30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 20 - Not Eating Meat Is Easy...

The not eating meat part of being a vegetarian is so easy. In 20 days, perhaps I have been tempted three times. All were fleeting moments and it's not like I was face-up to a piece of steak, salivating and inhaling it's scent. However, and I think I have touched on this before, I am finding it incredibly hard to maintain a healthy diet. Ironically, since I became vegetarian I have halved my junk food (choklit, candy, crisps) intake too. I guess when you start making a conscience decision about what food you can/cant' eat, it easily rubs off to others too.

Based on a "readers comments" I have looked at some health sites about the best foods and stuff I should be eating. It is quite overwhelming and am struggling of a way to slowly make the switch. So beans and legumes - and that word alone is weird - are two of the best foods I cna be eating. Yet, I am clueless as to how to use them, what beans are the best and what to make with them. It seems, that everyone and everything disputes everyone and everything. Black beans or red beans? Lentils or peas? They all do different things so how do I pick the best?

I know broccoli and garlic are great foods, and i try to incorporate them a lot. A friend of mine would cover a clove of garlic in honey and eat that every night. Is minced garlic still got health benefits? If I make a broccoli pizza in the oven, is it still healthy? All this makes me head hurt!

However, despite all this, I have found I am eating more, almost at three meals a day! :) And filling ones too. Lunch was a gnocchi with greek salad from a food-court in Southbank. It was actually really good, and might even surpass my falafel salad from the same food court. Dinner again was the tofu/tomato/mushroom sauce with pasta and even though tofu isn't even healthy for you, it must have some health benefits to eating it. Especially if I eat it twice a week. I guess it's just not the super food I thought it was.

Is it weird that I am thinking about all this 20 days in? I am two thirds of the way in to the challenge and only now starting to think about the food I eat and what it's actually doing to my body. Although, I guess this is something I should have been thinking about for 30 years. Like I said in the beginning of this post, it is easy to cut meat out of your diet. It is hard to maintain a healthy diet without it.

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 19 - Tofu is healthy right?

tofu, pesto, feta, tomato and mushrooms

So today I cooked tofu for the very first time. I've had it before but never cooked it. I got a recipe for a tofu with mushroom sauce however I did tweak it a little and put in some vegetable pasta sauce and some spaghetti. Was actually really nice and filling. And again, easy to make.

I thought all was going well when a twitter friend told me:

"Ooh, hun, you might want to do some careful reading about tofu before you label it healthy… Fermented soya can be ok, but… :/ "

which has totally got me all confused because I thought tofu was like a super-food! So back to the internet I went to research and discovered the following...

From one website:

"Of course, tofu comes from a bean and doesn't contain antibiotics, added hormones and animal producst, but it's still - all together now - a processed food."

But then I found the following article, Is Soy/Tofu Good or Bad for you? and it seemed to dispel any negative comments on tofu, which I tend to agree with. Especially after having lived in Japan for two years and having seen tofu consumed quite regularly there. I guess like all things, in moderation - but I don't think I will start seeing tofu as bad for me. I think its good qualities far outweigh the bad.

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 18 - The Great Aussie BBQ?

I was supposed to go to a Save The Pigs Rally but I - for want of a better word, chickened out. With the research I have done, I am becoming anti-meat but I still don't think I feel that strongly enough where i can go to such an event. And without giving out any negative vibes, I don't want to be surrounded by people who are such strong activists about animal rights and think they are holier than thou that they end up turning me off a cause I am trying to ease myself in. Because those people do exist and I have come across them already and I did not appreciate it.

However, what I did do was research more into the problem and how pigs are raised and it was an interesting/disturbing read. Yet again, it saddens me that we can treat animals so cruelly and without a shred of compassion. Even if you are going to continue eating meat, I think it's still important to know where your food is coming from and making an informed decision from that. I don't believe there is a right or wrong choice here as long as you're choosing to remain ignorant.

In the evening I went to a mate's BBQ which was filled with meat...and sausages. And nothing beats a sausage in bread with sauce. Am I right!?!? Fortunately, I had my vegetarian garlic sausages with me which I "wacked on the barbie". I personal wasn't really fussed if they touched the meat ones but when I did see them resting on the cooked ones there was a part of me that felt a little bit dirty. Like, somehow I had cheated and had a morsel of meat that had rubbed off onto my veggie snags.

They were actually quite nice, and really, there wasn't a world of difference between them I must say. Fortunately there was a lot of salads too so that filled me up.

But guess this is another example where a vegetarian can be seen as an "inconvenience" to big parties and so forth. I wonder what would have happened had I been a strict no meat contact vegetarian...

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 17 - Bad Food Day

Firstly, I have not had meat today but I have had a horrible day of food and eating loads of crap. Breakfast was two pieces of toast with honey. Lunch was back to the falafel salad which again, nice and filling.

I had all these grand plans of coming home from work and cooking tofu for the first time ever. Did a grocery shop and everything. And then when i came home, I ended up eating three packets of life savers, packet of liquorice and a packet of crisps. I have not moved from my bed in three hours! Bah, so many good intentions! I need a chef!

Whilst I was walking past the butchers, I did look at all that meat and think of all the animals that had been killed for it and the conditions in which they would have been killed. Just kept walking past it and got myself my mock schnitzel instead!

I have however  bought quinoa, nuts and flaxseed and B12 vitamins so it feels like I will be keeping this thing going just a little bit longer than 30 days!

Also watched this clip of Ellen talking about being vegan and although I'm not that extreme I stand by exactly what she say...

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 16 - Spoiled for Choice

So today I had my first chicken burger at Lord of the Fries and I must say, I was not overly impressed with it. Filling wise, appearance and taste - just didn't do anything for me. To be honest, I have never been a fan of LotF but being vegan and me vegetarian, I thought I would give it another go. And just not taken in by it. I might keep it as my equivalent to a drunken kebab after a night out though.

Dinner was at Yong's Green Food in Fitzroy. Big selection of vegetarian and vegan food with various Asian influences (and Italian and Mexican). My friend suggested the rawsagna, but being Melbourne and suddenly getting cold, I opted for the Pho Soup with mock-beef. My friend got the same but with tofu. It was a very big portion but again, lacked a strong taste for me. Just felt like a bunch of veg thrown into water, I don't know if it's because it was vegetarian but I doubt it as even my friend was not happy with hers. However, she did rave on about the rawsagna so next time, I will have to try that. Oh, and the liquid I am drinking, is a blueberry and banana smoothie - also, subpar :(

For dessert, we decided to go back to Madame K's Vegetarian Cafe so I could try their Banana Roti with ice cream and berry syrup, which I had craved last time I was there but had no room in my stomach. Glad we did, because it was absolutely divine. Just perfect, felt sorry for my friend who is gluten free and couldn't have any. The ambience was much nicer here and overall, I would recommend it over Yong's - based in first impressions of both.


 So three meals, three places with three very different verdicts! (and the picture above is the way that Madame K's present their bill! How awesome is that! Another reason to return!)