Vegetarian, Day 3

Zoe’s still a vegetarian. And so far she’s the kind that DOES NOT eat chicken fingers. Of course, she had to clarify if the chicken fingers she eats COMES FROM a chicken, or if IT REALLY IS chicken.

After we had her define COME FROM we were squared away. Yep, she’s not eating chicken fingers.

We took a trip to Barnes & Noble, where I found a book about kids eating vegetarian and vegan. It’s called Better Than Peanut Butter & Jelly, by Marty Mattare and Wendy Muldawer, and it’s actually got a lot of good information in there about kids and their nutritional requirements and where they need to get it from.

We made a vegetarian food pyramid, and Zoe’s checking off the blocks where she’s meeting her dietary and nutritional needs, so far we are a little bit low in some sections, but in all I think she’s doing well. We are taking this opportunity and running with it, this is the first time that she’s made an educated decision about her food. If she wants to be a vegetarian, then we’re going to let her be one.

And, she’d really appreciate it if I became one too.

And you know what? I actually think it’d be easier to be a vegetarian than it would be to be what I’ve been for the past 39 years: a picky eater. There are more things that I dislike than things that I like, and I’m tired of defending it. And I’m tired of being nervous when I eat at people’s homes. Will there be something I like? Will I just eat chips (because I LOVE CHIPS)? Will someone try to guilt me for choosing to NOT eat something that I don’t like? Will I have to defend my palate choices?  Should I eat before I leave so that I’m not hungry later? I was elated when I found out I was allergic to shrimp and raspberries, because then I could say things like: No thank you, I’m allergic. It was a much more gracious way to get out of eating shrimp pasta, ewww.

So no choices for me yet, but let’s just say that I’m tossing it around. Could I live without hamburgers and chicken breasts? Maybe.