11/09/2014

Meatless

So last weekend I went to 4 Fingers and end up ordering their Tofu and Mushroom salad and thought it tasted not bad.
Then I thought - why not not eat meat for a week? I've been wanting to try this but didn't have the balls  resolution to do so so why not now - anyway there's no harm, is there? I have several vegetarian friends(by religion, not choice) but none of my friends were vegan.

Just a clarification, the definitions:
Veganism: practice of abstaining the use of animal products, particularly in diet, as well as following an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of sentient animals
Vegetarianism: the practice of abstaining the consumption of meat, may also include the by-products of animal slaughter
(adopted from Wikipedia)

Most of my non-meat eating friends were ovo-lacto vegetarian - meaning they just don't eat meat, but dairy and eggs, and its by-products(e.g. whey protein, creatine) were allowed. Or so I think its the definition of their dietary status.

So for one week I tried staying away from any kind of meat(includes my brother's nearly expired strawberry flavoured whey protein, eggs) and any obvious sources of dairy like my usual cow's milk with my overnight oats, and milk chocolate!!! Oh goodness. Life without chocolate sucked the life force out of me. However I did eat bread, so i guess I'm not entirely successful in being strictly vegetarian. Thank you Nabisco for making Oreos vegan!!!

At first it was to train my resilience and lets just say I have ZERO tolerance to food and if I could make through this, I'd prolly be able to be disciplined enough to do other things in life and set my priorities straight. Then I heard about the benefits of going meatless, loosely mentioned in random conversations:

(note that these are subjective and not ENTIRELY TRUE) in a way or another, as our bodies work differently and are idiosyncratic
(taken from here and here)

1. Lose weight - vegetables carry bulk but not calories.
2. Reducing exposure to added antibiotics, hormones, and all that lab stuff they inject into animals and their products
3. Our bodies can't digest milk(or rather, lactose) properly after being weaned out. Removing dairy clears the digestive system and underlying lactose intolerance.

I probably can find a whole other reasons to support and at the same time disapprove of the benefits but lets just put it as that. Also, the whole science and theories behind it but it'll probably bore you and make you not ever visit this place again.

and so I decided to pack my lunches(school lunches were a huge load of rice and with a tiny amount of meat anyway): meatless, cheeseless, etc etc etc



1. Miso boiled red rice, pan fried tofu, baby carrot, broccoli and japanese cucumber
2. Miso boiled red rice, Pan fried tofu sesame oil and shoyu tofu, pan fried mini portobello mushroom
3. Sprouted wheat bread(best stuff ever), chunky skippys, pomegranate arils
4. Overnight oats and chia seed in soy milk, dried cranberries, walnuts, pomegranate and goldfish crackers and oreoes

Some meals I've eaten in the course of going meatless! More can be found on instagram :-)

The experience? What I felt during my week of going no meat and minimal dairy:
1. Staring at my friend's chicken rice/chicken chop/fish and chips sadly
2. Clearer system - my bodily functions were more optimal: I could feel less breathless during exercise, feel more energetic, digestive system was also more effective in doing its usual thing. If you know what I mean. Stuff inside were moving more.
3. Cravings for meat were strangely not VERY much. It was kind of bearable.
4. Feeling more airy - less groggy and bloated - this was one of the better benefits I got out of this week to be honest as I felt better and healthier in general in a sense?
5. Farted like crazy (sorry)
6. I lost 1kg in the first 2 days, and then weight became stagnant(not sure because it was meatless or)

Overall a very interesting experience but I wouldn't go long term vegetarian, maybe going flexitarian sounds like a good choice (see semi-vegetarian)!!

On a side note I found Hershey's soymilk at NTUC the other day!!


And also to the person on ask.fm, I made oat cookies to bring to school as snacks :-) Good to try if you don't like the taste of oats/oatmeal



Healthiest ever cookies

Ingredients:
cookie dough
3.5 cup whole rolled oats(250ml cup)
5 large bananas
toppings
100ml dried cranberries
3 tbsp chocolate chips
A handful of walnuts
cinnamon

1. Blend 3 cups of oats till it becomes oat flour, but not to a very fine consistency
2. Mash bananas(blending is more efficient though)
3. Mix oat flour and bananas into a mixing bowl, together with the whole oats
4. Add cranberries, chocolate chips, walnuts and cinnamon
5. It should be between a cookie dough, but slightly more firm. If too watery, add oats. If too dry, add half a mashed banana and mix again.
6. Cover baking tray with vegetable oil(so that cookies won't stick) and make cookies with mixture. Make sure cookies are about the same size so that they all will cook at the same time. 
7. Preheat oven
8. Pop cookies into oven 
9. Bake for 20 mins, 170c(not sure about this as my oven is abit wonky, do check other 2 ingredient oat cookie receipes online)

Makes about 22 cookies. Each cookie is about 100 calories. Toppings can be changed to liking but calorie content will change too.

Do feedback on ask.fm/beefballs with questions/etc :-)

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