A Strange And Unexpected Occurrence!

   A week ago, I stopped eating meat! Part of me wants to say I became a vegetarian but that would feel like somehow or other I'd changed and I don't really feel like I have changed, fundamentally.
   Why did I do this, you ask? 
   Well, I'd been thinking about doing it for a long time. It really seemed as though every time I looked down at a steak or a burger or a chicken thigh or a pork chop all I could see in my mind's eye was the animal which had to be killed so that I could enjoy the act of eating it. 
   The use of the word "enjoy" is significant.
   I wasn't eating meat because it was necessary, I was eating it because I enjoyed the taste in my mouth. I was eating it because I actually enjoyed the process of cooking it and I was eating it because, as much as anything else, it was part of the cultural norm I was raised with.

Bean sprouts on egg salad on a slice of multi-grain gluten-free
bread, with a tomato slice and half an apple. My first
"vegetarian" lunch.

   In a world where the cultural norms seem to be changing on an almost weekly basis, however, I felt less and less bound by that reason for eating meat. A little research will show you a variety of ways of keeping an appropriate amount of protein in your life and, at the same time, appeal to your taste buds so the "enjoy" part of the equation had been handled. And, finally, there's a fair amount of self-satisfaction in the cooking of veggies and meat replacements, so that area is covered as well.
   In the end, what happens is that I no longer wrestle with the souls of dead animals as I eat. How long I might remain this non meat-eater is hard to say. I'm hoping it's not just a temporary fad kind of thing, I would like to think of it as a permanent lifestyle tweak, more than anything. We'll see, I guess!
    So how did the week go?
   Well, I became acquainted with tofu, for one thing. And bean sprouts. And bok choy. Just a few things I was aware existed but had never really sampled, apart from little bits of each which might have been sneaked into my Chinese food.
   Bean sprouts were easy, you just pile them on or throw them in the frying pan.
   Tofu not quite so easy. It comes in a brick which outwardly looks like cheese and is usually encased in water. It's quite tasteless which means you need to add taste to it in the prep or cooking process. 
   

Lettuce, bok choy, marinated tofu and pickled green beans. And if I
remember correctly, I think I sprinkled some hemp hearts on top.

So I had tofu plain, I had tofu dipped in batter, I had tofu marinated in sauce and I had tofu cooked like french toast. I also had tofu in the form of veggie burgers. And that was just in the first week!
   Part of the problem, though, is that I am the only one in the family currently not eating meat. This, of course, means that every meal now needs to be two meals. When you throw in the fact that Doralyn is gluten-free, then it gets real crazy. When you look at it, though, a balanced meal should already have vegetables in it, in which case all I need to do is maybe add a little protein. Not hard! I will let you know how next week goes!