#twentypercent

1/25/15 : It was my first actual day of cutting meat from my diet. My mom and I headed out to West Valley Fair and when we got hungry, I convinced her to take me to the Vegan Cuisine restaurant that was held in the food court. It's ridiculous how they managed to make tofu [I'm pretty sure that's what was used] taste almost similar to meat. At the moment I thought abstaining myself from meat was going to be easy, but like always, I was wrong.

1/26/15: School is exhausting and is also physically&mentally draining. When I arrived home I immediately asked my mom what she had cooked and she replied with "fried rice with mushrooms and chicken." The aroma in the kitchen was amazing. I smelled the chicken and the mixed mushrooms and nuts coming from the pot and nearly just scooped a half of it onto my plate.

Wait no, I can't have that. I felt my stomach drop as I remembered that I couldn't have the chicken and looked over at my plate of fried rice which was bare without anything else on top of it.

My mom, who had worked hard on making the food for me and the family simply just said "A little chicken won't hurt you."  I don't think she realized what exactly I meant when I said I was going to go Pescetarian. I told her that I refused to eat the chicken which she then sighed and began picking through the dish pulling out the mushrooms to put on my plate. It was a hard day.

1/27/15: I normally don't eat lunch at school, so when I went home and into the kitchen, I had to remind myself of the project. The day consisted of me scarfing down apples with peanut butter and as well hummus with pita bread. When I went into the living room for a quick homework break, I found my Dad sitting on the couch eating spinach and chicken, which was actually one of the favorite homemade dishes. I was craving something that I could actually eat. I didn't want a snack [the apples+peanut butter and hummus], so I went into the kitchen and looked around for tasty things that didn't include any type of meat. And then my mom walks in and introduces an idea that was so simple but I hadn't even thought about it. A veggie sandwich [since we didn't have any fish to slap on it]. It consisted of pita bread, hummus, sour cream, thousand island sauce, onions, tomatoes and cheese, and let me tell you, it was delicious. The only thought in the back of my mind was how good it would've tasted with crispy chicken, but hey, such is life 

1/28/15: Today was similar to yesterday. I ate hummus and pita bread again as well as the veggie sandwich.  

1/29/15: It was another exhausting day at school. I was completely zoned out and it didn't help that we lost in trivia in my AP Us History Class. Simply put, it was a looong day. My energy was coming from two granola bars and all I wanted to do was to go home and scarf down whatever my mom had cooked. But of course that didn't happen, because again, there was meat. If you haven't already yet noticed, everyone in my house eats meat. My dad, my two older brothers, my mom, and my grandma. My eyes were drooping as I placed the pile of rice onto my plate and picking out the vegetables out of the pot with chicken and layered it onto my plate. My tired feet made its way towards the couch and my mind was thinking about how good the chicken would've gone with the rice. 

1/30/15: When I woke up that morning I found tofu in the fridge. I was excited because I know that its a substitute for meat, but then I realized that I would now need to learn how to actually cook. I found multiple recipes about tofu burgers and soups so I guess I'll be making a lot more trips to the store. 

1/31/15: It's a Saturday and all I had so far was Pancakes as well as apples&peanut butter. It was also what I liked to call 'get rid of all your hard homework so you aren't stressing out Sunday night', so I headed over to my friend's house to do some math homework as well as work on the project coming up. After working diligently for nearly an hour, we headed towards the kitchen. My friend, Ashleigh, is also a Pescetarian so I've been recipes and tips from her as well. She threw in a bunch of kale in a bag, as well as olive oil, garlic&onion power, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, seasoning salt, lemon, and shook up the bag before spreading the kale out on a pan and sticking it into the oven. And let me tell you, crispy seasoned kale is delicious. I ended up eating a lot more fried kale rather than doing my homework, but I would say that it was definitely worth it. When I arrived home around 8 at night, I could tell that my parents were getting used to me not eating meat anymore because my dad had made a fish salad for me to eat while finishing up the rest of my homework. 

2/1/15: Happy February & Happy Birthday Harry Styles. This morning I realized that I can not make a smoothie to save my life. I thought that I could be healthy by throwing a few blue berries and strawberries in a blender, but all that did was make me wish that I was the one in the blender because it came out horrible. In the evening some fish sticks were tossed into the oven and I consumed as much as my stomach would allow me to. My mom wanted to make soup for the tofu, so we drove out to Lion Market to get the ingredients needed. When we arrived home I dismissed myself to do some APUSH extra credit as she stirred up the soup in the kitchen, and when she came brought the bowl of soup in the kitchen I just stared up at her and asked, 

"Mom, where's the tofu?" 

She let out a deep sigh as she realized that the main ingredient that she wanted to put in there was missing, but needless to say it was an excellent vegetable soup.

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