Going Veggie for February

Sticking to New Year's Resolutions is something I have, and always will, struggle with. Whether it's a lack of dedication or because life just gets in the way is neither here nor there (although I'm hoping this year will be the year I finally kick myself into learning how to drive!). However, every year my boyfriend Dan and I give up alcohol for January. Saying that, the year 'Dry January' becomes a real qualified 'thing' was this January when we went to watch Liverpool play Leicester City on New Year's Day. As we'd never seen them play at home before and it was my first time watching LFC we decided to put Dry January on hold and make it into a pretty special event spending a few days exploring Liverpool (more on that coming soon!).

Unfortunately Dry January will be staying on hold till 2016 because we missed the whole month. To make up for a lack of detoxing and really because I wanted to, I suggested to Dan we go vegetarian for February. Like me, Dan is an avid omnivore, so I was surprised when he keenly said yes. Even more surprised when he didn't say but can we eat fish, which is pretty much what everyone I've told has said to me. So that was the challenge I set us to eat a vegetarian diet for February. 

Over the last week leading up to the 1st of Feb I've had some pretty big doubts about this agreement (we shook hands on it and everything, there's a contract in 'blood' (almond milk) lying around somewhere!). Amongst worries about will I get enough protein/iron/vitamin B etc. and will I get alopecia like my uncle/housemate/friends, there's also been the main one: why am I doing this, I love meat! So I think about all the answers to these questions: you will get enough of everything (did you know you only need 10-15% of your daily intake to be made up of protein?); they were all vegan and it's not going to happen in a month; and you do love meat but you're doing it to:

- Be more healthy;

- Save money to put towards trips on our supercalifragiReyjavik trip to Iceland;

- Find new vegetarian recipes to add to our collection of go to's (we already eat veggie 3 days a week but we do tend to get stuck on our faves like Roast Butternut Squash and Beetroot Salad and Minted Asparagus Courgette Tart);

- Work through all the fabulous vegetarian cook books I have particularly the brand spanking new Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi.

And truth be told, thinking about those points (and having been grocery shopping and come back with three reusable bags worth of green goodies) has made me push those doubting thoughts away. I've already got a list of more vegetarian recipes than I can make in a month and I'm really excited by the idea of cooking my way through them and also buying new produce I've never tried before.

If anyone has any vegetarian recipes they think are amazing please share them with me, no vegetable will be excluded! And if anyone has any tips to healthy vegetarian dieting that doesn't purely consist of cheese boards let me know.