I tried the Crockpot Queso meal last week and an altered version of the Black Bean and Guacamole Salad with ingredients that I had on hand. The salad was closer to nachos but very good. I'll have to try the actual recipe though!

The Crockpot Queso was good but if I make it again I will definitely not be using the velveeta cheese with it. The consistency of the meal had me somewhat scared until it was heated to the proper temperature, then it was fine. It tasted quite good, I enjoyed it even though it was obviously very fatty. But when the left overs cooled down it was the consistency of a precooked block of velveeta cheese, not very appetizing for making left overs.

I really wanted to try the Vegetarian Crockpot Enchiladas but the day that I was ready to go to the store and brave shopping for ingredients that I'm unfamiliar with the link wasn't working. But it was good in that I started with shopping for the ingredients for the Crockpot Queso, it was an easy list even for the unfamiliar ingredients. If nothing else it helped me gain some confidence shopping for things that I didn't even know where they were.

I have tried the link again for the Veg Crockpot Enchiladas but the whole site seems to be down, not just under maintenance as the message had declared last week. I really wanted to try that recipe and I'm not one to give up easily when I really want something so I googled the name of the recipe and found another site with a recipe of the same name: Vegetarian Crockpot Enchiladas though this time I am not going to rely on the link staying up. Here is the actual recipe:

1-3/4 lbs. canned crushed tomatoes in tomato purée
14 ounces chunky style prepared salsa
6 ounces tomato paste
2 lbs. canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 lb. corn kernels, thawed if frozen
1/4 lb. canned diced mild green chilies, drained
1-1/2 Tbs. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
5 corn tortillas
2 ounces olive slices, drained

Combine first 8 ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pour about 1 cup of mixture into the bottom of an electric slow cooker on low heat. Spread evenly and top with 1-1/2 tortillas, cutting to fit pot. Spread 1/3 of remaining tomato mixture over top. Repeat layering process, ending with tomato mixture. Spread top evenly. Sprinkle with olives. Cover and cook about 5 hours. Serve hot. This recipe serves 5 people.

Also here is the recipe for the Crockpot Queso, though like I mentioned above I do not recommend the velveeta cheese. If you try this with another cheese and like the outcome, please share it with me! :)

Combine all ingredients in Crockpot and heat for several hours on high or on low for about five. Serve with warm corn chips and fresh salsa. Or you can turn them into enchiladas or burritos with a tortilla!

While I am posting recipes, here is another one from the same friend who gave me the salad recipe that I want to try:

Black Bean Enchiladas

2t canola oil (i use veg or olive)

1 med onion peeled and chipped

2 large cloves garlic, minced

Two 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 med tomato or 2 plum tomatoes, diced

4 oz can chopped mild, medium, or hot green chilies, undrained

1T chili powder, or to taste

1t ground cumin

2T tamari or soy sauce

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 corn tortillas (we use flour tortillas all the time)

1 cup bottled or canned enchilada sauce

4 ounces lowfat shard cheddar

2 pint pitted sliced black olives

Scallions (i never use them or the olives)

Preheat oven to 375. Light spray a 9x13in baking dish, set aside

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over med heat. add onion and galic, cook, stirring until translucent and soft about 5 min.

Add beans, tomato, canned chilies with juices, chili powder, cumin, tamari/soy sauce. Bring to a boil stirring frequently.

Lower heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Uncover and continue to simmer for 5 min or until liquid reduces and mixture is firm and holds its shape. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If using corn tortillas, Fill med bowl with warm water and dip tortillas to soften.

Place tortilla in baking dish, spoon 2 heaping tablespoons of filling down the center, and roll.

Push filled tortilla to far end of dish.

Continue dipper corn tortillas in water, draining, filling, and rolling, placing the filled enchiladas in single layer.

Spoon sauce over rolls and scatter with cheddar cheese. Cover dish with foil and bake 20 minutes or until bubbly hot. Serve with garnishes and yogurt or sour scream, black olives and scallions.

I am very excited about a new purchase that we made which will really help with this veggie journey! As a combination birthday / mother's day gift for me we got a brand new BlendTec blender!! I've been wanting one for a long time, ever since I watched them give a demo at our local Costco. You may have heard of this blender from the "Will it Blend?" videos on YouTube. They're funny!

You can do so much with this wonderful blender! Soups, salsas, batters, sauces, ice cream, dips, dressings, smoothies, whole juices, and so much more. The blender even heats up the soups, you just put in the ingredients and push the soup button and then you've got soup! I cannot wait to make my all time favorite soup in the blender: broccoli cheddar! The blender comes with a huge cookbook and as you can imagine most everything is vegetarian. Though I am a bit perplexed as to why the broccoli cheddar soup calls for chicken bouillon so I'm going to have to try some other ingredients until I can find something that properly replaces that ingredient.

I've noticed some subtle changes since I started this journey. I've noticed that the tastes and smells of plant based foods are really coming alive like never before! Some vegetables that have been strong and/or bitter to me in the past have a much sweeter and more pleasant flavor to them! Even fruits that I've always loved have a new, more powerful flavor! I had an orange today and the flavor really seemed to explode in my mouth, I've never tasted an orange that was so delicious!

Alicia Silverstone said that would happen in The Kind Diet ...I just didn't expect it so soon since I'm still eating some meats! Though it does make me wonder how much more sweet and flavorful fruits and vegetables will become after I've given up meats altogether!! That really ought to be some experience!

I didn't get a chance to go shopping yet for those new recipes. I was very busy on Sunday with Mother's Day and had a wonderful day. I had a great morning at church and spent the rest of the day with my son, husband, mom and in-laws. I ran out of time to go shopping so I will try to get that done early this week!

If I got the frozen ground turkey out of freezer soon enough today then I will be able to use the last of that tonight! It really is amazing how much room is now in the freezer with so much meat being gone!

I found some GREAT links today!

GoVeg.com - great info for making the switch to veg!

PETA's Vegetarian Starter Kit - another great site for making the switch!

VegCooking: Making the Transition - another one!

Vegetarianrecipe.us - great vegetarian recipes, by the same people from veganrecipe.us which I linked to in my last post!

VegFamily - another link to living the veg life!

This next baby step feels more like a giant leap for me! I think I've been putting it off subconsciously. I don't know why it's so scary, but I'm going to do it!!

What am I going to do? I make it sound like I'm going to go bungee jumping or sky diving but all I'm going to do is try some new vegetarian/vegan recipes. Why does this feel so scary??

But aside from my new found phobia of trying new recipes (and shopping for things that I'm not even sure I know where they are located in the store!) I've been doing well with my journey. Aside from my obvious attempts to get rid of the meat in our freezer I haven't been eating any meat at home, eating out is a different story, but even so I haven't had that much and my goal is to ease into vegetarianism so I'm still doing great!

I've also decided not to buy any more chicken nuggets but I really need to find an alternate for my son. Preferably something plant based because nuggets are pretty much the only meat he will touch as it is (apparently he got his lack of enjoyment for meat from me). He loves dairy (also from me) so he gets more than enough protein from that but again I'd love to get us all getting the majority of our protein from plant based foods! I also need to get into the habit of feeding my son the same meals that we eat, I've gotten myself into the bad habit of feeding him a different dinner. He is definitely old enough to eat what/when we eat! No better time than now, when I am going to be introducing healthier foods!

The foods that I have been preparing which are meatless are simple things that I've always liked. Spaghetti, alfredo, bean burritos, nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas, cheese sandwiches, garden burgers, etc. I have always mostly made all of that stuff meatless, though I know that all of it could easily have meat (my husband adds bacon to his garden burgers!!)

So I have decided on a few recipes that I'd like to try. They don't have too many ingredients so I hopefully won't get overwhelmed and they seem easy enough to make, one is even a crock pot recipe!!

I came across VeganRecipe.us and it's a great resource for vegan recipes! (Though I did find one with cheese...but I'm going to try it anyway, it sounds so yummy!!)

I'm going to try these two recipes: Vegetarian Crock Pot Enchiladas and Crockpot Queso (the one with cheese).

I'm also going to try a recipe that a friend of mine shared in a comment in an earlier post.

Black Bean and Guacamole Salad
12 whole tortilla chips
4 cups broken tortilla chips
3 cups chopped lettuce
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups guacamole
1 tablespoon lime juice
chili powder or paprika

arrange whole tortilla chips on outside edge of a large plate, point out. Spread broken chips on rest of plate. Layer lettuce, black beans, and guac over top. Drizzle on sour cream. Sprinkle with paprika or chili powder.

It doesn't say to, but I would heat up the beans first. :)

My goal for this week was originally to try some new veggie recipes but that goal has been altered. I did not sit down and make a shopping list of the ingredients needed for the recipes of my choice. The weekend got away from me but I'm not going to let that happen again!

I'm really beginning to see that I am going to need to be especially organized otherwise nothing will happen! My goal for this week is get organized so that I can achieve my bigger goals soon!

Over the weekend I ate out a lot and I'm beginning to see how eating out is also going to take a lot of organization and planning in order to be successful as vegetarian. Thankfully so far my goal is to 'flirt' with vegetarianism, to take baby steps.

I did eat more meat than I wanted, but less than I normally would have and I was also very much aware of that fact. Also I did avoid all pork products which I have decided to give up completely. It was a temptation, I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy Hawaiian pizza!

So overall I feel that it was a good weekend and the positives outweigh the negatives! I'm making progress, baby steps as they may be! I know that if I went cold-turkey (pardon the expression!) I would have a much more difficult time and my chances of success would be a lot lower.

It's going to be a work in progress learning to make new meals, cook with new foods while at the same time eliminating some foods that I am very used to cooking with.

Although I didn't do anything to try new recipes this week I am making some good steps in another direction. I bought some things to make with the two pounds of ground turkey that we have in the freezer. I'm going to finish that stuff up over the week and then be done with that and not replace it. Also there are some other chicken products that we have managed to finish and I have not replaced those either! Even the one that made my mouth water (and my arteries clog!)

Small victories, the path to success! :)

I've been taking 'baby steps' toward going vegetarian and some day eventually vegan. As I mentioned in my first post, my first step was all the way back in 2003 when our family became beef-free because of the semi-local mad cow incident here in the Northwest.

It was really hard, especially early on after everyone else stopped worrying about the beef. It opened our eyes to just how beef-loving this country is. People have accused us of being 'vegetarians' for giving up that one source of meat. People have been irritated with our choice because it's terribly inconvenient for them. We have had to ask countless times what is in a food when we are not eating at home because sometimes it's too hard to tell by looking alone. We've filled up on appetizers and desserts more times than I could count.

The meat industry really has a hold in our country and they are a powerful force. They support politicians financially which allows them many freedoms. They also use their funds on advertising, which you may not really notice until you start looking for it. There are all kinds of ads from the meat industry. They really don't want Americans believing anything other than that we are so desperately in need of animal meats to survive.

They've done quite a good job at this. We Americans are afraid of not getting enough protein in our diets and we think that the only way to accomplish this is by eating meat. But if you take an honest look around you have to admit that most Americans really are not deficient in protein. We get plenty of fat in our diet! We are one of the most overweight countries around!

Did you know that there are ample supplies of protein from plant based sources? The reason that so many vegetarians and vegans are so thin is not that they are starving from a lack of meat but because they are eating protein sources that the body can easily use, and has no need to store up the excess.

Have you ever stopped to think about the animal kingdom and the differences between the carnivores and the herbivores? The herbivores are the peaceful animals who have flat teeth for chewing plant life. The carnivores are the aggressive animals which have sharp claws and very sharp teeth. They also run faster than your car going down the highway and after eating the meat they sleep for a few days, because that's what it takes to digest all of that meat. The herbivores have daily routines of sleeping just at night and being awake all day.

I'm not sure about you, but I know that I don't have sharp claws and teeth (most of mine are very flat) and I don't run 50+ miles an hour and there's no way that I could get away with sleeping for a few days! It does seem that my lifestyle is geared more towards that of the herbivores.

Remembering that makes it easier to make vegetarian choices. Another thing that makes it easier for me to choose plant based foods over meats is just to think about the lives of the poor animals that make it onto my plate. I won't go into the gory details of the hidden tortures that take place daily - feel free to google it or to read The Kind Diet or watch Food Inc.

Since I am working towards vegetarianism I am not completely meatless yet. I'm working on finishing the meaty foods in our freezer and not replacing them. I am also looking at new vegetarian recipes to start adding to our meals to replace the meaty meals.

Truth be told this has not been as hard as I would have thought. I made the decision for good reasons: my family's health, choosing to no longer support the abusive meat industry, helping the planet, etc. Because I strongly believe in these decisions it has made it much easier to make meat free choices. I don't even find myself wanting any kind of meat.

My baby steps so far are:
1. Going beef-free
2. Deciding and believing in my reasons for going vegetarian
3. Giving up all pork products
4. Limiting my other meat choices and choosing dairy or plant based proteins when possible
5. Learning new recipes, cooking styles and how to shop differently