To meat or not to meat?

It hit me last weekend. I was at the grocery store in the check out line. I had all sorts of veggies, brown rice, lentils, soy milk, soy ice cream. The clerk was looking at my groceries and commented on how healthy I eat. And then she said, "That must be why you look the way you do. Are you a vegetarian?" And I realized, "Yes! I am." She asked, "For how long? A year?" "Not quite a year," I said.

This week is my fourth week experimenting with The Kind Diet. On the 28th of February, I will have been a vegetarian for one month. (So my "not quite a year" was a bit of a stretch. wink, wink.) And I have been eating almost vegan for most of the past few weeks. It's not been nearly as difficult, or as much of a sacrifice, as I thought it would be. I didn't eat that much meat to begin with. But I love cheese, and eggs, and ice cream and yogurt. I've found, however, vegan replacements for almost all of those things and they are, for the most part, surprisingly good! I can't say that I've really missed anything. Except sugar, which is a whole different story. But I'm getting used to that too. I have not yet even tried to give up coffee. Maybe some day, but not today for sure.

My husband, the Great White Hunter, gets it now. He's not giving up meat, and that's okay too. A few nights ago, he grilled venison burgers for him, and a couple of veggie burgers for me. After we ate, he asked me if it was okay to put them all in the same container in the refrigerator. What a guy! Although just a few nights before that, his hunting buddy came over so they could fill out their forms to mail in to get permits to hunt deer later this year. They were looking over everything else they could hunt for, and I heard him say, "Janet used to always want to shoot her own turkey. Hey, Janet! We're going to put you in to hunt turkey. Okay?" Um, hello!?!? I'm not eating meat. Why on earth would I want to kill something?! Sigh . . .

Some favorite things

Some things I'm loving right now . . .

Lion Brand Jiffy Thick & Quick yarn. I only learned how to crochet in December. My daughter-in-law taught me while they were here visiting. To begin, I bought a couple cheap balls of yarn just to practice my stitches. But soon I wanted to actually make something. I found this yarn at the local Joann store, and bought it in the Adirondacks color (not the one in the picture below). I made a scarf - it was so fast because the yarn is so thick! I loved it so much (the color looked great in my living room!), I went back and bought all the yarn they had at the store. Then, while out of town in the "big city," I bought all they had at a Joann store there, and I made a small throw for watching tv or reading on the couch.

For Christmas, one of the gifts I gave my husband was a water bottle I found at Gaiam.com. (It has trout on it. A manly water bottle!) I have a couple, too, but it's difficult to clean them. Today I found a brush especially for cleaning aluminum water bottles at Target. It's made by Sigg and works great. Speaking of water bottles, Papaya has the most beautiful water bottles, tote bags, cards and envelopes ever! I have a couple of their legal pads in my shopping cart right now. I may have to go to work everyday, but there's no reason I can't use beautiful things while I'm there. And one of these gorgeous bottles may wind up in my shopping cart too.



I am a bit obsessive about order and organization. I can't believe I didn't have one already, but I just purchased a Dymo label maker. I recently reorganized my pantry. I love cooking and baking, but sometimes my urge to bake was quashed by the fact that I had to make multiple trips back and forth to the pantry to get everything I needed - the mixer, the flour and sugar and ingredients, the mixing bowls, etc. So I purchased a nice kitchen cart that I can roll in and out of the pantry to use in the kitchen. My mixer sits on top, along with a cookbook stand, my timer, etc. There is a drawer that holds my measuring spoons and cups, a few spatulas, a rolling pin, a silicone mat, a few spices that I use almost exclusively for baking, and a few other things. There is a shelf where my mixing bowls and big canisters for flour and sugar go, and storage space down below behind two doors where I keep a few baking pans, special flours, baking powder, baking soda, etc. I have Tupperware containers in a couple different sizes that stack very nicely, and all the various flours and other dry necessities are stored there. So everything needed to be labeled.

And just for fun - these brown canisters are also Tupperware. I got them when my son was a baby and he'll be 29 in March! Originally there was one more - a larger one - that cracked. But Tupperware replaced it at no cost to me, just from a different set because this set was no longer being made.

I am also loving this book. There is so much information - a lot of it new to me - and it's presented in an upbeat and entertaining way. I've already tried a couple of the recipes, and so far I can highly recommend the Cheesy, Oozy Guacamole Bean Dip. It was delish hot from the oven, but was even really good cold the next day. I may do another post on this book later.

Have a beautiful weekend!