"Meat" loaf Sandwiches

Oh baby. I love meat loaf sandwiches! There have been times I've made meat loaf for the sole purpose of using the leftovers on sandwiches the next day. So it was much to my delight that I discovered that my lentil-quinoa loaf from Sunday made absolutely fantastic "meat" loaf sandwiches! Nice!

I fancied these up a bit, and put them on awesome Louisiana po' boy rolls (best bread ever!). I spread one side with Vegannaise, squiggled some ketchup on the other side, and topped it with some sliced red onions. Yummmmm. If I weren't trying to lose weight, I would go to the kitchen right now and make me another one. Instead, I'll settle for taking one to work tomorrow for lunch.



I did end up making my decision about whether or not to go all vegetarian, all the time. I'm going for it. I'm all in. I'm not promising that this will be a lifelong decision, but it's what I want to do now, and I'll leave it at that. My fairly short-term goal is to not eat meat until the holidays. I would hate to miss out on Thanksgiving turkey, after all. But in the meantime, I'm going to go meat-free and as dairy-free as I possibly can, and see how it works for me. I desperately need to lose weight. A LOT of weight. And I think this is a good place to start. My blood pressure has steadily risen over the years, and while it's not at crucial levels, it's still disturbing. A woman my age died of a heart attack on our base in Japan several years ago. That's sobering, to put it mildly. I realize, of course, that there's more to a healthy lifestyle than just one's diet, but it's still a good place to start. We can't afford a gym membership these days, and it's far too hot to exercise outside, so Brad is scouring the town to try to find a store that has Wii Fitness in stock, so we can start working out together at home.

So that's what I'm doing. I'm very, very curious to see how this works for me, and how I feel on a completely vegetarian diet. As I said, I'm going to avoid dairy as much as I can, but that can be difficult around here. Lunch is catered in at my office every day, and wouldn't you know that yesterday, the first day of work since making this dietary pledge, they would of course bring in a couple big trays of brisket, swimming in BBQ sauce. Damn it! There was also potato salad (mayonnaise), baked beans (bacon), salad, and garlic bread. I ended up just having a big plate of salad with vinaigrette, and a piece of garlic bread. There was cheese in the salad, though, and butter on the bread, but I at least went for the least egregious things I could. So things like that will be a challenge, but maybe I will just start packing my own lunch every day. Hmm.

Anyway, yesterday's cream puff ring was my farewell to dairy, and a fine one it was! ; ) But after this, I may have to bow out of future Tuesdays With Dorie recipes, unless I can find a way to veganize them. So we'll see how that goes. Next week's cobbler recipe should be a piece of cake -- no pun intended. ; )