Ode to the Veggies

It's day 21 of me and Paul's experiment with vegetarianism. It's actually a meat fast, the details of which I won't get into here. But basically, we gave up meat for 40 days and I thought I would evaluate how it's gone.

The first week I was loving it, feeling healthy, in love with the fresh California produce that I rummage through at farmer's markets, thinking this thing will open a whole new repertoire in my cooking that would have easily been neglected had we stuck to our normal diet. We eat quite a bit of meat on a normal basis, I've realized, especially since we got a Costco membership and a grill. Here's a sampling of what we might typically have on a daily basis for dinner.

-Pasta (usually the papardelle from TJ's) with my homemade bolognese sauce (which I would argue is the best in San Diego, a statement that is meant to tell you less about the quality of my cooking than the quality of the Italian food around here)
-Chinese style stir-fry usually at least once a week. Paul's favorite is beef, tofu, and tomato or mabu tofu, usually with bok choy or spinach on the side
-Fish (usually salmon, tilapia, or cod), with a side of garlicy roasted potatoes and mesclun salad mix
-Roasted chicken- I love to stuff it with some gooey truffle cheese and rub olive oil, salt and pepper all over it.
-Pork chop or tenderloin usually in a red-wine reduction, or steak on the grill (I think we usually have one of these every week)

Well, that's a rough sampling. Here's a couple things we've tried instead:

-Pasta (not with the bolognese). I tried my hand at a tomato and pureed chickpea sauce, with some organic arugula from the farmer's market thrown in. Something about that one didn't agree with my tummy.
-Eggplant parmesan. I found a great recipe in my Mario Batali cookbook that didn't require breading and frying the eggplant. It still took about two hours to prepare, but it came out quite tasty in my opinion and I was pretty proud of myself. Little did I know that Paul doesn't even like eggplant. I think it was the first thing I've ever cooked for him that he didn't really eat. And that hurt! Well, I didn't know he only liked it breaded, greasy and on top of pasta. I think eggplant is underrated.
-Sesame noodles. I don't really think these are an authentic Chinese dish. But you can't go wrong with peanut butter, sesame oil, and lots of scallions.
-Kimchee stew. This is the first time I cooked Korean food on my own. Granted, it was missing one of the essential ingredients- spam! I substituted some tofu and enoki mushrooms instead. It was actually pretty tasty.
-Risotto with five kinds of mushrooms (porcini, shitake, crimini, portabello, oyster). I'm a mushroom freak so I LOVED this one, but Paul wasn't that into it.
-Pizza- we usually make it ourselves with the trusty TJ pizza dough and some buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, scallions, and basil

(above: our tasty signature pizza; brussel sprouts sauteed with shallots and olive oil; tofu, asparagus, and red pepper stir-fry; mini-heirloom tomato salad with lentils and avocados in balsamic vinegarette; potato, portabello, and artichoke casserole)

All in all, I think we've been keeping our meals pretty tasty despite the absence of meat. Eating out is a challenge, especially since eating at some of our favorite restaurants presents a serious temptation. Two from this weekend were tough- had to forgo the amazing burgers at the Stone Brewery in Escondido, and our favorite brunch spot, Americana in Del Mar, was a toughie- I love the eggs benedict (with prosciutto.....argh!). God is better than meat. 19 days to go.