Meat

Fifty-something Boomers certainly remember the menu of our youth. Burgers, steak, pork chops, ham, more burgers. Occasionally Mom cooked chicken (once a week in my house) and fish (on Fridays – we were Catholic), but the main meat staple was good old fashioned American red meat.

Steak with butter-drenched baked potatoes, burgers with mayo and ketchup-coated fries, fried pork chops. Oh wait, I forgot all about bacon with eggs for breakfast. And hot dogs for lunch.

Not so anymore, at least not in my house. My wife is a vegetarian so that means only one person is a meat-eater in our home. And I read a lot of health articles so I have convinced myself that red meat should not be part of my daily diet. Red meat is a rare treat.

This evening I treated myself to a Big Mac.



Not just any meat for me. Noooo. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun! It has been at least two years since I’ve had one of those. Yummy. Sometimes I cook burgers on the grill at home, but I usually get lean beef and I go easy on the condiments. But that giant, full color, backlit, poster-sized photograph of the Big Mac was too much to resist. Yes, I will have fries with that.

If you know how many calories that adds up to, please don’t tell me. Breakfast was cereal and low fat yogurt (like it is every morning), lunch was a chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread with an apple for a snack. I deserved a break today.