10 Meatless Days Pt.2

So I'm in day 5/10 for my "meatless" challenge. I don't find it too challenging yet, but I do feel guilty in a way since I haven't had a complete vegetarian meal... I've been substituting the absence of meat in various forms of seafood, and I wonder if that is sort of, uh,...cheating.

Last night after an awesome session of kickboxing, I planned to make my calamari & shrimp stirfry. But then I thought of all the chopping, rice cooking, etc. that would delay my dinner time, so I decided to pick up some smoked salmon and make a nice cucumber sandwich with them.

Well, what I found at the grocery store next to my gym was an extremely limited selection of smoked salmon which were all fairly overpriced. HOWEVER, sitting pretty, next to the overpriced smoked salmon, was the fresh salmon fillets. Far less expensive!

With a simple seasoning of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried oregano my salmon fillet only took about 8 minutes to cook. During those 8 minutes I just chopped up some tomato, cucumber, and red onion which were dressed in lemon juice and olive oil as well as salt, pepper, and dried oregano (to echo the "mediterranean" flavor of salmon).

Another short cut? My deli counter favorite: greek orzo salad. Each grocery store makes their own versions, but not one has yet to fail me. It's a simple orzo salad that always has feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, often times kalamata olives and even lemon juice.

So not only was this dinner speedy, but definitely hearty! I know I'm trying to be healthy but I left the salmon skin on. The crispy, salty goodness was crazy good! Oh, and obviously I need to practice my salmon cooking skills!

The meal delivery at work was also meatless! So I think I might make this Sunday a cheat day and enjoy being a carnivore, since I'm planning a visit over to Chicago's Navy Pier. I mean, I can't go to the Navy Pier and not have a hot dog, right?

PS. Can't believe it's already been 9 years since the tragedy...remembering those who lost their lives and loved ones 9/11/01.