Opening few days

I have returned from the beautiful country of Wales. I have now annihilated my previous record of one day without eating meat. I am three days into my challenge and I am pleased to say that I have avoided any kind of meat despite already facing a few problems along the way.

Problem - I keep forgetting that I can't eat meat.

The day before the challenge, I packed a lunch for the train journey and decided to buy a few extra items suitable for vegetarians just incase there wasn't anything I could eat for breakfast the following morning. What I didn't know was that I nearly blew my challenge before I had even started.

I might not have gone to university but I am proud to say that I have a degree in common sense however now I am having doubts that I might be a common sense fraud because if I offered the piece of vegetarian food I bought to a real vegetarian then they would have made mince quorn meat outta me.

Note to meat eaters pretending to be vegetarians. The majority of Scotch Eggs contain sausage meat. Avoid!

I was having a lot of problems remembering that I had to avoid meat when it really mattered. Most of the day it would always be on my mind but when it came down to eating food, I seemed to forget to look at the packet to see if it was suitable. At one point I was half way through a packet of steak crisps before realising. I remember reading about certain crisps which contained rennet (some kinda enzyme from a cow's stomach I think - must google this!) so I need to be extra careful. 

I know that I will probably get caught out eating some products. I found out today that Nutella wasn't suitable for vegetarians because it contains whey powder. I don't even know what whey powder is. If I do eat something that isn't suitable then I guess it's important to keep going and enjoy learning more about the vegetarian lifestyle and not beat myself up over it. 

Here is what I had

Day 1 - September 1st

I decided to head to breakfast and play it safe and just keep it simple. I found out that everything there was vegetarian so I had a nice croissant, some jam on toast. We then spent the day at St Fagan's, which is an open air museum about Welsh life. As you can see from the photo, the place is pretty stunning.

I had a gorgeous cheesy bap as well as my fright with steak crisps. For dinner we went to Zizzi's Italian Restaurant yards away from the castle in the centre of Cardiff. I had a lot of options in there to choose from and decided on the garlic bread with cheese as a starter and then the Risotto Verde (green beans, courgette, spinach), which was delicious.

Day 2 - September 2nd

The breakfast at the hotel was pretty simple and the same everyday. I decided to have some cornflakes for a change. I never have breakfast before work due to the early starts but i've decided that I will eat more cereal because it's blummin' tasty! I tend to eat bacon sarnies from the work shop but obviously this will have to change. Might work out cheaper too!

We had lunch at the top of Pwll Mawr: Amgueddfa Lofaol Genedlaethol in Blaenavon. This was an old coal mine which offer tours underground to show what life was like as a coal miner in Wales. 

We got to wear miners hard hat and had to carry an old fashioned light with a 5kg battery attached to us. Unfortunately I don't have a picture because anything with a dry cell battery i.e. camera battery, mobile phone were forbidden in the coal mine. Very interesting place, highly recommend it. It was quite cold underground so a nice chip butty in the canteen was a perfect way to warm up. I had to avoid the amazing looking lasagne though!

For dinner we went to Eddies Diner. There was about two items on the menu for vegetarians and about a billion things for non-vegetarians. I decided to have the vegetarian Burger which looked dull and tasted pretty nasty. Must admit that it wasn't an ideal place for vegetarians to visit but it's our tradition to visit an American diner on holiday if we find one.

My girlfriend had an amazing looking double bacon cheese burger which made me drool.

Already in three days I have learnt quite a lot. I already appreciate how difficult it can be for vegetarians to find some decent food when going out for the day. I can also understand what it's like eating with non-vegetarians. At one point I felt bad for not going into certain restaurants because there wasn't anything I could eat and felt that I was being a pain but on the other hand I felt appreciated because we went somewhere which was perfect for me. It's also easy to eat something that might seem like it's suitable for vegetarians but it might have some extract in it which will make it a certain no no. When you're cooking for yourself, you can check the ingredients. When you are being cooked for, you just have to put a lot of trust into other people.

Oh and the best thing about Wales? The Welsh cakes! Yummy!!