Four Days in and I am loving it.

So it’s four whole days in on the first challenge and I am still alive and more importantly still meat free. I have spoken to several old pros at this vegetarianism that have managed mere 20, 25, 35+ years as meat free and have passed on tips and hints. Way too soon to see effects so I can’t report I am bouncing up and down with energy yet. But I have noticed a few things though which are eye openers rather than effects.

• The amount our meals revolve around meat.
• The choice available.
• The cost.

The first was on New Year’s Day when I went to lunch at friends. Not wanting to cause a fuss I went with the ‘don’t do anything special, I will just avoid the meat’ tactic. I didn’t starve or find it a problem; I did though see how much we revolve our meals around meat. It was rather slim pickings on meat free food on the table (it was a buffet set up) but I found enough to keep me happy. It was actually remarked, by someone who didn’t know my personal challenge, that I had very good restraint when I finished eating before everyone else.

The second eye opener was when I went to the local supermarket. I have never been the most organised person in the world and a check of the fridge and food cupboard yesterday morning confirmed this. It was time to embark on my first shopping trip as a non meat eater.  I found whole stretches of shelves that I never knew existed. It was a bit time consuming reading labels and looking for the V signs. It was also such an eye opener the amount of choice supermarkets now provide. When I was a rebel’s teenager and wanted to go vegetarian to annoy my parents, the choice then was very limited. Shops and restaurants just weren’t geared up for non meat eaters. It’s only been since the media, high profile celebrities and the odd vegetarian book that the supermarkets and restaurants realised that providing the non meat option was a money earner and here to stay.

There three things that I knew about vegetarians. Lentils, tofu and quorn. Tofu was a bit of hidden item in the supermarket and not given much shelf space and after trying it I do understand why. Quorn on the other hand had just about a whole aisle devoted to a variety of meat look alikes. I haven’t plunged into the lookalike meals yet but I will try them on the kids at some point. Lentils, hmm now it doesn’t matter how they try to jazz them up I cannot get passed the hippy image in my head. These will defiantly be one of the last things I attempt.

My final eye opener was the cost at the till. I had at least a week’s shopping and it’s defiantly cost less than an equivalent meat week.

Until now I have always campaigned that there is more to life than stuffing a mushroom or a pepper but I am suddenly drawn to them. Stuffed Portabella mushrooms were actually quite nice and the vegetable stir fry even had a half hearted thumbs up from the children. One declaring they want it more often, the other one not so keen.

I may still be basking in the novelty of reading vegetarian cook books and then creating my version, but I can declare I am loving this challenge.

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