Haven't updated in awhile.

I haven't updated in awhile. But I'm back. A lot of stuff has been going on. My mother had shoulder surgery and I've been taking care of stuff around the house. And I had two Christmas parties I helped with. My cat died a week ago today. I cried a lot and still haven't got over that. Fortunately we have two other sweet kitties! I was at my Dad's 5 days for Christmas. We had a very untraditional Christmas meal. We grilled, outside in t-shirts in December. I had a veggie burger, grilled pineapple, and a baked potato with butter, shredded cheese, and ranch dressing. I love grilled pineapple! It's one of my favorite foods!

I've been at Dad's

I've been at my Dad's for the last six days. Yesterday we went ot to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. I had a been burrito,cheese enchilada, and rice. They only had three things in the vegetarian section. But the food was great! The cheese sauce was a little spicy, but I just can't take much heat.

First time ever having sweet potato fries!

My mother made some last night, for some reason she put butter on them, they were too mushy and sweet. I made some for lunch today. I cut them really thin, put some cooking spray on a pan, and salt,pepper, and garlic powder, I put them on the pan in one layer, and sprayed them with a little more cooking spray. Then I baked them. I'm not sure how long I baked them for and I adjusted the
temperature a few times. They turned out good, still a little mushier than I like, but I liked the taste and texture. It's just something I need to get used to.

Vegetarian at Disney

I traveled to Disney World and back the 15th to the 21st of November. I kept a food journal everyday, so others can see how I travel as a vegetarian.

Day 1: We left out for Orlando this day. For breakfast, I had orange juice and a peanut butter, chocolate chip waffle from Waffle House. For a snack,I had Original Sun Chips and low carb blue Monster. For dinner, a veggie delight sandwhich from Subway and a diet coke.

Day 2: We stayed around the hotel. I visited a haunted house at Kissimee in Old Town. I really liked the haunted house. And we saw Breaking Dawn part 2. I had breakfast at the hotel. I had orange juice,half a chocolate chip waffle, 3 tbsp yogurt, and apple sauce. The waffle was too dry, it tasted like an icecream cone. I had lunch at Taco Bell, I had a bean burrito and diet pepsi. For a snack I had dark chocolate and cheetos. For dinner, I had nachos from a vender at Old Town.

Day 3: The first day at Disney. We went to Magic Kingdom. For breakfast, I had orange juice, bagel, cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and apple sauce. I was a little concerned about not finding anything to eat for lunch. But it turned out quick service restaurants were extremely vegetarian friendly. For lunch, I had a veggie burger with fries from Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe at Magic Kingdom. It was good. The veggie burger pattie had corn,rice,tomato, and brocolli. It was quite interesting. I liked the taste of it.For a snack I had dark chocolate. For dinner I had a salad with Italian dressing and fries from Wendy's.

Day 4: We went to Epcot. For breakfast, I had orange juice, cantaloupe, blackberries, strawberries, mini donut, half of a mini muffin, scrambled eggs,biscuit, apple sauce. For lunch, I had flat bread with eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato,and feta cheese, salad with Italian vinaigrette, and 2 tbsp potato salad, from Sunshine Seasons at Epcot. It was great! It was my favorite meal of the whole trip! For snacks, I had popcorn and half a choclate chip crepe. For dinner, I got food from Wendy's. My mother got the wrong kind of dressing, so I had salad, with no dressing, and fries.

Day 5: We went to Hollywood Studios. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs, half of a biscuit, mini donut, apple sauce. and half a cup of orange juice. For snacks, I had a granola bar, popcorn, an hot chocolate. For lunch, I had a veggie cheeseburger and fries, from Rosie's All American Cafe at Hollywood Studios. They got my order mixed up with someone else and it took a long time. It wasn't there fault and they did give me free carrot cake, and I didn't even say anything to them, so I'd probably eat there again. The burger had cheese,tomato,and lettuce. I put mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup on it. For dinner I went to Taco Bell, I had a vegetable Cantina bowl,corn chips, guacamole, and diet Pepsi.

Day 6: Was the last day at Disney World, we went to Animal Kingdom. For breakfast, I had apple sauce and raspberry yogurt. For lunch I had Asian noodle salad at Bradley Falls in Aminal Kingdom. I was really good, Second best meal of the trip. For snacks I had a strawberry popsicle, pineapple popsicle, dark chocolate, and a granola bar. Both popsicles were vegan. The Asian noodle salad was vegan, though I'd ask first. For dinner, I had vegetarian nachos at Taco Bell. I didn't like the nachos that much. The cheese wasn't very good. My friend got nachos with meat and she said the same thing.

Day 7: We left Orlando and travelled home this day. For breakfast, I had 3/4 serving of apple sauce, couple of spoonfuls of yogurt, strawberries, blackberries, I had, Chinese noodles, rice, cream cheese wontons, springroll, strawberry icecream. and honeydew. For a snack, I had a low carb blue Monster. For dinner I had a vegetable Cantina bowl from Taco Bell.

All ready for Disney!

I'm leaving for Disney World on Thursday. I'm all packed. I'm bringing;peach tea drink packets, a lot of gum, dark chocolate, apple cider, sun chips, and granola bars.

Vegetarian barbeque

I love barbeque! Most people think vegetarians can't barbeque,but we can and a lot of us love to! My favorite is grilled pineapple. I also love grilled tomato, but I haven't perfected it yet. Once someone made it for me and it was perfect. When I make it myself its too mushy. My Dad makes grilled onions, I think they have too much butter and salt. I like grilled corn. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians love grilled corn. You can grill Boca burgers. They taste good as a burger or with barbeque sauce on them. Morningstar used to make vegetarian grilled chik'n patties, but I can't find them anymore. The grilled chik'n patties were my favorite. They were good with barbeque sauce, ketchup, or cut up, mixed with barbeque sauce and put on a bun with some pickle relish. If you like baked beans, Busch's vegetarian baked beans are great! Everyone I know says that they are better than non-vegetarian baked beans. If you want a hotdog,you can grill vegetarian sausages. I personally think Yves is better than Morningstar's.
    It is really easy to grill vegetarian and make it taste wonderful! Just remember to cook vegetarian food first if you are cooking on a shared grill with non-vegetarians. My Dad cooks everything for me, except Boca burgers, because he doesn't know how to tell if they are done.

Eating vegetarian at a steakhouse.

Last weekend I went to a steakhouse with my Dad and grandmother,both avid meat eaters. I was a little worried beforehand, I had never been to a steakhouse as a vegetarian. We went to Lonestar Steakhouse in Pearl,Ms. I believe Lonestar is just a Mississippi thing, I'm not sure. I looked at the menu before going. I didn't really understand the menu online. The salad was called a lettuce wedge and their other lettuce wedge showed bacon and ranch. Their only soup with no broth was potato soup,which had bacon. It was very confusing. My  sister,also a meat eater,ordered the lettuce wedge,soup,mashed potatoes, and steak. The lettuce wedge didn't have bacon and it wasn't even wedge and you could get other dressing than just ranch. I didn't know that when I ordered. My grandmother tells all servers that I'm a vegetarian,for some reason. The server said that I could get potato soup without bacon. I ordered potato soup without bacon,mashed potatoes, and steamed brocolli. The menu also had steamed spinach,green beans, and baked potato. I'm not a baked potato fan. It tastes too plain to me and I despise ranch dressing. So all in all they had a nice selection of vegetarian options,great food,good service, but a poor online menu. The potato soup was amazing! And the server was very nice and accommodating!

Questions I've been asked

The most common question is what I eat. Which is kind of hard to answer because you eat so many different things. I've gotten pretty good at answering that question. I eat (never put salad first!) nachos,mashed potatoes, fries, veggie burgers, cake, salad, tacos, soup, chili, Subways (love them!) cereal, oat meal, eggs,etc. Another question, which is really odd, is do you eat this,this,this? I've been asked if I eat cake,cookies,potatoes, really odd stuff. Yes I do, I love,love,love potatoes! People ask me why I became a vegetarian. I decided that I don't want animals killed and then eaten by me. Do you not like that I eat animals? I don't have a problem if you do, I'm just not going to. It's kind of like religion. I don't have one, but I don't care if you do. I've been asked a lot of questions, but these are the most common.

Eating Out Vegetarian

Most restaurants have vegetarian items on there menu. Some even have a section. Some don't have any items. Usually you can just ask to have something taken off. It's rare that you can't I've only had that happen once. Actually last night was the first time. I went to a corn maze and they were serving chips,soda, candy corn, hamburgers, and s'mores. S'mores aren't vegetarian. I had Sun Chips and Sprite. I've been to Mexican restaurants as a vegetarian. This one Mexican restaurant has vegetarian nachos with lettuce,sour cream, corn, grilled onion, cooked tomatoes, and beans.They are delicious! I get them without tomato because I'm not a fan of cooked tomato. In September I went to a bar/restaurant in Tybee Island, Georgia. They had the world's greatest nachos! They game with beef ,but I ofcourse asked for no beef, and it was no problem. They didn't have any vegetarian items on menu. It came with chips,cheese,raw onions, and raw tomato. Earlier that day I went to Lady and Son's restarant in Savannah, owned by Paula Deen. I was a little concerned because all of her meat dishes on tv, which they had a lot of there. I got a garden salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, I expected this tiny,boring salad, but no, I was huge! Lettuce, all kinds of vegetables, freshly made croutons, and the best  balsamic vinaigrette ever! World's greatest salad all for 6 dollars! Last year I went to the Memphis zoo, they had a vegetarian sandwhich. Once I went to an air show and they had a vegetarian corn dog, but I didn't try it. I've been to Wendy's as a vegetarian. They have side salad and I know that there Italian dressing is vegetarian, I'm not for sure about others. Their side salad is not much. They have parfaits and fruit. The few I've been to use a seperate fryer for fries. I've been to McDonalds. There salad dressing isn't vegetarian and there salads are pretty bad. I don't know about their fries. They have smoothies,frosties, and apple pie. I usually get a smoothies. Like I said it there is nothing vegetarian on the menu just ask if they have change it to be vegetarian. I've never had anyone say no.

Eating healthy

Like I said being vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean eating healthy. I started out eating junk food! Cheese sticks,cheese pizza, salad covered in ranch dressing,french fries, vegetarian nuggets (homemade, but still!), veggie burgers, and so much other bad stuff. It's okay in moderation, but not every other day, like I did!
      Healthy doesn't have to mean salad for three meals a day. But salad can be made really good! Pasta noodles with tomato sauce ( check labels on everything!) is vegetarian,you can add if you want. Most grocery stores sell vegetarian meat substitutes. I favorites are Boca original burgers,they're vegan. Yves hotdog sausages,they're vegan. Vegetarian meat balls, a couple different companies make them,not a big fan of Morningstar's. There are a lot of products out there. Deli meats, which I haven't tried. Breakfast sausage, pretty good. Bacon, is okay, you have to get used to it. Marshmallows, aren't vegetarian, gelatin is made with animal products. It's gross, look it up if you want to know. Jello has gelatin. Frosted poptarts have gelatin, unfrosted is fine. Ramen Noodles have dried chicken,beef, or shrimp. Some candies aren't vegetarian. Skittles,Swedish Fish, and Sour Patch Kids are fine. For breakfast, most cereal ( read labels!), oat meal, eggs, toast,fruit, yogurt, and others are all vegetarian, use your imagination. Lunch; salad, pasta, Subway (get a veggie delight and put what you want on it for like 5 busks.), veggie burger, vegetarian burrito (beans, rice, sour, lettuce, tomato, avocado, etc.) (read labels; especially rice and beans!) taco salad, corn salad, use your imagination. Dinner, the same, be creative.
     As for vegans. Vegan meat substitutes. At Subway get italian bread and don't get mayo. I love soy milk! I live in a small town in Mississippi and my Walmart even has vegan cheese slices, but I haven't tried them yet.
So most of all be creative! You can vegetarianize and veganize pretty much anything! And always read labels!

First post!

Hi everyone! I'm Faith. I'm 16 years old and I've been a vegetarian for two years and five months now. It can be daunting at first but trust me, it gets easier! Most people start off slowly. I decided to just cut meat out all at once. I didn't have any health issues. But I was a really bad vegetarian at first. Lots of cheese pizza, fries, and all that. Vegetarian doesn't mean healthy. You can be vegetarian and eat junk food or eat healthy vegetarian food.I'll get into that on a later post. I did have a friend who had health issues from it. She when vegetarian because of a diet. And cut out meat,milk,cheese, and I think eggs. And she is soy intolerant. She also wasn't eating enough beans,seeds,legumes, and dark green vegetables. It wasn't going vegetarian that caused it.  One last thing about vegetarianism; you will get a lot of questions at first. Be prepared to answer them. Questions will slow down over time and you will get better at answering them. I've never really had anyone have any real problem with me being a vegetarian. Most people have been very supportive and interested. I have had some odd questions. I'll talk about those on a later post.

Later on I'll be discussing; Eating healthy as a vegetarian which is super easy and not that expensive. Common questions you get from non vegetarians. Eating out as a vegetarian. Odd questions I've got from non vegetarians. How to go vegetarian and what to eat. And vegans, I'm not one but I have read a lot about vegans and tried it out for two weeks.