Making the Leap

Since I've moved into my own place I've attempted to make the leap into a no meat diet.  No, I'm not a non-shaving eco freak but I do want to be healthy and I want to make less of a negative impact on this great earth. 
It's been a weird and challenging change.  
Going shopping and keeping the no meat thought in mind was interesting the first time.  You realize how much processed food is out there, how MUCH you get (not conducive to a single diner), and well.... I even laughed out loud at myself walking the ailes in Wally World.  I thought "oooh tuna is a quick meal" DUH... tune is meat! LOL 
When Mom was out she pointed out that I give a lot of thought to my purchases.  I guess I do.  Even before this change I would try to buy local, things that were more earth friendly, and well... whatever is a lesser of two evils.  So unfortunately when I go shopping by myself I spend a lot of time thinking, picking up objects, looking at the ingredients etc. before dropping it in my cart.  I don't like shopping, but I do like feeling good about my purchases.

I'm also getting comfortable in the kitchen.  I realized tonight that I'm not a follow a recipe to the letter type of gal.  I started off with a recipe but then winged it as I started cooking, I would smell a spice.... Yep that smells like it will go, how about some feta.... why  not?!  Cut up some fresh organic carrots, broccoli, with some pasta, garlic and wha la! Dinner!  It was fun and the wine didn't hurt at all:)

Talking to a friend tonight I informed her of this new change in my life.  She made sure I wasn't becoming some psycho tree hugging hairy hippy (I assured her I wasn't) and then she gave me a virtual pat on the back.  I then told her about my vegetarian recipe hunting frustration the other night... everything looked like mush! Gross!  This friend runs a farm and I helped out this past summer and one night after helping out on the farm we had the most wonderful dinner!  Everything was fresh!  We had fish that was caught in their pond! Awesome!  I want to eat like that on a regular basis.  There was no need to add all this extra stuff, the food it's self was flavorful on it's own.  So, she's going to hook me up with some ideas and some recipes.  Once again, when we are open about our lives... others want to help, relate, and just share in the experience. 

Eating this way takes time and planning.  I just can't have the minute meal and I'm good to go.  Fast food is not part of the vocabulary.  Granted there are some good microwavable vegetarian dishes out there, I've tried them, but I want to stay away from that as much as possible.  Today for lunch at work I had a microwavable meal but it was udon soup with tofu and other seasoning....we had some left over croutons that I tossed in and I was good :)

Unfortunately work is a challenge.  We always have treats: chocolate covered pretzels (big ones), mini candy bars, apple streusel... and that was just today! Ugh... so tonight I'm going to make sure I have some healthy snacks that I can take to work and when the chocolate calls... well, I'll answer once but that's it!