Our Pseudo Vegetarian Life

About a year ago, I approached Richard with a radical idea: why don't we make half of our meals meatless. I was inspired by some good friends of ours who live a mostly vegetarian lifestyle. Richard was shockingly enthusiastic. I was perplexed until he divulged to me that he has had a secret "weirdness" about meat ever since he was a child.

We made a few insipid attempts at first, but a few months ago, we committed, in a big way, to being "Pseudo Vegetarian." What this means is that we eat fish twice a week, meat once a week, and the remaining 4 meals are vegetarian.
The library has been a great resource. I have been checking out so many books about cooking vegetarian. My favorite is the one on top: "Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody." Everything we make out of it is fabulous.

We just made some new friends from India who are vegetarian, and it is nice to be able to confidently cook for them. We cook with a lot more beans.
But we don't feel we have sacrificed any flavor what so ever. The photo above is one of our favorite meals: black bean burgers with roasted corn and baked sweet potato fries. It was the runner up for Richard's father's day meal.

But yes, we do eat meat. The meal that won out for Father's Day was steak fajitas. And we can't give up buffalo chicken pizza on Friday nights. The point for us in choosing to eat more vegetables is to enhance our health and well-being and not to be fanatics. We just feel better when we eat less meat. And the things we have been eating are so colorful and flavorful.

WE made this lifestyle change for me...
...and him...(I had to include one of Richard's beared pictures from last summer)
...and especially for her! We want her to be healthy and to have an appreciation for a wide variety of foods.
But it is not for her
...or her
...and especially not for her
So far we love our vegetarian meals and I have not even come close to running out of things to make.
So open wide, and get ready for some great recipes!