Day 5 Or... My Trips to Little Caesars and Happy Meadow

There are more vegetarians than you think. Before I started this project, I had met about half a dozen vegetarians in my entire life. Growing up in small town Kentucky as a teen, I assumed that perhaps only radical celebrities pursued such a diet.

As I continue researching vegetarianism and talking about it, I've found out that vegetarians are everywhere. Coworkers, family members, long lost friends, old roommates. They're a minority of sorts, but they're there.

According to the U.S. 2000 census, there are approximately 5.7 million adult vegetarians in the United States.

In fact, I came across this fact, when Carolyn's mom, Donna, mentioned that we should order pizza for lunch. My mind raced. How do I eat out as a vegetarian? I didn't know exactly. I hadn't done it yet. And I knew that pizza could be a tricky order. The initial thought might be to simply make sure that the pizza doesn't have meat as a topping and go for it. But, there's actually more to it than that.

For example, several pizza chains include meat in their pizza sauce. Which makes it unsuitable for committed vegetarians. Vegans would also have to worry about the pizza dough containing whey, not to mention that troublesome milk in cheese. I was mostly just worried about the sauce. I wondered, "Is there a pizza chain that will cater to new my new diet?"

As I began to Google the word "vegetarian" alongside the name of each major pizza chain, I came to an interesting conclusion. You probably have to do some digging if you're really concerned about whether or not your favorite restaurant's pizza is vegetarian friendly. This now crucial information seemed missing from the official websites of Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa Johns. Thankfully, Little Caesars proudly displayed their answer to my quandary. They even clearly cited the census statistic about vegetarianism that I mentioned above.

As their website states, "...Vegetarians would like more food choices when they eat out. Little Caesars is proud to offer many menu items that are suitable for vegetarians. Little Caesars' pizza crust is made with a quality, high-protein flour and contains no animal products or by-products. The sauce is made from crushed tomatoes and is seasoned with a special blend of herbs and spices - it also is made without animal by-products. Little Caesars wants to help meet the growing needs of our vegetarian customers."

So, needless to say, for lunch, I enjoyed some cheese pizza courtesy of Little Caesars.

Later, I also traveled to the Happy Meadow Natural Foods store in Berea with Carolyn and her sister Angela. The store did meet some of the hippie stereotypes I had heard about it, but I was also pretty impressed with their selection of organic foods, gluten-free options, vegetarian options, and farm fresh foods.

I picked up some firm tofu and some tempeh there. I also bought some unflavored textured vegetable protein, which I may turn into my own homemade veggie burger before this experiment is through. Expect to read about my cooking experiences with tofu, tempeh and TVP in the near future.

Also, for fun, I bought a Tofutti Cutie. A Tofutti Cutie is basically a dairy-free ice cream sandwich. I was expecting it to taste gross, but I wanted to try to to see what vegans might eat when they craved ice cream. Turns out, it tasted great... just like an ordinary ice cream sandwich.

The moral of today's shopping experience, is that while shopping as a vegetarian is certainly more complicated, it is actually kind of fun.

- What did I eat on Day 5?
Breakfast. Honey Bunches of Oat with Almonds.

Lunch. Little Caesars cheese pizza. It was even hot and ready; just like it was supposed to be.

Dinner. My family and I had dinner with an old friend, John Bailey, and his family. It was so good to catch up with him and get to know his wife and baby a little bit. I found out that great company makes a Papa Leno's vegetarian sub taste even better.

Vegetarian Times claims that just over 3% of American adults are vegetarians. I'll continue to be a part of that statistic for five weeks as this project continues.

I can even eat out twice in one day and stick with my new vegetarian lifestyle.

5 days down. 35 to go.

A note for all of you waiting for pictures: I seem to have misplaced my digital camera, but I'll post a few pictures from today when I can find it.

As always, I really appreciate that you took the time to read this blog.