My Week without Meat

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! It was a great one here, we went to SantaCon in the city.  It was so much fun and I have never seen so any Santas in my life!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t eat any meat all week as a way to come off the juice fast. (Whenever I think about not eating meat, I think of “What do you mean you don’t eat no meat? Okay, I cook lamb.”-name that movie.)

Anyway, the last time I ate any sort of meat was last Friday (10 days!)when I had a tasty chicken dish at Quays restaurant in Hoboken. There have been many times in the past that I have tried to give up meat for a period of time, but I’ve never succeeded.  This was my longest stretch without meat and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had anticipated.

The meal that was the biggest challenge for me to avoid meat was dinner.  I hardly ever eat meat for breakfast or lunch, so it was not a huge adjustment for me.  It was actually fun to mix things up and create meals without meat.  My dinners included omelets, pasta, rice & veggies, soup, bean wraps and vegetarian Indian food.  There are so many options for vegetarians that I had never explored before.

Avoiding meat forced me to be more conscious about the food choices I made.  I didn’t eat much during SantaCon on Saturday, so I was pretty hungry as we ventured back to Hoboken.  Dan and I stopped at a café somewhere in midtown NYC around 10pm.  Typically I would have gone straight for a turkey sandwich, but obviously that couldn’t happen because I wasn’t eating meat! I went for a tomato mozz sandwich and it was delicious.  It took just a second to recognize I couldn’t pick a meat option, so I limited myself to their only vegetarian option. 

What I learned during this experience is that I definitely don’t need to rely on meat for my meals.  Many people worry about lack of iron or vitamins, but I felt great this whole week. Not once did I feel faint or sick (aside from when I was juice fasting), so I know I was giving my body what it needed without animal proteins. I never felt hungry or deprived and I didn’t miss meat once.

Moving forward, I probably will incorporate some meat back into my diet.  I think I will limit animal proteins to 3 days a week.  I want to continue finding alternate sources of protein and creating new vegetarian recipes. I made my Super Easy Turkey Chili today but subbed out the turkey. 

To make the Chili vegetarian, add one more chopped pepper to the mix, then include half of a can of corn and another can of beans.  It’s cooking away right now in the crock pot and it tastes just as good as the meat version!

How many of you are vegetarians out there?

What dish do you love to sub out the meat for another ingredient?

Super Easy Turkey Chili

 

Hi all! I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

While the weekends are always fun, this one was particularly fun! Saturday we went to the ING New York City Marathon Race Expo at the Javits Center then some friends from school came to Hoboken for a night out! It was so great to see them. Sunday was a lazy day filled with marathon and football watching and some great eats! Dan made delicious egg sandwiches for breakfast and we ordered Indian for dinner. I tested out some recipes and ended up making chili and granola. I have the recipe for the chili below and will post the granola recipe this week. They are both easy to make and good for you, too.

Chili is the perfect fall dish because it is hearty and good for you.  It's a low maintenance dish to prep and let sit for as long as you’d like.

Crock Pot Turkey Chili

Print this!

Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1 pound ground turkey (can use beef, chicken or more beans instead)
• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 (16 oz) can pinto beans
• 1 (16 oz) can kidney beans
• 1 (29 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp Chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Italian seasonings to your taste
• Fat-free sour cream
• Shredded cheese

Instructions

• Heat up a drizzle of olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Turn crock pot on low.
• Brown the meat in the pan. Half way through browning, add the chopped red onion and red pepper to the meat.
• Add ingredients from pan into the crock pot. Add all other ingredients and mix everything together.
• Let the crock pot heat the chili on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
• Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese.

Let me know what you think if you make it! I can cross off “create a crock pot recipe” from my November goals now.

Workout

Today’s workout was a sweaty one! It was a 5 mile treadmill interval workout that took me about 70 minutes and torched over 500 calories.

0.0 mile-0.5 mile: Walk @ 3.5 mph

0.5 mile-2.0 mile: Run @ 5.5 mph

2.0 mile-3.0 mile: Walk @ 3.5 mph

3.0 mile-4.5 mile: Run @ 5.5 mph

4.5 mile-5.0 mile: Walk @ 3.0 mph

Have a great Monday and I’ll see you tomorrow with the granola recipe!

Food Truckin’

After much anticipation, today was finally the Food Truck Rally! We took the hour long trek to Brooklyn (my first time in the borough) and got there around 11:30am. It started at 11, so the lines were just forming and we didn’t have to wait long for our first bite. There were over 15 trucks at the rally and endless options of food.

The rally was held at Grand Army Plaza right by the huge arch, how pretty!

After checking out all that the rally had to offer, we settled on Gorilla Cheese as our first truck. The truck itself was super cool and they played all Beatles songs as you waited!

After waiting in line for 20 minutes, I ordered the number three (Buffalo Chicken with Mozzarella) and Dan got the number one (smoked gouda with pulled pork and caramelized onions).

We split them half-zies for a variety.

First up: the smoked gouda with pork.

Holy cow, this was delicious! It was perfectly cooked so the cheese was melting just right. The pulled pork was so tender it melted in your mouth and the onions added the perfect amount of sweetness. This was worth the sweaty wait!

Then we split the buff chick.

Going…

Going…

Gone!

I can never resist anything with buffalo sauce so this was my obvious first choice. The chicken was the perfect amount of spicy. Not so hot that you started sweating but definitely noticeable. As you can see from the picture, the mozzarella was super stretchy and ah-mazing.

I gave the Gorilla Cheese truck a definite thumbs up!

Once we digested, we walked around to find our next truck. We must have been sitting for a while, because when we started walking again the lines were outrageously long! We went to Taim Mobile for falafels and smoothies. Their line wasn’t too long so we only waited 10 minutes. I was stuffed but wanted needed to experience another food truck.

We split the falafel side, which was six falafel balls with tahini sauce, and I got the Strawberry-Raspberry-Thai Basil smoothie.

The perfect combo of fruity and basil-y!

Mangia!

This food truck rally is held the third Sunday of the month until October, so there are two more opportunities to check it out on September 18th and October 16th. You'll find me at the one in October trying out more spectacular trucks! For more info, check out their website here.

Off to watch The Sandwich King on DVR. I’m so happy Jeff Mauro won Next Food Network Star!

Eataly or bust

Friday night Dan, Sam and I went into NYC to meet Devin and his brother for dinner and to go out.  Since the Path lets off right at 23rd Street I suggested we go one block over to Eataly.  I had heard a lot about it in the recent years and knew it was a place I wanted to explore once I moved to the area. 

It was as awe inspiring, overwhelming and amazing as I expected it to be.  There were so many cheeses, meats, desserts and smells that I wouldn’t even know where to start. 

(This is just one of the many sections of Eataly.)

So there in lies the problem.  We never started thus I never got to eat at Eataly No one wanted to agree on one type of food (pasta, pizza, meat) and everyone wanted a sit down meal, so we left and went elsewhere.  Unfortunately, I never got to experience Eataly and I was mega disappointed.  I guess we’ll have to go back one time during the day or during the week when it isn’t crowded and you can fully absorb everything that is happening around you.

Instead of dining at Eataly (tear) we went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant Saravanaa Bhavan was mega yum.  Half of our table, including myself, got Cheese Masala Dosa.  It was mashed potatoes, onions and cheese inside of a lentil paper wrap.  It was huge, spicy and amazing.  It came with four types of dipping sauces- I don’t know what they are called but I know the two on the left were coconutty and spicy, the third one was more savory but still spicy and the one farthest to the right was the least spicy and reminded me of a minestrone soup.  If anyone knows the names of these sauces, please leave them in the comments!

This was an all hands on deck kind of meal; it was almost impossible to eat with just a fork and knife.  This vegetarian Indian spot was great though and it made me want to explore further what other options I could have as a vegetarian (not that I am one or planning on becoming one, it’s just always been a thought I’ve had).

This weekend has been a foodie weekend for sure and the next stop on our adventure is  the Food Truck Rally today in Brooklyn.  I have become obsessed with food trucks lately, so I am super excited to experience the finest NYC food trucks.  What food trucks have you been to? Any you recommend?

Have a fabulous Sunday and keep an eye out for a review of the Food Truck Rally!