January TRY: Vegetarianism
After getting inspiration from my sister Laura, Josh and I went vegetarian for the month of January. Prior to this, I have reduced quite a bit of my animal food and animal products in general to be kinder to my body, these living things, and also kinder to the environment. I research before buying vitamins, shampoo, lotions, and makeup to keep them as vegan as possible. I keep my leather purchases to a minimum; I recently got Josh an awesome vegan leather briefcase for work. And, I do use plant-based 'meat' quite a bit now.
Going fully vegetarian in January both felt like it was something in my wheelhouse and great way to push myself at the same time, which I think makes it a perfect thing to TRY (#oneword2020). It wasn't completely new, but I had never been so meticulous and so intentional before so I was certain it'd be challenging as well.
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of my month of vegetarianism...
THE GOOD:
Most of my meals were not just vegetarian, but VEGAN as well. I cut out actual milk completely from my diet during this month. I started every morning, like I always do, with cereal (I am absolutely OBSESSED with cereal) and used almond milk instead. I also cooked only with almond milk. I could have no trouble doing this from now on.
Josh and I also bought vegan butter, which honestly spreads better than the normal stuff we buy. That was wonderful and I see using that in the future. I tried a fantastic vegan chive cream cheese and I also tried vegan shredded cheese. It didn't melt great, which I was anticipating, but as long as it was just a garnish IN something (like a taco), I didn't notice much.
I made a couple of vegan sauces: a cashew cream pasta sauce, and a lime crema.
Finally, I had been wanting to try JUST eggs, which is a vegan liquid egg made from mung beans. It scrambles very similar to regular eggs. I made a vegan breakfast quesadilla with those eggs. They had a nutty flavor I wasn't expecting, but I didn't mind them at all. I don't know that I could eat them plain, but in something, they were great.
All this to say that my vegan cooking was kicked up a notch this month.
Another good of this January try was how much experimenting I was able to do with my new air fryer I got for Christmas. Spring rolls, egg rolls, vegan won tons, cauliflower wings, breaded broccoli for vegan tacos, loaded portobello mushrooms, OH MY. The vegetarianism encouraged me to cook at home, try new recipes, and try to cook in a healthy way. I am really digging my air fryer by the way!
THE BAD:
Even though I honestly don't eat a ton of meat, being fully vegetarian was more challenging than I thought. Meal prepping took more intention... so did grocery list making. For the first week of so, I found myself making #hundtboysx4 something to eat and then trying to figure out what to make myself and/or Josh after. My boys don't eat a lot of meat either so I don't exactly know why this was, but it began overwhelming to me real quick.
I also got a little sick of cauliflower since it seemed to be in everything I was making: cauliflower soup, cauliflower wings, cauliflower rice, cauliflower parm, etc, etc. I may need a little break from it.
Lunch was my hardest meal to be vegetarian. I am also currently on WW (Weight Watchers) so eating chicken breast was such a common occurrence for me at lunch. It is zero points so I would add it to most meals for extra protein and extra goodness. I also really like sandwiches.. like a lot... and I missed the ease of throwing some lunch meat onto some bread. Lunches took me longer to make myself and it was annoying.
Not every recipe I tried was a home run (duh). That just happens when you cook of course, but when I'm working extra hard to make something vegetarian or vegan and spend a lot of time I don't have prepping, chopping, creating, and then it's a flop... ugh.
THE UGLY:
I learned I kinda hate tofu and I'm bummed about that. I tried doing all kinds of different things with it and it just isn't for me and actually isn't for Josh. Some of my biggest flop recipes were using tofu :/
In full disclosure, because I am striving for excellence, not perfection, I accidentally ate meat a couple of times during the month. One time, #halfdozenhundts was at Costco and we ended up just deciding to feed the boys there. We got them all the huge hot dogs, they LOVE them, and I ate off of Preston's thinking I would share a bit of his and have that be my lunch too. It didn't even cross my mind not to bite it... I didn't even realize it until much later!
IT'S OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES, KRISTIN!
Overall, this was a really great experience! It broadened my horizons of kinds of food and recipes, challenged me to try new things, and showed me how much I could go without meat or animal products. I've learned a lot!
How did #hundtboysx4 do with the vegetarian thing?! They were pretty unscathed, honestly. They really enjoy vegan taco meat already and really enjoyed the vegan sausage. They weren't totally in on all the extra veggies though ;)
Nolan also asked if basically every single food I was eating was vegetarian, "MOM! Are those pretzels vegetarian?" He did NOT want me to mess up on accident!
What will February's TRY be?! You'll have to wait and see...
Going fully vegetarian in January both felt like it was something in my wheelhouse and great way to push myself at the same time, which I think makes it a perfect thing to TRY (#oneword2020). It wasn't completely new, but I had never been so meticulous and so intentional before so I was certain it'd be challenging as well.
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of my month of vegetarianism...
THE GOOD:
Most of my meals were not just vegetarian, but VEGAN as well. I cut out actual milk completely from my diet during this month. I started every morning, like I always do, with cereal (I am absolutely OBSESSED with cereal) and used almond milk instead. I also cooked only with almond milk. I could have no trouble doing this from now on.
 |
| Vegan breakfast tacos made with vegan cheese, sausage, and JUST eggs with radish hash browns |
Josh and I also bought vegan butter, which honestly spreads better than the normal stuff we buy. That was wonderful and I see using that in the future. I tried a fantastic vegan chive cream cheese and I also tried vegan shredded cheese. It didn't melt great, which I was anticipating, but as long as it was just a garnish IN something (like a taco), I didn't notice much.
I made a couple of vegan sauces: a cashew cream pasta sauce, and a lime crema.
Finally, I had been wanting to try JUST eggs, which is a vegan liquid egg made from mung beans. It scrambles very similar to regular eggs. I made a vegan breakfast quesadilla with those eggs. They had a nutty flavor I wasn't expecting, but I didn't mind them at all. I don't know that I could eat them plain, but in something, they were great.
 |
| Found this near the eggs at the grocery store! |
All this to say that my vegan cooking was kicked up a notch this month.
Another good of this January try was how much experimenting I was able to do with my new air fryer I got for Christmas. Spring rolls, egg rolls, vegan won tons, cauliflower wings, breaded broccoli for vegan tacos, loaded portobello mushrooms, OH MY. The vegetarianism encouraged me to cook at home, try new recipes, and try to cook in a healthy way. I am really digging my air fryer by the way!
 |
| Vegetarian 'chicken' shawarma salad |
THE BAD:
Even though I honestly don't eat a ton of meat, being fully vegetarian was more challenging than I thought. Meal prepping took more intention... so did grocery list making. For the first week of so, I found myself making #hundtboysx4 something to eat and then trying to figure out what to make myself and/or Josh after. My boys don't eat a lot of meat either so I don't exactly know why this was, but it began overwhelming to me real quick.
I also got a little sick of cauliflower since it seemed to be in everything I was making: cauliflower soup, cauliflower wings, cauliflower rice, cauliflower parm, etc, etc. I may need a little break from it.
 |
| Cauliflower BBQ wings |
Lunch was my hardest meal to be vegetarian. I am also currently on WW (Weight Watchers) so eating chicken breast was such a common occurrence for me at lunch. It is zero points so I would add it to most meals for extra protein and extra goodness. I also really like sandwiches.. like a lot... and I missed the ease of throwing some lunch meat onto some bread. Lunches took me longer to make myself and it was annoying.
Not every recipe I tried was a home run (duh). That just happens when you cook of course, but when I'm working extra hard to make something vegetarian or vegan and spend a lot of time I don't have prepping, chopping, creating, and then it's a flop... ugh.
THE UGLY:
I learned I kinda hate tofu and I'm bummed about that. I tried doing all kinds of different things with it and it just isn't for me and actually isn't for Josh. Some of my biggest flop recipes were using tofu :/
 |
| Sesame Seed Tofu 'steak'- NOT a hit :/ |
In full disclosure, because I am striving for excellence, not perfection, I accidentally ate meat a couple of times during the month. One time, #halfdozenhundts was at Costco and we ended up just deciding to feed the boys there. We got them all the huge hot dogs, they LOVE them, and I ate off of Preston's thinking I would share a bit of his and have that be my lunch too. It didn't even cross my mind not to bite it... I didn't even realize it until much later!
IT'S OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES, KRISTIN!
Overall, this was a really great experience! It broadened my horizons of kinds of food and recipes, challenged me to try new things, and showed me how much I could go without meat or animal products. I've learned a lot!
How did #hundtboysx4 do with the vegetarian thing?! They were pretty unscathed, honestly. They really enjoy vegan taco meat already and really enjoyed the vegan sausage. They weren't totally in on all the extra veggies though ;)
Nolan also asked if basically every single food I was eating was vegetarian, "MOM! Are those pretzels vegetarian?" He did NOT want me to mess up on accident!
What will February's TRY be?! You'll have to wait and see...
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