Giant Spicy Burritos!

I am a sucker for Mexican food, and really anything with a spicy hotness to it. I used to make my burritos with ground beef or chicken, but tonight I made them free of any meat for the first time.

I am absolutely loving experimenting with making my favorite foods without meat and discovering that I love them just as much!

My burritos were made with:

• whole grain tortillas
• mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, shredded
• plum tomatoes
• white onions
• garlic (of course, this is in almost anything I make)
• black olives (yum! I love olives of all kinds)
• jalapeno peppers
• fresh spinach leaves and hot sauce for garnish

I would have preferred to add some rice and beans to this, but honestly I was way too tired after work to cook those. For this recipe, I just chopped up the veggies,threw everything onto the tortillas, and microwaved it for about a minute!

These came out tasting FRESH and DELICIOUS and it took all of about 5 minutes to prepare!

Any other good ideas for Mexican themed veggie dishes?

Veggie Pizza, soooo good!

I did some grocery shopping today and picked up more veggies than I usually do, since I am trying to gradually replace meat dishes with vegetarian dishes. I looked up a few recipes and made a plan for the week's cooking.

This evening I made a veggie pizza with spinach, tomatoes, vidalia onions, and loads of garlic...

Garlic, and lots of it, is a key ingredient in lots of things that I make!

This pizza was sauce-less. I used olive oil, basil and parmesan (pesto) as the base, and piled it high with fresh spinach, veggies, a few sliced jalapenos, and crumbled feta cheese. It came out garlicky, cheesy, and delicious!

Suggestions for quick, easy, and cheap vegetarian meals?

Am I really going to do this vegetarian thing?

I've been putting off even thinking about "going veggie" for awhile now. I am a foodie. I love food. And (surprise!), I love meat.

I love chicken wings, pork chops, bratwurst, cheddar stuffed bratwurst, spaghetti with meatballs, meatloaf (it's like a loaf of bread, but it's meat!), steak kabobs, steak tips, giant cuts of medium-rare sirloin steaks, filet mignon, and don't even get me started on the possibilities that come with bacon!

But I am also a human with a conscious. I feel the weight of responsibility of being at the top of the food chain and being the species that is in control of our planet and its resources. Also I luuuuuurv me some living animals too! Furry, feathery, cuddly or not, I have pets and I love them.

As a student of yoga, I cannot ignore the yama, or ethical aim, of ahimsa, or non-violence. This includes non-violence towards any living creature.  There are some monks who wear masks over their mouths to prevent the accidental inhalation of bugs and carry brooms at all times to sweep away bugs that might be about to be under their feet. I know that I will never take it to that extreme. There are so many more reasons why I am interested in making this change other than merely a love and respect for all animals. I could write a whole other blog just on the environmental impacts of raising cattle. Check out 49 Good Reasons For Being a Vegetarian.

It will also be a challenge to find a way to eat that is healthy and well-rounded, imagine the damage I can do with macaroni & cheese, cake, and nachos! I read a great blog on Elephant recently about just such a dilemma, Why vegetarian does not equal healthy.

I may not ever cut meat out of my diet completely. I plan to continue to eat seafood as well as dairy products, but I do intend to cut back drastically on my meat intake. Everything I've read so far recommends taking it slow; having one or two meat-free days per week, slowly building a vegetarian recipe collection, and using meat substitutes when I'm having a craving. So that is my plan, beginning with this week. For the month of August, while I am attending the yoga teacher training, all of my meals prepared on-site by the chef will be vegetarian. That will be my first true test!

Could you ever go meat-less? If you are a vegetarian, how did you make the change?