Operation Veggisaur

My boyfriend and I are trying a little experiment for the month of June. We are going vegetarian. We are currently 5 days in and I think it's going pretty well.

We would like to be healthier, but to be honest, this isn't our primary motivation. I wouldn't complain if it helps me drop a few pounds either...

Our main motivation are the ethics behind the meat we consume. I love animals dearly. ALL of them, even the ones most people hate. LOVE THEM. Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to eat them, but I was raised in a meat-eating family and generally haven't ever given this a second thought. I like meat, it tastes good, so why rock the boat, right?

Recently my boyfriend and I watched Food Inc. and were incredibly disturbed by what we saw. This was really the trigger. I honestly wouldn't have minded drastically reducing our meat intake prior to this (while I like meat I don't really like to eat vast quantities of it), but I figured that my boyfriend would never go for it- he is a serious carnivore. But, when he suggested this little challenge, I disbelivingly accepted.

Additionally, I've recently been exposed to a more open-minded view about what we eat, where it came from and how it was made. I've been reading more about this topic, and for whatever reason it has stayed at the forefront of my mind. I don't honestly think that I will ever be a total vegetarian, I'm not ruling it out though.

I think that family gatherings and holidays as a vegetarian would be very difficult. I also think that world travel as a vegetarian might be difficult (which I hope and plan to do a lot of), partially because experiencing local dishes is an intrinsic part of the travel experience and partly because I think language barriers and foreign food preparation methods would make this difficult.

I hope to learn from this challenge. I grew up in a home, like I mentioned above, that eats meat. I honestly don't know how to cook very many meals that aren't based around some type of meat. So, I'll have to re-learn some cooking skills. This, so far, has been good. I'm exploring new foods and trying new things (including faux meats, which has been difficult to wrap my brain around). I'm also trying several recipes that are familiar and just trying them without the meat. I'm giving much more thought to my nutrient intakes, particularly protein- also good.

So, Operation Veggisaur is underway! Wish us luck, and if you have any good vegetarian recipes, send them my way!