Week 3 Becca

Rebecca

Okay so, the third meatless Monday was semi-successful.  I actually had a really busy day, and I worried that my meal planning was going to be a bust.  I had to wake up for a doctor’s appointment very early in the morning.  Since I normally have blood work done, it is required that I fast. This meant no breakfast for me.  The appointment took forever, and by the time I got home it was 11:30. I have to leave for class at noon. I had just enough time to let my dog out and snack on a few handfuls of peanut butter pretzel bites before I was off again. Even though I hadn’t consumed meat, I was beginning to worry about how the day was going. I knew I could have chosen a fruit or something a bit healthier to snack on that would have been equally as quick. I got out of class around three and my boyfriend suggested that we grab lunch.  I wasn’t opposed since I had a really long day and didn’t much feel like preparing a meal.  After reading some people’s blog posts, I suggested that we go to Chipotle. He loves Chipotle and never turns down an opportunity to eat there. At Chipotle, I had a Tofu burrito with white rice, black beans, pico de gallo, cheese, and lettuce. It was super delicious. I think that I am actually going to choose Tofu over their meat options from now on.  It was quite spicy, and I enjoyed the way it was prepared. I didn’t miss the meat at all.  I normally eat dinner early, but I was pretty full after eating a decent sized portion of my burrito. At around eight, I was on the hunt for food again. I had seen a recipe in “Cooking Light” magazine that I wanted to try, so I went to Wegman’s and quickly gathered the ingredients for dinner.  The meal was really cheap. It only cost six dollars and was enough to feed both me and my boyfriend. We even had leftovers. I prepared kale and cannellini bean pasta with olive oil, lemon juice, and minced garlic. We topped our pasta with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for extra flavor. I am normally pretty experimental in cooking new recipes, but I do not always like the way they taste in the end.  This dish, however, was phenomenal. I plan to incorporate it into my list of “usual suspects”. I will definitely prepare it again.  So, the day had a slow start, but in the end, I’d say I did pretty good.

This week was quite different than our week off. I went to Puerto Rico for Spring Break, and thus ate out literally every meal. Eating in Puerto Rico was somewhat of a challenge for me.  Puerto Rican cuisine is very different from what I am accustomed to eating.  While fruits are abundant, vegetables were hard to come by on my trip (I ordered a salad and the restaurant didn’t have dressing- can you imagine? I couldn’t eat it).  I noticed that they love everything fried: fried cheese, fried plantain, fried pork, fried chicken, fried beef, fried mashed potatoes, anything fried you can think of. Because most of it was fried, half the time it is unidentifiable until you bite into it. I can’t even tell you what types of mystery meats I may have consumed down there! All I knew was that I was hungry and that I needed to eat. If I hadn’t eaten meat, I probably wouldn’t have eaten at all.  Sometime Puerto Ricans will serve their fried delicacies with rice and beans (which I think people expect). Other than fried foods, Puerto Ricans eat a lot of Spanish cuisine. (The Spaniards governed the island for over 400 years before the United States took control) I had amazing seafood paella when I was there.  But still, this dish would not have made the cut for our Meatless Monday challenge.  I did think about going meatless when I was away. I was thankful that we were granted a week off—I definitely would not have been successful over Spring Break. I can tell you that I was thankful to return home to familiar meal options.