Update: Wednesday 20 Feb

Hi! Did you miss me?

Here, have some veggies. Just because.

Okay, so I told my momma this, I might as well tell everyone else too.

This year, I decided for the first time in my life to make some New Year's resolutions. I didn't want to tell what they were yet because I know that many people make resolutions and then two weeks later they forget about them. I wanted to see if I could stick with it before I go announcing it…

Mine were a bit easier than most probably are because in a lot of ways they were things I was already doing.

• No more sodas/caffeinated beverages. Where the line is drawn is a little iffy, I'm not sure where to cut that off, but basically no more: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr Pepper, any other kind of traditional soda, Ginger Ale, Fanta, etc. 
• No more fast food. With the same exceptions as before (Subway, Eazie, the good stuff) because I don't think those are nearly as bad as over-processed and grease-filled McDonalds, Burger King and KFC.
• No more meat. 

Okay, so the thing about that one. I had been thinking about going vegetarian for several months (since about the end of the summer I think), mainly because meat was too expensive to buy in a supermarket anyway and I wanted to experiment with it. I didn't think that was a good enough reason though. If I was going to start being a vegetarian just for fun, it seemed like that would make it too easy to say "oh, well, I can have meat just this one time, it'll be okay" and then that would happen so frequently that there's no point in pretending.

Some time around New Year's, I read a bunch of articles about how... true vegetarians tend to be healthier when it comes to heart disease, blood pressure, certain cancers, etc. and that, of course, vegetarians have to pay closer attention to what nutrients they are getting, so they tend also to eat healthier. And I like to eat healthier...

I was going to just do it for a year to see how it makes me feel but then other factors came in and I'm kind of enjoying it (it makes me feel nice, and I get to experiment with food) so I think I might make it a more long-term thing. Also because why not?

One thing, though, is that Europeans apparently have this funny idea about vegetarianism… It's related to the idea that fish is not meat. Which… I don't know, maybe by some biblical definition it's not but if you are vegetarian because you do not want to kill things, or you a vegetarian because you don't want to eat animal flesh, it makes no sense to eat fish too. Also, I'm not religious so I don't follow biblical definitions. Whether you are calling it meat or not though, it is still a living thing that has a heartbeat and protein-rich flesh (you know, meat), so if those are their reasons to be vegetarian, I think they are cheating. One funny description that I read on "pescetarianism" said that they just don't have what it takes to go completely vegetarian. ;) It's too hard. My French teacher told one classmate that she is actually vegan, because she doesn't eat fish. Oh geez… (Yeah, several of my classmates are also vegetarian. Most of them eat fish, though.)

I'm trying to think of the important things that have occurred since I last posted. There hasn't been much, which is why I haven't posted. 

I did get my hair cut though, which most of you have probably already seen. I like it. I mean, I really, really like it. I didn't think I would like it so short but it's actually very nice.

Oh, and. Those veggies. They made some pretty good fajitas, but I ate way too much. Because I ate all of it. A whole onion (the Dutch grocery stores call them large onions, but I would argue that where I'm from they'd either be small onions or medium onions. They are very small for large onions.), a third each of red, green and yellow bell peppers, and three mushrooms. And three tortillas. And also half an avocado. 

I made my own fajita seasoning (using some suggestions from other recipes) but I think it needs to be fixed a little next time. This one recipe I read said to use equal parts chili powder, paprika, sugar, salt, cumin, dry mustard and cornstarch. Instead I used equal parts flour, sugar, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and garlic powder. It was good, but too sweet so next time I will omit sugar, and use ground mustard because I forgot about that and I had actually wanted to try it. Oh well, next time. They were still very good. Maybe I'll put in the paprika too. I don't know. I won't be doing that again soon enough to worry about it. Mainly because I don't need to eat that much all at once.