Almost three months ago, Kathy and I decided to try becoming vegetarians, primarily for the reason that it's better for the environment. In the time since then, we haven't bought any meat for home consumption. We've still eaten some meat at home -- we weren't going to throw out the meat in the freezer or pantry, but the supply there is dwindling (and it's not like there was that much to begin with). We're learning as we go -- we've found a veggie burger that we both like, Kathy is experimenting with all sort of new grains (quinoa being the one she's used the most, but tonight she offered up a stew with amaranth, "forbidden rice," millet, and wheat berries in addition to corn, white rice, and quinoa), and we're both cooking some with tofu (Kathy more than me) .
Also generally speaking, we haven't ordered meat when eating out. Some of our favorite cuisines -- Thai, Pakistani/Indian, Vietnamese, and of course pizza -- provide ample vegetarian alternatives, so we've had no trouble on that end. We've had Turkish/Lebanese a couple of times, and found lots of vegetarian mezza. About the only time we've been eating meat other than finishing up our supply at home is when we've been traveling. Our trips to Hilton Head and Maine included meat consumption, as did our stints in Connecticut. In the case of the former, it would have been difficult to do so when we were in a house full of meat eaters and we were eating communally (similar when we were with Connecticut). In the case of Maine, there weren't many options available to us, particularly given that our kitchen was essentially unusable. Plus, when they're offering up Maine lobster at the wedding, it would have been hard to say no.
At this point, our approach is that we're not hard-core vegetarians, and we don't want to inconvenience others, and, to a lesser extent, ourselves. So although we don't consider ourselves vegetarians, we're eating a tiny fraction of the meat we used to.
Little steps.
