Vegetarian Life Day 6 - AKA Day from Hades

Today is day six of my vegetarian diet....and as you can tell from the title it's not going very well! I started off with an apple for breakfast and cream of mushroom soup for lunch. The soup was great when I wasn't feeling well. It gave me that warmth and comfort feeling but today I wanted to throw it down the kitchen sink! I didn't though because I didn't have anything else to eat and I was HUNGRY! So I stuffed it down and now I'm sitting here day dreaming about Mediterranean Chicken Wraps with loads of dressing and Cheese Fries for a side.... The Grilled Chicken Sandwich from The Patio sounds delicious too, also with Cheese Fries. 

Within these last six days I have a new found respect for Vegetarians. I've received all the comments you can imagine when I said I was going to try this life style for a month. I'm going to put some on here because they just make you stop and say "what??" I got a good laugh from them. 

1. But where do you get your protein from?
2. Are you one of those animal rights weirdos or something?
3. You do know that the animals are going to be killed anyway – you’re not saving anything?
4. Is it because of your religion?
5. How do you stay healthy?
6. Don’t you know we evolved to eat meat? You’re going against nature
7.  Hitler was a vegetarian!

I feel like I owe the Vegetarians an apology for the ignorance! Aside from the silly questions and comments this is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It is sort of stepping into someone else's shoes and living their life for a day, well in this case a month. I have to pay attention to what I order when I'm out, and I need to redo some recipes when I cook etc. It truly takes a lot more thought process than just ordering/cooking food. I went to Chipotle on Monday night and tried their Sofritas Burrito Bowl (their recipe of tofu). It wasn't terrible but I didn't care for it. Then I thought, why am I trying to replace chicken, meat. Of course it's not going to taste the same! I don't know what I was expecting from the dish but it was sort of disappointing because the tofu couldn't stand up to my love for chicken. So I bought it again on Tuesday night and had a veggie bowl instead. Let me tell you, 100% better than the Sofritas bowl, and I think because I wasn't trying to trick my tongue/body into thinking there was meat. I knew there wasn't any meat and I was one hundred percent satisfied with that. I did load up on brown rice, black beans and guacamole though!

I'm making one of our new recipes tonight. A lentil chili and rice dish that my hubby requested. It actually sounds delicious and I'm looking forward to trying it and introducing the family to something new. Luckily for me on the nights I cook for my family, they have to eat what I make or else get something themselves, which is nice for me because I can have the no meat option. Other nights it's a lot harder because my family has always had meat as the main course and then stuff like salad, noodles, rice, fruit etc. as sides. It's a whole new ballgame when you need to make the side dishes a main dish and meal. My main concern when feeding my family vegetarian options is, is my husband and father going to feel full after this meal? Are they going to feel like they've had enough and are satisfied? Because I don't want them feeling like I feel right now. It is such an empty, unsatisfied, angry feeling. I'm HANGRY. Like legit. I don't want to think this is how it always is, because it was just a bad day of planning on my part. I don't want my family to think that way either. 

So, by far the worst day yet. I'm not giving up though! I'm not giving in, even though I'm craving chicken like crazy right now. Just gotta get home and make my chili with plenty of rice and I think I'll be okay.