When I moved to Montreal and was looking for somewhere to live I interviewed at a place I really liked except that they were all "it's okay if you eat meat, but you can never have anything animal based in the fridge." I was pretty sure my lifestyle in general was never going to live up to their standards.

I was afraid when I moved in with The Boy (who likes carrots), he would ask me to eat meat elsewhere and not cook it at home, but he doesn't care if I make it at home (or if he cares, he won't admit it). In the end, I'm too lazy to cook 2 meals, so I generally don't cook much meat at home. Most of what I make is microwaveable (TJs has frozen grilled chicken breast strips that you just defrost in the microwave, and I'll do that and throw it on my own serving of pasta), so it doesn't fill the house with the awesome aroma of a big Ren Faire-type turkey leg (which I still want).

I think I might have given myself food poisoning. Ate some week-old cold pasta today for lunch and my stomach has been hurting since about an hour later.

In big yay news, my leave request got approved! Even though I technically don't have vacation yet, apparently. I think the fact that I'm offering to spend a day or two down there doing work helped. Or maybe it's because I'm just that fucking awesome.

Now to buy a ticket and make a reservation.

I just, in a massive change of my usual pace, threw out a bunch of leftovers. Because I couldn't remember when I'd cooked things. Except for the one bit of arugula pasta that I ate. It tasted all nummy and I don't feel ill. Man, I am reckless with food sometimes.

Nothing says Thanksgiving like kicking family members out of your home because of what they eat.

Seriously.

Back in my veg days, I always carried my own dish to group meals to ensure I had something good to eat. The only problem was keeping the carnies out of the bowl so the vegs would get enough.

Sometimes there were rude or ignorant comments, but there was a delicious irony in judgments against my food choices coming out of mouths full of my food!

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Much ma and brackets for all who need them.

smonster, are you having any symptoms other than the tummy ache? Headache, fever, dizziness, or anything else?

eta: On the leave front, it IS because you are that fucking awesome. Was there any doubt?

I used to be much better at cooking semi-vegetarian at home (for health and carbon footprint reasons) and then we had a kid and it turns out that cooking meatcentric meals is really really easy. You can just stick a whole chicken in the oven with no peeling or chopping or anything! So eventually I had to join a CSA to save myself from malnutrition.

Growing up with one sister vegetarian and half my family lactose intolerant meant we always had at least a couple vegan dishes on the table. And even now that I'm cooking for omnivores, I really like having a few dishes without bacon fat or heavy cream, just to cleanse the palate.

My family was really supportive when I went semi-vegetarian. It helped that I still ate a bit of fish when I wasn't in my own home. After eight years I went back to meat eating, but I found so many delicious meat free meals that I'll frequently go inadvertently vegetarian.

I'm glad your trip leave got approved, smonster. Hope the stomach settles down soon.

I've just spent three months being a pescetarian cooking for an omnivore. A lot of the time I'd just make two main courses and share the sides. We managed pretty well.

Trudy, are you back in New York?

No, a few weeks to go.

I toyed with a trip to the Keys before I leave, but now I think I just want to get home.