It’s time again for food voyeurism (or exhibitionism on my part) with What I Ate Wednesday!
As you may remember from last week’s post, this month WIAW is all about falling into good habits for fall. We all have good days and bad days, but if our habits are healthy ones, our bad days aren’t nearly as detrimental and it’s easy to get back on track.
In trying to think about the things I do that are healthy versus not-so-healthy, I started thinking about my protein choices, my sweet tooth, my busy schedule, and my financial constraints. These are all aspects of my life want to balance for the fall to create and maintain more healthy habits.
Protein choices and my busy schedule both seemed like things I could easily tackle, at least for now. I eat vegetarian around 90% of the time, just by the product of wanting leaner protein and finding many vegetarian dishes quicker/easier to prepare now that I have the hang of some of them. In speaking to a close friend about this, I am doing a trial run of very consciously attempting to eat vegetarian. I considered attempting veganism, particularly since dairy is not exactly my friend, but I realized that I’m just not quite ready to give up Greek yogurt and eggs, nor will I likely ever be.
That said, I’m not sure what to expect. I am already thinking about what it will mean for Thanksgiving, particularly because I will be spending it with my partner’s family again this year and virtually nothing is vegetarian friendly. Thanksgiving is steeped in tradition for his family (like many) so bringing tofurkey for myself isn’t really an option. Does anyone have tips for holidays (or surviving the transition to vegetarianism more generally)? By then I may have decided I just can’t go without meat anyway, but I want to give this a fighting shot.
Now for this week’s eats. I only have two things to share with you this week because I wanted to focus on my Tuesdays and my busy schedule. Every Tuesday I am at my part-time job from 9am-4pm then in class from 4:30-9:30pm. It’s a long day with very little time to think about food. Because of that I pack both my lunch and dinner for the day and often end up taking the same meal for both (it’s just easier to pack that way). Yesterday was just such a day. For breakfast I had Better Oats: Oat Revolution Instant Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal with Flax and a big cup of black coffee.
After I made breakfast I hopped in the kitchen to make some falafel using a mix I bought a few days prior. I fell in love with falafel in college, but have never made it myself. I figured a mix might be a nice way to ease into it, so I was excited to give it a go. I ended up flattening my patties and baking them rather than frying up the falafel in balls. Then I made a couple of salads with romaine lettuce, baby bok choy, and bell peppers for the day and tossed a serving of falafel on top. As a dressing I mixed plain, nonfat Greek yogurt with lemon juice, dill weed, sliced cherry tomatoes, and lots of black pepper.
The final product, all mixed together, was delicious! I was very glad I took the same thing for lunch and dinner because it was super flavorful and kept me from wanting to mindlessly snack during my classes.
Now I have all sorts of falafel in my fridge to use throughout the rest of the week and I couldn’t be more excited. If intentionally eating vegetarian is always this delicious, count me in!
Thanks again to Jenn for hosting WIAW. I look forward to seeing what you all have been eating and for your feedback on eating vegetarian.
Oh, I love falafels! Here are Chocolate-Covered Katie’s tips for a vegan Thanksgiving:
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/11/23/healthy-thanksgiving-ideas/
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2010/11/28/check-out-my-vegan-feast/
AND a post from Oh She Glows:
http://ohsheglows.com/2010/11/17/favourite-thanksgiving-recipe-round-up/
I hope this helps!
http://eating4balance.wordpress.com
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the links.
Why do you need a label? Call yourself a ” not as much meat” eater or whatever. Myseld i have been veg for 20plus years- thanksgiving isnt so bad, just insist on bringing so ething to share that could be your veg main (hearty salad, grain salad, veg and bean casserole, etc). I of course support everyone eating veg and you have to must either download the app “how to cook everything vegetarian” by mark bittman or order the book cheap off amazon.
I’d love to try making falafel! I’ll have to look into getting some of that mix. Good luck with your new eating adventure.
http://consciouskitchenblog.com
It’s really yummy! I definitely want to try making some from scratch, because that’s always better, but this will work in the meantime.
Falafel mix – what? I need to get me some of that! So excited to see that you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian. I may be biased though
. I’ve definitely had my struggles with eating at family functions, eventhough I’ve been a vegetarian for 5 years now. I’ve brought tuna salad to put on the bread before. Now that I don’t eat fish, I have to say that this holiday season should be fairly interesting. I can’t wait to hear more about this!
http://readytogetsweaty.wordpress.com
I’m really excited too! It’s not that much of a stretch from where I already was, but I imagine I’ll have some meat cravings here and there. Should be an interesting experience regardless.
I finally gave up meat 3 years ago, after finding as many ways over 2 years as I could to minimize my intake, and trying to convince myself to not feel guilty about eating it when I did eat it.
My advice for Thanksgiving is to focus on the most awesome side dishes possible. Canadian Thanksgiving is a week away, and I’m so looking forward to mashed potatoes, roasted root veggies, broccoli and cauliflower cheese, and mushroom gravy. Not to mention the pie for dessert!
If you did want to eat turkey on that day, then do it. Sometimes freeing yourself to make the choice is enough to prove that you really might not want to eat meat. I know no one would even blink if I did choose a slice, but I know that it’s not the thing for me to do, if that makes sense.
http://veggiebentolove.wordpress.com
Thank you for that. I have been wondering a lot about what would happen if I decide to just have turkey on that day so as not to cause a ruckus. The jury is still out about how I will handle it, but it is so good to hear that the option really is mine and I’m not a failure if I decide to have turkey on Thanksgiving. I’m so new to all of this that I’m frankly afraid of what will happen if I don’t go all in. Thanks again!