Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The great experiment, Day 1

So I guess I should explain how this came about and introduce myself and all of that.
I've been vegetarian since...(thinks back), 2005(?) and while that started out as a month long experiment too for fairly flippant reasons, I decided to stick with it because I was increasingly aware that there really is no honor in the way that the vast majority of animals are raised for slaughter in this country and quite frankly, I cannot afford free range, local, grass fed meat.  Beans and rice just seemed like the saner option.  However, that created a dilemma for me, as dairy cows and egg laying chickens are raised in the same conditions and by staying vegetarian I've been still participating in the same system.
However, I stuck to the middle ground of vegetarianism mainly for easy of use.  My family freaked out at the whole "vegetarian" thing, my husband was happily following me down the vegetarian path but had some health problems and decided he felt better with some meat in his diet (and I'm not pressuring him on that). 
So for years, I've been vegetarian while flirting with veganism.
My last serious flirtation was derailed once I found out I was pregnant with my daughter.  The idea of planning for this new little life and the whole mind change than came with it caused me to feel too overwhelmed with the idea of a diet change as well.
So, anyway.  Here we are.  Two years (and nine months) later, I'm ready to try this out again.  I'm not guaranteeing that this will be forever. But I feel like I keep leaning towards veganism so heavily that I may as well embrace it whole heartedly at least for a month to see where it leads.

I should point out that I live with an omni husband and daughter who will not be following me on this.  The husband because he can make his own choices and the two year old because she is two and is currently going through an insanely picky eating phase right now and turns her nose up at damn near everything and I'm not feeling inclined to limit her diet further.  Although, to be fair, she's mostly along with me anyway.  She's the only two year old I know who won't touch cheese for love nor money and milk is only interesting like once every two weeks or so.  And you could not pay her money to get her to eat eggs...

Anyway, I'm starting this here blog out of an extreme sense of self importance to see if it helps keep me on track.  I'm hoping to start posting pictures starting tomorrow, although, honestly, good pictures will probably only happen on the weekend.

The challenges:
1.) Husband and daughter eat meat
2.) Husband and I both work outside of the home, so our evening meal prep time is insanely limited.  We get home at 5pm, the wee tot goes into the bath at 7pm and if we're lucky, is asleep by 8:30pm.  Although lately, it's been taking her so long to fall asleep that I usually end up falling asleep with her
3.) We've gotta be out the door in the mornings before 7:30am

Yeah.  This is going to be interesting.

Anyway.  Today has been a fair success so far. 
Breakfast: Miso soup (I throw the ingredients in a container while the wee tot sleeps and then once I get to work, I add some hot water and eat it at my desk), bagel w/ curried butternut squash hummus and some sprouts and some rose tea

Lunch: I was enticed away from my very tasty lentil soup and bread by a good friend to head over to Noodles and Co. I had a small dish of the Japanese Pan Noodles (I was assured it was vegan)

Snack: Banana.

It's 3pm and I'm starting to get hungry again.  Luckily, I'm heading home for a snack!

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