Vegetarian lasagna is pretty darn good, and other tales from the Vegetarian trail

This morning the girl and I hit the road at roughly 6:15 a.m. for a 3-mile run.

And I had a few thoughts.

One of them was this: I hadn't consumed a scrap of meat all day Monday. How rare is this? After thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty rare. I can usually get by without meat in the morning. Like today, it was a banana and coffee before the run, then grapefruit and yogurt after.

But lunches ... that's usually where the meat consumption starts.

Turkey sandwich. Chicken noodle soup. Tuna. Cheeseburger. Pulled pork sandwich. All solid lunch options. And whether I dine at home, which I usually do, or have lunch out, meat's on that plate, my friends.

I made due Monday with a bagel with cream cheese in the afternoon and an apple. By dinnertime, I was hungry.

Luckily, my wife has been making vegetarian meals for my daughter's benefit. And on Monday, she pulled out of the freezer a pan of vegetarian lasagna.

Now, I typically like my lasagna full of meat. You know, the way it was supposed to be made. But part of this whole week is about being open to new things, about understanding.

Now, I've had this before and knew it was pretty good. But that was before, when having it was more of a novelty, something new, something different. I remember it being good, but knowing that, if I'd had my choice, I'd throw some animal in there.

This time, though, I ate it while trying to understand the decision my daughter made to not include the meat because it's wrong, and to be OK enough with that to be able to look beyond vegetarianism as something that's being imposed on me.

What I mean is, I tried to appreciate it for what it is, rather than something that has had the fun sucked out of it. Which is hard for me. I refuse to drink diet soda for this reason. And I will believe until the day I die that anyone who says they actually enjoy diet soda is lying to you, lying to themselves. But I digress.

So, while trying to parse all this out, I was able, I think, to simply appreciate the delicious meal for what it was: pasta, spinach, cheese, tomatoes, spices ... all thrown together to form what was simply a fabulous meal.

So Day 1, after getting beyond that breakfast incident, wasn't too bad.

I'm afraid the days to come might be a little trickier. But tonight, Emma and I are cooking together. Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese!