Meat is evil.  But it really tastes damn good.  I was a vegetarian for so long that eating became more of a chore rather than a pleasurable experience.  For vegetarians the meal is either of two extremes: quick, raw and usually tasteless or extremely elaborate and time consuming to make.  Now I became a vegetarian after becoming aware of just how unhealthy the meat that we consume in America is.  I was turned off by the fact that I was consuming antibiotics, hormones and large amounts of animal fat so I switched to a vegetarian diet that, in turn, made me lose weight, cleared up my skin and overall gave me the energy boost that I needed.  I’ve been a vegetarian since the age of 16 with short bursts of vegan-ism in between.  I’ve definitely learned that eating healthy is very expensive.

When I met my Greek boyfriend and his family, the classic, “What do you mean you don’t eat NO MEAT?” popped up from every corner and meat began popping up everywhere I turned.  So it was difficult to say no when I was offered meat at every meal because I am taught that when you are offered something to eat by your host you EAT IT even if it is one bite.  Eventually, one bite turned into cleaning my plate.  The lamb, the souvlaki, the spinach pie, the feta, saganaki…Yes three of those are vegetarian but when you combine all of the above its just that much better. I’ve learned is that for Greek families the meal is more of an experience rather than just eating a plate of food.  The family will sit down, talk, spend about an hour or two at the table laughing and conversing while enjoying their meal.  It is a time to update one another about his or her life, events that are coming up, plans, gossip, and celebrate accomplishments while (on occasion) you hear music in the background.  Holidays always involve long meals of many dishes many of which center around a roasted lamb.   Spending dinner time with my boyfriend’s family every now and then has really changed my perspective on dinner and in addition to family values.  I grew up in a single parent household and most of my family from my mother’s side is in Poland so holidays consisted of my mom and myself  at dinner which was definitely nice.  On a rare occasion I’d head on over to dad’s for a second holiday but in my mind it didn’t really count.  It’s very refreshing to see family values being retained in this hectic world that we live in.  As generations come and go I think traditions, values, morals deteriorate and its a shame that it will only keep getting worse.  I guess there’s really nothing anybody can do about it  and there’s not sense of worrying about the unchangeable so i’ll just get back to my lamb chops….