Seriously if I hear that one more time I’m likely to shove a head of broccoli up someone’s you-know-what. Am I the only lucky vegetarian who gets pestered with this question all the time? It’s a little ridiculous to be honest. And normally if someone asks what I eat in a sincere way, as if they actually would like to know what it is like being vegetarian, I don’t mind. I’m actually glad to talk veggies with people. It’s the snide anti-hippie comments that drive me nuts. Snide comments or not, I have been very pleased with my new lifestyle choice. I don’t miss eating meat at all, actually. But then again, I was never a huge fan from the beginning.
So to answer this one very last time: name a vegetable. any vegetable. I eat it. Same with fruits. Add to that beans, nuts, tofu, pasta, rice, bread, eggs, cheese, soy milk, etc. etc. Anything that does not involve killing an animal. I eat it. I’d love to be able to give up dairy and eggs, but haven’t found (or sought out, okay I’m lazy) any suitable replacements as of yet.
Does it sound utterly torturous? Gosh I know right? 
Let me brighten your Friday and make you drool a little.
How about some homemade pizza on Trader Joes Garlic Herb pizza dough. With asparagus, onions, olives, and mushrooms
The next night, take the veggies you have left, add some red bell pepper and sauté them.
Then make tacos using Trader Joes chicken-less fajitas, TJs wheat tortillas, lettuce and cheese.
The next night, make a batch of Chipotle rice (recipe to follow)
and add you leftovers from the night before (including the chicken-less fajitas), plus some guac. A burrito bol at home!
Lately I’ve been pretty pleased with the amount of time I’ve been able to spend in the kitchen. It seems the more I cook, the less overwhelmed I get. I’ve definitely been busy, and I’m branching out from my standard, sauteed zucchini, onions, and mushrooms with pasta. I’m trying out new combinations, making things that require more than one pan! (crazy I know. You would understand this if you did not have a dishwasher. Well or if your dishwasher’s name was Cale). And I actually enjoy it! It’s nice to eat something different. And this week I did a little celebration dance because we managed to use all our vegetables before they went bad. Score!
Also since a couple of you requested the Cilantro rice recipe from Chipotle, Cale and I again adapted Chipotlefan’s rice recipe (seriously for a fan site, they kind of get most of it wrong) to better match how they actually cook the rice at Chipotle.
Chipotle’s Cilantro Rice
- Cook 1 cup of white basmati rice with two bay leaves in either a rice cooker or a pot with the appropriate amount of water. Our rice cooker has measurements on the side for how much water you should add, so I’m not quite sure what it would be in a pot.
- Once the rice is done, take out the bay leaves and throw them away. This just adds flavor while the rice is cooking, but you do not eat bay leaves.
- Mix into the rice the following: 3 tsp. finely chopped cilantro, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, and the juice from 1/2 lemon. Mix well and let sit for a few minutes so that the flavors can meld.
And that, my friends, is it! You can adjust the salt to your personal tastes. I thought it was too salty; Cale thought it was not enough. But then again, I think the rice at Chipotle is too salty as well. So I guess I’m just crazy. edit: oh and just an FYI. Chipotle uses a bottle of mixed lemon/lime juice, but it’s mostly lemon juice. If you want you can add some lime juice as well.
I’m super excited because this weekend I’m gonna be on a boat with Alyssa, Jimaie, Morgan, Sarah, and Cait for Alyssa’s and Jimaie’s birthdays! Hooray for birthdays and boats! What are your plans this weekend?
Tags: Cooking
Oooohh, asparagus on pizza, you have enlightened me to a new yummy veggie on my pizza. Speaking of..pizza tonight? The pizza place has a bomb one with artichokes and other veggie yumminess
WOW I have a hard time with veggies but all that looks so tasty!
I can’t wait to try out that chipotle recipe!
I hope you girlies have a fabulous weekend!!!!
i get that question all the time. if i go to someone’s house for dinner they get very freaked out as to what they will feed me. do non-veggies just consume piles of meat for every meal? i’ll never understand how it can be so confusing.
Yeah, I got that question ALL the time when I was a veggie. So annoying. And I had the same experience as Sarah, when we’d go over to people’s houses for dinner they’d panic about what they were going to make me. Seriously, it isn’t that hard! I do think it is a bit hard if a majority of your diet is eating out though. When we had these periods I always got pretty sick of salads.
Love your pizza skills! Do you use a pizza stone? I’m going to be making veggie pizza next week- I need to take notes!
You poor, starving vegetarian! I live in meat country, so you should have heard the reactions when Eric and I went vegan for a month. Whooo boy.
People actually email me articles about how vegetarians die sooner and just don’t have the nutrients necessary to be healthy. Ehhh? Not too cool, but I so have fun rebutting them and I might slip a bit of ridicule in the emails back too.
the top secret chipotle info cale reveals via you is one of the highlights of this blog.
p.s. the vegandad vegan sausages were a hit. i was the only one who wasn’t over the moon for them, but i never liked sausage to begin with, and i still thought they were good – just not the greatest thing i ever ate.
Yay!! I’m going to the farmers market tomorrow to get cilantro and a bunch of other veggies. Thanks for the recipe! I would have never thought to use a bay leaf. This will go perfect with tomorrows dinner. Have a great weekend! Thanks Corwins!!
Everything looks so yummy!
I tried becoming a vegetarian once. After about a week, though, I started to get really sick. (And I don’t even like meat that much–at least not red meat.) That’s when I was still living with my parents, though, so it was harder to find anything to eat. I may have to attempt it again soon. My husband and I do have “vegetarian nights,” however, so I’ll have to try some of these.
Boo for snide comments about being a vegetarian. While I’m not one, I have NO doubt I could survive and flourish on a veggie/fruit/non-meaty diet. I might have to give it a try at some point.
This food that you posted? Looks absolutely DELICIOUS. You should carry around photos like these with you to show people who ask you about being a vegetarian.
doood, seriously? people are dumb!!
this food post made me DROOL. DROOL i tell you!!
I had so much fun this weekend with you girls!! I’m pretty sure we should make this a summer tradition to meetup, i wish we had more time to spend together!
Oh, that food may have convinced me that I could totally be a vegetarian. It definitely convinced me that I’m incredibly hungry.
It’s 8:30am and I tooootally want pizza! Man that looks good, I think we are going to have to have that for dinner sometime this week.
everything looks SO yum!!!! And so healthy too. Way to go, being such a chef!!
I hope you had a fabulous weekend with all those girls… can’t wait to hear all about it.
I get that question ALL the time. Also, everyone assumes I eat seafood. I must have missed the day in biology where we learned that fish is a vegetable.
Thanks for the Chipotle rice recipe! I think I’ll try it out with some brown basmati rice I have.
Stephanie,
Let me know how it is with the brown basmati rice. We had some already, but my husband the Chipotle purist refused to try it just with what we had. And since the store doesn’t have small bags of the white basmati rice, we now are the proud owners of a 15 pound bag of it. Yikes! All for a little Chipotle goodness.
I’m kind of making the veggie move, so I’d be THRILLED to pick your brain. I’ve nixed all red meat and almost all pork from my diet. Chicken still shows up, but rarely. And I don’t know that I want to give up seafood. So pescatarian? Flexitarian? All I know is that my body MUCH prefers this diet to the carnivorous one of the past…
GO YOU.
OK, ummmmmm YUM. I’ve been a carnivore pretty much all my life, but even I’m eating less and less meat these days. It hasn’t been a conscious decision — it just feels heavy to me. I do love, love, love seafood and could probably never give that up.
YUM. My sister Ashlei is a veggie girl and whenever we are together or go out to eat, I eat like that too. I could easily… EASILY be a veggie. My husband however freaks out if I do not have at least one meat entree at each and every meal. Sigh. I once made cheese and spinach ravioli with a marinara sauce and afterwards he looked at me and said, “It was pretty good, but now I’m going to be hungry because there was no meat.” LOL
omg these all look SO GOOD!