I’m a big believer in dramatic endings so I stuck with the no meat diet throughout today in anticipation for the meat at a Super Bowl party.

For brunch I had a piece of challah french toast from La Chaim, the kosher station! Brendan Z. reminded me on the Fooducated.com Facebook page that “it’s not just for Jews” so I made sure to check it out this morning and it was a great suggestion.

The bread must not have sat in the egg for long because the middle of the thick piece of bread was completely dry. However, the crispy crust on the fluffy challah was delectable and much yummier than the non-kosher fried French Toast Sticks. They are certainly less terrible for your arteries.

In fact, this whole diet seems to have helped my arteries. After six and a half days of basically being a Vegetarian, I feel great. I have more energy than ever before. I’m healthier and leaner and morally less troubled. I decided to convert into a full time vegetarian when I bit into the chicken wing and thought, “bleh! Dead animal is just gross.”

Nah, TOTALLY KIDDING. Look at how much I enjoyed it:

I’m going to have to go back to eating meat. I just love all kinds of food too much to not experience so many different dishes.

These Buffalo Wings, from the Grizzly Grill, were perfectly crispy and delicious. This should go without saying since Fooducated discovered a few days ago that the campus Buffalo sauce is basically spectacular on everything except Froyo. I’m pretty sure I would’ve enjoyed the wings just as much even if they weren’t the first bites of chicken that I’ve had in a little less than a week. They are absolutely worth picking up for a party.

However, I have decided, after this challenge, that I’m going to make sure I eat meat a maximum of once a day. I’m doing this for three reasons: (1) I think there’s something kinda gnarly about eating sausage for breakfast, ham for lunch, and chicken for dinner, (2) it forces me to really think about what I’m eating and that can’t be a bad thing, and (3) it’ll push me to try more of the vegetarian options on campus. And there are a lot of those.

Being a vegetarian on WashU’s campus was really not difficult and I think it would’ve been incredibly easy if, like most vegetarians, I was morally opposed to eating animals. Because I’m not (for purely selfish reasons), all of the meat options intrigued me and I’m assuming the temptation isn’t nearly as strong for those who are.

It’s easy because Bon Appetit offers a huge variety of good vegetarian dishes. I’m pretty sure every station on campus has at least one vegetarian option, which I think is incredible. And there’s a rotation of different dishes so that it’s difficult to get bored. For anyone who doesn’t have a vegetarian family, it probably makes staying a vegetarian on campus even easier than it is to stay one at home.

*At first I titled this “Breaking the Veggie Fest,” hoping most people missed the footnote on the last post. But then I looked at it and felt super dishonest so I added the “(And Some Fish).” However, the vast majority of the time I ate nothing that had anything to do with any type of animal so I think I’m still qualified to talk about what it’s like to be a vegetarian on campus.

I really tried to like the Egg & Cheese Croissant from Cherry Tree.

It was stuffed with one solid, huge block of flavorless egg that had the texture of soft rubber. The only flavor came from the cheddar cheese. But the cheese was distributed so unevenly that most bites only involved egg and a few contained huge chunks of cheddar. The croissant itself was a squished and a little soggy but if it hadn’t been stuffed, it would’ve been a decent croissant. It was just way too thin to hold all of that egg.

I understand completely that there are limitations because these sandwiches are pre-made (click here for my review of a different pre-made sandwich). They sit in wrappers on the warm plate in Cherry Tree for hours so that students can grab them for a quick breakfast. That explains the sogginess of the croissant and perhaps even the texture of the egg.

However, I think it would be less of an issue if they scrambled the eggs instead of cooked them int0 one big block. They could then melt the cheese into the eggs while scrambling, ensuring a more even distribution, and stuff the croissants with half as much as they do now.

For lunch I went to Paws & Go and filled a 12 oz cup with cereal. Then, thanks to Taylor’s suggestion, I took an empty cup, poured half of the cereal in there and added milk. This solved the small-cup-lot-of-cereal-no-room-for-milk debacle.

I avoided the brunch because I knew there’d be bacon, sausage, and ham everywhere.

I start work at 3pm today so I won’t be writing about dinner but I promise nothing will be meat!* I want to break my veggie streak at the Superbowl party tomorrow night so it’s really 6 and a 1/2 days of being a vegetarian. I’ll sum up what I’ve learned from the experience then.

*Wrote this before I left for work…. I have an admission… I had a little bite of tuna because Chef Kim offered it to me and I’m pretty sure no one says no to Chef Kim. It was delicious. Please forgive me.

This morning, because Chef Rushing told me I missed the Vegetarian Chili Mac special at the DUC, I decided to browse the dining services website to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything else. Bad idea.

The first thing I saw was that today’s soup of the day is New England Clam Chowder. New England Clam Chowder is one of my favorite soups and the one they make on campus is my favorite campus soup. Just yesterday I wrote that I want to try it in one of Stanley’s bread bowls. It’s as if the Bon Appetit menu planners are trying to get me to crack!! They also served lamb at Holmes on Tuesday…

Well I made it! The only things that cracked today were the eggs in my breakfast:

Thank God I’m not a vegan because I really needed these over easy eggs. They were cooked the right way so the runny yolk spilled into the cervices of the wonderful whole wheat bread.

For lunch Chef Rushing suggested the vegetarian chorizo from DeliciOSO. I was skeptical of fake meat.

I topped the taco with lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, onions, and spicy chili sauce.  It was delicious! The chorizo flavored soy had the same texture as ground chorizo. While it was a little spicy, the taste reminded me more of something completely unique than it did chorizo and I actually liked it a lot. I’ll probably eat the flavored soy even when I can eat meat.

While trying to find dinner I saw this sign for the first time:

 They’ve turned that entire box into a whole vegetarian and vegan entrees and sides box! The most exciting thing for me was the plain broccoli in one of the bowls in the case. Plain broccoli doesn’t sound incredibly thrilling but I’ve been vegetable deprived because I could never find anything that I considered a vegetable side. I want to be able to eat a Flamethrower with some asparagus on the side (for example). Now I can! So for dinner I ordered a vegetarian crab cake and broccoli.

The Vegetarian Crab Cake was okay. It had a lot of flavor but was oddly chewy. The broccoli wasn’t overcooked or soggy (they throw it in to order) so that was great.

Yum, yum, yum! I’m almost done.

During our elementary school years, Zoe – my vegetarian best friend – and I told our classmates that we were allergic to nuts. Neither one of us is allergic to any foods. We just wanted to guarantee that we would never be forced to eat a nut.

Now some of my favorite dishes have nuts in them. My other best friend Kristen’s Mom’s sweet potatoes covered in sugar and pecans, peanut butter and jelly (actually I ate tons of peanut butter in elementary school too but I guess no one noticed), and the Banana Nut Muffin on campus. I’ve written a long post praising this muffin (click here) because it’s so good.

I try to avoid eating the same thing twice on Fooducated but decided this morning that the Banana Nut Muffin is an exception. I love it too much not to give in and eat it for breakfast more often.

My muffin this morning had a strange bulge - only made it more delicious.

For lunch I stopped by Stanley’s in Lopata for the first time. It’s a little hidden gem that’s busy at lunch but no where near as busy as Holmes, the DUC, or Whispers. They even have bread bowls for soup (I’m coming back when I’m allowed to eat animals and the soup is New England Clam Chowder)!

Sorry about the messy picture - it fell apart when I tried to get a shot of the inside.

I ordered the Greek Vegetable Wrap with onions.  It has hummus, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and grilled vegetables with a red wine oregano vinaigrette. The simultaneous tang from the hummus and creamy, nuttiness of the parmesan made for a delicious wrap. I even enjoyed the grilled mushrooms (not always a big fan of mushrooms). And they do toast the wrap until it’s nice and crunchy. My only complaint was that it fell apart pretty quickly, which probably had something to do with how massive the wrap was.

So massive in fact, that for dinner I just ate the Caesar Salad from Whispers. The lettuce was crisp and the dressing wasn’t too rich or too fishy, which is a risk you always run. However, it wasn’t as good as the one from Trattoria Verde because the croutons were soggy (which can probably be expected from a refrigerated salad) and I like the lemon in the Trattoria Verde dressing.

Speaking of dressing, Alexandra showed me a new technique. Instead of pouring the dressing over the salad and then trying to mix it without making a mess, she dips her lettuce in the cup. Brilliant! This made it a lot easier to eat in class without overdressing the salad.

Day three and I’m getting into the groove of things. WashU has plenty of vegetarian options so the only thing that makes it difficult is the deliciousness of all the meat options they also surround us with.

For breakfast I had a scrumptious Thomas English Muffin with peanut butter (both available at Paws & Go) and strawberry jam (not sure if you can get this at Paws & Go). It was a quick, filling breakfast and the protein in the peanut butter kept me going until lunch.

Lunch rocked. The above pizza, labeled “Vegetarian” – this was a nice easy solution for my inability to order like a normal person (see Day 1) -  was being served at the Trattorria Verde in the DUC.

The crust was surprisingly thin and crunchy in all the ways a good crust should be. I actually shouldn’t say surprisingly because I’ve been a fan of WashU’s pizza for a long time. It’s the only pizza I’ve ever tried outside of NY that I really like (click here for the post about it). But I can still be slightly surprised because I’ve only tried the pizza at BD. Like with bagels, people theorize that the NY water gives the pizza crust its texture but WashU does a great job all the way over here in Missouri.

I also loved the tomato slices that were sitting on top of the cheese. They made it a difficult to eat without being messy but the deeper flavors that result from them being slightly roasted in the pizza oven were totally worth it. Fresh basil slices added a nice sweetneess that – with help from the liberal amounts of dried oregano sprinkled on top – cuts through the thick mozzarella (which was loaded on a little too heftily).

The best part of this pizza, however, was the feta sprinkled across it. Feta! On pizza! If I had known, I probably wouldn’t have tried it but now I’m pizza-with-feta’s biggest fan. I didn’t miss sausage, pepperoni, or chicken (don’t tell them). Even the most adamant of meat eaters will enjoy this slice.

Probably because I ate less protein than I usually do, I was really hungry yesterday so I went to Paws & Go to pick up some snacks to try. The first one I had was the Seapoint Farms Dry Roasted Lightly Salted Edamame.

Apparently, those have more protein and less fat than peanuts. They were way too dry for my taste and lightly salted means really lightly salted. I like boiled endamame more (they sell frozen bags in Paws and go).

The second snack I tried were the Rich Cheddar Cheese Soy Crisps. I realize that almost all (if not all) chips are vegetarian but it seemed like there was something particularly vegetarian about these (probably the soy). They were deliciously cheddartastic. I’d eat these before potato chips because the Soy Crisps don’t have a greasy, fatty taste.

I’m half way there! Three more days of veggie eating and then I’ll be breaking into plates of all kinds of meat while watching huge chunks of meat smash themselves into each other over and over again.*

*Just in case this is too vague, I’m talking about the Superbowl. I don’t want that sentence to be misinterpreted.

My morning started off great. I had some peanut butter on a piece of whole wheat bread (both buyable at Paws & Go). It’s a classic combination that reminds me of being a happy 10 year old.

But while browsing the WUSTL Dining Services website to decide what I wanted for lunch (did this WHILE eating breakfast… I may have a foodsession), I made a fatal mistake. “Hmmm, I wonder what the meat is at Holmes,” I thought. My immediate reaction was, “no don’t check it!” but my devilish finger had already clicked on the link. Look what I found:

Lamb! LAMB! LAMB, LAMB, LAMB! I love lamb. I love Holmes’ lamb. I love lamb with Holmes’ house sauce. For a second I tried to justify eating it.

I remembered the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding when Ian tells Aunt Voula that he’s a vegetarian and she responds: “What do you mean, you don’t eat no meat? [Long incredibly awkward pause] That’s okay. I make lamb.” I thought, “I can write a Foodcuated post about how I’ve gone all these years thinking lamb is vegetarian because of that movie.” Luckily, I quickly realized how ridiculous that idea was (not often that I realize something’s ridiculousity).

Later on in the day, while leaving writing class in Eads, I walked the long way to avoid smelling Holmes.

Instead, I had a Blueberry Bagel for lunch.

“Blueberry Bagel?!?” my New York friends will say in disgust if they read this post. Yes, there is such thing. Who knew? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the bagel shops in NY and I had low hopes for this one. But I was in a rush at Whispers and didn’t want to have a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel since I’ve already profiled those.

It was good! Really good! In fact, I liked it more than I liked the Cinnamon Raisin on campus. The Blueberry Bagel had a much fuller flavor and fresher texture than the Cinnamon Raisin one had. When toasted and topped with melting cream cheese, it had the right amount of softness on the inside and a good firm crust. I’m a fan.

For a snack I had that nice, crunchy, sour Granny Smith in the picture above. And for dinner I got Whole Wheat Penne with Tomato Sauce, Caramelized Onions, and Broccoli.

Chef Patrick Thrower, the Executive Sous Chef on the South 40, gave me a few tips for making the pasta sauce a little more interesting. On his suggestion, I added about a tablespoon of olive oil and some chopped, fresh herbs (if they aren’t out on the station, just ask and they might have some in the back). I also added parmesan, red chili flakes, oregano, and salt.

The olive oil was an especially good tip. Once I mixed it all together, the sauce coated the pasta really well. Without olive oil, the sauce usually just sits in large clumps throughout the dish. The clumps are too intense and sweet. With the oil, it spreads out nicely and becomes a much more pleasant, softer sauce. The fresh herbs also added flavor, making the entire experience more interesting.

However, it was still a little too sweet for me. I think I should’ve added vinegar (another one of Chef Thrower’s suggestions) and I would’ve loved some garlic. Roasted garlic would be a great addition to the pasta station.

Day two down. Everywhere I turned people were eating meat (pork in Taylor’s stir fry, tenders in Alex’s quesadilla, and chicken in Daniella’s pasta… sorry JP I can’t remember what you ate but I’m sure there was meat in it) and it took a lot of energy not to jump across the table and dig in.

I’m proud to say that I didn’t and that I only screamed “I want meat!” twice.