Vulture Boy goes Vegetarian!

I should start off by mentioning that Benjamin earned the nickname "Vulture Boy" because of what he does to meat. The bones could not be any cleaner, post Benjamin, than if they were boiled. It's both repulsive and strangely fascinating.

Anyway, so today on the way to church Nathaniel asked why we ate animals. I replied, "Because our parents ate animals." It seemed as good an answer as any. Benjamin and Nathaniel decided there in the car that they were going to stop eating meat. I, personally, was pretty excited about this and all up for the challenge, until I realized I'd still have to cook for Todd. I got away with not cooking meat the first several years of marriage because we lived so close to his parents, so he could pop over to Mom's house for a Sunday roast. Since moving away, though, I've had to learn. I cook beef twice a year for him. The rest is chicken or fish and not every day.

Nathaniel is firmly in my camp. He's all about beans, and the occasional pepperoni pizza, but doesn't like meat plain. Benjamin, on the other hand, refuses to eat beans (unless it's a soy bean cleverly disguised as a buffalo wing). So, you can see why Benjamin's vegetarianism caught me a little off guard. He's been exposed to all the various soy products for his whole life, but generally eschewed them in favor of meat.

By the end of dinner (during which each of the boys and I had a boca burger and stared rather accusingly at Todd for eating an animal burger), though, the boys had decided that they would be vegetarians only every other day. I think it was when Todd mentioned that there were no Wendy's kids meals for vegetarians, so we could stop going there.

So, tomorrow is a non-vegetarian day at our house. But on Tuesday, we'll be calling Benjamin by his new name, "Tofu Boy"!