Why am I Trying Veggie?

Fruit and vegetable box

There's a lot of reasons that I've decided to start Trying Veggie. Below is a bit of the background that led up to the tipping point, but overall the primary deciding factor is nutrition. I feel that a strict rule (Don't Eat Meat) forces me outside of the comfort zone and complacent approach I had recently developed toward food. The meals I was making had meat at center stage, while veggies and grains were an afterthought.

Example: six pounds of pork shoulder salted a day in advance, cut into cubes and seared, then braised in the oven with some fun ingredients (orange juice, Coca-Cola, etc.) which made amazing carnitas. We had tacos, used the meat for sandwiches, etc. but we didn't consume nearly enough vegetables and grains.

Another meaty dish of mine: little lamb t-bones

A typical pattern... at the last minute before we sat down to eat, I would cut romaine and drizzle on some dressing. Most of our meals were like this--to the point where my husband had to ask me to start serving more vegetables. Sadly, this meant I bought a bag of frozen mixed veggies at my next trip to the market.

I started to think back and wondered what happened? It's just that a lot in life had changed--we moved cross-country and focused on "more important" things. Then when asking "what's the dinner," meat was the answer.

So I started to think back to things that have previously resonated with me to summon a greater focus on nutrition and less meat:

• Super Size Me (the whole feature film can be viewed after two short ads)
• Food, Inc. (excerpts and trailers)
• The Abs Diet
• Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook
• Dr. Weil's Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid
• Vegetarian options discovered in California
• The Veggie Grill (Vegan restaurant)
• The Yard House (offers their traditional menu items with Gardein in lieu of meat)
• Gardein garden protein products available at supermarkets
• Reconnecting with a friend from junior high (who lives north of me in CA and has been a vegetarian for many years)
• Driving past the Coalinga Feed Yard on a recent drive up to San Francisco (the smell and site was horrific)
• "1/3 of the US supermarket beef is finished on feedlots like that in Coalinga (700 acres with up to 120,000 head of cattle)... Cattle may spend 110-150 days on a feedlot where they're fed grain and protein (some say also steroids) where they'll come in weighing 800lbs and leave for slaughter weighing around 1250 lbs." via Chowhound
• Graham Hill at the TED Conference--Why I'm a weekday vegetarian

 In a quick nut shell, that's why I am Trying Veggie. What about you? Are you curious about trying veggie too? Please use the comments option to share with me why you do, or would--moral reasons? Health? The environment?