Day 6 Or... Pushing the Cart Past the Meat Section

Grocery shopping without purchasing meat. It's strange; trust me.

I have to admit it's an odd feeling, pushing the cart around the grocery store and avoiding the various meat products. I never really realized how often I bought chicken, ground turkey, sausage, and beef until I had the opportunity to completely bypass those sections of the grocery store again this afternoon. "Don't need that. Don't need that. Don't need any of that either. Weird."

If you get frustrated at how long it takes you to get your grocery shopping done, it could save a few minutes of your time. It also feels really good to fill the cart with vegetables. Yeah, I feel a little trendy, but also pretty healthy doing it. I wonder if the cashier will be amazed at my little array of fresh fruits and vegetables: bananas, mangoes, squash, broccoli, green beans, onions, zucchini, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, and celery.

Also, I secretly imagine that a fellow shopper or even the cashier will ask me, "What are you a vegetarian or something?" Then, I can follow up immediately with a long discourse about my Go Veg Project and how crazy it feels at times. Then, I realize that a stranger could really care less about what I'm purchasing. I mean, I don't even look at other people's carts. It seems like a strange invasion of privacy to me.

And I realize that by not buying all that meat, I can afford to buy all those vegetables that I previously called "too expensive."

What did I eat on Day 6?

Breakfast. I actually forgot to eat breakfast. I slept late and then got carried away working on a syllabus for the spring semester. Oops.

Lunch. Having forgotten breakfast, I was really craving cereal. So I enjoyed some Kashi GOLEAN Crunch. Are you impressed by my variety of cereal selections yet? I also, had some dried mango slices. Mmmm.

Dinner. Our friends, the Kells, came over for dinner. And while I could have cooked meat for them, they were kind enough to be supportive friends. So, they were served a vegetarian dinner, which I'm pretty sure scared them initially. They have a couple of small kids, so I knew that tonight wouldn't be a good night to try a new experimental vegetarian dish.

So, we had a large salad (with lots of fresh cut veggies), fries, and some more Morningstar Farms veggie burgers. These were made with their "Garden Veggie Patties" which actually contain more veggies (carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, peppers) than textured vegetable protein. And they either really liked the food, or they were very gracious. Denny even had a second burger.

And FYI these "Garden Veggie Burgers" actually won the Chef's Best Award for Best Taste.

For now, 6 days down. 34 to go.