Day 2

So I hit up Fresh n Easy last night and I picked up a couple boxes of tofu and some pasta. I also loaded up on nuts (peanuts and almonds). I made fideo for dinner with a some quesadillas to go along. Man, fideo can be a life saver!!!

Today I was a brat and had french toast for breakfast. I know not a healthy choice but it's rare that I have french toast and it seems like a harmless choice during this challenge. I'm looking forward to lunch. My friend is in town from Boston and she suggested we meet up at Loving Hut in Alhambra. Check out the menu!! Looks tasty huh!! It's a neat lil vegan joint in Alhambra. I'm so looking forward to eating fake meat. I'll let you know how it goes.

As for dinner I've drained the tofu and I put it to fry up with garlic and let it simmer in a tikka masala sauce. I plan to serve it over brown rice tonight. It doesn't look inviting but we're looking for good taste and nutrition, right? right! I hope I'm not the only one who enjoys it. Dan doesn't look eager to eat it but I've invited my friend Iris to come over and she'll have to take one for the team since I invited her over for dinner!

I've also hit up a vegetarian chemistry professor I work with. She laughed when I told her about the challenge. Not because it's insane but because she said this is exactly how she became a vegetarian herself. She said she took on a challenge like this one and never went back. "A piece of steak feels like a rock in my stomach" she said.
She'll gather some simple recipes to share which I will post. However, she did say that the vegetarian cook books recipes are pretty extensive and that the magazines have the quick and easy recipes. She reccommended Vegan Times and also told me to try BBQ tofu.

Now gotta get some website work done. Looking forward to lunch with Jazzy.

New participants joining the challenge:

Roxy (my lil sister) I'm eager cuz she likes margaritas as much as a I do and can't live without burgers!!

Illy who seems to have pretty good discipline also joined. I think she'll be good at this and their boss.

So far our roll call:

Santa Perversa
Corey
Val
Yvette P.
Rox
Illy
QC Boss

Brenda is doing it too. A modified version of no booze and fast food. We'll keep her at bay if she rolls up with a steak.

Day 1

My friend SP and I were having cafecito during our bruja hour and she mentioned a food critic stops having meat and alcohol for 30 days after nye. He does this to reset his palette. We figured we can reset our palette and also lose some weight in the process.

I did some vegetarian research last night. I didn't know there were so many variations of vegetarianism. Octo, Lacto, Fruit, Demi. There's tons of ways to justify your diet. No eggs, cheese, no red meat but I eat chicken. I hit up my good friend sister who is a lifelong vegetarian for some tips and recipes. She also asked what kind of vegetarian I would be. I decided that I'm going to be a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian (which means I can take down some dairy and eggs). The other versions are very strict and vegan is just a bit extreme for an amateur like myself. I want to take on the challenge of having no meat (no chicken, seafood, red meat.. any meat) and no booze for 30 days and survive. If it all goes well (keeping fingers crossed) I may consider being a vegetarian once a week every month. That is being a bit optimist but I typically am.. we'll see.

I will post recipes and tips that I get from my peeps to help out my friends that are taking this challenge with me. So far we go two willing mujeres that stepped up, so that's three in total. My boyfriend, wait correction, fiancee said he will do it as well but will cheat when he's away. He claims he'll need some seafood or chicken or else he'll lose whatever fat is holding him together and well he's probably right. I said "don't ask, don't tell". I don't want to know. So far, he's a demi vegetarian for the next 30 days.

Features I found handy so far:
iphone apps: whole foods, veg kickstart for 21 days, vegrecipes

veg friends: Chris

I am currently looking for good vegetarian blogs.

Breakfast: Soyrizo and Eggs and wheat tortilla. Coffee.

Lunch: Vegetarian Chili

Dinner: TBD

Snacks: Banana