Not Quite There Yet.

 

I. Morning

Checking our cupboards for what we need to get, I discover that we still had two big jars of bolognese sauce left, along with a tin of sardines.

“Can we just leave them there for when we get desperate?” I ask B.

“If I ever get desperate, I’d rather have roasted chicken,” he says.

“So what do we do?”

“Eat them. Because once we start, I don’t want to go back.”

So I sautee garlic, onion and mushrooms and empty the two jars. Boil some pasta. Mix them together. And voila! With the sardines and some rice, our meals our covered until dinner tomorrow. Looks like our veggie life starts on Sunday. 

 

II.  Night

Our loot today from the grocery store includes stuff you’d expect in a herbivore’s kitchen: canned and fresh fruits and vegetables, muesli, brown rice, soy milk, etc. etc. But the bill’s just as expensive as when we had meat. Because apparently, the more energy one spends in restricting certain urges, the less energy one has in avoiding other temptations–as seen from the cookie boxes and huge tub of Panettone that “jumped” into our cart.

I’m definitely going to do a weigh-in before we officially start, to see whether the scale moves to the left or to the right as we move forward. Are vegetarians sexier? We’ll see.

The “Last Meat” Meal

It’s a question I love to ask people: What would you want as your final meal? 

I’ve thought about this myself off and on for years. While the recipes changed, the key ingredients were more or less staple. Pork would be involved–with skin. Crunchy on the first bite, tender as it melts in your mouth. There would, of course, be some sort of fish. Here, I varied between wanting it deep-fried whole, with some sort of lemon/soy sauce dip, to wanting it grilled with mango relish, to having it served raw. As in sushi. Of course, there would be rice (white, mixed with wild) and a big slab of wedding cake with something chocolate. 

As B and I prepare for our quest to become vegetarians, I realize that we are having some sort of last meal. The “our last meat” kind. We don’t have much left in the fridge, having pushed back grocery shopping until after the new year’s. There were only three slabs of pork chop left, which I salted, spiced and grilled on the pan. B ate two with fries for lunch, and later had the last one with some fresh avocado (strange pairing, but considering the state of our fridge…) As for me, my “last meat” meal turned out to be brown rice with sardines. 

Tomorrow, we’re heading off to restock and replenish. Which should be a challenge, considering that where we live (that is, rural-rural France), even the bigger chains don’t stock too many alternative products like bio foods or meat substitutes. But who says anything worth doing is easy? Let the battle–nay, the adventure–begin!

In the meantime, here’s a list of brandless, vegetarian must-haves, according to a pretty nifty site I discovered–VegCooking:

• Dried and/or canned beans—kidney, chickpeas, lentils, pintos, etc.
• Nondairy milk—soy, rice, oat, almond (aseptic packages) (aseptic?*)
• Unsweetened coconut milk (canned)
• Silken tofu (aseptic packages) 
• Pasta and noodles—Italian pasta, rice sticks, buckwheat soba, etc.
• Whole-grain cereals
• Canned tomato products (diced, whole, puréed, and paste)
• Canned vegetables—artichokes, hearts of palm, roasted red peppers, etc.
• Condiments—salsa, soy sauce (tamari or shoyu), chutney, mustard, vegan mayonnaise, etc.
• Dried fruits
• Thickeners—cornstarch, arrowroot, and kudzu
• Egg-replacement powder (Ener-G Egg Replacer) (I can just imagine the face of the French store clerk as I ask for this one)
• Vegetable broth (cubes, powder, and canned)
• Dried mushrooms, dried chilies, sun-dried tomatoes
• Dried sea vegetables, including nori and agar-agar (probably not)
• Miscellaneous vinegars, pickles, jellies, capers, chili paste, wasabi powder, etc.
• Grains—rice, millet, barley, bulgur, couscous, rolled oats, popcorn, etc.
• Soy foods—tofu, tempeh, miso paste, etc.
• Convenience foods—veggie burgers, soy hot dogs, burger crumbles, veggie sausage, etc.
• Whole-grain flours, cornmeal, etc.
• Bread products—whole-grain bread, tortillas, pita bread, bagels, etc.
• Oils—olive, flaxseed, sesame, peanut, corn, etc.
• Peanut butter, tahini, almond butter
• Nondairy ice cream
• Nuts and seeds
• Lemons and limes (for cooking)
• Fresh ginger
• Garlic
• Olives (bulk)

*According to Wikipedia, aseptic describes a product or method that is free of microbiological organisms, that would lead to spoilage, fermentation, or contamination. Ah.