Veggin' Out

A few days ago, the desire to go meatless/vegetarian for a couple of weeks hit me. You know how people say "when you're ready to do it, you'll know"? Well, when the thought hit, everything else was automatic. If only that happened when it came to exercising! lol

So, the thought hit, I went grocery shopping and for the past 3 days have been doing it and feeling great! I've done this before but it was a lot of work for me to do it the first time. Primarily because it really wasn't something I wanted to do, but something I felt I needed to do. This time, I actually want to do it, and the time period popped in my head along with the thought. So I'm rolling with it.

What have I been eating, you ask? Well, for some reason I am on a Mexican food kick. I went out and bought kale to steam, shallow fry & bake...haven't cooked any of it yet. I also bought the fixings for triple succotash....haven't made it yet. I bought a lot of things to help me go along on this couple of weeks and out of all the things I bought, the only thing I have fixed out of that trip to the grocery store was a s fruit salad. Everything else I've eaten over the last 3 days came DIRECTLY OUT OF MY PANTRY!!!! Color me not so amused!!!! But I won't have to head out to the store any time soon, so I guess that's a plus.

Here's what I've made so far.

Fruit Salad (a week's worth for 1-2 people)

3 apples, diced, with skin (I used Pink Lady, Gala & Red Delicious-can add Granny Smith for a tart kick)

2 firm plums, diced, with skin
1/2 can pineapples in juice (I chose not to use fresh b/c I needed the juice also...save the fresh for smoothies)
1/2 juice from the can of pineapples
1/2 cup red or green grapes, sliced in half
1/2 cup dried fruit mixture of your choice (I used raisins, golden raisins and craisins)

I sliced the apples, spritzing each with lemon juice to keep them from browning, then sliced the rest of the fruit, dumped it in a big bowl, added the dried fruit, poured the pineapple juice in, stirred and tossed and popped it in the fridge. It will keep for a week and the apples will still have crunch. Its great. I eat it alone, add some sliced banana to a serving, add some sweetened coconut to make it a sweet treat or add it to some vanilla Greek yogurt and have a good time. The longest I've been able to keep a fruit salad like this has been 7 days. After that it starts to look a little funky.

The other thing I've made so far was some black beans and corn and had it with white rice (can use brown, but I had white left over) homemade guacamole dip and sour cream. I really can't post the recipe for that because I don't remember what I did as far as measurements. I can just say I took 1/2 an onion and softened it up in some EVOO, drained the beans from the can, defrosted some corn I bought fresh, roasted & froze, chopped up 2/3 of a tomato and threw it in the pan over the softened onions. I added rep pepper flakes, chili powder, cumin, sazon, and chipotle chili powder to it and played with adding more chili powder and chipotle chili powder until it had the flavor I was looking for. I did add some pepper to cut into the sweetness of the corn and a few hits of hot sauce at the end. See, no exact measurements, but you can fix & taste as you go. So, anyway, I had that on top of some white rice with cheese, sour cream and my guac wrapped like a burrito and it was DELISH! I say wrapped "like" a burrito because I really don't roll it well at all. I could have just torn the burrito and made myself little bites, but it was so good it didn't matter. Added with the kick of my guac and the coolness of the sour cream....YUM. If it wasn't full of beans I'd have had it for dinner too.

Mind you, of these things, the only food used that I just bought in that trip to the store....the fruit salad, except for the pineapple.

That's it for today. I'll post how things go. Three days down and I'm not bored and don't feel deprived...and I still have plenty of food to cook. But for now....

Peace out!