Cheater, Cheater

Day 14 of vegetarianism. Invoked the cheat meal on Saturday. I had dinner with some friends at a Chinese restaurant that was more suited to family style sharing, and it just made simpler to eat along with everyone else. And so it was that I ate some pig ears, beef soup, and pork dumplings.

Let's assess my feelings! Well, the food was delicious, as it always is at this spot. Did the meat taste so so sweet, like I was dying of thirst and precious water touched my lips? Not really. I have to say, in this vegetarian diet, I haven't missed meat all that much. I miss specific preparations of meat, like pho, but I have no particular craving for it at every meal. What I have experienced is more frequent pangs of hunger, and I do suspect that it is due to a drop of protein in my meals. I'm sure my body will eventually adjust, but it wouldn't hurt to bump up the veggie protein quotient in my meals and add more pulses, egg, tofu, etc. to my meals.

In other news, I made beet "ravioli" last week. I cheated and used gyoza skins because I've never made pasta from scratch before and didn't want to embark on such a project with a limited amount of time (I had to be somewhere after dinner). I added some chopped parsley because I'm not a fan of butter sauces without a little green or garlic to cut the straight up butter taste. I also accidentally (on purpose?) turned this into a browned butter sauce by cooking the butter longer but hey, it still turned out alright!

Final verdict: prett-ay tast-ay! The beet ravioli at least, although I will use less nutmeg next time. The butter sauce tasted good too, but I'm generally not a fan of butter as a sauce so next time I will probably use olive oil and maybe some garlic. What doesn't taste good with garlic? (Yes, I used the good butter. Kerrygold, baby!) I will also stir in more goat cheese v. ricotta because I think the beets need that flavor contrast.

I also included a picture of my hand after handling the beets. I always get a kick out of how beet juice turns skin an awesome shade of purpley-pink. I tried to take a picture of my hand that didn't make it look like I had a dinner-plate-sized palm and this was the best I could do. I guess a salad-plate-sized palm isn't too bad.