In the last couple days I’ve eaten beef for the first time in quite a while. I didn’t eat much beef to being with (except when I was at my parent’s house), but I’ve eat even less lately. Since college my meat consumption has pretty much been limited to poultry and fish. I don’t like most pork, and there are a few reasons I didn’t include beef.

• For the most part, I don’t just don’t buy it because, let’s face it, beef is expensive -especially if you want good beef.
• I don’t really know how to cook beef either. 99% of the beef we ate growing up was made on the grill. It’s pretty much the only way I even know how to cook beef. I don’t own a grill. I’m also an epic grill failure. Things I grill turn in to charcoal bricks.
• As I’ve become more knowledgeable about factory farming, my meat consumption has dropped significantly. I’ve gone from buying giant bags of frozen chicken breasts at Sam’s Club and eating it 3 or 4 times a week in every possible permutation to buying organic, free range chicken once a twice a month and usually get two meals out of each. Since beef consumption was already low, it’s basically become non-existent.

Ground beef was pretty much the only beef I used with any sort of frequency (in sauces, tacos/ burritos, casserole type dishes), and there are plenty of cheaper, healthier substitutes that I haven’t really missed it. Chris however has missed it. So when I found organic, grain fed, ground beef at Trader Joe’s this past weekend, I decided to splurge and bought some. I used the beef to make burritos on Monday and in the spaghetti sauce last night. While the beef did taste better than the “cheap,” non-organic, standard ground beef I would buy anywhere else, I wasn’t impressed. In fact, last night I was kind of turned off by it. I definitely prefer some Boca crumbles or ground turkey in my spaghetti sauce.

So, I think I can confidently safe beef is off the menu for me. I’m not going to say I’m never going to eat beef again because I may cave to a steak one day, but I don’t expect I’ll be eating ground beef anymore.

Lunch today was my final taste of summer salad for a while.  I used up the last on my berries and pom arils making it.  I forgot to snap a photo before devouring it, but that’s okay because I took a ton of photos of it last night when I was playing around with my parent’s camera and my camera.  As soon as I get home I’ll post a picture.  I also had half a whole grain bagel from Panera with a thin layer veggie cream cheese (as previously photoed here)