With having less meat in my diet, my skin cleared up so much and I was less bloated. On days where I ate a lot of vegetables, I felt overall better than days where I just ate carbs (bread, cheese, etc). It's very easy to become one of those vegetarians who only eat bread, so I pushed myself to actually make meals for myself. I ate sushi during school if I felt lightheaded from lack of calories, but I did feel better for the most part. It's been a few weeks now, and I don't really crave chicken or beef. I don't know if I'll continue a strict pescatarian/vegetarian diet, but I feel in the future I am still going to limit my meat intake.
On that note, I have been taking photos of some of the meals I've been eating/making.
Pasta Primavera in Tomato Sauce with Tofu
When my cousin, Alessia, visited me last month; she showed me how to make this. She is vegan, and for one night her and I decided to cook dinner together. I made this same recipe for my parents last night. I bought a packaged mix of vegetables and a container of chopped peppers. I also bought a teriyaki tofu cutlet. I cooked all of this in a pan with oil.
At the same time, I was boiling pasta and cooking tomato sauce on the other two burners. Usually, I would cook the tomato sauce with the vegetables, but since the sauce was not from a jar; it had to be cooked from scratch in another pot. When finished, I put the pasta in my bowl first and then add the sauce with vegetables. To keep it vegan: put nutritional yeast and turmeric on top. To keep it vegetarian: put cheese on top of the dish.
Everything Bagel with Vegan Cream Cheese
I don't have any photos of the copious amounts of bagels I've consumed in the last month, but trust me it's been a lot. I usually eat everything bagels with either smart balance butter (vegan!) or cream cheese (still pretty yummy), but I decided to try this brand of vegan cream cheese an I give it a 5/5. I recommend trying it. A few of friends are lactose intolerant, but love cream cheese; so I'm going to make them try this.
Eggs with Rice
I've eaten this meal almost every day of spring break when I've been home. It's very simple to make and I find it delicious paired with hot sauce. I make a pot of white rice to eat throughout the week, and it comes in handy when I want an easy meal. All you have to do is fry an egg, and then scramble it and add it to rice. I also add nutritional yeast to the meal, and sometimes I will either add tofu or substitute the egg with it.
Do you have any favorite vegetarian meals? Let me know in the comments :)
xx
Christina Madeleine
