Subway - My stomach hurts

So I had a turkey sub from Subway tonight - wheat bread, cheddar cheese, lettuce tomato green peppers and cucumbers...a little black pepper...and some sliced deli turkey.

Not a fun experience for the next hour or so.  My body did not really like the sandwich.  Now there could be several factors.  The first thing I thought was "How long do they just leave the turkey chillin out there"

Either way, I have been easing my way back into meat eating and it's not going that well...

Day 50

It's been 7 weeks.  I ate meat for the first time last night in 7 weeks, a very small amount of plain grilled chicken, and it was my least favorite part of the meal.  I went to the pizza place today with the intention of trying some ham and pineapple pizza, but some jack wagon took the last slice, so I got 2 slices of cheese.

I'm not sure where this blog will take me, or if I will just stop writing in it altogether.  But for now I am going to leave it open, to whatever it may entail.  I did go through the entire 46 days of Lent without eating meat once, not even by accident.  I consider it an accomplishment and I truly considered it to be a sacrifice.

Vegan Bacon

Thanks to Matt M. for the hook up on this one.

Bacon Explosion

What...the fudge.

So I may be easing my way towards eating meat again, but I don't think this is the path to righteousness.

It does look incredible, and apparently it is filled with sausage and bbq sauce, and then covered in more bbq sauce.  The secret to the Bacon Explosion: the 5x5 bacon weave:

Now that's how you blog entry, ladies and gentlemen.  Would something like this make you vegetarian forever?  Or would you cross the bridge through the fiery pits of Hell into a warm comforting blanket knitted with bacon?

Avoiding the Inevitable (Stomach Fiasco)

So I've been vegetarian for 46, well actually 47 days if you include Easter Sunday.  I'm kind of afraid to eat meat again, due to confirmations that my stomach will go through hell if and when I eat meat again.  My aunt told me that she accidentally ate meat from a restaurant and the following events were not pretty.

What a great Easter Sunday though, I am truly blessed to have the wacky family I have.  I used to think my family was really "normal", when in actuality, they are a little crazy.  But we're all a little crazy in a good way and we're a family.  I think I am even making it sound crazier than it actually is.  My family isn't crazy, they're hilarious.  I think of families that have real life problems going on and I feel bad and I wish them the best.

Okay enough of that tangent, it's Monday, the day after Easter and I still haven't eaten meat yet.

Breakfast: Starbucks iced coffee + croissant = rocket fuel tiger blood soul power

Lunch: Falafel

Dinner: Falafel continued

Easter

Breakfast: Iced coffee and a cheddar cheese bagel twist

Lunch: Mashed potatoes, stuffing, asparagus, carrots, rolls, cookies, a very small piece of cake...and a bunch of chex mix, because it's got 60% less fat, than potato chips...Lonely Island reference? Anyone?

Dinner: Ellios pizza with grilled red yellow and green peppers

Vegetarian: Day 46

Breakfast: Pizza

Dinner: Beers

Vegetarian: Day 45

Breakfast: Good Friday.  Earth Day.  I am not sure what the rules are for Good Friday, but I have to work and I plan on eating.  Today I went to Starbucks and received a free iced coffee because I brought in my own mug, and in doing that, contributed to the environment somehow.  Woohoo!

Lunch: Caprese sub from Quiznos.  SUUUUCKED.

Dinner: Morningstar fake chicken nuggets.  Too many.  Ugh.

Vegetarian: Day 44

Breakfast: Starbucks coffee and a coffee cake...non-healthy

Lunch: Amy's Vegetable Pot Pie...I will come back write more about this, maybe in a separate entry

Dinner: Enriched bran flakes cereal...chock full of vitamins...not much of an eating day today

GO BRUINS!

Vegetarian: Day 43

Breakfast: Office coffee.  Long time no breakfast.

Lunch: Falafel.  I am writing this at the library while I wait.  Have not used a library computer in a while, it's an interesting scene here.

Dinner: I apologize to the readers, I had Ellio's pizza again.  I went home a little bit early today, wasn't feeling well, and then later on became hungry and didn't feel like making stir fry or anything.  Looking back, stir fry would have been money.  Perhaps I will make stir fry tomorrow.  And to think through all of this, I have not made tofu once.  I might try that too...

Three more days of lent after this.

Vegetarian: Day 42

Breakfast: Egg and cheese on a croissant from Dunkin'. Vitamin water.

Lunch: Wham bam roasted red pepper, pesto and portabella mushroom pizza - thank you ma'am

Dinner: Tacos at Mom's house...black bean corn onion and pepper...thanks Mom

Vegetarian Win

Roasted red pepper, pesto splash and portabella mushroom.

http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/slice-of-the-day-calendar.php

Vegetarian: Day 41

Meal 1: A cornucopia of treats. Mainly this consisted of mini muffins and orange juice. And champagne.

Meal 2: Ellio'sssss pizza. They should be a sponsor. Hey Ellio's, hook me up.

Vegetarian: Day 40

Last day, right?! Wrong.

I decided to include the Sundays, so although it's a 40 days and 40 nights thing, if you include the 6 Sundays it's actually a 46 day journey.

Meal 1: Two slices cheese pizza

Meal 2: Veggie burgers and sweet potato fries. Best veggie burger so far I believe has been the Morningstar Farms "Griller", I believe it's called "
Grillers Originals"...either way, it tastes the best and tastes better than the Boca version. The Boca version has cheese inside of it, I prefer a nice slice of sharp cheddar on top of the Morningstar Farms.

My apologies, I spent the day with my family and could not attend the Worcester VegFest. I hope (and expect) that it was awesome.

Vegetarian: Day 39

Meal 1: Falafel Salad Wrap from Fresh City

Meal 2: Vegetable lo mein and scallion pancake

I Heart Bacon (PG-13)

A chat conversation this morning that got out of hand...

Me: And I just miss bacon
Jo: Aww
Me: I <3 Bacon
Jo: Me tooooo
Me: Bacon doesn't return my phone calls
Jo: Heh bacon doesn't send you flowers
Me: I text bacon and bacon doesn't text me back til like the next day
Me: And even then it's like a 1 word answer
Jo: Bacon doesn't take you out to dinner
Me: Bacon flirts with my friends but doesn't talk to me
Jo: Bacon doesn't even tell bacon's friends that bacon knows you
Me: Bacon kisses me with its eyes open
Jo: Ouchhhh
Me: And once screamed "eggs" instead of my own name
Jo: Bacon sleeps around
Jo: hahaha
Me: Bacon is a whore

Vegetarian: Day 38

Breakfast: Egg white veggie flatbread from Dunkin

Lunch: Cheese pizza and salad from Bertucci's

Dinner: Veggie quesadilla from Tango Mango

Vegetarian: Day 37

Breakfast: Starbucks iced coffee and a blueberry muffin. I usually go with the iced venti americano, which for you Starbuckians out there, it's basically the same exact thing.

To quote Washington Redskins tight end and non-vegetarian,

"We started every day in Starbucks. I stuck with the Vente Iced Americano and a blueberry muffin which is, in my mind, the best way to start off any morning."

(Source: http://chriscooley47.blogspot.com/2008/06/back-to-real-life_6440.html)

Lunch: 2 slices of veggie pizza (peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomato, broccoli)

Dinner: Vegetable masala burger

Vegetarian: Day 36

5 weeks down. I'm proud of myself.

Breakfast: Iced coffee and a plain croissant

Lunch: Ziti with sauce and cheese.

Dinner: How's this for a weird ethnic meal...a "vegetable masala" burger (Indian flavors with various potatoes and vegetables in a burger shape) on a whole wheat bagel, with potato latkes on the side...with no applesauce or sour cream in sight, I used sriracha hot sauce. There is no soy and not much protein in the burger, so really it was like eating another potato pancake.

Vegetarian: Day 35

Breakfast: Office coffee, red delicious apple...maybe a few tostitos...

Lunch: The infamous small salad (two kinds of lettuce, red/yellow/green peppers, cucumbers, mushrooms, kidney beans, chick peas mixed with tomatoes and what not, feta cheese, italian dressing, a couple of croutons)

To be consumed later: some Goldfish and a nutrigrain bar

Dinner: Trader Joe's vegetable samosa. I ate these before I considered vegetarian anything, they are delicious. I need to find more descriptive words in my vocabulary, but delicious seems to work here.

The hunger

THE HUNGER from Alicia Pomp on Vimeo.

Courtesy of Mfrech

Vegetarian: Day 34

Breakfast: Iced coffee and a muffin.  Not healthy.  I should give up sweets.  New blog?

Lunch: Falafel.

Dinner: After my basketball game, I felt compelled to stir fry some vegetables.  Broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, stuff like that.  I used a little bit of olive oil, then added the vegetables, then threw some teriyaki sauce in there.  It was surprisingly good and even more surprisingly satisfying, I had some rice and some wheat tortillas and made wraps out of it, and the best part is I have leftovers for later.

Good day of eatin.

What the Hell is this Crap?

Crazy mofo.

Vegetarian: Day 33

Meal 1: I tried veggie dogs for the first time.  I made 2, one in the microwave and the other on a skillet.  The skillet one was much better and I bet they would taste decent.  I'm not hooked by any means, but it did quell my appetite for Fenway Franks, for now.  I tried this brand, Smart Dogs which is based in MA, and they were alright.  I have heard bad things about Tofu Pups which to my surprise, genuine surprise, is that they are made by the same brand Lightlife which is located in Turners Falls, MA near Springfield.

The big question in my mind is this: "What would I bring to a BBBQ".  Besides beer of course if it's BYOBB.  That one was a typo :)

Meal 2: Ellio's Pizza.  Official frozen pizza of the 1980 Olympics*.

*Not fact based but totally made up

Vegetarian: Day 32

Hungry.

Not sure what's going on today but I know that it's beautiful outside.  I'm thinking about a big breakfast sandwich from Dunkin' right now.  Strangely enough, I don't miss the sausage from Dunkin'.  Sometimes it was good and sometimes it was kinda gross.  I feel like 1 in every 10 or 20 times I'd eat a piece of bone or something.  Little things like that have added up over the years.  I found a tumor in my chicken mcnugget when I was in middle school.  Pretty nasty when you think there's a chance of tumors in your food.  As far as I know, there are no tumors in the vegetarian diet.  Alright enough of that nonsense...

I'm writing these on Day 34 and I don't really remember what I ate.  Actually I went out this night to an "asian bistro".  I ordered my favorite vietnamese dish but with vegetables instead of beef and egg rolls and the usual goodness that's on it.  It was alright, but it was mixed vegetables with vermicelli and peanuts and what not.  It was missing the crunchy delicious egg rolls.  My friend put some beef skewer on my plate and tried to feed me chicken.  I punched him.

Luckily for me, sake bombs are vegetarian.  It was a fun night.

Vegetarian: Day 31

Breakfast: Trader Joe's strawberry nutrigrain bars.  It's gonna be all Trader Joe's all the time this week.

Lunch: Grilled cheese and spicy fries.

What I wanted for lunch: Hot dogs.

Dinner: I was going to eat dinner but ended up going to a birthday party instead.  Had some sweet potato fries, had a couple drinks and danced with some girls.  That's dinner enough, I'll eat tomorrow.

Vegetarian: Day 30

Holy schnikeys it's my 30th day.  I have not become a weakling.  I am still a fat kid.  I haven't missed too many types of foods.  I've been to Wendy's once in the past 30 days and no other fast food place.  I've realized how much pizza I consume in a given month (a lot).  I've tried new foods.  I've enjoyed some of those new foods, and not enjoyed others.  I don't think I'll ever really like olives.  The next step is to make this even more of a sustainable choice, I mean I've been a vegetarian for a month but I'm still overweight and I'm not exactly the best evidence that a vegetarian lifestyle is the healthy way to go.

But that's not what this blog is about right now, it's about sacrificing something I enjoy for 40 days and 40 nights (and the 6 sundays in between that period of time).  I almost called this blog "veg46" and I still might call it that.  Anyways, on to the food.

Breakfast:  Sodium intake aside, I got the Starbucks spinach and feta wrap.  Too tasty to pass up today.

Lunch: This crappy slice of pizza, I couldn't finish it cuz it sucked so bad.

Dinner: I went to Trader Joe's and got all kinds of good sh*t.  I had 2 bean and rice burritos.  Not bad.

Vegetarian: Day 29

Breakfast: Starbucks iced coffee, plain croissant.  It's French day.  In my mind.

Lunch: Stop & Shop feast: Small salad (Lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, feta, chick peas), Boca burger on a roll, potato wedges

Snack: Peanut butter cookies, then later I had an orange

Dinner: This one came out of nowhere.  I invented a new sandwich, I mean it's a veggie burger like everything else, but this combo was strangely good.  I heated up a whole wheat wrap (Indian roti) on the stove, then added chopped up veggie burger, basmati rice, sriracha hot sauce and green beans.

Yeah, weird right?  It was good.  It had the "meat" and the rice like a burrito would, it had a serious kick with the hot sauce, and it had a crunch that you wouldn't get with peppers and onions.  For dessert, I had a greek yogurt (strawberry banana flavor).

In conclusion, I am a genius.

Vegetarian: Day 28

Breakfast: Iced coffee and a donut.  Breakfast of champions.

Lunch: Falafel.  Best I've ever had.

Dinner: Veggie tacos.  Also best I've ever had.  BUT no open mic, which made me sad.  I'm a musician, not a vegetarian dammit.  Well maybe I'm a vegetarian.  4 weeks baby.

Vegetarian: Day 27

Breakfast: Starbucks iced coffee, asiago cheese bagel (as is)

Lunch: Eggplant Parm

Dinner: my first "bar veggie burger".  Blech.  This...sucked with a capital S.  It was a green sludge packed with carrots and edamame and fried into a patty.  It was awful.  And this was with lettuce, tomato, pickles, barbecue sauce and cheddar cheese on it.  You can call crap a veggie burger, but it's still crap.  Over and out.

You Don't Win Friends With Salad

Really in the mood for a steak and cheese right now...but I'll eat eggplant instead.  Definitely not going to eat salad...and I think you know why...

Vegetarian: Day 26

Meal 1: Slice of pizza while I was waiting for my laundry to be done.

Meal 2: Burrito w/ calabezita (zucchini) and a tostada con papas (potatoes, lettuce, tomato, cheese, beans).  Dayyum.

In other news, I just want to say that I've felt pretty healthy these 26 days, despite eating junk food and still drinking like a fish.  Baby steps...

Vegetarian: Day 25

Meal 1: pizza

Meal 2: beers, and some tortilla chips.  One of my buddies made this crazy chili dip, albeit non-vegetarian, check out his blog at http://razorvader.blogspot.com/  It's a blog about nothing, and based on the success of Seinfeld, this is going to be big.

Vegetarian: Day 24

I believe today is the official halfway point.

Breakfast: Dunkin Donuts veggie egg white on a croissant, Large iced coffee.  When I got to work I finally noticed that I forgot to bring my backpack with my laptop in it, so I had to drive home, get it and come back.  Thanks large iced coffee for helping me get through this.  Also, I will be staying late on a Friday so that's fantastic too.  All that being said, I've had a pretty great week.  Work is tough but I've been having some fun as well.  Unfortunately, I've been spending way too much money this month, but that's a story for another blog.

Lunch: Supermarket salad bar (iceberg lettuce, peppers (red, green, yellow, orange), cucumbers, feta cheese, fresh mozzarella cheese, croutons, italian dressing), roll, boca burger...chocolate milk...yeappp

Snack: My first greek yogurt...is this good? Or will this suck?  Update: it was really good.  It is not fat-free.  But it's got protein and other good stuff, twice as much protein as regular yogurt.  Which if you've noticed, regular yogurt is a pretty screwed up concept.  There's go-gurt, which is yogurt in tubes.  Then there's all kinds of wacked out artificial flavors.  This greek yogurt is where it's at.

Dinner: Man I really wanted chinese food but I spent my night recording videos of me playing guitar.  So I just heated up a veggie burger and called it a night.

Vegetarian: Day 23

Guess what I did today?  It rhymes with, um, "ripped tech fist"...that's right folks, "skipped breakfast".

Lunch: Falafel.  Win.  I had leftovers.  I dropped them when I got out of my car and onto the parking lot. Fail.

Dinner: Morningstar Garden Veggie (?) Burger, provolone cheese, sriracha hot sauce.