Meatless Munchies

During last night's sort-of get together, one of the people attending quizzed me about the ingredients of the food I prepared because she is vegetarian. As I discussed foods and being vegetarian with her, I realized the only meat-based dish on the table was the sesame chicken drumettes. While I did not intentionally plan this, I find it telling that it worked out weighing so heavily on the vegetarian side of the menu. As I mentioned a few months ago when I decided to eat meat once again, I usually go through phases, and I think the carnivore era might be coming to a close yet again. Lately I have not been too interested in cooking dishes with hamburger or chicken in them; however I have contemplated fish several days in a row. Last week at the grocery store, I checked out the Morningstar Farms section of the freezer hoping to find something of interest. Meanwhile, the guys have been eyeing me anxiously when I make the menu and find that much of it is based around eggs, cheese, and fish. (Unfortunately, this stuff doesn't sound good to them when it's dinner time, so we've been tossing pizza in the oven, which I then eat very little of. Don't worry, I'm not losing weight since I find other things to nosh.)

Perhaps we could come to some arrangement, though. As I was talking to the vegetarian guest last night, her partner said she still eats meat, but only once a week. On that evening, they either go out and make separate choices, or their dinner at home is something that can be eaten with or without the meat. For example, one of them makes a vegetable-based casserole to feed both of them; however, one of them mixes some chopped chicken in with hers. Another option they discussed is having hamburgers (real and fake) with fries in the oven. Either way, the partner who eats meat still gets her fix, while the vegetarian doesn't feel pushed to eat something she doesn't want. This is similar to how our kitchen operated in the past and probably will again.

As I contemplate this more and more I can feel my interest in meat waning once again. I've about eaten my fill of bacon, sausage gravy, and spaghetti sauce with ground beef. I'm not sure I'll go cold turkey this week, but there is change blowing in the wind.