This is my first post and how convenient that it’s on the conclusion of my first week of my efforts to live a vegetarian lifestyle! I don’t plan on blogging what I eat daily on a weekly basis but I think that since this was my first week, letting everyone know about my trials and tribulations would be a great start to my blog!
Week 1 went much better than I anticipated, thankfully. I found that I actually don’t crave meat but rather, just eat it because it’s what I have been eating over the past 29 years of me life. On night 1: I got home to my husband making sloppy joes, he ended up just cooking his meat separately and making me a sloppy joe out of the diced peppers, onions and seasoning which was still wonderfully tasty.
Day 2 was a little tougher at dinner time, I felt like all day I only ate raw vegetables so I was ready for something hot and fresh but alas – my husband had a salad full of raw veggies waiting for me. As much as I appreciated his attempt at supporting my diet, I couldn’t help but feel extremely unsatisfied I started thinking, OH EM GEE, please tell me that this is not what my life has become and I then proceeded to tackle half a bag of kettle corn – satisfying yet disappointing (ha).
Day 3 and onward – I had much better luck!! After alerting my husband that I may have to take back over the kitchen, I made delicious tacos (sauteed the onions and peppers in taco seasoning) topped with black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and the ever satisfying avocado. I actually found myself MORE full from this combo than my normal refried beans and ground beef routine!
Looking back I realize that even when I was in restaurants I would find a meatless dish tempting but assume I needed to add meat because, well, that’s what you are supposed to do. Obviously, I no long have to worry about that and on Saturday I didn’t. I shared a delicious pear salad and tostada pizza from CPK with the wonderful and supportive Kellie Connors.
On to the more exciting stuff – what kinds of homemade items did I make!?!
Let’s start with the Roasted red peppers! I was so pleased with how they turned out and the recipe is quick and easy. Below are pictures from my peppery adventure.
After broiling the peppers
Finished product!
Next up, homemade Peanut Butter Granola! Regular store bought granola can be $$ so while at Trader Joes I picked up a large back of organic rolled oats for only $4.50! Here is my after picture!
My final project was to use the organic carrots I bought at Wegmans more creatively than just turning them into baby food…and I needed to do this ASAP so Matt would stop complaining about the possibility of them going to waste. I found a recipe for a Creamy Carrot Spread on Kris Carr’s website and went for it! I didn’t have 2 cups of carrots, I only had a little over 1 cup but I still used the 2 cloves of garlic (whoa), it is super tasty but I would recommend having a tooth brush on standby or actually have the amount of carrots the recipe calls for!
Creamy Carrot spread and sea salt pita chips
You made need these after you indulge in the carrot spread!
I had an awesome and successful week, I am excited to keep up the good work! Thanks for reading!
kitchen chaos 