The Chicken is out to GET Me!

courtesy of twilightguy.com

When I was young, I was a very picky eater.  My Mom always told me the only reason I survived my childhood was because I liked milk.  She forced me to eat vegetables a few times, but that never ended up well for either of us.  I generally threw them back up.  I just couldn’t stand the taste.  As a teenager my tastes grew more sophisticated.  I pushed passed pure milk and became a meat and potatoes sweets kind of girl.   Vegetables were for losers!

As an adult I better understand what it means to eat a healthy diet and I have begun to experiment a little bit more with my food.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not a solid veggie eater, and as a general rule of thumb if it’s green and it’s cooked I don’t like it – this includes brussel sprouts, peas, lima beans, and broccoli to name a few.  Now there are a few exceptions, I do love spinach and asparagus – although these have only been discoveries I’ve made in the last 10 years.  I can also tolerate almost any raw vegetable, it’s just when they are cooked that something bizarre seems to happen to them.

So this story might shock a lot of people who know me, but a few weeks ago I decided to try my hand at being a vegetarian for a week.  I ended up going 9 days!!  Yep, this meatatarian maintained a vegetarian diet for 9 days.  I’m not exactly sure why I decided to do it.  Mostly I just like trying new things and seeing if I can do them.  I was also really inspired by Jason at Cook Train Eat Race (formerly Life of an Aspiring Triathlete) who has had a fairly recent transition to a vegetarian diet and posts great weekly recipes every Thursday on the Athlete’s Plate.  I really wanted to just try out a few items.  They looked delicious.  It also caused me to branch out and try new things….like eggplant for the first time in my life!  It was awesome!  I also made this fabulous veggie pizza (I know some of you have seen this pic before on my hubby’s blog but it's worth sharing again).  I was really surprised by the experience.  First off, I hadn't died.  Second I had tons of energy and felt great….hmmm….maybe veggies aren’t for losers.

I say all that to get to the point that I think the chicken is out to get me.  I had no intention of completly switching to a vegetarian diet, so I knew I would eat meat again sometime.  Last week during my trip to Chicago I finally succumbed to some rotisserie chicken.  The next day I ended up with a severe head cold that I’m still fighting.  Now, I don’t think there was a direct correlation between getting sick and eating chicken…..but I think that chicken was sending me a message J

Then yesterday at work I ordered a chicken panini (I am very fortunate to have a good usually good onsite cafeteria at work).  About two bites into the sandwich I look down and what do I discover……..I am eating RAW chicken!  That’s right, it’s not just a little pink, it’s RAW……..ugh…I feel sick already.  I’ve definitely lost my appetite so I head back upstairs to my desk where just a few minutes later I throw up.  There is nothing better than throwing up at work in a public restroom.  I’m telling you the chicken is trying to tell me something.

Needless to say, my lunch today was brown rice, steamed vegetables, strawberries, and a side salad.  I’m not going anywhere near meat for a few days. 

So, what do you eat?  If you are a vegetarian how do you get enough protein for an endurance athlete (aside from beans)?  Have any nutritional information or recipes to share?  And last but not least answer me this - can a vegetarian eat animal crackers?  Hopefully that's not offensive to anyone, I just thought it was funny!

Remember, you are what you eat!