Monday Musings – Meatless Edition

So the first few weeks of March found Garrett and I feeling particularly harried, although when I think back for a specific reason as to why we felt that way, I can’t really find one – Cult of Busy, much? One of the main ways this generally manifests itself in our lives is that we end up eating a lot of takeout. I don’t make time to throw our lunches together in the morning, I skip meal planning and grocery shopping on Sundays, and during the rest of the week we end up ingesting a lot more restaurant food that normal purely out of convenience – and really, it kind of sucks. I was not meant to be Carrie Bradshaw, where eating at the hippest restaurant every night feels like an extension of my already fabulous self. This doesn’t work for me mainly because I have no self control and in my mind if I eat at a restaurant I get to order whatever the hell I want (see: rich food, BOOZE! salty food, STEAK!) of course because I’m “dining out” and, you know, it is “special.” Obviously, it becomes a problem when it is not special and you are doing it 5-7 times in one week and not amending your ordering behavior. Not to mention, HELLO! It’s expensive, yo!


So on the Sunday before last, Garrett and I had a little Come to Jesus conversation because neither of us was really feeling our best. Two weeks of hard living (Steak! Booze! Steak!) had us feeling like major sloths and we both knew we needed to switch some things up. So what to do? Colonic? Cocaine Bender? Oh the choices, we had! Although at this point none of those options sounded that great, so we kissed the fantasy of becoming a celebrity goodbye and decided instead to spend last week hitting the gym a little more vigorously than usual, and to go meatless for the week.


I’d be lying to you if I told you Jennie wasn’t a huge inspiration. Have you seen her Meatless March photos? I basically bogarted some of the good looking recipes she has been cooking, and pulled a few out of my own arsenal and had a very good looking weekly menu written out in record time! Among other things, we made Baked Penne with Grilled Vegetables (this made great lunch leftovers!), Stuffed Poblano Peppers, Veggie Fajitas (One word: Orgasmic), Pasta with Artichokes and Tomatoes (Quick and Tasty)  -- I mean, really we really had some delicious dinners! And not even once did we have the OMG I ate Cheesecake Factory for Lunch and Sushi for Dinner type of food hangover. It was awesome!


Also, as I mentioned earlier, we really decided to hit the gym hardcore this week too, and in an effort to step out of our comfort zone (and hopefully make up for the excess amount of cheese involved in this meatless week) we tried a Spin Class for the first time. Can I tell you? Holy Shit. And also, Ouch! But in a good way, I swear. As we stood in line to sign in for that class with all the other junkies, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Amy’s post about her Spin experiences  because wow -- people get hardcore about spin, my god. But it was definitely a good time and we plan to do another couple of classes this week, you know assuming my legs come out of the noodle like state they are currently in.


So, in sum, less meat and more exercise seemed to work out swimmingly. What a concept, eh? Before you go patting us on the back though, I do have one confession – I went out for brunch on Saturday and felt compelled to order a hamburger (it had blue cheese on it, people!) I’m not kidding you it was primal – I was like, “Meat, get in my belly” as if it was going to be the last opportunity I would ever have for a hamburger. And then last night while we were going through the fridge getting out leftovers for dinner Garrett decided to celebrate his week of meat-less-ness by grilling up a big old rib-eye. So you know, we definitely aren’t perfect or up for making a giant life change just yet. But we did write out our menu/workout schedule again this week and what do you know – 5 meatless meals and some major priority went to spin! This week I’m going to try and use some other protein sources besides beans and cheese, so we will see how that goes.


Do you have any favorite veggie recipes you want to share? I’m all ears!