First of all, I'd like to admit that I was in a REALLY bad mood yesterday. I'd been watching House so I was grumpy and sarcastic, I had a bad day at work resulting in my general moodiness, and I don't want to tell you what's going on in my head but rest assured that there are many complicated sauces and soups boiling away up there.
Today I did some decent work at the lab and then Laura and Scott graciously took me to Loblaws, as promised. I decided to take the lazy vegetarian route this time around (as opposed to the do-everything-yourself-from-scratch-forever-and-always route that I'll probably resume shortly). By my definition, the lazy vegetarian means I got stuff like frozen cheese cannelloni, frozen cheese pizza (that I'll later decorate with lots of cool veggies), canned tomato sauces for different kinds of dried pastas I got, canned curry sauces (my curry experiment isn't sitting well with me or my tastebuds), etc. Hopefully in moderation these things will be healthy as well. We just won't talk about the chips that were on sale...that I bought. As a treat.
Reasons for being lazy:
1. I'm overloaded at the lab and will likely be spending a solid chunk of time at work during overtime hours. Barely any time for yoga, and definitely not enough time to cook everything from scratch.
2. I just finished a long few weeks of doing everything myself and it's really tiring, so I'm taking a break.
3. I can't stock my fridge with too many fresh ingredients because I'll be back in the DR for the better part of the weekend. Nothing more frustrating that spending dough on fruit and veggies that then rot in the fridge while you're away eating mom's food.
Speaking of which, I haven't told my parents yet about my "vegetarianism." I know why, too. I'm scared. I'm scared that my dad will make fun of me for suddenly becoming all "granola" with the yoga and the pro-gay-marriage and the tofu and the outrage at production farming. I'm scared that my mom will sigh a great big exacerbated sigh of annoyance as she complains about having to come up with "alternate" food for me to eat while they all mow down on steak. I'm scared that my brother will make fun of me and knowing him, he'll never ever give it up. I'm scared that my parents will be insulted that I'm coming home for the week, and that I've chosen NOT to eat all the luscious expensive meats they bought especially for my visit. I'm scared that they'll think I've gone mental. I'm scared at what they'll think of me going back on my old ideas of "never ever becoming a vegetarian ever ever ever." I'm scared they'll try to talk me out of it. I'm scared they won't take me seriously and shove a great big steak under my nose and say "It's this or no dinner at all. Make yourself some toast or something if you don't eat real food anymore."
The alternative is obviously not to tell them. This would inevitably mean that I'll be eating meat this weekend, and I know for a fact it's from Valu-Mart or Costco, and I know for a fact that neither of those places sell farm-raised free-range meat in bulk or for cheap. My parents just don't care. "Things happen on this earth that you won't be happy with, Julie. You have to live with them, you have to just accept it and move on. We're not going to get crazy here and stop eating our protein or start paying $8 for one chicken breast. If you think that's going to happen, I'm sorry but you're going to be very dissappionted." I can just hear my mom shaking her head and lecturing me on this as she's taking the pork chops out of the fridge and out of their 4lb. saran-wrap frozen packaging. I'd like to make clear that I'm not at all trying to impose my diet on my parents, force them to keep all the meat hidden away while I'm at home and eat salad all weekend, talking about responsible farming while doing yoga. NOT AT ALL. I'm simply hoping for some respect and acceptance from them that this is my choice and shouldn't at all change the way they eat, unless they're moved and feel inclined to do so.
I know that 48 hours of eating meat isn't going to kill me, and honestly, it'll just be a mental thing and it'll nag at me all weekend. Reminder: it doesn't gross me out to eat meat, but over the last 3 weeks I've been accustomed to think in a veggie way (if that makes sense) and I have no problems working around it. I just feel guilty and like a cheater if I'm too much of a scrotum to tell my parents about my new diet so that I can stick to my convictions.
I have to decide soon. My mom probably has every meal figured out for the weekend, since she has to budget for 4 people eating. If I tell her, she'll want to change her menu around. Could I just tell her, and say I'll just eat the sides?
Anyone have any advice?
For the cooldown part of this hot day, and this hot topic in my head, I found a recipe to help me get rid of some kiwis that are rapidly going bad on me.
Kiwi Sorbet
1 3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice (juice of about 4 limes)
4 kiwis
1. Make the simple syrup by mixing 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of the water in a small saucepan, and heating until just boiling. Set aside.
2. Cut the ends off the kiwis and peel them. Cut them in half, and using a sharp knife, remove the green flesh from the white seedy centres. Discard the white centres and the seeds.
3. In a blender, liquify the kiwi meat.
4. In a large bowl, combine the kiwi, lime juice, 3/4 cup of the simple syrup and the remaining 3/4 cup of water.
5. Pour into a plastic bowl or container, seal, and freeze for at least 6 hours.
Alternatively, you can use the exact same recipe and make popsicles, but I didn't have popsicle sticks or the plastic popsicle molds, so I decided on shaved ice/sorbet.
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