Black pudding

I need to rename this blog "My month and a half of living pecaterianly" as that is the amount of time I was before I caved... Mind you, a wedding (mine), a death (my mother) and tears did not help my cause and now, because I don't  seek solace at the bottom of a bottle any more, I found comfort at the end of a steak, burger, sausage, black pudding, roast chicken, beef Stafado, Lamb shank... I could go on...

In retrospect, I wish that I hadn't stopped, it made me feel lighter and loose those pounds needed to fit nicely into my wedding dress, it made me feel good about my self, it made me frustrated and angry at times, I flitted between jealousy and pride but ultimately, when others would hit the bottle... I hit the carvery.

I may start again soon but, at the moment, I need my meat...

I'm sorry...

One month down and eleven to go

So I made it to the end of January and not a spot of meat has passed these lips and I am quite proud of myself. My last record was two weeks while skint and travelling in Australia, I caved in Brisbane when in the largest food hall I had ever encountered I spied a burger so big, so juicy, so magnificent that I caved like Kerry Katona with a bag of drugs...
But today I sit here typing this out meat free and feeling pretty good about it too... even a little smug...
So to all you meat eaters out there.... I'm going to interrupt myself there and add that my biggest challenge at the moment seems to be actually completing this blog before the end of this next month... OK, so back on track, where was I? oh yes... To all you meat eaters out there I say "See it can be done!"

I did nearly cave in watching my husband hungrily devouring a Burger King Whooper on the way to Wales at the weekend...

Jesus, just look at it... My Achilles' heel... (I am slobbering like Homer Simpson at the moment... maybe I should remove this picture)

And so, as if to twist the knife that was my need for meat, as if to punish myself for my love of Burger King burgers... juicy, juicy burgers... I ordered just a portion of fries... I don't even like them that much, I find them tasteless and potato-less. I had b-b-q sauce to liven them up but, as I caught Rod munching on the burger in my peripheral vision, they started to taste and feel like I was dipping in cold pieces of lard into a small tub of bile... It looked sooooooooooooo good... But i stood firm, good people, I did not cave this time. How ever much I wanted to rip that rich, meaty meat patty smothered in ketchup topped with gherkins, lettuce, onions and sweet, sweet tomatoes, nestled neatly between two seeded baps, from his hands... watching as bit by bit the salad, soaked in gooey red ketchup fell from the grips of the bap and landed either on the wrapper, neatly placed on rods lap or onto his trousers. I watched the meaty juices and bits of sauce clung to Rods stubble just waiting for his tongue to search them out later, I watched him eat this burger which to me at that time seemed more precious than diamonds and I hated him for it.

But, you know, forgive and forget...

I did have to make a complaint to the people at Sainsburys as it seems veggie chili and macaroni cheese are the only vegetarian options in their cafe (I am am getting a bit fed up with "the fish option") and they both seemed to be off on the day I went so, once again I was left with the jacket with cheese and beans option... Not again... I did get a sympathetic "ahh yeah" from the moronic woman behind the counter as I pointed this out but no more.

You gotta love them Sainsburys cafe people... Do the job share with the Debenhams lot?

So onward in to February... Bring on the veg!

Vue

My View of the Vue cinema is not good... Along with slamming the door on Lili's face, spilling her popcorn all over the floor, not even considering offering her a replacement tub, they sell the most inedible food, (Obviously not counting Quorn chicken pieces) Nachos with cheese and salsa... I would usually have a hotdog on a Saturday morning if in this situation (the situation being that I had missed breakfast due to it being 10am and a Saturday) but not for the next 12 months. Now my choice is between popcorn or these strange shaped tortillas smothered in this luke warm orange goo which totally kills what ever flavour the tortillas ever had...

Oh and a quick heads up for the strict vegetarian, the cheese rolls sold in the Living Coasts sealife centre in Torquay are just ham and cheese rolls with the ham removed...

Steamed fish...

After a weekend of raclettes (I told you we eat a lot of them) we had some Mediterranean veg leftovers so instead of the lovely meaty pasta and sauce Rod and Lili chowed down on, I opted for a vegetable packed tomatoey sauce and finally got to try out one of my Christmas presents, a steamer.
I steamed a lovely salmon steak spritzed lightly with lemon juice and seasoned, simple and perfect. I steamed it for about 8 minutes until it was cooked through but still moist. Perfect.

Oh and this weekend after... and this has only just occurred to me... nearly ordering a hot dog from the movies... My god... Mine you, how much actual meat is in one of those things?  I had lunch with my dear friend and as Subway is the closest thing to the movies and the least "junkie" we opted for that for lunch with our girls. So scouring the menu I discovered the only two things I could have in my sandwich was the tuna mayo or something called a veggie patty... Dubiously I plumped for the latter... After it arrived I tentatively nibbled on the corner of the sandwich watched eagerly by Laura who was as intrigued as I as to what exactly a veggie patty was and wow... it was truly, without a word of a lie, it was truly passable... Definitely not horrible but  really, really OK.

The worm turns... I am not loving it...

Wednesday - Chinese takeaway
After a long day of work, tax returns, school, after school clubs and before the arrival of a friend we just couldn't be arsed to cook so plumped for a Chinese take away... I was dreading this day, every Chinese take away I love involves meat of some kind or another... Crispy chili beef, roast duck, spring rolls (The meat ones) and various dumplings and won tons... Indian food is easy to eat without meat... It's natural but Chinese, no, that does need meat.... Or so i thought.
I ordered a hearty mushroom curry, egg fried rice and a lovely crispy vegetable spring roll that went down beautifully, even if I did have to watch my husband munch his way through duck in plumb sauce and kung-po chicken. The mushrooms were sweet and moist and complemented the spicy chinese curry sauce well and the vegetable spring roll was  packed with beansprouts and al dente Chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots and various Julienne vegetables encased in a golden crispy pastry. Dip this baby in some plumb sauce and vava vooooooooooooooom. Sweet!

Thursday - Monk fish taggine
Fantastic... One of my favourite things to cook and to eat is taggine, usually lamb, sometimes chicken but always packed with chickpeas, tomatoes, wine, onions, balsamic vinegar, all spice and various other spices literally thrown into a taggine pot and shoved into a medium hot oven for a couple of hours. Served with spiced cous cous, pittas and humous. YES... And it bloody well works with monk fish too... Although not for 2 hours...

Tonight - Something truly, truly horrible
 Tonight Rod thought he would treat me with a Thai green curry, add chicken or monk fish, even prawn to this and you have one of my favourite meals of all time, but not ever, ever, EVER with chicken piece style Quorn ... Not ever, ever EVER, EVER AGAIN will I sully the good name of Thai green curry with this evil, evil, what can only be described as, a substance... Which, ironically had no substance. The tasteless morsels of blah flaked between my teeth in the most unappetising way. I cannot express how majorly I loathed it... Oh god it was truly awful... I have never eaten anything as vile as this stuff... And I've eaten ants! (Green ants... Australia... you have too...)
Jesus... shudder... This tastless, evil food will never pass my lips again... Never...

Quorn-verted... Sort of...

On Sunday night, after a lovely day at the beach taking photos (http://www.fenchurchadams.com/) and easily avoiding any meat temptation by taking a packed lunch, I got home with a devilish hunger that could not be quashed with just vegetables. I needed meat or at least something that tasted and had the consistency of meat... So I opted for a spot of Quorn...

Rod, the other half and strict carnivore, made a quorn chili and it was lovely... Different... Not exactly like meat... Not exactly better than meat... definitely not better than meat... but lovely none the less.

It lacked grease and gristle, two things that I really didn't think I would miss about not eating meat.

The night before we had a raclette (we have these quite often) with two friends who ever so sweetly came laden with fish and spiced cheeses. This was the first meal I've eaten that I can say, without uncertainty, that I really didn't miss meat. Together with a huge bowl of salad, plates were piled high with tuna steak, fresh salmon, peppers, mushrooms, courgette slices (Or green discs of hell as Rod calls them) aubergine, halloumi, humus, rice and enough bread to make me bloated for life. I stuffed my face and felt very happy.

Last night, we had an early dinner, Lili, my daughter who actually sang a song expressing her reluctance to turn vegetarian, loved the veggie chili and asked for more.

I fried off the leftover raclette veg and made a respectable ratatouille to go with our chili and added a cheesy jacket potato (even at home!) to bulk out the meal.
It was still a delicious chili, tomatoey, beany, packed with flavour... But this time it felt like a balloon was slowly deflating inside me... I really missed the chewiness of minced beef, those little chunks of meat that hadn't been separated properly in the pan, when you're lucky enough to get find and its like a tiny secret meatball, beefy and delicious, I missed the grease that you shouldn't love but you do, swimming about on the plate waiting to be moped it up with a hunk of bread, the flecks of OXO cube that haven't quite melted into the sauce bursting in your mouth like little beefy popping candy. I missed the meat...

But the Quorn chili was nice...

I love animals

I want to be a vet

But I wouldn't give up meat

Even for a bet!

Spag Bol and me

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

I love my husbands Spaghetti Bolognese, it's rich, it's meaty, it's packed with flavour. He made it last night and all I could do was watch as he and our daughter shoved it down their rotten throats... I nearly cracked, very, very nearly cracked.

But I stayed strong, strong enough to choke back the prawns that sat before me... Prawns, once a luxury have become a staple, something to add in place of real flesh.
I did an online shop last night, ordered mackerel and salmon, mussels and yet more prawns before heading for the virtual meat counter and remembering exactly what I am missing with my year of madness.
Lamb terrines... Koftas... Beef or Chicken Tortillas... Burgers... Bloody steaks and of course my husbands lovely, lovely Spaghetti Bolognese.
But this is what I must go through. This is a personal crusade. I have no one to letdown but myself.
I will eat nowt but fish...