Breakfast-Smoothie #1

I have had a lot of people ask me what I put in my smoothies in the morning. Here's today's:

1 cup chocolate soy milk
2-3 cups raw spinach
1 banana
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 teaspoon fish oil (Even though I am going veg. I am not yet willing to give up the fish oil for flax oil only because I know that the EFAs in fish oil are much more easily absorbed than in flax.)

Total calories: about 350, 16 g (all healthy) fat, 16 g protein, 8 g fiber-basically a perfect meal.

I like adding a lot of greens to my smoothies-I like knowing I just knocked off the FDA's requirements for veggies for the day in one meal. (Even though I'll still eat quite a bit more veggies the rest of the day.) I used my immersion blender and drank it right from the blending container (why bother with another dish??). It was a bit crunchy-the immersion blender doesn't blend the spinach down fine enough and I had quite a lot of greens in there. If you're wanting to try this for yourself, use a regular blender and start with one cup of greens. To make it even more creamy and sweet, try adding half a cup of vanilla yogurt. Try this one on your kids-I promise, they won't notice that they're eating veggies for breakfast!

Another Meat-Eating Update

So about 6 weeks ago I saw a post on facebook for a vegetarian contest. It was for meat eaters who could pledge during the month of October to go meat free for one day, one week or one month. The prize varied depending on how many days you were willing to go meat-free; the longer, the more money. It was a random drawing but the catch was it was the honor system. So should you win, before the awarded you the money, you had to promise that you actually went meat-free for the time you said you would. So I signed up and decided to go meat-free for one week. (In case you are on pins and needles waiting to hear if I won, I didn't-there's a whole 'nother point to this story.) Fast forward about 3 weeks when I remembered that I signed up for this contest but hadn't actually gone meat-free yet. I definitely wanted to do it because all of you know if I didn't then I would win, but have to be honest and wouldn't actually get the money. Fortunately I remembered about the contest with 8 days left in October. So the next day I started meat free, with exactly one week left in the month: October 25th. I went meat free the whole week. It wasn't hard at all. I have stuck very resolutely to my decision to not buy meat, so we haven't cooked with it in 2 or 3 weeks. So eating not eating meat at home was a breeze. We only went out I think one time during the whole week, so again, pretty easy (especially since we had pizza) to eat meat free there. I did have to overcome the actual temptation of it-and it was for sure a temptation (BBQ chicken pizza, buffalo wing pizza, pepperoni with jalapenos...mmm) but for the most part it was okay. So the week was over but I kept on the momentum of not having meat; mainly because I hadn't eaten out and it was easy. Yesterday a friend and I had lunch out at Red Robin and I replaced my meat patty for a veggie one. Simple swap, but for me took some guts (I think because by swapping it out, I was calling attention to my eating habits and frankly, I'd rather just blend into the woodwork.) The cool thing was that on the way home I was thinking about what I did and wondering how I would have felt had I just eaten the meat. And for a split second I could picture the meat so clearly-what I looked, tasted and smelled like. I could practically feel myself having a bite. And you know what? It made me feel sick to my stomach! This is a good thing! Because as you know, I want nothing more than to give up meat but I'm having such a hard time doing it. So for my body to make the choice for me is golden! So today is day 12 on no meat. I'm hoping this is it for me. The real test will come when I am actually...well...tested. When I go to someones house and there are absolutely no veggie options and I'm stuck in a corner eating bread crusts salivating over everyone else's plates. Or at Thanksgiving, again, when there are only one or two veggie options and I'm basically left out. So we'll see what happens when those true temptations arrive. But so far, good progress.

My Pledge

Pledge: A promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something.

I just spent about an hour looking at a vegan momma's website, which, by the way, if you are on the fence about becoming a vegetarian and are lazy about taking that step, I highly discourage you from doing what I just did-otherwise you'll read the 10,000+ reasons that are good for becoming a vegetarian but feel guilty for still eating meat.

Alright, so I am pumped up! I am ready to do it! Or at least stop being so wishy washy and take a real step towards becoming vegetarian. I know that this is the right step for me-for my family-for health and ethical reasons. I become more and more positive of it the more I think and read on it. So here it is; here is my pledge: I will not buy anymore meat at stores. I'm done. One of the big things that has kept me eating meat is 1. I have some meat stored in the freezer I need to use up and 2. I keep buying really amazing deals of meat at grocery stores and thus, repeating the cycle all over. So I am done. I will not buy anymore meat at the grocery store. No matter how good a deal it is, it's no longer an option for us! Now I admit, I still do have some meat in the freezer; I have 1 lb of sausage, 1/2 lb of ground beef, a whole chicken and 2-3 pre-made, frozen meals that contain meat. I know what recipe I'm cooking with every single meat item in the freezer so hopefully in a few weeks we'll have eaten it all and since I won't buy it anymore we will be one, huge giant step towards being vegetarians. Phew! I'm doing it! I know this is going to be hard for me. Thanks to my parents, I cannot pass up a good deal (my mom just offered me a 30 year old train set-quite possibly unsafe for my son-and I was pretty iffy on wanting to take it. She said "Why wouldn't you want it? It's free." So thanks mom and dad.). But I know that I want and need this lifestyle more than I need to spend money on meat just to save money. Now that that is taken care of, I'm excited to see if I can follow through on it. (By the way-as an update, I've sort of set up Thanksgiving as the day I will finally be vegetarian. I'm not sure if that's the day I'll turn for good or if it will have been going on for a few weeks or maybe not at all, but every time I think of Thanksgiving, I sort of know in my heart of hearts, it will be meat free for me.) Wish me luck!

Where am I at?

So where are we (me) at with becoming a vegetarian? It's something I've talked about for a loooong time. In fact, I've been tossing the idea around for over 2 years. You'd think in 2 years I would have made more decisive progress but I haven't. For a year and a half or so of these 2 years, I have been convinced entirely that vegetarian eating is healthiest for humans. I'm not going to get into those reasons because food choices, especially vegetarianism, can be very hot button. So for that year and a half, we've basically parred down our meat eating to maybe an average of 1-3x a week. (Out of 21 meals in a week). Some weeks more, some less but my guess is that's the average. The past 6 months I have add new reasons to my list to become a vegetarian. Mostly thanks to the book "Eating Animals". I have since become more deeply convinced that there is no good reason to eat meat and every good reason to be a vegetarian. I believe this fully and can speak on the pros of vegetarianism with the best of them....but I still eat meat occasionally. What is going on? My belief in the virtues of vegetarianism on every level is as strong as any die-hard yet I haven't officially made the change. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet. I think it is mainly because there are some cool recipes I still want to try out with meat and I'm not willing to give them up. Also, this doesn't play as heavily on my choice though, there are things I would miss if I gave up meat. Dishes I would miss, tastes I would miss, some experiences I would miss. I keep telling myself I need to take the plunge and make it official but I haven't. Perhaps its the finality of it. Having to tell everyone I am a vegetarian. Having to give up, for good, dishes I enjoy. Having to make some lifestyle changes. Its funny I am dragging my feet so much because I feel so deeply that this is absolutely the right choice but us but I look behind me and there are drag marks deeply in the sand. I still think the day will come, sooner now rather than later, that I can and will say "I am a vegetarian." "Yes, I have dietary restrictions. I don't eat meat." But for now that is where I am at. Camping out in the middle of the vegetarians with a secret stash of jerky just in case I want it.