A week without meat

A week. Oh, that can't be too difficult, but I've never consciously done it before. I usually have a tender chicken on the menu for my Caesar Salad every week, and on Sundays I love a slice of fresh roast beef to accompany my boiled egg. I alternate it with fish and vegetarian options, but I've only gone a week in my life without eating meat, and that was during the 7 day recharge. I found that spicy because I had to give up my coffee, wine, and basically everything that makes my life enjoyable. But back to my meatless week, in which I allowed myself to have fish, eggs, and dairy. What did I eat?

The fish and falafel came from Landmarkt, the other ingredients from the supermarket.

• On Monday: a delivered poke bowl with spicy tuna and extra seaweed, because we had to go to the Friends of Amstel
• On Tuesday: fresh pasta with homemade pesto and prawns.
• On Wednesday: a cheat day with grilled vegetables on pizza.
• On Thursday: it went wrong again with a truffle risotto to go.
• On Friday: we went Greek, with cod and some feta from the oven and grilled eggplants.
• Today: we enjoy vegetarian with Spanakopita.
• On Sunday: snacks, because it's our afternoon drinks with friends.

So far, it has been a bad week in terms of cooking for myself, but even with delivery and dining out, it was easier than I thought. On Thursday, I briefly forgot that I wasn't eating meat at lunch, but thank goodness I had automatically scooped some salad with tuna onto my plate. On Wednesday evening we did a home delivery; I never thought that pizza with vegetables could be so delicious, and on Thursday it didn't feel like I was missing anything because I had a good glass of Chardonnay and a truffle risotto. By the way, I thought I would lose some weight in a week without meat, because fish is the lighter choice, but that wasn't the case. I found everything so delicious that I just ate more. Bummer.

But did my week without meat do anything good for people and the environment? Yes, says the National Week Without Meat. I saved 130 liters of water, 76 kilometers of driving, and 770 grams of animal meat. Although there were those three days of fish, which I consciously ordered from a responsible place, but also four days of vegetarian. It was a challenge to be a bit more conscious, to give something up, so I think I'll just keep going. A week without bread, rice, and pasta, a week vegan. A week without cheese, my god, that seems so difficult. A week without wine, I probably haven't done that since I was fourteen. To be continued.