Bad, bad Metro!

Although I enjoy cooking I tend to get a bit lazy when it comes to preparing lunches (who doesn't right?) Especially when it comes to making salads. Like many people I love eating salads for lucn but they take sooooo long to prepare, so I've gotten into a habit of buying a ready salad for lunch at a near by Metro store.

Today I fought hard against the urge to order Thai and stuck to my daily routine to buy salad. Once in the store though, I realised I did not want the regular greek salad that I usually get and decided to try something else. Metro usually does not have a variety of vegetarian salads so I was skeptical that I would find something. Every salad tends to have meat in it...even their spinach salad has bacon bits! (That should have been my warning!!) Looking through the "wall" of salads I came across their "Supreme salad" WOW...supreme...with no meat!. I could see lettuce, cukes, cherry tomatoes, yellow, orange, red and green peppers and walnuts. I was hooked. I double-checked the label. Nope...no meat!

Pleased with myself that I had stuck with routine, I headed back to work anticipating an enjoyable lunch. After a several bites I soon realised my mistake. I bit of digging into the mound of veggies, I unearthed a huge center of bacon bits!  I realised that a past prediction had come true.

Bad, bad Metro!! If you are going to include bacon bits please make them visible OR label your salads accordingly

Is bacon a gateway drug meat?

I recently tweeted about an article that speculated that bacon is the meat that temps vegetarians back to a carnivorous behaviour. I read this article aloud to my husband and we both had a good laugh.  I have told him on several occasions that bacon would be my downfall!

I am the only one in my family who is vegetarian, so there is meat cooking in our house pretty much every day. I'm not preachy, or critical or anal about being vegetarian. It is not uncommon for me to cook a meat meal and a vegetarian meal side-by-side. Yes I touch meat—I'll form hamburger patties with my hands. I don't freak out if the fork that poked the ham is used to serve me a stalk broccoli.

On two occasions when I was cooking bacon for family and/or friends I found myself unconsciously picking up a slice for snacking! I caught myself both times before I chomped down on it. I have never done this for any other meat. In my opinion, this proves to me the powerful draw that bacon has. Like a drug...bacon is potentially my "gateway meat".

Read the full article about vegetarians "defeated" by bacon here.