My Vegetarian Thread

[emerson]

Personally, I think if a person is going to eat meat then they should understand the reality and truth behind their decision, and that is what videos like meet your meat are...not silly, but the sad reality.

 

[Cait]

A few videos have already been linked and are definitely available from doing a Google search if people choose to watch them and would like to be further educated. :thumbup:

Tarah, keep it up, and I'm really proud that you are sticking to your guns and have such a great amount of will power!

 

[ClownCarOnFire]

I dunno. I mean, I don't have a problem with vegetarians. I'm not one myself and although I love animals and don't want to hurt them...I am an omnivorous mammal. Meat tastes good to me, and so I don't think I'll be giving that up anytime soon.
Despite that, I am a huuuuuuge fan of my fruits and veggies.
In fact, my favorite food in the whole entire world is salad. No meat in it either. Just romaine lettuce and gralic and butter croutons.

I dunno, I thought about being a vegetarian before, and maybe someday I'll make the switch, but I'm currently not ready for that.

Good luck to you though, it's a very nice choice to make.

 

[skinnyhippiechick]

And... have you ever had Tofu? If not, find a way of cooking it LOL. I bought some once and it ended up rotting in the freezer because i had no idea how to cook it. Very wierd stuff...

A really easy way to incorporate firm tofu into your diet is to freeze and then thaw, squeeze out any moisture, you will end up with a crumbly mass very similar to ground beef. This can be added to pasta sauce (either commercial or homemade) and will make a very believable bolognese sauce ( a carnivorous friend who tried it swore up and down it was meat). Tofu tends to absorb the flavors of the spices it is cooked in. You can also saute it sliced up (unfrozen) in a fry pan with a good squeeze of lemon juice, some grated gingerroot and a splash or two of soya sauce/liquid aminos. We use to use it this way in sandwiches with lettuce and mustard and it tasted quite similar to bologna. I use to cook for a vegan family who ran an organic store in Port Credit. They had a lot of dietary restrictions and it can be overwhelming at first. If you're looking for anything in particular please let me know cuz I have a huge repetoire of recipes under my belt! (My vegan kale/cashew pesto use to sell at the Big Carrot years ago...lol).

dl

 

[Zooy]

Adding to that, the only kind of lasagna I make now is tofu lasagna... I cook it up similar to ground beef, sweat some onions into it and add seasoning salt! it's delicious!

 

[Moon]

(My vegan kale/cashew pesto use to sell at the Big Carrot years ago...lol).

That sounds delicious.

 

[sausage4ever]

I never realized how tasty Tofu could be until I had Miso Soup for the first time (MMmmm Miso). Also cutting out fast foods is such an awesome idea, you'll be so much healthier for it!! I know longer eat fast food and am trying to cut out NYF (New York Fries) and pizza, but if you put your mind to it you can do anything.

 

[Catibrie]

Hey Minnow, If you ever get that cookbook off the ground- let me know!!! We are meat eaters here but my hubby's brother (who is over alot) is a veggie (he has hated the taste of meat since he was a baby) and he is celiac. But my biggest problem cooking for him is that he hates tomatoes in ANY form. Oh and onions (unless I grate them so he can't tell), and celery, and cucumbers, and .....

 

[ryelle]

LOL Catibrie, a food processor/blender comes in handy when someone doesn't like veg. My boyfriend refuses to eat 99% of vegetables, so i just puree them and put them in everything HAHA he has no idea

 

[Vanessa]

Just for the record, and I might have said this before, vegetarians are not people who disliked meat. And some absolutely loved it. People don't give it up because they don't like it.
The best thing about soy and tofu are that they will take on any flavour that you want them to with a little effort.
Even though I don't go out of my way to always eat meat like things, the Yves products are very good and extremely tasty and will do in a pinch as substitutes. PC has a few items out now that are just as tasty and quite a bit cheaper - including the ground soy.
I make bolognese and Shepherds Pie with the ground soy and meat eaters have even said that they prefer it to the ground beef versions. And it is so nice to take out leftovers and not have that disgusting film of fat on the bottom of the container. PC has a premade bolognese, containing TVP, that is really good.
Plus, think how great it will be to never worry about a tainted meat recall again!

 

[sausage4ever]

Yeah but you may get E.coli in your spinach!! LOL

 

[Maple]

Yeah but you may get E.coli in your spinach!! LOL

:laugh4: and I think it was in Bolthouse farms carrot juice too! Dam that deer poo.

 

[Vanessa]

Yes, that is very true. But for every recall affecting vegetables, there are half a dozen affecting meat.
I think I will stick with those odds.

 

[Alicemcmallis]

I have been a non-meat eater for so long, I am completely out of touch with certain things. Like I had no idea that this was something that happened:

it is so nice to take out leftovers and not have that disgusting film of fat on the bottom of the container

Um, gag? Other things not to worry about - sterilizing every cooking/food preparation surface constantly to rule out salmonella or whatever else you can get from raw meat, obviously you want to be clean, but you don't have to worry about fake chicken killing you or your children.

Also, if I don't refrigerate some soy product for a few hours, I don't have to worry about it doing whatever meat does when it's not refrigerated. lol Oh yeah, and all of those awesome fake meat products are pre-cooked. Very easy!

Good luck Tarah, you can totally do it if you want to do it. It's really not that difficult once you know the basics.

I swear I know someone who is vegan and also gluten free... I will have to investigate and let you know if they know of any good cookbooks, minnow!!

 

[Vanessa]

My family had a get together and there were two Shepherds pies made - one with meat and the vegetarian one that I made.
A couple of days later, Olivia took both leftovers out of their fridge and said to me that she couldn't tell which one was the veggie one (Olivia has been vegetarian for a while now). I opened both containers and showed her the disgusting white film on the bottom of the container with the meat version in it and compared it to the clean container that mine was in to show her how she could tell which was which in the future.
I never thought of it when I was a meat eater, but it sticks in my mind now.

 

[Dewi]

Regardless of whether we are supposed to be omnivores or not, it is the mass factory farming and mass slaughter at abattoirs that causes the brunt of the cruelty. I have a friend who raises and kills her own animals for food, I think this is infinitely better as the animals live good lives and die quick deaths. This is fine, but the mass production/slaughter is seriously messed up.

BTW Tarah, if you struggle with going vego cold turkey, then cut back your meat eating substantially and when you have adapted to living without much meat, then it's so much easier to give it up all together.

 

[Tarah]

I've done really well so far with giving up red meats.
Chicken is going to be the biggest challenge for me, as i seriously love chicken.

 

[Dewi]

I've done really well so far with giving up red meats.
Chicken is going to be the biggest challenge for me, as i seriously love chicken.

Chicken was hard for me too. Fish was even harder. It took me years to totally not eat fish. Not so long with chicken but maybe about a year, but in the mean time I weaned myself off. I think the idea of not ever eating chicken again is probably more overwhelming then going for weeks without it. So until you are totally comfy with the idea of living a chicken-free life, then allow yourself some indulgences. Over time you actually lose the taste for meat so you stop craving it.

 

[sausage4ever]

I'm not to sure about that last statement. I crave RedBull out of the blue sometimes and it doesn't even taste that good.
It's actually the only thing in the world I have ever craved.

 

[Moon]

I'm not to sure about that last statement. I crave RedBull out of the blue sometimes and it doesn't even taste that good.
It's actually the only thing in the world I have ever craved.

I think you'd technically be craving the caffeine, not the red bull itself.