A few words on organic food.

So! Hello! Recently, I've been having quite a ball not eating meat. Who knew it could be this fun? I started with two different patties...

Friday's dinner involved a vegan pattie, along with rice and broccoli. 

Saturday, I enjoyed a garden veggie sandwich, with more veggies on the side, and some fruit juice.

Aside from the meals, I've been enjoying LOTS of healthy snacks -- veggie and fruit juices (note to self: next time, omit the carrots from the veggie concoction), yogurt, string cheese and cottage cheese, and -- my new fave -- pumpkin seeds!

I love that these seeds are organic (so is the vegan burger, celery, and perhaps some of the other foods). I found this neat website called 100 Days of Real Food. It's put together by a family that focuses on completely eliminating processed food from their diet! It is a great option -- because it encourages purchase of seafood that is caught in the wild (not farm-raised), meat that is locally raised (and eating meat in moderation), etc. That last sentence doesn't apply to my Lenten journey, of course, but it is important to look at where our food comes from! I will definitely start to notice that more in the purchases I make this Lent (and onwards).

Other than that: encouraging healthy choices is a huge privilege we have when avoiding meat. All these websites say, "Being vegetarian doesn't mean eliminating the protein source, it means replacing it with a non-meat source!" ... so what happens when a poor family cannot afford meat and isn't educated on what other inexpensive protein sources exist?

Also, humbly realizing that when people serve you food, it is often out of our control. I realized quite quickly that if I have a vegetarian meal that isn't quite healthy, the solution is not to fill up on what's available, but to find healthy snacks/sides (i.e. soup!) to complement the dish.

P.S. Still looking for fun recipes -- so please send them my way!