this is not a journal title

Today began the once-a-week vegetarian experiment. Well, technically Sunday did, as that's when we did our grocery shopping - I started out by writing down every veggie thing people suggested to me on this post (and if you've got more, please do drop a note here), and since I knew that we had some Quorn [Wikipedia, Quorn.com] at our local Stop'n'Shop that's what I decided to start with.

I'd previously tried their ground beef substitute, which our local grocery store doesn't seem to carry, so this time I went with the "chicken" cutlets. Quorn is "mycoprotein" - fungus, mushroom, that sorta thing, and in the "ground beef" I can tell it's mushroomish. If you're looking for a meat imitation, this isn't the place to go, but if you're looking for a savory meat replacement, Quorn does seem to do the trick. As I've mentioned before, I require that savoriness (umami) in my meals, and Quorn in all forms does seem to have sufficient (though not overflowing) quantity of it.

( Quorn Cutlets Parmesean Recipe )

The texture was a bit startling at first - to me it felt like it was breading all the way through. However, I happen to like the texture of breading so I liked it. The taste was completely inoffensive, and mildly like breading. In the end, I consider it a moderate success: I could eat this every couple weeks just like anything else, but I'll probably get bored of it sooner than most dishes I eat simply due to its inoffensive nature.

The one downside was the cost: it was around $5 for 7oz, where usually we pay around $5 for 1lb of a meat product. The fact that it was in a unit that cost the same as we usually pay for meat, rather than a unit of the same weight that we usually buy of meat, makes it *seem* like less of a price difference than it really is. It was an okay quantity of food; I made extra pasta and included the veggies where normally I wouldn't've in a pasta dish.

For my next veggie attempt, I think I'll make a trip to Trader Joe's and grab one each of anything else on my list of veggie options. (rumorofrain, do you know if the new co-op carries any of these?) ( Currently I've got listed: )

Any other suggestions?