Vegetarian for a week!

Every now and then I like to try out different “experiments” if you will in my life.  Sometimes this is to improve the quality of my life and sometimes it’s just out of curiosity’s sake.  This past week S and I decided to go vegetarian for the week for a few different reasons.  One, I was getting low on cooking ideas and though a challenge would be a good way to find some new recipes.  Two, I wanted to see if I would feel better or worse with the absence of meat from my diet and three, I was currently a little on the broke side and veggies are cheap!

Monday:  Monday I stirfried eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, and other yummy things in a fresh tomato basil sauce and served this over fresh spinach instead of pasta.  It was pretty good, although maybe that’s because I was really hungry by the time it was done cooking!  S said it was good but he didn’t feel as full as he would like.

Tuesday:  On Tuesday I made egg rolls for the first time!  I would say this was the highlight of the experiment for me.  I put chopped cabbage, carrots, green onion, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, and seasoning in these.  They were tasty!! I have always been hesitant to try making egg rolls in the past because the concept of all the hot oil scared me.  Whenever I thought about it I had visions of spilling hot oil all over the place and dying painful death, lol.   But I decided to try it with just a thin later of oil and turn the rolls around with tongs, which worked out perfectly.   The soup was easy enough to do. I cheated and added an egg,  I know that’s not strictly vegetarian but it wasn’t meat either!

Wednesday: S made potato pancakes with onions and pepper in a mushroom gravy sauce.  This is a traditional Polish dish when made with meat instead of just veggies, and we had this with grated beets on the side.  I remember back when S and I were just beginning to date he made me this one evening to try and show off his cooking skills.  (I did my part and played the smitten and impressed date, although in truth it was quite yummy!) Whenever I see potato pancakes now it always reminds me of that evening!  It was pretty good the way he made it although we both agreed a little heavy for how hot the weather was.

Thursday: Thursday I went to eat after work with co-workers and S had a late meeting so we both ate separately.  I had a pita/hummus/veggie platter which was very tasty.  I also had a mojito (or two)…

Friday:  On Friday S and I had a fight and I ended up eating vanilla ice cream for dinner, lol.   Hey, I’m an adult now, I can eat what I want right??! …Oh well, at least it was meatless.

Saturday:  S and I made up, so he decided to try something new and found a recipe for a Greek inspired wrap.  The pic is of mine unwrapped because I decided I didn’t like the tortillas he got and just ate mine as salad instead.  It was pretty good and perfect since the weather was still really freaking hot and we didn’t feel like eating anything too heavy.

Sunday:  On Sunday I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with apple and cheddar, but I didn’t know it had bacon in it!  Nooo!  Oh well, shortly after that S’s parents invited us over for steak anyways and we caved.  So I guess the experiment got cut a little short but, STEAK!!

Summary:  I’m glad we decided to do this, even if it was just for a week.  I noticed that after my meals I didn’t get that lethargic, heavy feeling as much as I do when I eat meat-heavy dishes, which was nice.  Also my digestive system seemed to working a lot more smoothly.  I did start craving nuts and eggs towards the end of the week, if I was to do this for a longer amount of time I would definitely plan out how to put more protein in my diet instead of just winging it.  I would definitely do this again though!