There are hits, and then there are misses.

I have had really good luck so far in that most of the things I have tried have been pretty spectacular. However, today, I had a miss. If I had a miss like this within the first week of going meatless, I think I would have given up. However, I tried to take today with a grain of salt, since it mostly hasn't been too horrible fixing my ugly, meat-eating ways.

I have been working my way up to try different meatless products. I know there is a lot of noise out there about too much soy being bad for you, but until I get the hang of this, I feel like I still need to rely on it for a lot of my meals for the time being. And I haven't had anything from Trader Joe's I haven't liked yet (re: my post, a Love Song for Trader Joe's), so I finally decided to try the Beefless Beef Strips for lunch today. It is Monday, I did not plan out my food situation today at all, so I grabbed what I could find in the fridge and headed to work.

I had a salad of arugula (quickly becoming my favorite green, due to it's flavorful taste), topped with some "beef" strips that I warmed up in the microwave at work. I added some of my heirloom cherry tomatoes, a small handful of some quinoa, and had a piece of rye bread with 1 tablespoon of the Trader Joe's "This is not a tub of cream cheese" product on the side. I topped the salad with some Maple Grove Farms fat fee Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing.

The meat had a good texture - it "ripped" like meat. This was unusual, because usually the texture is what is off on fake meat products. The taste was just not there for me. Whether it was the microwaving of the "meat" or the lack of extra seasoning, these were not tasty. I kind of felt like barf after I ate it. Writing about it still leaves me with a yucky taste in my mouth.

Real time Gchat:

Still, I won't give up on these. I think maybe if I use the Montreal Steak Seasoning, warm them up on the griddle pan, used maybe a teriyaki marinade, or with A-1 (which I love), or even put them in a fajita of sorts - they might be better the second time around. We'll see if I work my nerve up to try again.

I have the chickenless "chicken" strips, too, and I am hoping for better results with those. Fingers crossed.

As an aside, misses abounded today of all kinds. Monday was not good for my vegan eating, as someone in the office brought Sweet Mandy B's cupcakes in, which I liken to putting a drink in front of an alcoholic. Second behind meat on my list of things I thought I couldn't live without is cupcakes. I love them all. I haven't had a chance to check out the vegan kinds yet, and when I saw a case of these crack like cupcakes next to the printer when I got up to go get some water, I knew all bets were off.

I had a chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake, and immediately regretted it upon eating. It made my stomach ache, I felt guilty, and then I felt gross all day. I will never apologize here though. I am a real person. It would be great to think I am never going to make mistakes, or fall down, so I am not going to hide the ugly truth from you. Even if one day I have to post something like, "I got drunk and ate steak nachos at 3am." I hope that doesn't happen, and I don't think that it will, but I think my moment of weakness will come for something stupid like that, rather than as a result of a fancy meal or a special treat.

I've had grilled cheese and mac and cheese once or twice since going vegetarian, all in times of dining out with friends where the options were limited. I literally went to a bar one day, and they had three things on their menu: Burger, Cheese Quesadilla, or Grilled Cheese. I think I wasn't upset then, and that I am now because of the cupcake, because the cupcake seemed completely unncessary; flagrant. All of these feelings for this do not seem worth it:

There's always tomorrow.