Meatless 40 days

The long wait is over. It was 40 days of no Bacon, Beef, Pork, Fried Chicken and Bacon.. I'm proud of myself. I don't know if I would make it since I've never done it before. I know it's really a sacrifice worth taking since all I dream about is smothering some juicy grilled pork belly at work. That's multi-tasking! :)

During this experience I've learned a couple of things. First, going meatless saves you money. I was focusing on vegetables and seafood. Vegetables are inexpensive. I always try to go to the farmer's market to shop for my produce. I was buying different kinds of mushrooms, some root vegetables, experimented with Taro and Parsnips and of course my greens! Here are some pics that shows the different salads and veggies I made!

Spring mix with tartine bread crumbs, grape tomatoes, Parmesan and balsamic vinaigrette

Marinated Kale recipe I got from Diana Stobo

Farmer's Market inspired salad: roasted corn, kumquats, goat cheese, spring mix, lemon vinaigrette

Spring salad - Brussels sprouts, kumquats, asparagus, feta, almonds, honey lemon vinaigrette

I usually make my own vinaigrette because it's really easy and I find it tastier. Here's my basic honey lemon vinaigrette.

1 tsp. Honey
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
Juice of a lemon
Mix these 3 ingredients and while whisking it, add your best extra virgin olive oil. Just eyeball it. Probably about 2 tbsp. of oil should be good.

Another thing I've learned is that you don't need meat to make a pretty damn good meal! You can probably have a portobello burger that would taste so much better than a whopper. I've learned to appreciate these ingredients that I didn't really pay attention before. I've learned to use ingredients such as Quinoa, Edamame, kumquats, mushrooms, beets and leeks. I was more focused since I can only cook veggies and seafood. Here are some of what I've been eating for the past 40 days!

Fish Tacos - Sinaloa Taco truck in Oakland

Shrimp Tacos - Sinaloa

Corn Fritters - E&O

Asparagus Tempura - Namu food stand. SF Ferry building Farmer's market

Farrotto with peas and morel mushrooms from Mark Sullivan (spruce). One of the tastiest dishes I've eaten at the Farmer's Market

Bangus Sisig - Gerry's

Seared Cod with vanilla Parsnip puree, asparagus with lemon butter sauce. I love this dish! very easy to make. I love how the parsnip tastes with vanilla. 

My Burger subsititute. Portobello burger with Arugula, Avocado and fried egg. Taro chips on the side.

Tofu Adobo. Since I can't have chicken or pork, I made an adobo sauce and marinated the tofu with it, fried it and glazed it with the sauce again. I topped it with green garlic!

Mushroom ragu crostini with arugula and goat cheese.If you make a lot of the mushroom ragu, you can use it for your pasta too.

Will I go meatless again? Heck yeah! I'll probably take out the seafood too to make it more challenging! :) Till next Lent!