Going Meatless

A loose vegetarian? This is the term my friends Olivia & Kim used when talking about their recent (well, actually it’s been awhile) eating habit changes. They sticks to mainly a vegetarian lifestyle, but every once in awhile they’ll allow themselves to eat meat. Now, I don’t think that their change came from feeling sorry for animals (although I’m sure it did strike a cord), but more from them wanting to make healthy decisions about what they put into their bodies.

Now, I’m not sure how 100% vegetarian’s/vegan’s feel about this term, but I feel like it’s the right word(s) for what I’m aiming for in my life. I’ve talked about how I love meat before, and I know that a lot of our meat gets pretty mistreated when it’s in animal form. It’s pumped full of hormones/chemicals, which can be really bad for us humans. But even with that, I love meat.

But for my health and my family’s health, I want us to make a change. I want our diet to be mainly vegetarian, with only small portions of meat/poultry from time to time. I know this isn’t something that can happen overnight. My husband refuses to go vegetarian at all, unless I can find some good substitutes. So, I still buy chicken breasts and ground beef. Which makes the temptation that much harder to resist.

I recently discovered the vegetarian section at our local Wal-Mart (don’t judge, I’m limited on store choices) though. They carry this brand called Morningstar Farms, which has several vegetarian/vegan products! I tried out their Chik’n nuggets a few weeks ago and I loved them! So did Emery. So I went and bought some more, along with some meatless meat crumbles. Last week I decided to make our Velveeta Cheeseburger Skillet with the crumbles as a substitute for the ground beef and I thought it tasted really good.

My husband on the other hand, didn’t. Emery was more into playing with her food that evening instead of actually eating it so her reaction doesn’t count, lol! But, the week before last I made meatless burgers from a different brand called Boca and my husband enjoyed those. So, it’s a work in progress and we’ll eventually get there! It’s all about making them taste good. And since I’m a “first timer” in the kitchen, it might take a little while. Here’s hoping it won’t take too long though!