Day 18

January first was the day of my total transition, even though I have meat in my freezer still.
I knew if I kept putting that deadline on it, it would never happen. I'd keep choosing to eat healthy vegetarian meals and indulge every now and then in non-vegetarian meals, since that's what I had been doing for a few months. (And most of the time, my "indulgences" were bad choices from fast-food restaurants.)
I need to take the remaining meat and give it to a friend who mentioned she'd be willing to take it. While I don't support the treatment of animals in commercial farms -- and chances are the meat in my freezer came from commercial farms -- I also don't support waste. The animals lived, and died, and I don't want their sad lives to be wasted.

My decision has been met with interesting and differing reactions.
My partner, whom I mentioned a few posts ago, has waned and waxed. It seems he's only supportive of my vegetarianism when it doesn't impact him. We'll go out to eat somewhere and he'll ask, "Are you meat or no-meat tonight?" And when he comes to visit, cooking meals at home is interesting. Last night, we had Monte Cristo sandwiches -- he had traditional lunchmeat, I had Lightlife Smart Deli turkey-style meatless lunchmeat.
My mom seems to forget. When I was home for a visit the first weekend of the year, my dad was asking her, on speakerphone, what she wanted for dinner, she said, "Mac & cheese with hamburger." (And I know that her hamburger purchases are not consciously-sourced.) When I first told her about my decision, she was supportive, but like I said, it appears she has forgotten, or is treating it like it's a joke or part-time.  We ended up having pizza that night: Jake & I splitting a cheese pie and my parents splitting a pepperoni one.
My supervisor is super-supportive. "I think it's so great, what you're doing, Becca," she'll say, nearly daily. One of the other ladies I work with said, "Oh, I was a vegetarian before. I stopped because of bacon." (As if that's the path I'm going to go down, too.) There were two coworkers of mine who were vegetarian, but since one of them decided to not come back from maternity leave, there's now only one other vegetarian besides me. There are also two self-identified pescetarians.

I must confess: most of what I've been eating these past two and a half weeks have included meat substitutions, like SmartGround from LightLife, which is amazing.
Some vegetarians don't support this, but I'm not sure why. It's textured vegetable protein (TVP), not ground meat from a short-lived animal who had limited-at-best outdoor exposure.
One of my favorite recipes that hasn't included just substituting meat-likes has been a breakfast beet scramble. (The pink hands are worth it!) I'm sure as I get farther into my new journey, I'll discover more dishes that are free of meat substitutions. (Couldn't one argue, though, that putting lentils, tofu, tempeh, seitan, or beans in a taco is a meat substitution when the eater had previously been eating tacos with meat in them?)

Making a life-change as huge as what one eats will force a comfort-zone boundary check.
I probably would have only considered dining at a meatless restaurant before, or only going with certain friends, but now I've fallen in love with them and want to go to more. (Tasty Harmony is the local restaurant I've been swooning over, and I've been advised to try Native Foods Cafe and Watercourse.)
Becoming a vegetarian has definitely forced me to be in the kitchen more, and I'm not complaining. I've needed this kick in the pants for a long time. (The last time I spent this much time in the kitchen was when Jake and I house-sat for my uncle, going on four years ago next month.) When (and if) I make the transition to veganism, I'll be spending MORE time in the kitchen. (I assume it's cheaper to make cashew and other nut-based cheese than to buy it?)
I love the fact that I can handle raw tofu with my hands and not have to rush to a sink to get rid of contaminants. Wonderful. (Same with the TVP. Love.)
I've fallen in love with jackfruit. (Thanks to Tasty Harmony's Nachos de Ynez.) I now have to scour Asian shops in this town until I find it.
I have a board on Pinterest about recipes I plan to renovate. They are recipes that include meat in them, and I'm going to remake them without meat. I'm going to stockpile the changes, and I may share some before Liesl makes her return. (We'll see!)

Thanks for keeping up with this. :)
I'll post more updates as they happen.