Meatless Monday's

So, with the inspiration I gained from Food Inc. (if that is possible, since the movie is so shocking) I decided I would try Meatless Monday's. I don't eat a lot of meat to begin with, but for lunch... I really love me some turkey on my sandwich. Day after day I take my wheat bread, pile on the turkey, cheese, tomato, mustard, and a little lettuce. Pair that with some Quaker "Tortillaz" (garden salsa flavored to be exact)and you've got the perfect lunch-- at least as far as I'm concerned. On the rare occasion I do not pack for myself, I often enjoy something from the cafe;and lately I have become a pretty big fan of the turkey burgers on campus. Needless to say, turkey is a pretty big staple for my midday meal.
But yesterday...I decided it was time. It was time to try... A VEGGIE BURGER! In honor of meatless monday's, I walked up to the grille staff person and ordered a veggie burger with confidence-- even though I was actually pretty reluctant to try such a foreign lunch food. I then proceeded to ask her what was in it, just because I really don't know much about veggie burgers to be honest. But, it was either the veggie burger or the salad bar, and when you work at Pizza Hut (who has an amazing salad bar...trust me)nothing can really compare. Plus, the turkey slices next to the bowl of lettuce was just too tempting. Anyway, the grille was pretty busy with the lunchtime rush, and the staff member kind of brushed off the question with a look that said "Its a veggie burger lady. Its vegetables in burger form." I'm not sure if she was annoyed, really didn't know, or if it was a combination of both; but nevertheless I had to trust that the grille was providing me with a wholesome, vegetable burger with no meat. I'm not really sure what the criteria is for a "good" veggie burger, like I said, I don't really know much about them, but at this point I was just hungry and ready to see if Meatless Monday's were going to be able to become something regular for me.
I was kind of disappointed when the grille staff put the burger in the microwave. They grille all of their other burgers on the flames in the back, and I wondered why my burger didn't get the same treatment. She put it on the wheat bun, and I took it over to the "fixin's bar" to put some of my favorite toppings on it. This is what the finished product looked like:



I must say, it was a very interesting meal. It in no way resembled the taste or texture of any "burger" I had consumed before this point. The tomatoes, pickles, and onions brought a little familiarity to the flavor, but the burger had a very weird crunchiness to it. It wasn't carrot or celery crunchiness though. It was more of a....nutty crunch? A soft nut though...Like, maybe sunflower seeds or cashews? I really do not know how to explain it. I think that maybe if it weren't for the undefined crunchy texture, I might have enjoyed the burger a little more. I only ate about half of it, and as my boyfriend say across the table finishing his last bite of cheeseburger and fries, I envied him--just a little.
Overall, the experience was kind of like dieting. When you tell yourself you cannot have that piece of chocolate cake, you want it even more. The only thoughts crossing my mind the rest of the day were all of the yummy meat based dinners I knew how to prepare. But, I stuck to my guns--promise. Before I left campus I grabbed a pretzel with cheese and headed off to the computer lab for a long night of writing revisions. And for once, I was actually thankful for the loss of appetite side effect from my Concerta :) Today, I packed a roast beef sandwich for lunch, with some organic veggie straws I found at Wal-mart, and the final verdict is:

I'd love to have one day a week when I don't consume meat at all. But until I do more research on vegetarian options and gather some recipes under my belt, there is just no way to make the experience an enjoyable one. So for now, I really don't think Meatless Mondays are right for me--yet.