Road to Vegetarianism

Being sick sucks.. I can't taste much and don't feel like cooking nor eating.  I hope tomorrow I will be brand new as I'm going to a sip and shuck night.  Which is all you can eat oyster and drink wine.  (okay not entirely vegetarian.. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE oysters..) Maybe I should go to bed now.. so I can recover.  Night!

I've been sick since Saturday.. I think the yoga in a cold room (was suppose to be warmer but the instructor didn't warm the room ahead of time) did me in.  In addition to the cold, I've also been whitening my teeth with this paste that I wear in a mouth piece overnight and I think it is affecting my taste buds.  The combination of the stuffed nose and the numbed taste buds made my appetite shrink. I have marinade some tofu last night with garlic, vegetarian oyster sauce.  I fried them tonight and I couldn't taste the marinade.. Not sure if the tofu just didn't soak up the marinade or my taste buds are on strike. This cold has been more like an allergy than anything else.  I have the watery eyes and the all-so-often sneeze. I have also been trying to not buy too much food and researching how to freeze vegetables now that I am only a couple days away from my trip back home & DR.  I will have to freeze the green onions, we'll see what happens

I started the day with some yoga, and then headed over to an Indian place with a friend to have lunch.  I did have the option of going vegetarian, but I really wanted curry chicken, so I did.  I have this "rule" that I allow myself to eat meat if I'm around company, usually when I'm out. or having people over for dinner.  I don't think I need to advertise to people that I'm vegetarian.  I definitely don't want people to have to cook differently, eat vegetarian or limit their choices of restaurants because I'm trying to avoid meat. But... my rule for the lunch carried over into dinner.  I made some sausages with cod as I am trying to eat the food I have in the freezer.  Surprisingly sausages, tomatoes and cod go so well together..  I'm feeling a bit 'sad' that I probably won't be buying sausages for a while... I guess I can always get some if I have friends over for dinner.

I was looking up recipes on Swiss chard and saw a couple that combined the chick peas with it.  I love a simple Swiss chard stir fry with bacon and garlic, but never though of adding chick peas.  So I decided to make one today for my late day snack (as I have the day off and ate my breakfast much later so my meals are pushed back).  I can't say it's good.. I love bacon, I love Swiss chard, I like chick peas and tomatoes, but somehow I don't find them mingle well together. I find the taste of goat cheese doesn't go well with the rest.  My taste buds are also kind of numb this week since I've been bleaching my teeth at night and I think it's affecting my taste buds.  I noticed that I couldn't taste the green tea as much lately.   I know to be a good vegetarian, I can't add bacon, but I had some on hand.  Also, bacon and Swiss chard are married in my mind!! I can't divorce them yet... Below is the recipe I made as is. 1 tablespoon oil 4 slices of b...

I have taken a meditation course for almost a year, but haven't really made it a habit.  I have been going to the group meditation at the Shambhala centre once in awhile.  Tonight is the first time where the person sitting next to me had awful smelly socks :( yucky!!! How can I concentrate and focus on my breath when the smell is horrid... Each time I breath in, I can imagine those stinky bacteria entering my lungs.  I was trying to image the smell of roses, to distract myself, but I then started to noticed that unconsciously I was taking really shallow breaths.  After the first set of meditation, I could of moved to another spot, but I didn't want to 'offend' the stinky socks person by moving.  I had to endure another set of meditation with that terrible smell.  It's weird that we put ourselves through certain uncomfortable situations because we are taught to be polite/nice. The Shambhala meditation is simple.  You're sitting with your legs crossed ...

Replacing the fish with the tofu didn't make the dish great.  The problem might be the tofu.  I think the sauce is good but considering it takes over an hour, I am not sure it is a recipe I would make again during the week.  And it is not great enough of a recipe to make when having dinner guests either.  I added sliced carrots and onion to the sauce, which I think was a great addition when turning it into a stir fry.  I also chopped a bit of iceberg lettuce to add some more veggy to my meal and the orangy flavour was surprisingly good with it.  Might be a good vinaigrette recipe in the end.  Here's the recipe for the sauce ( http://www.nickstellino.com/recipes_display.asp?ind=278 ).  I basically omitted all the optional ingredients and the parsley because I didn't have any.  I also didn't strain the solids out from the sauce. For the tofu meal I had tonight: 1 or 2 tablespoon of oil 1/2 extra firm tofu, sliced maybe half a...

I tried this new recipe online last night, it called for an orange-ginger sauce for a fish dish.  (I know it's not vegetarian). And the sauce took forever (over an hour) to make so I went to bed hungry because it was too late and I was too tired.  Tonight, I made the fish and was able to have it with the sauce.  I can't tell if the sauce is good or not, I think I'm on the edge on this one.  The dish tasted good.  Although it might be because I was starving by the time I finished the cooking.  I have some sauce left from tonight and I think tomorrow I might try it on a piece of tofu. If it's decent then I'll post the recipe.

I went to the grocery store today, and saw the dry lentils and chick peas.  I never bought/cooked with those.  I have cooked canned chick peas before.  Well cooked may be a bit misleading... I have opened a can of chick peas, drained it, tossed it with some other beans to make a salad.  Actually I quite like the bean salad that I make.  It's a combination of : 1/2 to 1 avocado - cut in bite size chunks, hand full of cherry tomatoes - cut in halves, 1 clove of garlic - minced, 1/2 lemon - juiced, 1 can of mixed beans or chick peas. Some salt and pepper Mix everything together and voila! Simple, quick and tasty.  May throw in some roasted beets as well, but it does taint the rest of the ingredients. Back to my lentils.  So I quickly searched the web to see what recipes are out there and I'd say 90% of them are soups and the others are some kind of curry. I was hoping for something different, something other than using the lentils as a vehicle ...

1/2 pack extra firm tofu cut in tiny pieces - as small as you can 1 cup of salsa 1/4 lime juice with pulp 1/2 lime peel chopped - maybe 1/4 3 green onions. 2 green peppers - cut in halves, seeds removed shredded cheddar cheese Mix everything except cheese and green peppers, stuff all in peppers top with cheese, bake at 350 for 30 min, turn off oven and let it sit for another 10 to 15 min. For the next time: Need to cut back on the lime peel.. maybe a 1/4 lime is good enough.

1/2 pack extra firm tofu cut in bite size - fried 1 avocado 1 beet - roasted 1/2 small onion thinly sliced, lightly sautéed until slightly caramelized 30 g of goat cheese (fig flavoured) olive oil balsamic vinegar Mix everything but oil and vinegar together.  Mix oil and vinegar, drizzle on the salad. For the next time: Tofu needs to be marinaded.  I like the texture of the tofu but it needed more flavour because all the rest of the ingredients are so flavourful but the tofu was not.

I want to try to be a vegetarian because I want to be a better person.  Sounds so grandiose, doesn't it.  Okay, maybe it's because I want to be healthier.  I watched Food Inc. and am a bit disgusted with some of the images. Although I'm very adventurous about food, as in, I eat anything, even beef tongue and what ever weird animal part you can think of (yeah, I've had chicken balls. and not the kind they have at the Chinese buffet), the though of eating animals that are pretty much fed crap but kept alive by shooting them with anti-biotic doesn't sound too appetizing to me. (You might think chicken balls are gross but they are tasty.  Okay, I know I can't convince you). I also like the idea of not eating animal because I don't want to contribute to the death of anything really.. But it is quite hard to not eat meat when I really like the taste of it, the smell of it... I thought going cold turkey on it might be too much, so I am trying to eat mo...