I haven’t had much to write about in regards to food because we haven’t been properly cooking for a while.  Family meals were very accommodating, even going past my expectations.  New Year’s eve we spent at Shawn’s parent’s house playing Wii sports and eating food.  Shawn’s Mom made an additional batch of her sausage balls using fake sausage!  They tasted the same as last year when we ate the meat variety :)  Day after Christmas we had egg casserole (no meat) and potatoes at Shawn’s sister’s house.  We ate lots of food and I’d guess I gained at least 5 lbs if not more.  Oh well.

It’s six days until our trip to Disney World.  I’ve put in a hold on our mail, bought an automatic pet bowl for Molly and planned as much as I can tolerate.  We don’t have any dining reservations because neither of us what to commit to a particular park each day.  We may regret this, but we’ll learn from whatever happens.  We did get the dining plan added to our tickets, so we don’t have to fret over shelling out so much money for meals while there.  I’m anxious to say the least.  It’s also been almost ten years since I last flew on a plane.

I got the neck pain again from the bed bowing down the center.  Our tempur-pedic mattress is fabulous, but our Ikea bedframe has trouble supporting it (the same way our platform bed before it did).  We have propped up the center beam with a crate and a bunch of phone books, but the top book became crimped, so the bed bowed again.  It’s fixed now using old shelves, but the damage was done on my neck.  I resorted to a chiropractor on 12/29.  He “cracked” neck and back stuff, which initially hurt.  Took x-rays and put me on a machine that made my back muscles spazm.  The next day I ached, but by Friday I felt so much better!  Friday he showed me my x-ray results and my spine is a zig-zag, my neck is inverted as if I had been in a car accident (he said), but I can’t think of anything recent that would have caused that.  I’ll be going a lot for a while to fix all this, which I expect to fix many of the other problems I’ve been having.  My head congestion has improved already after two visits.  Unfortunately it all drained down my throat last night though.

Between this and the dental work I still need done, it’s going to be an expensive year.  Too bad my health insurance doesn’t cover more of it.  It almost makes me regret the Disney trip, but that can’t be helped now, so I shall just relax and have fun!

This recipe for vegetarian beef stew was wonderful!!  Next time I will brown the morningstar farm beef strips longer.  After simmering it for a long time the beef strips broke down a lot and lost the texture.  For the part that says

2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups reconstituted vegetarian ‘beef’ bullion

I used Better than Bouillon no beef base for the whole amount instead.

It flavor was just like my Mom’s stew I grew up on!  It was wonderful!

When we went on our mini trip to Slade, KY we took food along.  We brought Trader Joe’s wheat tortilla wraps, mayo, Lightlife Smart deli turkey & bologna both of which we were thrilled with.  The texture & taste of the bologna  is authentic in the folds of a sandwich, Shawn felt the same about the turkey.  Last grocery trip I bought Yves’ Salami and I’m very sorry I did now.  I had a wrap yesterday with it and it tastes nothing like salami other than having a tiny spiciness to it.  I plan to just throw the rest away, it’s that bad.  It crumbled in the wrap, unlike the Lightlife slices.

Yves’ Lettuce wraps are amazing (almost exact to PF Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps), so it makes me sad the salami is so bad.

In other news, I loved fried chicken when I ate meat.  It still smells pretty good to me and I know it is only that fried batter that smells so good.  I want to find faux chicken that can be fried up to satisfy the want.

Back in 2004 or 2005 Shawn and I counted calories religiously and lost a bunch of weight. I lost close to 40 lbs after being at my max weight of around 170 lbs. I’ve gone back up 10+ lbs, which is enough to make me uncomfortable. I’ve had to buy larger pants, feel too lumpy for some of my more fitting shirts. You may know the feeling? I’m trying to count calories again, but the recent trip out of town had me snacking and not counting. I’ve been going to the gym and walking or using the elliptical machines. Today I did some exercises from self.com and now I feel all wobbly. A few lunges and I have kicked my own ass.

It’s discouraging, but I’m trying to use it as fuel to get past this, rather than thinking it’s impossible. I just have a hard time figuring out what I should do. I have gathered that I should do cardio 3 days and strength 3 days, but what? Please comment suggestions & links!

I guess I didn’t really have much else to say about it. I’m just feeling frustrated by trying to get fit. Also it will be interesting to see how holiday eating goes as vegetarians. I never cared too much for turkey anyway, I’d have preferred chicken with all the sides instead. So how are things like Tofurky stuffed turkey thing or the fake turkey log thing I saw in the fake meat freezer section? Any recommendations on how to make this easier for the cooks who are worrying about fitting our diets in?

Shawn and I have been vegetarian for not quite 5 months now.  I’ve come to terms with not being able to go to a restaurant usually or having friends and family have to go to places we can eat.  Sometimes it frustrates me so much I can’t stand it.

I don’t tell people they can’t eat meat. It’s their choice the same as my own.  That said, I’d really appreciate it if people thought about it a sec.  Look at a menu like TGI Friday’s as if you were vegetarian and notice how everything in that menu has meat, even all the salads.  I find it sad and bizarre.

Shawn’s sister is getting married soon and thought of us in regards to the reception.  She asked about vegetarian meals for the two of us, which is being accommodated.  The thing that makes me so mad about it is that Americans (at least) feel the need to have meat in every bite they eat.  Why does the reception hall have to make two servings of mashed potatoes without bacon.  I’d bet that the reception party wouldn’t care one way or another, so just don’t use the bacon.  Do you really need bacon in mashed potatoes in the first place?  I didn’t like that even when I ate meat. I like and liked plain, smooth, creamy mashed potatoes without skins in it or meat or anything except maybe garlic.  So they’re preparing that and two servings of green beans without meat plus some Alfredo pasta thing.

For my work holiday party we are going to a Montgomery Inn, which is a BBQ rib joint basically.  So I’ve been emailing the girl planning this asking her to find out about vegetarian meals for us because even vegetables have to have meat in them, dont’cha know?

The food pyramid tells us that veggies, fruits and grains should be the big portion and meat and dairy the small portion, but go to any restaurant, just about, and they appear to never have learned this.  THAT’S WHY WE ARE ALL FAT!  Farmers grow more crops for animal feed than people food and global warming will kill us all.

I guess I really shouldn’t post angry.

I don’t say stop eating meat, if you do eat meat, just eat it the way you should.  You do not need meat in every bite of food you eat.