A New Day

Today is the day that I have decided to change the rest of my life. I was watching "The F Word" starring Gordon Ramsay last night and for the second time in the past week I witnessed the slaughter of animals for consumption. Mr. Ramsay's animals had been lovingly cared for, and humanely slaughtered (if there is such a thing...) but the images still haunted me, and I was brought to tears as the animals gave their lives to be food. I have made the decision that I no longer wanted to consume meat as a staple of my diet, and therefore, will not be making meat-centric foods for my family any longer.

This morning I started Googling "becoming vegetarian" and of course the first website that popped up was for PETA. The images and video on the website were frightening and although I strive very hard to only purchase animal meat and products of the highest quality, there is still the nagging image of the eyes of the animals that died that I cannot get over. If it were a life or death situation, then of course I would eat meat, but I think that I can survive quite healthfully on a non-meat diet. I have been living dairy free for just shy of one year, so I think this is the next logical step in the health of my body and the bodies of my family...which brings me to problem #1: The Hubby.

As I was wiping away the tears last night for the pigs that were slaughtered (and we don't even eat pork...) my Hubs was laughing on the couch. He had zero sympathy for the animals, and grew up on a farm where he slaughtered numerous animals. I mentioned that I never think about this aspect of the consumption chain while biting into a hamburger, and he said that he flashes back to standing on the inside of a cow every single time he eats beef. I mentioned that I might not want to eat meat anymore and he laughed even harder. This is where my new lifestyle is about to get very tricky...how to become vegetarian on the sly, and only serve my family vegetarian meals without making a big fanfare about it so they have less of a chance to rebel.

On the menu tonight: Pasta. Easy peasy. No questions, no problems, everyone ate. I made a salad and we had bread. No issues.

I researched CSAs today and found a pretty cool one that you pay weekly for (as opposed to the full share up front which has deterred me in the past). It is called "door-to-door organics" and I will be signing up for their next box to be delivered on Tuesday. I'll keep you posted on my menu selections and my quest to be....The Secret Vegetarian.......