Veggie-Style

This Blog Is Now Read-Only

2007-12-26T11:25:00.002-05:00

Ok, now that it’s two months since I’ve posted here on Veggie-Style, I think it’s time to admit that I won’t be updating this blog as I had hoped. Life and work and other projects are just taking up too much time, and this blog didn’t make the cut.

Still, there’s some good stuff in the archives worth checking out, and some great, humorous photos to share with your friends.

If you’re stumbling across this blog for the first time, check out these posts:

For the curious, I am now eating meat only once a week, and I have yet to consume any ground beef or Chicken McNuggets (do those count as meat, anyway?) since I began this experiment. Life is good, and I feel healthy. Slowly but surely, my eating habits have changed, and I’m consuming a lot of great food. Good stuff.

If you enjoyed reading Veggie-Style, please check out my main blog Frivolous Motion, where I write daily about technology, design, business, and other really cool stuff.

Happy eating!

Day 30: Where’ve I Been?

2007-10-23T16:01:00.000-04:00

Life and work has taken hold, and sadly, my dedication to Veggie-Style has suffered. It’s been a full week since I last posted, and for that, I am sorry.

Rest assured that I have not had a single bite of non-fishy meat in the last 7 days of my bloggish absence, however. No cheating by me.

Today marks the 30th day in my 30-day vegetarian challenge, which means that, officially, I’m allowed to start eating beef and pork and chicken and human flesh again.

But I probably won’t.

At least, not nearly as frequently as I once did - if at all. It’s possible I might have a bit of a celebration meal this weekend, but other than that, I intend to keep with it. I find the discipline refreshing, and I’m slowly teaching myself to develop new and healthier eating habits. It¦s happening. Not overnight, but still. It is.

Thanks to everyone who sent in tips and encouragement this past month. You rock.

If all goes well, I plan on keeping Veggie-Style alive, with perhaps a post a week about something vegetarian-related. Some more fun posts like the one on vegetarian feminism, for instance, or 10 Great Ways To Make Tofu. And I love making the images that accompany the posts, so I’ll continue to post these to my Flickr stream and here on the site.

Do check back from time to time, and better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll be notified of anything new that comes down the pipe.

Rock on, veggie. Rock on.

Day 23: Thai

2007-10-16T08:39:00.000-04:00

Meal One:

Parfait
Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

Red pepper, cheese, marinara, onion, etc. wrap (There were black olives on this. I took them off because biting into one makes me gag. Seriously.)
Kettle Salt and Pepper chips

Meal Three:

Vegetable Pad Thai (gross compared to chicken - too many conflicting flavors)
Spring Rolls
Thai Iced Tea

What I Ate This Weekend

2007-10-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

Plenty of good food this weekend. Let’s see how much I can remember.

Friday:

Parfait
Fish and chips
Vegetable chimichanga, black beans, mexican rice

Saturday:

Pumpkin pie
Scrambled eggs with cheese
Basil gnocchi
Bread with red pepper dip
Fried calamari
Cabernet
Figs with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
Double spresso

Sunday:

Faux-chicken patties, long-grain rice
Salad
Quesadillas

That’s more-or-less the recap. Missing a couple things, probably, but this is pretty close.

Day 19: In The Groove

2007-10-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

I can’t believe I’ve been meat-free for nearly 20 days. At this point, I feel like I could keep doing this forever, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that part of me misses the meat. Every now and then I feel myself about to reach for something animal - out of habit, I suppose, but also just a little bit out of longing. Watching a TV show like Dexter (about a serial killer) doesn’t exactly help, either. But each day that goes by it gets easier to forget that meat is an option. My refrigerator and freezer are growing less and less meat-filled, and I’ve begun to learn which lunch joints to avoid if I want to sidestep temptation. Good times, mostly.

Meal One:

Banana Berry Jamba Juice

Meal Two:

Strawberry & yogurt parfait
McDonalds french fries (I had 5 minutes for lunch, and this was the only place with short enough lines)

Meal Three:

Veggie corn dogs (pretty awesome, actually!)
Hummus and pita
Odwalla Blueberry B Monster juice

Other:

Ice cream

Day 18: Controversy?

2007-10-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

A reader named Karen left a comment on yesterday’s post to say that Coke contains animal products (and that the company are major human rights violators). My questions are as follows:

Does Coca-cola contain animal products?
If so, are any soft drinks vegetarian-safe? Which ones?
What proportion of vegetarians go so far as to remove traces of such things in their food?
There is a stereotype of vegetarians being more socially conscious than other folks. How much truth is in this? What might motivate this activism?

Found a bunch of great-looking vegetarian meat replacements today, including corn dogs, which I’m eager to try. Otherwise, a nice day for food. Plenty of variety, and plenty of tasty grub.

Meal One:

Strawberry & blueberry yogurt parfait
O.J.

Meal Two:

Eggplant Parmesan
Glacéau VitaminWater

Meal Three:

Vegetarian chicken patty burger thing
Fancy, whole-grain basil pesto penne primavera from the folks at Kashi (this had a bunch of random vegetables in it)
Odwalla Blueberry B Monster

Other:

Pumpkin PIE!!!
Half of a nasty, nasty orange-colored white chocolate KitKat. NASTY. White chocolate = gag!

Day 17: Saving The Children

2007-10-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

Meal One:

Coke
Chocolate Chip Cookie

Meal Two:

Vegetable Vinaigrette Salad (carrots, red and yellow peppers, cucumber, celery, red onion, minted bulghur, feta, and a light champagne vinaigrette dressing)
Ethos water (saving the kids!)

Meal Three:

Carrot and ginger soup
1% reduced-fat milk

Get Skinny By Going Vegetarian

2007-10-09T09:27:00.000-04:00

From 30 Days To A Slimmer You:

It’s hard to visualize what a vegetarian diet looks like, if you’re not a vegetarian. For a 1200 calorie a day diet, you could eat five servings of grains (bread, cereal), three servings of vegetables, two pieces of fruit, two servings of dairy products, and five ounces of beans, nuts or eggs.

That’s only 1200 calories, apparently. I can not imagine eating that much food. Then again, I must be, which is worrisome. How many servings are in my servings? How many bananas are in my banana? Part of the difficulty of maintaining a healthy vegetarian diet is fighting against years of the wrong habits. Not counting servings. Not paying attention to calories or fat content. Just eating. Chomp chomp chomp.

I’m trying to beat it.

Day 16: Pizza Party!

2007-10-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

Pizza is awesome. Pepperoni or not, as the case may be. And leftover pizza is equally awesome, especially when, like me, you are on the verge of physical and emotional collapse on account of far too much work and far too little sleep. Cold pizza. Awesome.

Meal One:

Vanilla Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

Cream Soda
Fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich
Honey BBQ Kettle chips

Meal Three:

Papa John’s Six-cheese pizza

Days 13-15: Busy

2007-10-08T08:34:00.000-04:00

I don’t think it’s worth it to rehash everything I ate over the last three days, because there’s not much to say other than, “I was extremely busy. I didn’t eat meat. It was (mostly) good.”

Back to normalcy today.

Types Of Vegetarianism

2007-10-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

Wikipedia has some great info about the different types of vegetarianism, as well as related dietary practices, and some unrelated practices that use neologisms derived from the word “vegetarian.”

Diet Name	Meat, (including Fish and Poultry)	Eggs	Dairy	Honey
Ovo-lacto vegetarianism	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lacto vegetarianism	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ovo vegetarianism	No	Yes	No	Yes
Veganism	No	No	No	No

Other dietary practices commonly associated with vegetarianism

Fruitarianism is a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
Macrobiotic diet is a diet of mostly whole grains and beans. Not all macrobiotics are vegetarians as some consume fish.
Natural hygiene in its classic form recommends a diet principally of raw vegan foods.
Raw veganism is a diet of fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.
Dietary veganism - where vegans don't use animal products of any kind, dietary vegans restrict their veganism to their diet^[6]

It should be noted that most vegetarians also are aware of avoiding products that may use animal ingredients not included in their labels or which use animal products in their manufacturing i.e. cheeses that use animal rennet, gelatin (from animal skin, bones, and connective tissue), some sugars that are whitened with bone char (e.g. cane sugar, but not beet sugar) and alcohol clarified with gelatin or crushed shellfish and sturgeon.

Diets that are not related with vegetarianism

Some non-vegetarian diets use terms neologisms derived from the word "vegetarianism":

Pescetarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are fish or other seafood.
Pollotarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are fowl and poultry.
Semi Vegetarian - A diet in which the only animal flesh consumed is seafood and poultry.
Flexitarianism — A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food, but that allows occasional exceptions.
Freeganism — argues all commodities produced under capitalism, not only those from animal sources, contribute to exploitation and avoid buying anything, including food. Freegans thus focus on acquiring foods and other commodities by means other than purchasing, including foraging for wild plants and gardening with intent to cause as little violence and ecological destruction as possible through their consumption. While many freegans are vegans or vegetarians, others will eat animal products that would otherwise go to waste under the justification that doing this does not encourage further animal exploitation.

What kind are you?

Day 12: Meetings

2007-10-04T23:37:00.000-04:00

I didn’t mean to eat fish twice today, but I had a dinner meeting with a client in New Jersey and the only thing on the menu that was remotely vegetarian was a beer-battered fish sandwich (not counting the absolutely disgusting portobello mushroom sandwich that I wouldn’t order if my life depended on it). I’m beginning to see the problem that full-time vegetarians have dining out. Oh well. Fish is good, at least.

Meal One:

Some kind of smoothie from Jamba Juice

Meal Two:

Tuna salad wrap
S. Pellegrino

Meal Three:

Beer-battered fish sandwich
“Chips”
A glass of Pinot Noir

Day 11: Running Low

2007-10-03T22:48:00.000-04:00

My food supply is dwindling, which means I’ll have to go shopping soon - likely sometime this weekend if I can find a minute. There’s still some food hanging around that I haven’t felt like eating (like the soup I bought, as delicious as it sounded when I picked it up), but for the most part, I’ve consumed a good amount of what I bought. Still plenty of cheese and various cracker-type things, but those don’t exactly constitute meals, as many of you have pointed out. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a client in New Jersey after my day job, which means I’ll have to find something to eat at Penn Station before getting on the train. This sounds tricky. Wish me luck!

Meal One:

Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

Odwalla Super Protein Pumpkin beverage
Starbucks fruit and cheese plate (brie, cheddar, pepper jack, grapes, apple, orange, cranberry walnut bread)

Meal Three:

Jack cheese and black bean quesadilla
Cold sesame noodles (lots of leftovers from this gigantic portion!)

Day 10: The Pies Have It

2007-10-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

My favorite time of year is autumn, if for no other reason than the predominance of pumpkin-flavored and pumpkin-containing beverages, pastries, and other edibles. The Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino or Pumpkin Spice Latte sold by Starbucks are great examples of delicious pumpkin-flavored indulgences, but Odwalla has a Super Protein Pumpkin drink, a whole host of breweries offer seasonal Pumpkin ales, and pumpkin cookies and muffins and pies and breads can be found hot out of the oven at numerous bakeries around NYC.

Pumpkins are awesome. I just need to figure out if it’s possible to eat a slightly healthier version of this seasonally ubiquitous fruit (that is, the ripened ovary of a flowering plant) or, as it is more commonly known - vegetable. Two for one. Sweet.

Meal One:

Odwalla Super Protein Pumpkin drink

Meal Two:

Black bean and cheese quesadilla
Sprite

Meal Three:

Salad with orange peppers, cucumbers, feta, and pepper parmesan dressing

Other:

Hershey’s Special Reserve hot chocolate
Cinnamon mint croissant

Random Photo: PETA Bread

2007-10-02T14:57:00.000-04:00

Day 9: Starbucks Will Be My Downfall

2007-10-01T22:10:00.000-04:00

God, it’s a good thing Starbucks doesn’t sell steak. Because who could possibly resist the ability to download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Store over an iPhone while jamming out to the Akeelah and the Bee soundtrack while nursing a frothy, whipped cream- and calorie- laden hunk of meat.

Not me, that’s for sure.

Today, I had a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino for the first time since the beverage was phased out in January or so. It was also my first trip to Starbucks in a little over a month. As much as I want to say I won’t, I probably will go back tomorrow. For the next thirty days or so, they’re handing out cards redeemable for a song-of-the-day from the iTunes store. Free music. And glorious pumpkin-flavored sugar and caffeine.

Maybe I’ll buy one of their Odwalla juices if I can focus my energies.

Meal One:

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino

Meal Two:

Fettucini Alfredo
Perrier

Meal Three:

Pita and roasted red pepper hummus
миш-маш (mish-mash, hodge-podge...a dish made of peppers, eggs, and feta cheese)

Cruelty To Vegetables

2007-10-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

One of the hardest things I’ve noticed about having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is buying the right amount, especially if you’re shopping for just one person. Fresh foods simply do not keep very long, so this means you must choose between having to make frequent shopping trips, throwing away food on the verge of rotting, gorging yourself and eating five bananas a day, or buying extra non-perishable (canned, packaged, processed) food to tide you over until you have time to make another trip to the market. Of the four, the one that in my experience is by far the most unlikely is the first. It so totally goes against the way I’ve been raised (and I imagine many people can relate) to make a lot of small shopping trips (not to mention the relative impossibility of fitting this into a busy schedule). Bulk, we’re all taught, is cheaper, more economical. Why buy one banana at a time when they’re six to a bunch? One apple instead of a bag of apples?

I’m sure there are some of you out there who have found a solution to this problem and eat fresh food all the time. Well, how do you do it? There must be some magic solution to keep food from going bad. Or at least a secret to planning your shopping. Anyone got an insight? Many thanks in advance. The vegetables thank you for your kindness.

Day 8: Delivery/Laziness

2007-09-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

So it’s Sunday night - one week after the day I started doing this vegetarian thing, so I felt I was entitled to something of a break from the hard work of focusing on my diet. Well, not really. I think I was just feeling really lazy today, so all my meals were ordered in. I even had plans to go into Manhattan to get a vegetarian hot dog where my brother works, but even though I showered and got dressed, that little day trip never materialized.

Food was good today, though, even if it cost me more than I would have liked to spend. At first, I planned to order some amazing french toast from a new restaurant down the street, but they bundle sausage or bacon with it, so I ended up going for an omelet, which, in the grand scheme of things, was probably the more healthful choice, anyway. It was also pretty tasty. Three weeks to go!

Meal One:

Peppers, onions, and cheese omelet
Rosemary potatoes
Orange juice
Key Lime Pie (YES!)

Meal Two:

General Tso Bean Curd with white rice and broccoli

Other:

Cheez-it crackers
Banana

Tomorrow: Rancid Fruit. Don’t miss it.

Day 7: Beans, Beans...

2007-09-30T02:59:00.000-04:00

Wisdom of the day: being a vegetarian doesn’t necessarily mean “eating vegetables.” There are too many non-meat foods that you are “allowed” to eat. This negative definition of the term leads to some less-than-healthy food choices by lazy people like me.

Meal One:

Goat cheese with honey and Triscuit crackers
Refried beans with cheese

Meal Two:

Veggie burger
Odwalla orange juice
Chopped mango

Other:

Belgian beers
Popcorn

Vegetarian Gas: Not A Myth!

2007-09-29T20:41:00.000-04:00

It’s true. The gas thing. Eating beans does give you some stinky gas. Good thing I’m mostly alone here in my apartment so no one else has to suffer the side effects of my personal lifestyle choice. This is extremely gross, I know, but I have to be honest. Otherwise you won’t trust me when I say I didn’t eat a hamburger.

Which I didn’t. I swear. Even though I was invited to a party tonight at which there were grilled burgers. Free grilled burgers.

Nope. Do not want.

Day 6: Vegetarian Feminism

2007-09-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

I made it through the end of the workweek without losing my way and chomping on a mammal. Today I broke the veggie-exclusivity, though, and had some salmon for lunch. It felt good.

I’d like to examine the link between vegetarianism and feminism, especially with regard to the potential socioeconomic effects of the application of “heightened scrutiny” in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Craig v. Boren, disallowing 18 to 21 year-old women from purchasing what was then known as “near beer” (now called Smirnoff Ice), on the grounds that, well, even though the Oklahoma statute in question benefitted women, it made them out to be sweet, innocent, little girls, when in reality they are (of course!) even more animalistic and privy to the temptations of the vine than their male counterparts.

A classic example of The Gilded Cage. Woman, having her “virtue” stripped away in the name of Equality, subsequently moves to distance herself from the notion of virility so often connected with red meat - with the violent slaughter of beasts - dutifully passing on the juiciest morsels to her faithful, loving, hard-working husband, and finding her own special type of culinary joy in the tender, peaceful femininity of the world of plants. Mother Earth.

Meat is misogyny. Carnivorousness is next to Godliness. Fish are friends, not food.

Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law.
Q: Are we not men?
A: We are Devo!

Thoughts? Discuss in the comments!

My meals for the day...

Meal One:

Iced Coffee
Two McDonalds Apple Pies

Meal Two:

Salmon with charred tomato salsa (spicy and delicious!)
Mashed potatoes
Mixed veggies (carrots, string beans, broccoli)
A tiny bit of rice
Perrier

Meal Three:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Meal Four:

Pita with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
River Horse Summer Blonde Ale

It can be further suggested than men who are sympathetic to the cause of feminism more frequently adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. These so-called “girlie men” are also more likely to talk about their feelings, gossip, wear tight clothing, and give birth.

There are statistics!

Talk About Healthy!

2007-09-28T20:06:00.000-04:00

A mozzarella-ball-sized nugget of wisdom from an old internet meme, sent to me this afternoon by my mother:

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable. It's the best feel-good food around!!

Healthy afternoon snack!

Salmon Is Beautiful

2007-09-28T15:19:00.001-04:00

I’m just sayin’.

Gross: Vegetarians Fart

2007-09-28T11:01:00.000-04:00

Making the switch from meat-eater to vegetarian means some healthy changes to your diet, but there's a downside: All those veggies, legumes and tofu may lead you have have a bit of a problem with ... um ... flatulence. (That’s Fit)

Okay gross. Will I go so far as to confirm this?

No. I’ve had some excess gas lately, but not the smelly kind, just the “feeling-a-little-bloated” kind. Any of you care to share your experience with flatulence?

In any event, Martha at That’s Fit paraphrases Fitsugar with some tips for minimizing gas, mostly that you should take it slow early on with the beans (I’ve been doing this unintentionally, as you can tell by checking out my menus for the last five days) when you first start to exclude meat from your diet.

Quote of the day: “I wouldn't worry about the gas too much, since everyone farts.

Day 5: Crappy Dinner

2007-09-27T22:11:00.000-04:00

I got lazy tonight. This doesn’t mean I didn’t stay away from meat, though. I did. It’s just that I gave in to slothful, death-courting temptation to make Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Yeah, I’m not proud, and every bite tasted worse than the one before. Worse for the guilt.

But the rest of the day was good. And it’s definitely getting easier.

Meal One:

Peach something-or-other Jamba Juice (these have been non-dairy smoothies, by the way)

Meal Two:

Carrot and ginger soup at Blake & Todd (this stuff seems to be following me around)
Perrier
A hellishly awesome “coppa profiteroles” - basically a tiny plastic bowl with a couple cream puffs embedded in a chocolate mousse. Kinda sorta like Tiramisu, but kinda not. Very tasty. This was an impulse buy, and quite worth it.

Meal Three:

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese + Feta

Other:

Banana!