Adventures in food...

A few days ago, I made the decision to go vegetarian. (Technically I think the correct term is lacto-ovo-vegetarian since I still enjoy the occasional egg or cheese item.) I've been a happy pescetarian for about a year and a half. A pescetarian is an "almost" vegetarian who enjoys the occasional fish, but no other meat. 

So this past Friday I was happily eating my salmon sushi when the thought popped into my head "I think I would like to try to be a vegetarian..." No rhyme or reason...and yet...

My road to this point began many years ago...before SigO....back when I was a young single cat living the life of parties, working three jobs, college...back when I couldn't cook to save my life. Then I was a vegetarian by default, terrified that I would poison myself (and anyone I attempted to cook for) by undercooking meat and thus killing us with salmonella; or overcooking meat and facing death by carcinogen.

Flash forward more years than I will admit to, and I never really developed a full taste for flesh foods. Sure when SigO cooked, I totally ate every bite (shoutout to SigO's cooking prowess) but it really wasn't my go-to food of choice. 

Recently I've been reading wonderful cookbooks by fabulous female vegetarians - Alicia Silverstone, Kim Barnouin, Chloe Coscarelli - and drooling over healthy, vegan meals. Perhaps I am also influenced by the wonderful female vegetarians in my life such as my current boss's wife who is always generous with recipes, or the wonderful Leslie Cerier (goddess of the "yum" who I met at Kripalu during her "Spice it Up" cooking class). 

Maybe it started back with the movie "Supersize Me" which left me with a total aversion to so called "fast-food" which doesn't seem to be food at all. Possibly it was the documentary "Fed Up" that I watched recently which opened my eyes as to how much sugar is snuck into foods processed foods. 

Likely the tipping point came while I am reading Kathy Freston's book "Veganist" (which I am devouring)...or maybe I was just ready for a change.

Either way, I hope you join me on my food adventure as I try out being a vegetarian. Look for a new page on my website coming soon called "Eating...With Smiles."  

With smiles...