Day 8 - Leaping Hump Day!

So, it's Wednesday, and it's a leap day...Leaping Hump Day!

Today was a lazy day. I had mac & cheese with veggies for lunch. I didn't take a pic because, well you know what mac & cheese looks like. If you don't...what's wrong with you?

Dinner was just another Greek veggie from Little Caesars. I didn't feel like cooking. Like I said, a lazy and pretty unhealthy day. Meh.

I did try to donate blood today, but my iron count is too low. I was afraid of that happening when I gave up meat. I've been taking iron supplements, but clearly it's not enough. This week, I need to focus on raising my iron levels so I can make another donation attempt next week. The vampire overlords demand tribute.

Day 7 - One week down!

I have survived my first week as a vegetarian!

I ate pretty well today. For lunch, we made vegetarian tacos!

Instead of meat, just use taco seasoning in some refried beans. Also, load it with lots of other veggies.

I even treated myself to a soda today.

It's strawberry-rhubarb flavored soda! Can you believe it? It's so awesome! I love it! It tastes fantastic!

For dinner, I made some spinach lasagna.

The recipe called for cottage cheese. I used ricotta instead, since Hubby insisted. I also used fresh spinach, since that's what I had (the recipe calls for frozen). It came out deliciously. You don't even miss the meat! (Well, Hubby said he did, but he's always stubborn about these things, so I don't really listen to him.)

This was my first time making lasagna. It takes forever to cook, since it's lasagna, but the prep work is actually incredibly easy. I have enough to do it again, too. I definitely think I will be making more of this in the future.

Day 6 - Purple!

Today, I started out with some peanut butter toast. I procured protein powder during my shopping excursion yesterday, so for a post-workout meal, I made a purple smoothie!

It's so...puuuuuuuuurple! Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurple! Purple power!

I don't really have a recipe I use for smoothies, but I follow a basic formula. I start with a banana, which adds sweetness without needing to add sugar. Then, I use frozen berries. In this case, I used blueberries (which are actually puuuuuuuuurple!). I like using frozen berries, since they give a nice texture. Then, I just add milk, and in today's case, protein powder. Lots of smoothie recipes call for yogurt or other ingredients to give it a thicker texture, but if you use frozen berries, you'll get the thicker texture anyway.

Speaking of protein powder, this stuff is expensive! Look at this.

That little container cost me fifteen freakin' dollars! That was the price of it on sale. Seriously? Do I look like I'm rich?

Oh well. I need alternative protein sources. So I'll choke back the sticker shock, open it up, and...

Aw, come on! Half this container is air? Seriously?!? I feel like I'm being ripped off here.

Hubby made some tasty veggie wraps for lunch. They don't look like much in the pic, but they were good.

If it looks reminiscent of lasagna, that's because it is. It's not, though. It has less cheese, and more peas. It still uses lasagna noodles, marinara sauce, and mozzarella, however, and is still high-calorie. I don't care, though, because it was tasty and filling and I didn't have to cook lunch so I'll take whatever Hubby feeds me. (I'm sorry...that last part sounded a bit wrong, didn't it? No? Well, now it does! Sorry again.)

It's another work night, so back to the same old veggie sandwich, apple, and carrots for dinner. Yes, I am boring.

Day 5 - Sleeping in

Ugh. All I did was sleep today. I got pretty much no sleep last night. First, I was up late, until after 1 am. Then, my alarm went off at 2:30 am. I wanted to hit the snooze button so I could actually get a bit more sleep before operating a motor vehicle, but my dog kept whining and clawing at me. I figured he needed out. So I reluctantly  got up, got dressed...wait, where's my dog? Hey, he didn't need out, he just wanted to steal my side of the bed! Probably because I kicked him off earlier that night.

Well, whatever, Dog. I'm not going to share my pizza-toast with you!

After my paper route, I still felt like crap. I took a sick day, and then proceeded to sleep in until 3pm. I think I needed it.

I had an apple for "lunch" before walking the dog.

I was still in the mood for pizza for dinner, so we ordered a Little Caesars Greek Veggie pizza. Which I ate before I could take a photo of. If you're never had one, it comes loaded with all sorts of veggies, though. Very yummy and filling.

I also dragged myself to the store and got some grocery items, so I should be good for the rest of the week. (I hope.)

Day 4 - Salads can be awful

So last night after work, I was getting hungry, and Hubby hadn't eaten dinner, so we went to Taco Bell for some tasty fourth meal. There aren't many vegetarian options at Taco Bell, or at any fast food restaurant really, but there are some. I just wanted a quick snack to munch on, so I had a cheese roll-up. It's not quite a full substitute for a taco, but it's good enough.

...does the "meat" in Taco Bell food actually count as meat? I know there was a debate about this a while back. Mmmm....I don't care if it's real food or not. I love Taco Bell!

I woke up feeling much less hungry today, whether due to yesterday's better planning or the fourth meal is hard to say. I had some toast-'n-peanut-butter and coffee. After the paper route and the gym, I made a couple scrambled eggs with spinach, onion, and feta.

Behold, my awesome cooking skills! (Just kidding. I'm actually not that great a cook. But I try.)

For lunch, I took a zucchini and made some zucchini Parmesan. I just spritzed them with cooking spray, sprinkled Parmesan over them, and broiled them for a few minutes.

They came out pretty darn good, if you ask me.

I then looked for another dish to add some more protein to my day, since that worked so well yesterday. This was difficult. I need to go grocery shopping, so my options are limited at the moment. I managed to find a can of garbanzo beans in the deep recesses of the cupboard, though. Funny, I don't remember the last time I bought garbanzo beans. Canned food doesn't go bad, right?

Oh well. Garbanzo beans it is. I had some romaine that needed to be used up, and some leftover onion from breakfast. Add some 'shrooms and feta, sprinkle on some pepper, and voila!

...okay, so as it turns out, I don't care much for garbanzo beans. And the romaine's really old and flavorless at this point. Oh well. I'll choke it down.

...you know, I really do hate this salad. The onion is too strong, the lettuce too bland, and the garbanzo beans too...garbanzo-ey. The feta and mushrooms can stay. The rest is just...I really do not care for this salad. Remind me never to make this salad again. It sucks.

Dinner will be the same sandwich as the last two nights. I look forward to that, now that I've got the seasoning down. (Black pepper to the rescue!) Snacks are a couple apples, since I'm sadly out of carrots.

I really need to go grocery shopping.

Day 3 - I will eat a horse

Today, I woke up so hungry, I felt I could eat a horse. Looking over yesterday's meals, it was probably a lack of protein. Also, I was watching YouTube videos of competitive eaters. I was watching them scarf amounts of food that should make me sick just watching them, but all I could think of was mmmmeeeaaat!

I thought about it, and figured I could, in fact, eat a horse. I mean, Congress lifted the ban on horse meat inspections a few months ago, so it's a possibility. Normally, I would never consider consuming such a majestic animal, but the more I thought about it this morning, the more horse meat, or any meat, sounded appealing. In fact, I figured I could even kill and eat a horse. I mean, I would be sobbing the entire time, both during the killing and eating process, and it would be a sight both horrific and pathetic at the same time, but by golly, I really felt like I could eat a horse.

I decided to start things off on a better note today. Before my route, I smeared some peanut butter on whole-wheat toast, with an apple on the side.

When I finished my paper route, I took the time to make a heartier breakfast. I made a two egg omelet with spinach and some cheese.

Today I also ventured into the wonderful world of tofu. No one warned me until a couple days ago that tofu requires pressing, and that this process takes 30-60 minutes. Fortunately, I was warned. My paper route conveniently takes about an hour, so I set up the pressing before I left.

Most directions recommend using a dish towel, but we don't have fancy things like that in our house, so I used lots of paper towels. I will need to invest in dish towels in the future.

Take your tofu block, and cut it in half, and lay it out like so on a cutting board.

Fold the dish towel over (or if you're me, add more paper towels), put another cutting board on top, and then put something heavy down to squeeze out all the moisture. Let it press for 30-60 minutes.

Yeah, that's a Merck Manual.

The tofu went into one of my favorite recipes: Chef Meg's Nutty Noodles. I used the tofu in place of the chicken, and since I'm running out of baby carrots I used a red bell pepper instead. I love this recipe because it sounds fancier than it is. It's easy! The peanut sauce consists of peanut butter, soy sauce, and sriracha, and that's it.

I actually make the sauce fairly bland, because Hubby's a total English-mouth, but then I load my own plate with sriracha to suit my own tastes. Yum!

Dinner was the same sandwich, apple, and carrots from yesterday, because I'm boring like that. I did add some pepper and onion salt to the sandwich, so it was much more tasty this time around.

Day 2 - Soup and Sandwiches

Breakfast was toast with strawberry rhubarb jam from Aldrich Farms. More places need to make strawberry rhubarb jam, because it is AWESOME! I didn't realize it was even a thing until just a couple years ago when I found some at the Tulip Town gift shop. Strawberry rhubarb has been my favorite variety of pie since...well, since forever. When I was really tiny (three to four years old), we used to grow our own strawberries and rhubarb and make the pie completely from scratch. Now, I've discovered this in jam form. Unfortunately, it's not actually in the grocery store...the jar we currently have was bought at a holiday art festival. When I am able to find it, though, I stock up!

Hubby found a recipe for some sort of Italian veggie roll that he was going to make for lunch, but he used the excuse of a dirty kitchen as to why he couldn't make them. So we ended up just having canned potato soup for lunch instead. While it is absolutely delicious soup, it's not very exciting or filling.

For dinner, I made a sandwich with spinach, feta, and grilled eggplant, zucchini, and red bell peppers. I actually cooked the eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers early this morning. I have enough to make sandwiches for the rest of my work week. Normally, I'd make turkey sandwiches, but obviously that's not an option anymore. The idea came from these absolutely delicious sandwiches that the grocery store deli used to make, but for some reason stopped. To The Market at Lakeway, you need to bring back your "grilled vegetables and goat" sandwiches! That was actually the name of the sandwich on the label, by the way. The first time I encountered it, I checked the label to see if it actually contained goat meat. Nope, just goat-milk cheese. Which is how it should be.

Here is my dinner:

The sandwich was not as good as the store's sandwich. It was a bit too bland. I think I'll spice up the veggies a bit more next time. Also, I think I may add some onion to the veggie mix, which I really should have done this time but forgot to do. It has the potential to be a very good sandwich, though. It's just not quite there yet.

I also had some baby carrots and apples as snacks. Those are always my go-to snacks. After my walk, I may have also stopped by the Dairy Queen drive-thru and had an Oreo Brownie Earthquake. Hey, it doesn't have meat, and I was able to fit it into my diet today, so nyah.

Day 1 - Chili and Nachos

So, I was going to do this yesterday on Ash Wednesday, but I got lazy, so forgive me.

I'm not much of a breakfast person, so it was just coffee. Easy! We had vegetarian chili for lunch, then added chips and cheese and turned that into nachos for dinner. I also ate some baby carrots for an evening snack. So really, a pretty boring day, diet-wise.

The chili is awesome and easy. The night before, we just threw some beans, tomatoes and tomato sauce, bell peppers, onions, and spices in the slow cooker and let it cook all night. Yum! I will see if I can steal the recipe from Hubby and update this post. I need to start taking photos, too...

We took some tortilla chips and poured the chili over them, then added cheese, and baked it all at 350 degrees for 15 minutes to turn the leftovers into baked nachos for dinner. There's something about baked nachos where even though the chips get saturated, soggy, and more difficult to eat, they're still somehow more comforting and extra delicious when compared to just plain ole' unbaked nachos. It's as if the oven magically adds magic goodness to them or something. I don't know what it is for certain. I only know that baked nachos are better nachos.

UPDATE: THE CHILI RECIPE!!!

Here it is! Note: Hubby hates spicy food, so this is pretty mild. You may want to spice it up to suit your own tastes.

Ingredients:
1 can kidney beans
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 can tomato paste, and equal amount of water OR 2 cans tomato sauce
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp chili powder

Directions:
Toss all ingredients in slow cooker before going to bed. Enjoy yummy chili the next day.