OMG I Think I Might Becoming A Vegetarian

I can’t believe it… but I might becoming a vegetarian.

This from a person who has eaten meat all her life. Gets great pleasure in gnawing the bones until they are devoid of any scraps of meat and then pops them into the stockpot to make soup.

My dad hunted (and still does) and as children, we ate ducks, grouse, deer, moose, fish, elk and I seem to remember a mountain goat in there somewhere.

Not sure if I’ve tasted bear or not, but I do remember the time that dad woke us, kids, up early in the morning before it was light to see a bear on the tailgate of his pickup truck. It had been circling around the house when he shot it and sound sleepers that we were, us kids never hear a thing.

So as you can see, I’ve been a meat lover all my life. And when I think of dinner, it always has a meat dish as part of the main course.

There was a time a few years back when decided that I wanted to try going raw. Not raw meat, but eating fruits and veggies raw. It’s called a raw food diet.

I actually quite enjoyed it. No cooking. Great flavours. Lots of energy (at first anyhow).

I found I’d lost the taste of meat. Didn’t crave it. No longer wanted it.

My system felt so clean…

There are so many creative dishes you can do with raw veggies and people are so willing to share recipes of what works and what doesn’t work.

It did mean getting some new toys like a dehydrator, spiralizer, Vitamix blender and other assorted goodies that weren’t on my shelf and I still use them all. (Amazon links above if you want to check them out)

I didn’t have a garden at this point in time, but I would go to the market and pick up organic vegetables and fruits and would take a smoothie with me everywhere just in case I got peckish.

After about 6 months of eating in this fashion, I was almost crawling across the floor to prepare my food. I was so tired and lethargic. All the new found energy that I had the first 3 months was gone and I was a walking zombie.

It was at this time that I realized I would have to eat meat again as there was something in my diet I was missing. Didn’t know what it was, but I knew I wasn’t well.

Adding meat back into the diet was the hardest thing to do. I didn’t like the smell of it cooking anymore, but once I took the first bite and then the second, I was hooked. I devoured the steak and was looking around for more.

There was something in the meat, that my body wanted and it wanted it badly.

The next morning when I awoke, I had some of my energy back and as I consumed more meat I felt better and better.

Appears I was missing some key vitamins, like vitamin B12 and vitamin D that I could only get from meat and eggs.

It didn’t even occur to me until much later, that I could have gotten those elements by taking supplements, but it is what it is.

I just knew I couldn’t go on the way I was so reverted back to meat with dinner.

Which brings me to today. You didn’t realize you were going to get a history lesson, did you?

For the last 2 weeks, we haven’t eaten any meat. Can you believe it?

The garden is growing and we’ve been eating all the bounty that it has to offer at this time of year.

Lots of salads as I have lots of lettuce. All different kinds of lettuce from leaf, to head, to romaine and everything in between.

Radishes… I am on my third planting of radishes this year. I just plant a couple of dozen two weeks apart and we have an ongoing crop.

Bok choi, collards, kale and swiss chard are delicious, especially when they are young and tender and Pinterest is a great place to inspire a new recipe or two.

The peas are out, both the shelling peas (my favourite) and the snap peas and we just had a feed of garlic scapes.

Garlic scapes happen when the garlic started to go to seed and they produce the flowers. The theory is that if you snap them off, then all the goodness will go into the bulb production instead of the seed production.

They are yummy. I roasted them in the oven with a little olive oil and parmesan cheese and if you’ve never had them, they are a treat.

We even had potatoes out of the garden. Mind you they were small, but the plant was one that had overwintered and was growing up in the middle of the beans so dinner it was.

Baby carrots with spinach and fresh strawberries and blueberries make dinner and dessert.

Along with some store-bought cauliflower, broccoli and an avocado or two, it’s been pretty well meatless.

I have to admit, there have been some eggs, like in the potato salad and I did add some salmon to the salad. And last night I poached some red snapper over a bed of kale, fresh dill from the garden and a little lemon juice.

But the amazing thing is, I don’t crave meat (red meat that is). It’s not even occurring to me to have meat for dinner. I just look out into the garden and see what’s ready to eat.

And… I’ve discovered couscous and might one day try quinoa. There is a whole new set of experiences out there that I’ve only just begun to appreciate.

Zucchinis will be ready soon, the tomatoes plants have tomatoes on them already and the scarlet runners are beginning to flower. Can other veggies be far behind?

As we all know if you’ve planted two zucchini you’ve planted one too many so I will be sourcing out zucchini recipes in the near future.

Who knows when red meat will be on the table again.