Exploration 1: Well, It Wasn't Beef*

I hadn't realized my bun was upside down until just now.
Oops! 

For anyone who may have been shaking their head at my near-miss of a full vegetarian day in the last entry, I have news for you. This weekend, I made Saturday true vegetarian status. I intend to aim for today also (I'm actually writing this on a Sunday) but have something in mind for dinner that might make me waiver a bit.

But yeah, this weekend we joined my sister's family in the country for Thanksgiving weekend. It was good times. Yesterday, after we officially were woke up - I say "officially" because I had been awake since around 7 a.m. when my niece, who's 2 and slept besides me opened her eyes, rolled over. Then once she saw I was awake, with a big smile said, "Good Morning, Uncle Tysis! (that's what they call me.) Then jumped out of bed and hit the ground running.

Somewhere after eight the family came in saying, "Good Morning, breakfast is ready!"

I'm not sure what we were playing Saturday morning, but
we were playing something. A photo of one of my nieces
and I after breakfast.

For breakfast we had pancakes with a banana twist. I'm sure the idea was simple enough, mash bananas and throw them into the batter. But I had never thought of that and it was a nice touch. I'm definitely trying that sometime in the future.

Then for lunch, the kids had home made cheese quesadillas while the adults had beef sandwiches. Let me just be clear about something - I love sandwiches. Anytime anyone has ever asked me what my favorite food was, I'd say, "Sandwiches." You see, they are just flexible. You literally could throw anything between two slices of bread and it's a sandwich - it's like a salad, but better. The possibilities are endless. Don't forget about the ways to prepare a sandwich, there are a shit ton of breads, you could toast the bread, you could warm up the sandwich - there's so much goodness in such a title!

Feel free to chance your favorite good to sandwiches also...I know you're considering it.

That said, it is bumming me out a bit that my experience of a sandwich will soon be forever altered. I mean, what's a sandwich without meat? It's essentially a salad...but backwards, if that makes any sense.

However, I did recognize the truth in having to get used to the idea of not automatically reaching for the lunch meat. As I laid the beautiful looking roast beef back on the counter I reminded myself - I'm not doing this for health reasons or because I'm being forced to, I'm doing this for spiritual reasons so I must seek the willingness to let meat go and accept my new conditions with a happy heart. It will be hard (and disappointing at first) but we're slowly transition, so it's okay. The day will come when it comes naturally.

I do have a full packet of ham lunch meat in our fridge here at the house, though. Sometime this week or next week I may need to pause to have a sandwhicih-fest. Can't let good food go to waste.

I joined the kids in cheese quesadillas. My plate, looking a tad unfilled, also had a few scoopings of Southern Greens (it basically tastes like spinach.)

Rolling into dinner - Vegetarian, Black bean hamburgers.

Let me clarify something right now, being a vegetarian means to work for your food. It seems like ever dish I manage to set out, actually needs some elbow grease. If you weren't hungry going into it, you might be by the time it's finished.

If I was just making a regular beef burger, I'd get the hamburger, make it flat and throw it on the stove top. Sunday night, I was chopping and slicing and mashing and stiring before the first patty even made the pan.

What I've noticed so far - preparation for vegetarian lifestyle...longer and requires a bit more effort.
The upside to a vegetarian lifestyle...food tends to take considerably less time to cook. After all, it's all pretty much vegetables. You can eat vegetables raw. I've never heard of anyone getting food sickness from just vegetables. Except maybe tomatoes, which can go bad. But they're technically a fruit. Moving on...

Again, I didn't have any bell peppers. Or so I thought. When all was said and done when I was cleaning up, I found one in a drawer I rarely look in - hiding! The nerve. So, I used celery because again, I have plenty of celery and they are starting to rubber. Also, I didn't have an egg. I thought I did, but it seems we used them all for Thanksgiving. Being it late and we're in a small Southern town, the grocery store was probably closed already (and I wasn't driving 3 miles just for an egg.) So I got creative - milk and butter.

Egg - dairy. Milk - dairy. Butter - dairy. Makes sense to me!

HA! HA! I know there's probably a food connoisseur or professional chef reading these entrys just shaking their head at my little creative detours. Don't laugh! Desperate times call for desperate measures. You have to admit though - I'm pretty good at making shit up.

The flavor may have been a tad modified than what the recipe intended - but I'm sure only by a hair. It couldn't have changed it all THAT much.

I didn't know exactly the "correct" way to dress it either. When my sister asked, I replied, "I have no idea, since it's trying to be a beef patty, I suppose you just do it like a regular hamburger." I slathered mayo on the bun, followed by topping it off with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, ketchup and mustard.

The plate still seemed like it lacked something so I steamed some vegetables and threw a pick on the side. (I actually didn't steam vegetables, I bought them frozen like that. I just tossed them in the microwave.)

I read in recipe comments that "crumbling" was a big concern. I wouldn't say it was a big concern on my part. It did. But I suppose I half way expected that. To tip-toe around it, I used a spatula when moving it and after the first two bites, used a fork to eat my burger with. It may seen pretentious, but it was out of necessity.

Although, I'm vegetarian (sort of) now. Hell, I might be halfway a hipster. I'm entitled to be pretentious.

Ew....yeah, no. I'm totally kidding. I don't know what the South would do with me if I turned hipster on them. They might very well run me out of here.

Overall experience..well, it wasn't beef. It might be able to tie me over during holiday cook outs. I remember back in college a classmate saying frozen, already made black  bean patties were the better way to go. I worked a considerable amount of years in the restaurant industry also and when it came down to vegetarian options - the pickings were a tad slim when it came to burgers. So I guess, periodically I'll try frozen versions here and there and when I stumble on a good one, make note of it. That shall be my go to because honestly, I'm not sure if I'd try this again.

But hey, at least I had lunch for Sunday.

But if you want to try, here's the recipe. Black Bean Hamburgers.

My vegetables are starting to look sad and I still have quite a bit. So come Wednesday we are going to aim for either something with cabbage or back to something Asian...unless I find something else.

I hope your weekend was enjoyable. Thanks for reading!