All the Meat you care to Eat

At the Blockburger home, we're apparently bored enough that we've decided to do a little bit of culinary experimentation: we're going meat-less for a month.

Now, before the internet explodes, I want to explain what this is and isn't.

This is not part of any grand plan to "convert" to vegetarianism.  At the end of this, I fully expect to return to my omnivorous ways.

This is not done for any particular ethical reason.  I recognize that there are many instances of animals that are used for meat being treated very poorly.  I also recognize that environmentally meat is a less efficient way to feed ourselves.  These are not my primary motivation for this venture, however.

This is fueled significantly by my own curiosity.  I know several people who are vegan or vegetarian, and they seem to like it.  I also know a lot of meat-eaters, and they seem to like it.  I've tried the meat-eating thing for a few decades, so I figure I can spend a few weeks without meat to see what it's like.

This is also fueled by the idea that meat is "to be used sparingly" and "should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine".  I recently read somewhere a quote where [prophet]'s son was describing his father's health in general and added that [prophet] didn't eat meat in the summer.  (Clearly, this is a quote that you'll want to be slipping into your next Sunday school lesson.)

Now some details.  You'll note that I describe this as going "meatless" rather than be vegetarian.  The difference is that it is pretty easy to know what's meat and what isn't, but somewhat harder to avoid all the things that a vegetarian would traditionally avoid.  A lot of things have gelatin in them (marshmallows, twinkies, many yogurts) and then there are cheeses that have enzymes from animal stomachs, sauces and dressings with anchovies in them, and orange juice with omega-3 stuff that comes from fish.  So the goal is to cut out 100% of the "meat", and then as much of the "other animal products" as I deem reasonable.  Also, I don't want to spend an entire month worrying about every single item that I put in my mouth.  Was this granola bar made on machinery that also processes crackers that use an animal based fat?  Does this cake mix have lard in it?  Where is the L-Cysteine in this bread from?  It's all too much for me.  I'll make my own reasonable efforts at avoiding animal products and leave it at that.  (This bit is left entirely to my discretion.  If you want to be in charge, you can mess with your own diet for a month.)

One thing that I have no intention of eliminating from my diet is dairy and eggs.  They are simply too tasty.  Yogurt is one case where I will very likely be consuming gelatin, and I'm ok with that.  I'm not a huge fan of any of the non-cow milks (soy, almond, rice, etc.) that I've tried, so I'm sticking with the cow juice for my cereal each morning.

I'll be blogging about all this, in as much as there are any interesting results from the experience.  What do I expect?  Fairly little, really.  I don't anticipate losing a bunch of weight, or seeing dramatic changes in energy level or general well being.  We generally claim that we don't eat that much meat, but it's not like I keep track all the time.  The build up to this adventure has made me pay more attention to how much meat I do eat, however.  As I'm writing this, in my last 14 meals, my total meat consumption 10 slices of peperoni.  But then our last meal of the month was hotdogs, because we had some and needed to use them up.  (Again, we're cheap.  It's apparently one of our core values.)  I still think it's fair to say that I'm a "light" meat-eater.  I'll also add that we won't be forcing the girls to give up meat.  They don't really love most meats, but if they want a hot dog, they can have one.  (Seriously, we've got hot dogs to spare.  Anyone want to come over and eat them for us?)

I think that pretty much covers things.  I'm not completely sure what to expect, so I don't know how my blog-reporting will go.  I generally don't care much about food, so I suspect this whole thing won't be very difficult.  I guess we'll find out over the next month.