flex plan

I like meat. I like to cook meat, I like to eat meat. Mmmmm, meat. Cattle, poultry, pork, seafood, game… I have no idea what category rattlesnake would fall into, but yeah, I’ve eaten it. I’ve also had vegetarian and/or vegan friends since I entered college, and while I do offer to forgo meat in their presence, they have all been open to my eating meat in front of them. THANK YOU. Meat meat meat meat meat.

If we’re not supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of MEAT?

In November, Erin decided to lessen her eco-footprint on the planet, and go vegetarian again. I respect that. Couldn’t do it myself, heck no, but I applaud her dedication. Except, oops, her husband was in the middle of a bacon kick. And giving her the teensiest bit of flak about her decision to do this. Just a little teasing, but Erin is sensitive. Okay, tell you what. To balance out the universe, I won’t eat meat when we eat together. Okay? I’m not really sure what balance that actually provides, but what the heck. Solidarity!

You know, come to think of it, I don’t eat THAT much meat. I mean, I love it, yeah, but I don’t COOK it that often. Too distracted to remember to thaw anything out, I have a lot of vegetarian dinners anyway. And this whole eco-footprint thing is something I can totally get behind. I recycle, carpool, use CFL bulbs, rechargeable batteries, a programmable thermostat, I buy wind power from my utility… and have you ever SEEN a feedlot? Appalling. Hmmm… Okay. Addendum to plan. I’m only going to eat meat on the weekends. Unless I’m eating with Erin. Then life is still a meat-free zone.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I have nearly stopped eating meat entirely*. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but more like the whole choose-veggie thing became a habit. I have unintentionally lost weight, which is not a bad thing. And in all honesty, my body seems to be working better. Don’t get me wrong, I am very much of the belief that humans are biologically suited to be omnivores. However, I also think that Americans eat WAY too much meat.

Now, the flip side of this coin is that I still have a freezer full of meat. Steaks. Pork chops. Chicken sausages. Bockwurst. Bacon. Heck, everything in my freezer is either Girl Scout cookies or meat. I could be a good person and donate all that meat to friends… but did I mention that I REALLY ENJOY MEAT? I can’t bear to let it go. And, you know, I never did claim to be a vegetarian… So here’s the deal. Weekends are going to be meat-acceptable again. Every weekend, I need to remember to thaw something out and eat it. Saturday: faux lobster (in my vernacular, flobster) chunks. With steamed broccoli. And it was quite tasty. But no matter how good those Costco pork chops are (and they are very, very good), I am not BUYING any more meat. For now. Heck, it’s gonna take me ages to get through what’s already in the freezer. By the time it’s gone, I’ll have a better handle on where I’m going with this.

*I went to a steakhouse with Scott on Friday, and had a STEAK. I ordered the smallest sirloin on the menu, ate half, and let Scott take home the leftovers. MY GOD IT WAS GOOD.