#17 - Eat Vegetarian Every Monday (fail)

In an attempt to eat more sustainably, each year, I've been incorporating more

I love the fried tofu from Cozy Noodles
& am so stoked I finally found
a comparable recipe.

vegetarian and plant-based (vegan) meals. I decided to do meat-free Mondays for 2021 (in addition to some stretches and vegan days). I gave myself 5 exceptions, not because it's too hard, but I wasn't sure if I'd forget or perhaps be somewhere where someone else is providing the food and there aren't vegetarian options. I stopped working on this one in November, when I finished my 12 items for the year, but that means I only missed 4 Mondays through November, which is pretty darn good, and I had a lot of vegetarian days during the rest of the week because I learned a ton of vegetarian recipes that I liked, and business has been slow, and vegetarian food is much less expensive than meat.

After doing 8 days vegetarian last year, it's been shockingly easy to eat vegetarian once per week this year. I have so many great recipes in my arsenal; I know how to improvise well with plant-based ingredients; and I know where to go to easily find new, great recipes. 

I've included pictures and descriptions of some of my fav veggie meals.

Exceptions

1 - 2/8/21

Spanish tortilla!

I was so stressed about "moving" back to Chicago to teach one day/week in person. I was hungry after staying up late packing and was not pleased with my veggie options for snacks. I decided to make an exception and have some turkey bacon late night.

2 - 7/19/21

Hearty veg soup

It was my dad's birthday, and he wanted to eat outside with a water view. We wound up at X, and while the view is great, they don't have great vegetarian options. I went with a buffalo chicken sandwich and was also pretty pleased that miss #2 was more than 5 months after miss #1 and in the second half of the year.

3 - 8/16/21

Blip #3 was also intentional, as I was renting a house and doing group meals with 11 other people, 6 of whom were children. I just went with the flow instead of trying to go buy my own meals for the day.

4 - 10/25/21

This one was my biggest oops without planning. I'd had a rough day and just wanted some pizza, but business had been slow, so I opted for a frozen pizza. When I got home, I realized I'd gotten a pepperoni pizza, and it was a Monday. So I could have found something else, but instead, I said, well, here goes day #4.

Portobello burger with
mozz, sauteed onions, & spinach