Food: When I Was A Vegetarian For A Week

I always swear I could never be a vegetarian. Whilst I don’t eat a huge amount of meat, I do enjoy it. I love a good steak, belly pork is one of my favourites, and bacon is something I’m not quite sure I could live without. I rarely eat meat throughout the day, unless I’m taking leftovers for lunch. Usually at least one dinner a week is veggie, more if W is working late (as then it’s mushroom night). We’ve recently cut down our weekly fortnightly fry-ups to a maximum of once a month.

But I’ve always been curious about how I could get on without meat. I’m a huge animal lover, and I’ve never felt completely comfortable with the meat industry. I try as much as possible to eat free-range meat and if we had a more convenient butcher I’d definitely make more use of them. I will try and use every last scrap of meat I can, including making stock when I get the time. I never buy anything but free-range eggs, and I’d dearly love to give up milk (unfortunately more dairy-free milks don’t agree with me, and I have to buy lactofree so am pretty limited). I also love veggies.

A fresh crunchy salad? Vibrant colourful stir-fry? A comforting and nourishing bowl of lentil stew? These are all some of my favorite meals. With that in mind, and spurred on my an inspiring Instagram feed for National Vegetarian Week, I cut out meat from our diet and fridge for a week. I’ll admit, W cheated. He’s part of a lunch group and some of the guys contributed meat dishes that week. He also went to the pub for a massive Gammon & Eggs. However I stuck to it and, bar one slip-up, didn’t consume a single meat product for a week.

Breakfasts were as normal. A mix of granola and yoghurt, ricecakes and p-butter, and overnight oats. Snacks were homemade energy balls, though I did find I had a stronger 4pm slump than I normally would. Lunches were again pretty standard. Generally I either take leftovers into work, or make some kind of chunky substantial salad. I also have a lunch allowance in our work canteen, so then to supplement my lunch there with fruit, more salad or a jacket potato. That week I mainly ate a salad of couscous, harissa-roasted butternut squash, feta and spicy crunchy chickpeas.

Tonight's dinner certainly hit the spot – veggie coconut curry with chickpeas and spinach. Meatless Monday a day late! #vegan #veggie #curry #indianfood #fakeaway #veggiecurry #chickpeas #dinner #dinneroftheday #fdbloggers #whatastudenteats

A post shared by Chloe Ellen (@ninegrandstudent) on Apr 26, 2016 at 11:35am PDT

Dinners were where we had to get inventive. With both of us being pretty busy, recipes need to involve minimal fuss, not too much chopping and as little washing up as possible. We had an absolutely delicious chickea pea curry, served with roasted cauliflower in a tandoori spice blend. I enjoyed a butternut squash risotto. W cooked us a ‘treat’ meal on the Friday of mac-n-cheese, filled with roasted cauliflower and broccoli (pretty much this recipe, sans bacon, with nutmeg in the sauce and blanched broc).

My favorite meal, though, was an Asian-inspired salad. Radishes, onions, Chinese lettuce and carrots all tossed together in a limey-soy-peanut dressing. So light and tasty, though we did end up eating the whole bowl (supposedly serving 4) as we neither of us found it hugely filling. This is where I slipped up, accidentally adding a drop of fish sauce. Oops! Recipe to come…

I actually picked quite an easy week to eat veggie. I didn’t eat out, I didn’t have to cope with the canteen’s main meals. I’m not so sure I could sensibly eat out combined both my allergies and being a vegetarian (off the top of my head I’m thinking of only 3 options, two of which are pizza based…). But I did enjoy it. Whilst I won’t be turned a full-time veggie any time soon, we’ve both agreed to start eating more veggie meals throughout the week.

My Favourite Vegetarian Recipes

3-Bean Chilli, Beetroot Risotto, Blue Cheese & Pear Salad, Mushroom Risotto,Oven-Baked Falafel, Spring Vegetable Carbonara (sans bacon/ham). I’m also working on a cauliflower salad recipe, and I’m itching to share my pomegranate quinoa soon.

The next step though? Find a good value seasonal veg box…

What’s your favorite meat-free recipe?