Adventures in Vegetarianism

Two of my girls have declared themselves vegetarians.  Megan and Caroline.  Megan has played with it on and off for over a year.  Caroline finally realized where the food came from that we have been eating.  So over a discussion at dinner one night in late June, we as a family decided to go for a month without eating meat.  Over the course of the month of July we ate one vegetarian meal after another.  It was fun trying to come up with a million different ways to eat (well 31 ways actually) without meat.  We tried a LOT of tofu.  Tofu by itself can best be described as eating wet toilet paper.  At least that is how I assume wet toilet paper would taste.  The only tofu related item that we all agreed was FABULOUS was Caribbean spiced tofu from Whole Foods.  It's only about $4 and made enough for two meals.  I sliced it and fried it up Spam-style.  We've eaten it twice since July and both times the girls loved it.  The tofu meatless crumbles are fantastic too.  We use that for taco filling in place of meat.  I just add taco seasonings and BOOM.  Tasty tacos.

Another item that we discovered we love is falafel.  The first time I made it, it was a disastrous mess.  The second time?  Much better.  I was impressed with everyone's attitude of trying something at least once that month. 

One of our most favorite meals is "being French for dinner."  I buy French bread, strawberry jam, brie, sparkling apple juice (because it feels like French wine), and LOTS of fresh fruit.  That meal is a hands down winner. 

I noticed a few things about that experiment for July.  First, it really didn't affect my pocketbook.  In fact since I wasn't buying meat as an anchor at any meal, my grocery bill was smaller.  Second, Abby CANNOT go without meat!  She is a hard and fast carnivore!!  Third, Megan cannot give up hamburgers.  Try as she might, it is not something she wants to go without.  Fourth, Brigid will try anything vegetable-related.  She LOVES them!  Fifth, Caroline will absolutely not eat meat.  And if I do eat meat, she will remind me repeatedly that my burger used to have a Mom, that my fish used to swim, and that my pork chop used to breathe.  That makes it very tough to eat meat with her in the house.

So after our experiment for July, we are cutting back tremendously on the amount of red meat we eat in this house.  When I do make anything containing animal parts, I have to make a vegetarian offering for Caroline.  She is really enjoying her veggie chicken nuggets, veggie burgers, and veggie ribs.