Veggie girl

A couple years ago Marleigh came home from school one day and said she was going to be a vegetarian. I said, Um...no. I explained that she'd need to eat whatever we were eating and that I wouldn't make a seperate meal for her. I also said that it was important that she get the protein and nutrients that meat gives her. She was fine with it and that was that.

Then last week she came home from school and said she wasn't eating meat anymore. I decided this is one of those battles that just isn't worth fighting and that if she truly wanted to do this then she would. She's gone a week now and is still gung ho about it. I explained that I wouldn't go to the trouble of making an entire seperate meal for her. However, I'll help her a bit. For instance, this week one night we are having spaghetti so I'll just leave some sauce out for her that doesn't have meat in it.

I also told her that she had to be healthy. There won't be any substituting junk food for the meat. She'll need to find ways to get protein and still have lots of fruits and veggies.

I actually went without red meat for one year when I was in college. I had watched the movie City Slickers and fell in love with Norman the cow. After that I just couldn't eat meat without seeing Norman's sweet little eyes looking at me. I lasted a full year before I got so hungry one night after a concert that I made the comment that I would eat a hamburger if I had one. Knowing that all my friends were just as broke as I was I figured I was safe blurting it out. Then there was a frantic digging in the car seats and enough change was found to buy me a 49 cent hamburger at McDonalds. That was that. I was eating meat again, and I've never looked back.

It'll be interesting to see just how long Marleigh can keep it up.