A Couple of Dietry Firsts...

My poor digestive system did not know what hit it this week, as I completed not just one, but two firsts.

By Rootology Via WikiCommons

The first first involved not eating meat for a whole week. Now, I do love my veggies, but I would struggle to think of the last time I went a day without meat in some form and I’ve certainly never spent a whole week not eating it since I started eating solid foods some twenty-odd years ago. But there are a number of reasons why I wanted to do this. Firstly, whenever somebody tells me they are vegetarian, my knee-jerk reply is “I could never do that, I enjoy eating meat too much.” This really is one of those conversation statements that I’ve always said and never really put that much thought into. So I wanted to see if it was true. Secondly, I know that most people have far too much meat in their diet. Yes, a balanced and varied diet is a good thing, but in general, meat is a good source of fat that many people could benefit on cutting down on and has has a much larger carbon footprint then the same amount of veg. Thirdly, meat is bloody expensive.

A further reason to be veggie has come to light since I completed the First, and that is that when you’re eating some meat, you clearly have no idea what you are actually putting in your mouth!

I noticed little difference in my day-to-day life, except for learning some good recipes for stuffed peppers, curry and pasta sauce (the latter of which I do think could be improved by the addition of meat). I was surprised at the options I had when eating out (Weatherspoons five bean chilli is probably one of the best tasting dishes on their menu) and I didn’t suffer any lack of protein or energy as I ate plenty of eggs and cheese (luxuries I often scrimp on because I’m spending all my money on meat!).

As you can see, eating out as a vegetarian proved a real chore...

So the change in my life was minimal…that is until I went to swap back to eating meat again. I will admit, on the Saturday when I was free to indulge in eating any animal available, I did go slightly overboard. Lunch with friends and I chose a steak baguette (I rarely eat steak anyway) and for dinner I had chicken balls with home-made egg fried rice. But I think it was the meat binge in the middle of the day that really tipped me over the edge. Supervising my six-year-old cousin’s birthday party meant I had access to all the sausage rolls and chicken dippers I could care to eat. And eat them I did.

Needless to say, by the time I went to bed, I felt pretty ill. Maybe it was just the quantity of the food (in all fairness, I ate a lot of cucumber at the party too), but I felt sluggish, sick, dry mouthed and headachey. And the next day, with a chicken wrap for lunch and roast pork for dinner, I didn’t fare much better.

So I proved that I could be veggie (for a short while anyway), and I can see myself eating less of it in the future. But I do like some meat too much to be veggie forever….

Mushroom Alfredo with fresh fettuccine... my other first

While on my veggie diet, I also made use of one of my Christmas presents… my auntie had decided to help me along the way with one of my firsts and bought me an snazzy little pasta making machine. To make sure I had something to put in it, she also bought me a book on how to make the dough and some sauces to go with it.

The results were pretty impressive, even if I do say so myself. There were some mis-haps that involved eggs running all over the kitchen counter and a few marks left where the machine was clamped down but they were well worth the silky smooth Fettuccine I managed to make (with a little hand from Glenn).

Trying to contain the eggy/flour mess

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to make. While it did take a bit longer than simply going down to the supermarket and cooking up some dried pasta, I still think it was worth it, and it was quite fun too. Next on the pasta-making list is some kind of ravioli I think, then I can choose to stuff it with whatever I like…

We ate our home-made pasta with a creamy alfredo sauce. It was a lovely, simple comforting dish. In fact, I’m drooling a little bit just thinking about it. Shame I’m sat on a train and won’t be back in a kitchen for a couple of hours!

So thanks auntie Bex for helping me make pasta!  And two more firsts ticked off the list…

Whoop, Whoop!