Foodies
Cary and I are what some may call "foodies." Now this in no way implies we are experts on anything, simply put, we LOVE food!!! Good food....I'm not talking let's find the best burger in town, or lets see just how much meat we can put on one sandwhich (KFC???) I'm talking, spend a mortgage payment on a meal, wine included....GOOD FOOD!!!
Many people don't know this but both of us have food backgrounds. Cary supported his huge gas bills in high school and college (8 miles to the gallon '66 mustang) by working in restaurants....not waiting tables but cooking. I on the other hand, always have to go the more expensive route and went to culinary school to fulfill my open credits for my major at.....drum roll please.....best college ON THE PLANET....Meredith!!!
That being said, we honestly have a huge appreciation for great, tasty, expensive food!!! So I decided on a challenge for the two of us.....no meat for two weeks. Two weeks you may ask, why yes, because two weeks after that we return to NC and stay with my parents. My father, a wonderful true-blooded republican American, MUST have meat at every meal. So we did it!!!! We accomplished our "no meat" challenge with flying colors!!! So I thought I would re-cap the last 2 weeks....you may want to try it out. Now I will say, I cook EVERY night....well ALMOST. I do make enough for left overs with at least one meal a week and we do go out at least once a weekend. So this is not a "30 minute meal deal" I don't do those. I believe if you want to eat healthy and you want to know what your eating you must spend more time. So here goes.
1. Breakfast: Really no change, Cary eats cereal for breakfast, me cereal and yogurt.
2. Lunches: This was a HUGE challenge. Cary eats a sandwhich every day...turkey or ham. So I was stumped??? I found some amazing hummus at Publix that had lemon in it....delicious and I really hate packaged hummus. Cut up some eggplant, cucumber and carrots, tossed it in oil and vinegar and wrapped all that up with spinach in a whole wheat wrap....it was awesome!!! We also had egg salad, and of course the tried and true PBJ.
3. Snacks: not a huge challenge here. We don't eat a whole lot of meat to begin with but I still needed more to snack on since we would get hungry more often. I found an awesome recipe for couscous with apricots, cranberries, nuts and mint....TO DIE FOR!!!! We took this every day to work, it was great cold!!
4. DINNER!!!: ok so this was the fun part.....what can I play with?? So of course we had to have pasta in there. I made a dish with fresh cherry tomatoes, navy beans, garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and I used whole wheat penne. We had motz. and basil sandwhiches one night with tomato soup (yes, a can....) We had two pizzas. I like frozen pizzas, I'll be honest. I was introduced to "Amy's" about a month ago and will never return to another brand. They are a bit more pricey but OH SO GOOD!!! Eggplant parm with home-made marinara sauce. And my personal fave...taco salad!!! TACO SALAD you say??? That has meat??? Oh no, I used Morning Star crumbles and I seriously cannot tell a difference!!!
Still have a few more days to go. I have veggie pot-pie on the menu and Friday, Take-out Margherita Pizza from Pizza by the Sea in Watercolor (this is a FL location for all my NC readers).
So it's back to meat eating come Saturday. We return to NC for two weeks but I'm going to try very hard to limit our meat consumption since now I know we can.
Give it a try!!! Want my recipes? Let me know:)
Many people don't know this but both of us have food backgrounds. Cary supported his huge gas bills in high school and college (8 miles to the gallon '66 mustang) by working in restaurants....not waiting tables but cooking. I on the other hand, always have to go the more expensive route and went to culinary school to fulfill my open credits for my major at.....drum roll please.....best college ON THE PLANET....Meredith!!!
That being said, we honestly have a huge appreciation for great, tasty, expensive food!!! So I decided on a challenge for the two of us.....no meat for two weeks. Two weeks you may ask, why yes, because two weeks after that we return to NC and stay with my parents. My father, a wonderful true-blooded republican American, MUST have meat at every meal. So we did it!!!! We accomplished our "no meat" challenge with flying colors!!! So I thought I would re-cap the last 2 weeks....you may want to try it out. Now I will say, I cook EVERY night....well ALMOST. I do make enough for left overs with at least one meal a week and we do go out at least once a weekend. So this is not a "30 minute meal deal" I don't do those. I believe if you want to eat healthy and you want to know what your eating you must spend more time. So here goes.
1. Breakfast: Really no change, Cary eats cereal for breakfast, me cereal and yogurt.
2. Lunches: This was a HUGE challenge. Cary eats a sandwhich every day...turkey or ham. So I was stumped??? I found some amazing hummus at Publix that had lemon in it....delicious and I really hate packaged hummus. Cut up some eggplant, cucumber and carrots, tossed it in oil and vinegar and wrapped all that up with spinach in a whole wheat wrap....it was awesome!!! We also had egg salad, and of course the tried and true PBJ.
3. Snacks: not a huge challenge here. We don't eat a whole lot of meat to begin with but I still needed more to snack on since we would get hungry more often. I found an awesome recipe for couscous with apricots, cranberries, nuts and mint....TO DIE FOR!!!! We took this every day to work, it was great cold!!
4. DINNER!!!: ok so this was the fun part.....what can I play with?? So of course we had to have pasta in there. I made a dish with fresh cherry tomatoes, navy beans, garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and I used whole wheat penne. We had motz. and basil sandwhiches one night with tomato soup (yes, a can....) We had two pizzas. I like frozen pizzas, I'll be honest. I was introduced to "Amy's" about a month ago and will never return to another brand. They are a bit more pricey but OH SO GOOD!!! Eggplant parm with home-made marinara sauce. And my personal fave...taco salad!!! TACO SALAD you say??? That has meat??? Oh no, I used Morning Star crumbles and I seriously cannot tell a difference!!!
Still have a few more days to go. I have veggie pot-pie on the menu and Friday, Take-out Margherita Pizza from Pizza by the Sea in Watercolor (this is a FL location for all my NC readers).
So it's back to meat eating come Saturday. We return to NC for two weeks but I'm going to try very hard to limit our meat consumption since now I know we can.
Give it a try!!! Want my recipes? Let me know:)
posted by Katie at
10:39 AM
3 Comments:
Good for you! Meat free isn't really that hard, it just takes some education and experimentation. My husband and I are both meat-free and kosher eaters, and while we don't do alot of fancy stuff like you are indeed capable of my dear, we do use meat substitutes from MorningStar, Boca, Quorn (great as a chicken breast sub), and more in regular recipes. Quinoa is great too, as it is a grain with lots of protein.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Katie!
I have always thought you were an amazing chef and I am looking forward to gleaning from your kitchen wisdom!!!
I have been a vegetarian for 20 years.... not very hard at all! I'll be happy to be a guinea pig for you on any of those veggie recipes you want to make. :)
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