Finding better food

When I decided one year ago to completely give up meat and embrace a vegetarian lifestyle, I was at my wit’s end. For the past two years, I experienced these bouts of sickness which lasted for 24 hours and included me not being able to keep food or liquids down.  Meat has never been a substantial component of my diet, but when I examined these incidents more closely, I came to the disturbing conclusion that they were becoming more frequent. I connected the dots and found meat to be the culprit; I had eaten some type of meat 24 hours before getting sick. Having implicated meat in these incidents of what I had originally thought was stomach flu, I decided I had had enough and completely removed meat from my diet.

Since then, I have had many adventures in food, finding new and more interesting ways of getting protein (soy bacon is an acquired taste in case you are wondering), giving traditional recipes a new twist (never try to make a meatloaf with tofu, it will not cook, no matter how many times you keep putting it back in the oven) and trying to maintain a healthy diet on a budget. I have found recipes that are easy, inexpensive, and efficient that anyone can do. I have found that with some thought and planning, I can eat both cheaply and healthily and I have felt the benefits of this lifestyle. Having experienced both lifestyles, eating meat and fast food and the more healthy alternative of abstaining from meat and minimal convenience food, I can definitely say that the latter makes for a better and more interesting life.  Food can be an adventure and one that is well worth the effort.