Exploration 1: I Busted Out My Chop-Sticks!*

Before I dive into my dish of chop-stick quickness and Japanese-love extravaganza, first things first...

Here are a couple of things that I am starting to notice about this first exploration, transitioning into Vegetarian-status: [If you're just joining us, I'm not aiming for true vegetarian status as I will continue to consume fish and such when available, periodically.]

1 - The idea of eating no meat is actually harder than actually not eating meat. At the beginning, as you know, I expressed concern that this might be difficult. At the start, the hardest thing was adjusting my stomach and pallet to not having meat constantly and always. I felt like something was missing (and there was) and when done, I thought I still felt hungry. I never really was hungry, I just wasn't satisfied because I was used to the goodness of meat and fat with every consumption - it's more of a brain process if that makes any sense.

And it isn't like I'm 100% vegetarian right now. I mean, last night I enjoyed beef stew that my sister did a wonderful job of cooking. It was delicious! But since I am aiming to make this a life change, there's no rush and there's no deadline to make it happen. So if you're thinking about giving it a go - stick with it and don't be hard on yourself. If you want meat, have meat. If you have meat, don't feel like it's game over. Fuck it! You do you. If that works for you in the journey, then by all means - do it.

As expected the most difficult part about this, is learning HOW to cook with vegetables only. It seems somewhat simple because most of our meals with protein include vegetables...or should. In these cases, there's a good chance the seasoning and the culinary is focused on the protein and the vegetables usually just become a side that's somewhat, if not entirely, plain. Or...the vegetables are cooked with the protein. In that case they work together to contribute to the overall experience.

When the protein is removed. It doesn't work that way. I mean...I suppose it can, but your food would be pretty bland. But if that's your thing - as I just stated, you do you. ;-)

Yeah it sucks having to cook nearly every night, but having done it off and on for now three weeks - I'm starting to enjoy it. Really! The recipes that I'm trying aren't..or at least shouldn't be all that hard because as I've said before, I'm not a chef and I'm not trying to be. I'm a bachelor who's in my 30s who has quite a bit going on in day to day life so I want quick, easy, tasty, fun food.

2 - Beyond noticing that my wonderful, Buddha-belly is starting to shrink, I'm starting to feel just better. It appears that the general perception of vegetarianism is that because there is no protein one will starve, be sickly, have no energy and evenly succumb to natural process and soon die. Part of this may hold true if you have pre-existing health conditions that depend on needing high amounts of protein. For the average person, however, I'm going to safely assume - you'll be fine.

I actually feel like I have more energy than I used to. I also feel lighter, not just in regards to weight but in regards to efficiency. I don't feel as sluggish as I used to. I'm pretty certain there is a connection here. One of the unexpected side-effects I've also noticed is my digestive track seems to be happier. Considering we are about to talk about food, I'll leave it at that.

3 - Three weeks ago, we spent roughly $300 on groceries for everyone in the house (four of us). Just eye-balling it, I'm going to safely assume that around $150 was mostly for the foods I've been using. That was 3 weeks ago! I don't know what you're grocery bill looks like, but I think that is pretty good considering it lasted for an entire month. And that included "start up" costs. Remember, there were staples that I didn't have (mostly Asian ingredients) that I made a special trip to get.

I'm honestly under the impression that next month I can eat for the entire month and it will only cost about $100.

So to summarize: It's not as hard as I thought. In addition to learning how to cook, finding recipes - I'm having fun playing chef. I am healthier and feel healthier. Without trying, I am losing some weight. Cost for food is projected to be reduced admirably.

I didn't truly expect any of this. Again, I am doing this for spiritual reasons so that the previously stated - BONUS! Then there's the kudos points I get for being socially and environmentally responsible by starting the compost and learning how to get the most out of my vegetable scraps (the vegetable broth I am working on.)

OK...now onto JAPANESE STIR FRY VEGETABLES

Let me just be straight-forward with you from the start...this recipe is a solid 5. 

-It's delicious 

-It's fast

-It's requires little preparation

-It's easy

-And...it's just fun.

I've never doing stir-fry anything before. At least in regard to trying to make it myself. I've seen it done and get the concept of it, but the closest I've ever come to trying it was that time when I was 13 when I needed a frying pan to cook my own hamburger. I couldn't find a clean skillet and instead of washing one, I grabbed my mom's new wok. She was so mad. She said I ruined it.

I didn't know there was specific purpose for it. I thought it was just a big ol' frying pan. Oops!

The directions encourage you to pre-cut everything before starting so you can focus on the stirring and the frying. I absolutely agree with this. You are working with a higher heating setting than normal so it's crucial you keep your eye on the skillet (or wok, if you're fancy.) It doesn't take much for anything to burn. (Some people do enjoy that charred taste, however. I'm personally not one of them.)

My dinner was delicious. Typically, I have some left overs. Tonight, I ate it all. I didn't even share. I also debated about adding sriracha sauce to it. You know I like my spicy. It's habit. But this was good. It didn't need it.

Here are my personal notes:

• Contrary to how I normally fry onions (letting them caramelize before adding the next ingredient) half cook them before adding the next set of ingredients. Stir-fry is like cooking in pyramid form. The items in there first are in their the longest. If in there for too long, they will either over-cook or burn. There's just no getting around that. My onions did burn a bit, but it didn't affect the flavor as much as I feared it would. Along with this though, I cooked with a rubber spatula. This avoided me from scraping the pan. So what got burnt, for the most part, stayed on stuck.
• The recipe says to add the garlic with the protein. Since I didn't have a protein, I applied the garlic as I normally would with any other dish, after the onions. (Garlic is delicate and cooks quicker. When overcooked, no longer adds to the flavor but subtracts from as it turns bitter.) I'd add the garlic right along with the snow peas or even better, cabbage. My garlic burnt. There was just no getting around that. (My sister also got me excited when she said she had a garlic press and realized it wasn't in this kitchen. She didn't realize I'd get so excited over something so small. I ended up using a fine grater to refine my garlic. Normally I mince it, but just wanted to try something different. I'd stick with mincing. It makes it a tad harder to burn.)
• I didn't have snow peas, but I did have frozen string green-beans, worked like a gem.
• I still don't have lemon-grass so I had to go sans. I didn't ruin anything, but I can tell already - it could only promote this dishes wonderfulness-ness if I had it. I need to figure out ASAP where I can find this. It's a tad exotic so I doubt anywhere in central Georgia carries it. Hmmm...
• I need to figure out what oyster sauce actually does. I've never used it and have no idea what it tastes like (yes, this means I probably will do a direct taste after I post this.) Again, I made a mistake out of over-eagerness and added a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon as directed. It didn't seem to make a huge difference.
• The recipe instructs to minimize water content. Truthfully, I did. Maybe because I was over cooking things it didn't take much before my pan to get dry. I ended up added hot water a little at a time. I figured the steam would help to cook the veggies. Besides, I've seen stir fry chefs - they add water.

The recipe says to serve it with rice. That's how I ate it. If you wanted to avoid all the starch, you honestly could just eat it as it and it would be great.

There you go...Japanese Vegetable Stir-Fry. As a friendly reminder, or if you didn't know, a little about Japanese table etiquette. It's improper for you to use your chop sticks to point and don't stand your chop-sticks in your rice. When you set them down, rest them on the side of the bowl. It's customary in Japan to stand up chopsticks in rice as an offering to the dead.

What I'm going to attempt next....home-made pizza. We have tomato sauce, I have mozzarella that I ended up freezing out of fear the entire block would go bad if I didn't use it soon, and I have flour. All I need is yeast. 

I've always wanted to try to do the twirly thing I see on T.V. Well now's my chance. I can't want to share with you how it turned out be it yummy or delayed because my dough got stuck on the ceiling.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to spend time with me by reading this blog. I'm having fun with it and I hope you are enjoying the journey with me. Please feel free to share this blog with your friends and family so they can join us. The more the merrier, right? OF COURSE!