DO WITHOUT

DO WITHOUT {Week 2}

Two weeks meat & shopping free!

Two weeks down, four to go. How did you do? Have you settled in yet? Are things getting any easier?

I’m a bit late posting this update. The event season is in full swing and keeping me busy. Which is a good thing. It leaves little idle time for shopping! Mister and I enjoyed a date night last weekend. Dinner and a play. More like breakfast and a play.

Last week I bemoaned the lack of vegetarian options whilst eating out, well, this week I’m going to moan some more. Unable to come up with a suitable place with meat-free offerings we decided on Perkins. I though at the very least I could order soup and a grilled cheese.

The menu was full of delicious sounding soups. All containing meat. There was one called loaded baked potato that particularly piqued my interest. It was all good until I got to… bacon. Damn. I finally found one – ONE! – that had no meat. And then I realized that it wasn’t the soup of the day. WTF? I can only have meatless soup on Tuesday? Ugh.

That left the only meatless options to be cold salad, which by the way all contained meat, but by request could have the meat removed or breakfast. I guess breakfast it is. I ordered a build your own omelette with every non-meat option they had.

broccoli
asparagus
mushrooms
onion
tomato
green pepper
cheese
topped with Hollandaise

It was filling, but it wasn’t dinner.

Going meatless at home is much easier. Here’s what we had last week:

Wednesday 16 – leftovers
Thursday 17 – Spinach & Ricotta Stuffed Shells
Friday 18 – leftovers
Saturday 19 – breakfast at Perkins
Sunday 20 – Mediterranean Veggies with Navy Bean Penne
Monday 21 – Cauliflower in Cream Sauce over Penne
Tuesday 22 – leftovers

I’m beginning to realize that we a lot of leftovers. Seemingly more as of late.

Spinach & Ricotta Stuffed Shells

With the absence of meat I have added greens to our meals. Miss M. and I have a salad with every meal. It has really cut down the portion size of our main entree, resulting in many leftovers. I need to start adjusting the amount I make to account for this.

I’ve got little say on the clothes shopping front, because there hasn’t been any. I did order several Round A Belts.

Love that it's plastic free!

I plan to spend my shopping hiatus organizing what I already own. I’ve already discovered several things I forgot I even had! Nothing like shopping in your own closet.

I look forward to reading about your week. Link up below!

So you’ve missed fourteen days. That’s okay. There’s still time to join the Do without challenge! Better late than never. If you haven’t already done so, make your pledge by adding your name/blog name and what you are giving up under the “Make the pledge” tab. Check out the rules and grab a badge too! Then write a post on your blog and link up weekly. The “Participating Posts” linky is a bloghop, so feel free to add the link list to your posts. Just grab the code.

You may also add your blog name under the “UWMD Challenge” tab for participating. This is a running list of all blogs taking part in the UWMD Challenge throughout 2011. CLICK HERE for full challenge details.

Participating Posts

Made the pledge and have a post to share? Add your link below!

The Rules

The mini-challenge will run from March 9 to April 23.
Decide what you will do without and make your pledge.
Blog about your experience, be it good or bad.
Every Wednesday I will do a “Do without” post and offer a linky for you to link to yours.
Grab the “Do without” badge for your blog or your posts about the topic.
Link back to this post so others can join.

Make the pledge

For forty days and forty nights, I pledge to Do without…

Grab a badge Link to this post: http://midnightmaniac.com/post3277

Link to the UWMD Challenege: http://www.midnightmaniac.com/UWMD-Challenge/

125x136

150x163

200x217

UWMD Challenge

These people/blogs are participating in the “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without” in 2011 Challenge. Join us by signing up below!

CLICK HERE for full challenge details.

Tagged as: DO WITHOUT, GREEN YOUR: KITCHEN {FOOD - EAT LESS MEAT}, USE IT UP WEAR IT OUT MAKE IT DO OR DO WITHOUT

{ 1 comment }

DO WITHOUT {Week 1}

One week without meat and shopping - almost.

One week down, five to go. How did you do? Were you full of optimism and it was a breeze? Or consumed by angst and just stumbled through?

I’m a bit of the latter. Not that week one was difficult by any means, but I was less than prepared, in the meat department anyway. We made it through. Even managed to stay meatless on the weekend, which are always the toughest. I do not envy vegetarians trying to eat out. There’s not a lot of options out there.

So we survived, but our meals were rather stale.

Wednesday 9 – we ate up the remaining leftovers containing meat.
Thursday 10 – mac ‘n cheese
Friday 11 – leftover mac ‘n cheese
Saturday 12 – spaghetti
Sunday 13 – veggie burgers
Monday 14 – fake-meat sloppy joes
Tuesday 15 – mexi-mediterranean torta

That last one was rather interesting. And confusing.

Mexi-Mediterranean Torta

It’s a recipe from a vegetarian cookbook the shop owner of Vintage Vogue {the best vintage store in the world} gave me for Christmas. Thanks Toni!

It was supposed to be Mediterranean Torta, but no one in the fam likes black olives so I substituted black beans. Then I thought it needed a little somethin’ somethin’ so I added corn. That combined with the roasted red pepper and flour tortillas certainly gave it a Mexican flair. However, the spinach, feta, tomato and mozzarella leaned towards the originally intended Mediterranean flavor. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, the recipe called for French Fried Onions, which I was absolutely-positutely-without-a-doubt-100% sure we had a can leftover from Christmas. It turned out to be chow mein noodles. Ah, what the heck. I threw them in too.

After all, this is part of the “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without” challenge. Makes no sense to run to the store and buy something new when I have loads of stuff lying around never being used.

For week two I hope to be more prepared. I’ve been perusing the rest of the recipes in my vegetarian cookbook and have a few planned for the upcoming week.

Spinach & Ricotta Stuffed Shells
Stuffed Yellow Squash
Mediterranean Veggies with Navy Bean Penne

This time I’ll try not to give my mediterranean dish an identity complex.

As for the shopping, I’ve done fairly well. I had one small transgression. I stopped at the mall to visit a friend and ended up buying two pair of tights. It’s not easy when your friends work in retail and are always working – as anyone in the retail industry knows all too well. The only way you get to see them is at their store. Which usually leads to trouble.

I just need to stay out of the stores. And never read my email. Or go to the mailbox. Anything with SALE! in the subject line immediately gets deleted and flyers in the mailbox go directly to the bin. I cancelled all catalog requests and opted out long ago to reduce the amount of paper mail we receive so that helps, but I still subscribe to my favorite Indie stores online newsletters and they flood my inbox.

One “Do Without” challenge participant {Tea and Crumpets} went so far as to unsubscribe from all online shops. Brilliant! The best way to resist temptation is to have none. I need to get on that.

So that’s the scoop on my seven days. Let’s hear about yours.

So you’ve missed seven days. So what. There’s still time to join the Do without challenge! Better late than never. If you haven’t already done so, make your pledge by adding your name/blog name and what you are giving up under the “Make the pledge” tab. Check out the rules and grab a badge too! Then write a post on your blog and link up weekly. The “Participating Posts” linky is a bloghop, so feel free to add the link list to your posts. Just grab the code.

Participating Posts

Made the pledge and have a post to share? Add your link below!

The Rules

The mini-challenge will run from March 9 to April 23.
Decide what you will do without and make your pledge.
Blog about your experience, be it good or bad.
Every Wednesday I will do a “Do without” post and offer a linky for you to link to yours.
Grab the “Do without” badge for your blog or your posts about the topic.
Link back to this post so others can join.

Make the pledge

For forty days and forty nights, I pledge to Do without…

Grab a badge Link to this post: http://midnightmaniac.com/post3174

Link to the UWMD Challenege: http://www.midnightmaniac.com/UWMD-Challenge/

125x136

150x163

200x217

UWMD Challenge

These people/blogs are participating in the “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without” in 2011 Challenge. Join us by signing up below!

CLICK HERE for full challenge details.

Tagged as: CHALLENGES, DO WITHOUT, GREEN YOUR: KITCHEN {FOOD - EAT LESS MEAT}, USE IT UP WEAR IT OUT MAKE IT DO OR DO WITHOUT

{ Be a doll and say hello...Click to leave a comment }

Do without {And so it begins}

Today is the first day of our Lenten journey. Are you nervous? Excited? Cantankerous? For those of you giving up coffee it may be that last one. We skipped Meatless Monday this week so the family could indulge in their final meat requests. I’d like to say it’s the last meat we will eat, but [...]

Tell me more! →

Wait. Me? In the New York Times?

Guess who got a shout-out in the New York Times? Me! squeeeeee It was a quick mention on my guest post at Pepperoni Is Not A Vegetable about going meatless (not vegan) for Lent. I’m way too addicted to dairy to go vegan. If I were stranded on deserted island, the two things I would [...]

Tell me more! →

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or DO WITHOUT!

With Lent just around the corner I think it’s time to get this party started. Catholics traditionally refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, hence the birth of the Friday Fish Fry in Wisconsin. We’re not Catholic, but for the past two years my family and I have given up meat, all meat – [...]