veg-heads

Chris and I decided to give up meat for Lent. It's not too much of a sacrifice, since we already don't eat a lot of meat. But, as Chris pointed out, knowing we can't have it makes bacon and hamburgers sound even better than usual! But our church is doing a focus on hunger issues for Lent, plus being in Liberia made us aware of what a luxury meat is in much of the world. So we are 6 days in and going strong. So far, we've made vegetable stirfry with tofu, french onion soup, and pizza (it's cooking right now and I can't wait!). We've also enjoyed eating at Chipotle, Spoons, and Mad Greens. And Sunday we had amazing hamburgers at Five Guys!

I tried being a vegetarian in college, but it was really hard and I ended up getting sick about once a month during my 6-month stint. Oddly enough, it took my family about 6 years to figure out I was back to eating meat. (Between studying geology, enjoying spending time in the woods w/out showers, voting democrat in the last 3 presidential elections, and marrying a guy with a big beard, I have definitely been stamped the family hippy, even though this is far from the truth!)

Anyway, last weekend I made a bunch of vegetable broth so we could have some stored up for making soups during lent. It was an interesting process, mainly because it involved A LOT of vegetables - carrots, celery, leeks, butternut squash, onions, sundried tomatoes, and red peppers. It was easy to make and basically involved cooking all of these together for about 3 hours. The only sad part is that all of those beautiful veggies turn into mush and then get thrown away. But we made french onion soup with it last night and I was pleased with the flavor.

Here are the veggies before and after broth making:




If you have recommendations for vegetarian meals, let me know! :)