Run From the Border

Learning that 1- the refried beans at Taco Bell are vegan and  2- You can sub beans for meat in pretty much anything they offer is both the best and worst thing to happen to me as a vegetarian. It’s great to have another option for when I’m out, especially if I’m the only vegetarian in a group and we’re looking for something quick. The problem is when I’m hungry there’s this part of my brain that keeps defaulting to Taco Bell now. It’s fast. It’s cheap. It’s not that far from work. You know you want a cheesy gordita crunch. It’ll make you feel good. All the cool kids are doing it… Taco Bell is awesome. Occasionally. But when it becomes an obsession and your jeans don’t fit anymore it’s time for an intervention. Oh crunch wrap supreme, I wish I could quit you.

Mission accomplished

Sick Day Apple Butter

As per Physician’s Assistant’s orders no work for me today. I have this weird upper respiratory thing going on where if I am sitting down or lying in bed and not moving much, or talking, I feel fine and dandy. But the minute I decide to get out of bed and do something useful with my time my lungs throw a bit of a hissy fit. P.A. says “it’s probably viral” and it should pass in a couple of days. And she’s probably right since everyone in the office seemed to have been on the sicky train this week. So, in the mean time I am lying still as often as possible and trying to enjoy the bits when I'm not coughing.

Apple butter is a good way to feel productive when you don’t particularly feel like doing anything at all. Cut up some apples, throw them in a slow cooker with some sugar and spices and 10 hours later you have something yummy to spread on your toast. At least, that’s what I’m hoping I’ll have in about two hours.

In between fragrant stirs I am re-learning French on duolingo.com and freaking out my cat with my ukulele practice. Really, it’s only two chords I don’t know what he’s afraid of. 

The thing I seem to have forgotten to think about though is that I have a crock-pot full of 3 lbs worth of almost apple butter and no canning supplies. Perhaps this thought should have occurred to me eight hours ago…

Apple butter party, anyone?

Prelude to Apple Butter

clumsy vegetarian

So, I’m pretty sure that I consumed chicken broth today. I’m not entirely sure because I chose not to ask my waitress about it, but while my boyfriend was in the bathroom and I was waiting on the check I googled recipes for lemon potatoes and half of the recipes called for chicken broth. Considering the gooey moistness of the roasted potatoes that were on my plate they were probably roasting in something more than just a sprinkling of olive oil and lemon juice. I could be wrong though. As I chose not to ask my waitress if the lemon potatoes were vegetarian the cat is both dead and alive. Or, rather, the lemon potatoes are both vegetarian and swimming in the juice of murdered foul. Fingers crossed.

I’m a bit clumsy with my vegetarianism- which is why my veganism is past tense. (I fell off the wagon and landed in a large vat of cheese. I’ve been swimming in the bubbly goo ever since) Sometimes when I’m out I just kind of make the best choices I can and hope for the best. Fingers crossed, don’t ask- don’t tell. I mean, it’s not like I’m ordering a bacon cheeseburger or anything but I’m not necessarily as thorough as I could be. Let’s just say that you might not want me working in your quality control department. “Yeah, sure that mascara seems fine. What do you mean the monkeys’ eyes are burning?” Not that I’m for testing on animals. I might be confusing things here…

Part of me wants to go back to or call the restaurant and ask. As if I’ll be spared some horrible fate if they tell me that there wasn’t chicken broth in there. “No, take the test again, I’m SURE it’ll be negative this time.”

When the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Whether the potatoes were vegetarian or not, I ate them. I’d like to think that I learned a valuable lesson here today and this will lead me to be more conscientious and thoughtful in the future. But I’m sure someday soon I’ll find myself accidentally eating shrimp.