Fresh berries, cinnamon raisin bagel toasted with chive cream cheese (that probably sounds sick to you, but I like savory things on sweet things) at home. And coffee. Because my stomach issues are kind of in remission right now, since it’s summer and the world and life is magically amazing when it’s summer.
I apologize for the week long delay, have had a lot of work and lot of life going on! you know, the whole world outside of WordPress, though lord knows I love me some virtual reality. I have a *LOT* to post about including some awesome new additions to our living room, my favorite local/hand-made jewelry designers, and a fun brunch we hosted, but today’s post is about…veggie meals! I really go through these pendulum shifts in my life where something beyond me just tells me what I’m going to do. I never really ‘set out’ to do anything, I just like…..get notions that feel right and then roll with them. Several times in my life, something in me has just been like “meh, you’re over meat for now,” and then my conscious self is like “alright cool sounds good.” And then I am. And then it lasts for like a year, and then one day I’m not over meat anymore. It’s kind of weird. It’s happened several times.
A few weeks ago, or maybe longer, my body or whatever, was just like “you know what, meat’s not really your thing right now, it’s kind of gross,” and then it’s been effortless ever since because I never have cared about or ‘needed’ it. I don’t go to the deli and like, get sad that I ‘can’t’ have a turkey sandwich, or yearn for sausage on a pizza, when I’m in phases like this. In other words, it’s not an “effort” at all. I don’t think about it. I don’t wake up going “fuck I wish I could have bacon but I can’t.” I don’t miss it at ALL. And people talk about ‘feeling better’ when they do it: “oh I just feel better, I feel cleaner, I feel lighter.” This isn’t about feeling better for me at all, because I don’t actually feel *better*. There is no improvement in my quality of life when I don’t eat meat, I’ve never been able to say “I feel so energized!” There has never been a single difference in how I feel whether I eat it or don’t, it’s just about not wanting it.
And then if I DO start to actually think about it, I can get grossed out by the farms and the antibiotics and all that shit and it’s very easy to imagine just not having meat ever again. But in like 2013 my body will just randomly be like “order sausage right now” and then I will. And then in 2015 I’ll be vegetarian again. But regardless of my meat whims, I eat a lot of fish like sushi, lox on bagels, shrimp salad, tilapia tacos, etc. But not fish that comes from China. Because I read an exposé in The New York Times about the fish industry over there, the farming, what they put in the water, and then the antibiotics they give the fish to keep them from dying because what’s in the water is so poisonous, so I just refuse. I don’t care. I will straight up ask the fish market person where the fish came from, and if it’s China, I say hailll fucking no. Like I don’t care if anyone tries to tell me they have rehabilitated the industry or improved their practices or the government cracked down on the fishermen since the story was published, I’m still paranoid and I still don’t trust it. Just like the sketchy plastic from China, shit made in China is not where I’m trying to put my money.
So here are a few ways I’ve been eating sans meat.
Your classic tomato, mozzarella, avocado salad with lots of olive oil and salt at home.
And bread and cheese.
Edamame, brown rice, broccoli, and black beans with chunks of sharp white cheddar on top at home:
Straight up veggies and hummus, with pita from Tryst. (I eat approximately 6 meals a week at Tryst. Favorite veggie food in DC because it’s so fresh, so easy, and so inexpensive):
Trader Joes butternut squash ravioli, brown sugar glazed carrots ,and the best simmered-down spinach with garlic that I’ve ever tasted in my LIFE, at our friend’s house the other night:
Me and Alex, Rachel and Ben, and Libby and Jarred had a dinner date at Libby’s house and she and her bf cooked for us. It was so good I don’t have words. He took pasta from Trader Joes and somehow made it taste better than shit I had in Italy. The carrots….MELTED. IN. YOUR. MOUTH. The picture is a little unsightly because delicious oily things don’t photograph as pretty as fresh berries (and least of all with an iphone), but it was orgasm inducing.
Harris Teeter brand Margherita pizza. Surprisingly good. Because sometimes life just calls for a $4-dollar frozen pizza from Harris Teeter.
Home-made black bean, avocado, cheddar quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas. These are soooo good and one of our favorite things to make. We had these for dinner tonight so I updated this post which I’d published earlier in the day:
Anddd that’s all I got for now.
