Week 2 Becca

Becca week 2

So it is officially the second week of Meatless Monday, and I am already losing steam.  This may be due to the fact that I was unable to eat meat three days last week (I am Catholic).  Honestly, I didn’t think it would be this hard to give up eating meat.  I miss my usual comfort foods.  I don’t like that not eating meat for me means eating a bunch of random selections instead of a cohesive meal. It is becoming increasingly hard to choose appetizing meal options.   Despite this, I was still successful in achieving my goals this week. 

            Here is what I ate this week.  For breakfast, I had Greek yogurt with strawberries and a glass of orange juice.  After classes, I looked up various vegetarian recipes, and went shopping to gather supplies.  I was planning on making creamy garlic pasta salad for dinner, but shopping made my mouth water, and I decided to prepare it for lunch instead.  This pasta salad was comprised of cucumbers, broccoli, beefsteak tomato, minced garlic, farfalle noodles, Jarlsberg cheese, mayonnaise, and sour cream.  It was actually quite delicious. I found the recipe on the “All the Cooks” app. Purchasing all the ingredients was about fifteen dollars.  This is about the same as I usually spend for a day’s worth of food (and there were plenty of leftovers that I can use later on in the week).  For dinner, I purchased Wegman’s Brand Meatless Mediterranean burgers.  These burgers are made of chick peas, spinach, and Roma tomatoes.  I prepared them in the oven, and accompanied them with Kaiser rolls, onion, cucumber, and tomato. For someone who has never eaten a veggie burger, I thought that they were pretty delicious. Still, my boyfriend refused to try them. He ended up eating a regular beef patty. I was sort of disappointed that I couldn’t get him to try anything new.  Since there was leftover pasta salad from lunch, we indulged in a little more of that. Usually around ten o’clock I eat a late night snack.  I have Lupus (an autoimmune disease) and as a result have to take an extensive variety of medications.  I am not typically hungry this late at night, but if I do not eat anything, I get very nauseous. So, for Monday’s snack, I chose applesauce.  As part of my Lupus and all the medicines I have to take, I experience a lot of gastrointestinal upset.  I get stomach aches almost on the daily. For whatever reason, a lot of raw produce does not agree with me. I think that this is a huge reason I am struggling with this project (and with eating vegetables in general).  It is difficult to want to try new foods when every time you eat new foods you feel sick.  I don’t know; I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.  I know that with a disease like mine, getting proper nutrition is essential. However, actually experimenting with food and finding out which ones you can tolerate can be quite the roller coaster ride.  I am thankful that this project is forcing me to try new vegetables. I know that I would never just do it on my own.  This is kind of a random side note, but I loved Sowmya’s lecture on spices.  In future weeks, not only will I continue to experiment with different types of produce, but I would also like to begin experimentation with different spices.  I wonder whether some of the anti-inflammatory properties of spices could curb the effects of my disease.