For the love of meat

My dear wife is talking about going partially vegetarian as a family and eating meat only on weekends. Thankfully she isn't talking about becoming one of those vegetarian families that sneer at meat eaters like they are second or third rate citizens. She is just suggesting that we become even more slightly odd than we really already are, which is cool by me.  Honestly it sounds like a pretty good idea considering how much crap is pumped into the meats available at the local market. I recently watched this video on "pink slime" in ground beef and it inspired me to never consider where my meat comes from again. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to  this stuff.

But seriously vegetarian?..... I get this picture of me and the boys clothed only in our underwear grazing wildly in the back yard, chasing any type of protein that moves, the birds, one of the neighbors 18 cats, 2 rabbits and dog, or even some slugs in our flower beds (Snails are a delicacy in some countries).  I can imagine boosting Jude on my shoulders to get to the bird feeder in a desperate attempt to snack on the suet...... that's the type of vegetarian I will likely be. You could call me a "VINO" Vegetaritarian In Name Only. (Yes, vino is a coincidental acronym. I happen to be a guy who likes wine if it has been humanely processed)

They say there are benefits to eating vegetarian such as lower cholesterol, a reduced appetite (probably because everything is gross) and overall greater health. This will certainly help me in my challenge to lose weight and feel better by beating my buddy in the challenge.

I think we will give it a trial. It will take some research to come up with recipes that are actually appetizing but it will probably be worth it. I read a book recently called "Food Rules" written by Michael Pollan who is some skinny guy from Berkeley. A lot of it made sense. He argues that we should eat mostly plants and non processed food because that is what we were made to eat.  One of his points on whether or not your food will pass the test is to imagine taking your Grandmother to the store for grocery shopping. This will help you to realize what is processed and packaged, since she probably is 90 years old and would not recognize any of the innovative food-like products that we eat today.  I pictured my Grandmother taking a Cotton Candy Flavored Gogurt tube in her hands and wondering what type of shampoo sample it really is. Would it make her hair milky soft with the sweet smell of cotton candy bringing her back to the carnival in the 1930's?

Give us some time and we will collect enough recipes to make our vegetarian trial a success. In the meantime I am going to eat as many non pink slime bacon burgers as I can stand. If you know of a good vegetarian recipe please share through the comments section of the blog.  Any other recipes that include dog, rabbit, bird or slugs are appreciated as well, because we will probably get there soon.