. I found three different types of meats in my rice.... so I don't know if I ate some by accident - I don't recall tasting it, but I don't know 100%.

Dinner:
We went to Taco Bell to get food and I got a crunch wrap. I substituted the ground beef for beans. I keep getting surprised because food is just as good without meat.

Since today is the last day of Spring Break, I got a grande iced caramel macchiato to stay up and prepare for the week.

I'm a little concerned about how the next eleven weeks will go because our living situation only allows us limited access to the kitchen, sadly. Will try to make food at home. 

- C. 

Day 3: Saturday March 26th

Day 3
On Saturday my mom made pozoleeeeee. I thought it would be hard to avoid eating meat at my mom's, but surprisingly, it wasn't. Pozole without meat was just as good. :) Her pozole is soooo incredibly delicious.

Evening: 

Later in the evening, we went to celebrate my nieces 2nd birthday. Birthday parties may be hard in the future as well as holidays :/ 

I first had two slices of pizza, but took off the pepperoni (turns out they had cheese, but it wasn't outside) from Little Caesars. I also had caesar salad, potato salad, and rice. I drank water and some Fanta soda. 

Later, later, I had two slices of cheese pizza.

- C. 

Day 2: March 25th

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that this spring break we have been eating out a lot. Danggg!! :(

Lunch: 

We went to Shakey's and ordered a pizza with mushrooms and jalapeños toppings and papas mojo. I had Brisk Raspberry Iced Tea to drink.  

We went to visit my mom today and she told us she is making pozole tomorrow. Yikes. THAT is going to be hard. :'( Oh that reminds me, I had about five spoons of rice at my mom's.

Edit:
After I posted this, I had a night snack... uh, meal?
I had coffee and toast.

- C. 

Day 1: March 24

So, my first official day without any meat was yesterday: Thursday, March 24th. I went the entire day without eating meat, woo hoo!

Lunch: 
We went to Taqueria Los Grandes where I ordered a chile relleno (stuffed chili pepper) dish. The dish came with a side of beans with cheese, rice, pico de gallo, salsa de aceite, and corn tortillas. I also ordered a side of guacamole which turned out to be too much so I shared with [A]. I drank an agua de horchata. This was super delicious.

Dinner: 
We had a very, very late dinner Thursday night. We went to Denny's sometime after 11pm. I ordered the french toast slam... which I failed to take a picture of the actual french toast because it wasn't fully cooked when they brought it out so they had to remake it :/ The french toast slam came with a side of eggs, two sausage links and two slices of bacon, but I exchanged both the bacon and sausage links for hash browns. [A] shared a slice of toast with me and we both shared mozzarella sticks. Oh and I had some coffee which was too bitter.

- C. 

Day 0

Today was my first time trying a vegetarian lifestyle. Unfortunately, since [A] and I were with friends, we decided to go to Boiling Crab for dinner where I gave in and ate shrimp.

Breakfast time: 
For breakfast we had a small delicious croissant with a custard filling, bananas, and strawberries - no picture available that [D] brought for [A] and me.

Lunch time:
We went to Urbane Cafe and I had the Bella Portobello sandwich, water, and a piece of [D's] brownie. This sandwich had marinated portobello mushrooms, sliced tomato, mozzarella cheese, tomato aioli, mixed greens with balsamic dressing.

Photo Cred: [A]

Photo Cred: [A]

Pre-dinner dessert: 
In the evening, we went to Tierra Mia Coffee where I had a Chocolate Mexicano Frappe and part of [D's] pina colada muffin.

Dinner time:
We went to Boiling Crab where I had half a pound of shrimp, rice, and some lemon pepper fries and Cajun fries. Oops didn't take a picture of the shrimp.

We'll see how tomorrow goes!

Confessions of a New Vegetarian

In this blog I will share what I ate, how I felt/how I'm feeling, challenges, failures, milestones, etc. so here is a little introduction.

My husband [A] has been living a vegetarian lifestyle for just a little over a month. Our friend [D] has been vegetarian since about January/February I believe. He told [A] about the cause: vegetarianism helps with earth's sustainability which includes saving animals. After hearing about all the benefits, [A] became a vegetarian to improve his health and help the cause.

I noticed the changes in A's life and I thought it was very cool he was following through with it successfully, getting creative in the kitchen, and really enjoying it with his friends at school, [D] and [J]. I found it a little difficult, maybe a little stressful, to go out to eat with him because I didn't want him to just settle for side dishes, food he didn't want, etc. because of lack of vegetarian options. I've never really been a big fan of red meat or a lot of meat at a time so I thought I'd give vegetarianism a try. 

Here are the specific reasons why I have decided to attempt a vegetarian lifestyle: 

1. Me. I noticed the health benefits [A] has had success with and I know I need it. I do remember trying to donate blood sometime during autumn or winter and they told me I had a low hemoglobin count. So, this is something I keep forgetting to follow up with, but I need to, especially now that I will have an even lower meat intake. 
2. Supporting my husband. I know how hard anything can be without any support. Although [A] has support at school, I feel it is important to support him at home. I hope that by both of us being vegetarian, we can somewhat have a better time transitioning into the lifestyle. 
3. Earth's sustainability. To be honest, I don't know a lot of information to speak on this. I know that by not eating animals, we ultimately have an impact. This is because lands are used for grazing animals, a lot of water is used to sustain them before sending them off, species are diminishing i.e. tuna, saving animals, etc. I still have a lot to learn though. I just know this is the right path. 

Challenges I anticipate: 

1. I've never really had to give up any type of food (I'm not a practicing catholic so I've never given up anything for lent, good Friday, etc.) so I'm just a little worried about my will power and discipline. Especially with my mom's delicious food. 
2. We told my parents about [A] becoming vegetarian and they were a little worried. They wanted to know about where he would get protein, possible health issues, etc. My mom asked if it was for a little while or a forever. When [A] said hopefully forever, she looked surprised. I'm just not sure I can pass up eating meat when I'm with my parents. Will power and discipline again. 

Definition of vegetarianism to me (at least for now): 

1. Not eating meat. 
2. I'm still not sure if I will not eat meals that were cooked with meat or if I will just take it out. For example, chicken broth or removing pepperoni off of pizza, etc. I still have a lot more research to do. 

- C.