So I got a gift certificate for my upcoming birthday, which we will NOT be discussing here. But, I do like a good discount. It was for the Italian chain Zio's. In the past The Husband and I have both enjoyed Zio's a time or two, and enjoy sitting at the bar for fast and excellent service. But dining as a vegan, it seems, is a quite a feat at this meat-heavy establishment.

The Husband slid excitedly into his barstool and by the time I got into mine, I could already see the nervous look in my peripheral vision starting to spread across his gorgeous face. As I began to look over the menu, my heart started to race... where was a dish withOUT meat, or cheese? What dish could I possibly ask them to remove one of these items from? We had already ordered our iced teas. I WISH I had the kind of guts to just pay for our beverages and exit. But, we're too polite. We picked through the menu. Jake finally decided on pasta with marinara, and I ordered the greek pasta- minus the chicken and the feta. We also both ordered the house salad, sans cheese.

Minutes later our salads arrived, and guess what sprinkled minisculy on top? Ah, yes. Parmesan. It almost looked like someone put it on and then tried to pick it off. Again- new vegans- too nice. We picked around the cheese instead of telling them they got it wrong. The pasta was ok, but nothing worth $9. We could have made 10 bowls of pasta at home for that price. It was nice to not cook, but it would also be nice to find something a little more complex. This just confirmed my suspicions (although we ARE talking about a chain restaurant, and we should have known better), that it is going to be hard to find decent vegan faire in San Antonio. We have one vegetarian restaurant (which I haven't gotten to yet), and that's it.

I sort of like the process of a fine restaurant, when everything is timed right, the setting is enjoyable, the wine is smooth. We don't eat out very often, but I sure would like to think we'll be able to enjoy a night out now and again, even with our restrictions.

On a MUCH better note, I made some awesome Vegan French Toast this morning. You can find the recipe here. I made it with just a little bit of extra flour. I've been making weekend french toast for my guys for almost a year, and the new lifestyle had me concerned. But on the first try, this was ridiculously delicious, and tasted exactly like the regular kind- almost better if I do say so myself. I highly recommend it. I would say if you are using vanilla flavored milk you can probably nix the vanilla extract. I wish I would have taken a photo, as it looked as good as it tasted.

I'm really enjoying this journey so much- full of discovery and possibilities. It's a challenge but I love it, and every time I think about it and I realize I'm no longer contributing to the corporate greed that is responsible for the disgusting violence and mistreatment toward other living creatures, I know it's worth it. Being a vegan is a lot trickier than just being a vegetarian, but again, it seems almost to defeat the purpose unless you jump in with both feet.

There have been three vegetarian periods in my life. I thought about this today and something really struck me that hadn't before. Each time I have chosen to go full-on vegetarian, it has been during a serious transitional time in my life. I think it's one of those things that has always been important deep-down, and when I know it is completely up to me, it's the first thing I choose for myself. Now I know that the choices I make for me are always important, and I can't shove those things to the side ever again.

So, the first time was at the age of 16, and I was vegetarian for about a year. My parents moved out of town and I was on my own. What was my very first moment-of-clarity adult-on-her-own decision? Go veg. I had no idea how to do it, so I found myself eating a lot of kidney beans, broccoli, and McDonald's french fries. But I maintained it, nonetheless. When my folks came to move me down to Missouri with them, and into a two room apartment, I was jobless, car-less, penniless, and I gave up.

The next time I thought clearly enough to give it a go was during my separation and following divorce. It was, again, one of the first and easiest choices I made. I instantly felt healthier, which is saying a lot considering the emotional shape I was in at that time. It only lasted a few short months as I gave in to the dating world and met my future husband, who- God-love-him- is a fantastic chef. The great thing was, he loved vegetables as much as I did, and had been vegetarian once before. I was weak and in love and let down my "meat guard" :) .

During the wedding preparations I began scanning old emails, sort of reminiscing about the last few years of my life and all of the ups and downs I had navigated, and I found a lot of information that I had stuck just far enough out of reach that it wasn't a daily reminder any more. But once it was in front of me again, the choice was simple. I told my fiance that after our honeymoon I was going back to vegetarianism, for good.

Strangely, over the weeks that followed, something began to stir inside of him, and the more he saw and read and heard about the mistreatment and brutal violence toward animals for the sake of money-hungry corporations, the more he knew he would be making the change as well.

So here we are, hand-in-hand, newly converted vegetarians. There is a lot that we are still working on- some decisions have been easy, others, not so much. For instance, I don't have a moral opposition to the act of eating meat, even though there is now research that could prove we were originally herbivores. And I was a rather picky meat-eater in general. I will miss bacon very much, and sushi. But I understand now the ramifications of eating these things, and funding the companies who are putting them in our grocery stores and restaurants. I have no problem giving up milk and ice cream, but eggs are a tricky thing. I'm still evolving, and it will take some time.

I hope to give a little insight into what it means to be a veggie, and how interesting your choices can be outside of the traditional carrot-eggplant-squash style dishes typical to generic vegetarianism. There are so many choices now, and many ridiculously delicious replacements.

So, please subscribe, and join my journey in whatever way you want- advisor, participant, critic.

Vegetarians are the new sexy.