Goal #10 Try vegetarianism for a month - Check

So 28 days came and went just like that, and I was a vegetarian for a month. It was actually much easier than I expected. I think it’s mainly because there’s an end date. I knew I could go back to eating meat again on March 1st (which I did. I had a meatball sub for lunch and it was delicious!).

Upon reflection, here are some of the things I’ve learned:

• Restaurants in the Manhattan, KS area have very very limited options for vegetarians. I really feel for the true vegetarians in this area.
• I thought I would try a lot new vegetables this month, but ended up not doing it as much as I would like. My schedule was a bit crazy this semester and I just didn’t have enough time to find good recipes. I did give kale a try, since I have read so much about how “super” it is. I didn’t like it at first. It was too bitter, and soapy. But then after talking to some people, I tried it again. I used it in an Italian style vegetable soup, which has some sweetness in it, and counterbalanced the bitterness of kale quite well.
• I made a butternut squash mac and cheese. Basically, I used pureed butternut squash as a substitute for a lot of the cheese in a traditional mac and cheese. It’s a healthy dish, but the conclusion was, I would rather be unhealthy and have a real mac and cheese (with real cheese).
• I lost 2 pounds this month. Before the month, I thought I would lose more weight than that. During the month, I thought I would actually gain weight because I found myself eating a lot of carbs and cheese! So, in the end losing 2 lbs is actually a pretty decent result.
• Of all the new vegetarian recipes I’ve tried, this is my favorite: America Test Kitchen’s Vegetable Lasagna (video).
• I will most likely eat less meat in my regular diet now. In fact, I would like to do this (vegetarian for a month) once every year to cleanse my system.

Here is a gallery of every single meal I had this month: