The year 2011 has been interesting to say the least. Full of fun and huge changes. Clearly, my husband changing jobs and moving to Chicago was the biggest change. A smaller, more personal change was going vegetarian for one year. Let me say I originally wanted this to be a life change, but unfortunately early on I knew that was not going to be, so I made the decision to just do one year. Within this year I had five accidental slips, like at Lollapalooza ordering a vegetarian burrito, but getting a brisket one and not realizing it until after swallowing.

I can’t lie I’m looking forward to bringing back meat into my diet. I just feel like I was missing something and considering I’m not a huge vegetable eater I got really sick of the same stuff. But, I learned a lot. I did realized that tofu isn’t bad at all and I like it much better in my Pad Thai than I liked Chicken. I actually like Smart Ground Soy Meat for tacos and chili and that was filling and just as good as ground meat. Where things were missing for me, deli sandwiches. I love a good sub sandwich with ham and turkey, fresh vegetables alone just don’t do it for me on a sandwich. Then there are restaurants, I applaud those who do have options for non-meat eaters, but most have not jumped on that train. I can’t imagine trying this a few years ago before the organic/health craze started. I never craved steak, but I did have a dream about a hamburger and though I tried many good vegetarian burgers, it really never compares to the real thing here.

What’s next? Well, I still have my beliefs on animal cruelty and the whole food system being evil, but I want to eat meat. Moral dilemma. I’m going to try and make an effort to mix a good amount of vegetarian meals with meat meals. Also, when I eat meat I want it to be from organic, humanely-treated* farms. And what I’m finding out is there are even restaurants around Des Moines that offer dishes with certified humanely-treated animals.
Baby steps, but my goal is to eventually go completely vegetarian, I’m just not quite there yet.

*Meets the Humane Farm Animal Care program standards, which includes nutritious diet without antibiotics or hormones, animals raised with shelter, resting areas, sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviors.

What a difference four months makes.

It is that magical time again where I scout the internet for the best of the best for me. This year I don’t have a car on my list because I actually bought the one from my 2010 list, the Nissan Juke. This is my sixth year of doing the list and it gets more and more difficult every year. Though I was way more organized thanks to my good friends Evernote and Pinterest!
So, here is this years and previous years:

Becki came up with a good idea to do family pictures of the kids & grandkids for Brenda and Dad. The photos turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself.