Hi vegetarians and vegans!

[Bouncy Ball]

It's been four months of vegetarianism for me. No going back now, I'm not even tempted. In fact, I feel a bit grossed out at the idea of eating meat now.

Recently I was in a couple of situations where it was VERY difficult to eat a decent meal that didn't involve meat, but I managed.

One was a work situation (catered) and on the menu were beef tacos and beef tamales. Ummmm.

So I took a taco shell and shoved the big chunks of tomato they had out in it, then added lettuce and cheese.

The beans were at the very end of the line (?????) which kind of told me how different it is to be a vegetarian. To me, the beans and rice would have been at the front of the serving line. So I made a second taco with beans, rice, lettuce, cheese and tomato.

A woman commented on my first taco "I've never seen a tomato taco before, got something against meat?" And I said "well actually I'm a vegetarian and hey you do what you gotta do!" (I was referring to my tomato taco) and she said "well you don't HAVE to not eat meat, you know."

:eyes: No, I had no idea it was voluntary to be a vegetarian. Whatever.

I think about meal planning differently now. My daughter and I have been exploring new recipes, new foods. If anything, we're MORE adventurous than we used to be!

And my daughter made a complete dinner for us the other night! She's only ten. She steamed some fresh yellow squash and zucchini and served it over garlicky cous cous with fresh Roma tomatoes. She added a mushroom soup with a sherry base and a fruit salad for dessert. I have to say, I was pretty impressed.

Thanks for being here, guys. It's nice to know this group is here.

And elad, we got the multivitamins you recommended a while back. Thanks!

Oh and I meant to say, in the second situation, I was even more limited in what I could eat. I kept looking at all these wraps that looked delicious that had labels like "Turkey Feta Wrap" and "Ham Tomato Wrap." I kept thinking "couldn't just ONE variety of wrap have no meat in it? Just one?"

How hard could it be to just throw together a few with no meat, but everything else?

Since I was so incredibly restricted in that situation, I ended up eating junky crap. There was nothing healthy there (except those wraps with the meat in them). Grrrr.

[smbolisnch]

1. Hey BB!

Glad that you are doing well in your journey as a veggie! Unfortunately, you will continue to encounter situations in which the only thing available for you to eat are lettuce and tomatoes, but it sounds to me like you are ready and willing to handle that!

Way to go! :woohoo:

[flamingyouth]

2. Hi Bouncy!

It is hard to eat out in certain situations. I'm going down to Texas next week, in fact, and I've been scouting out places where I know I can get a vegan meal. I think there are two possibilities in the town Neil lives in. :eyes:

I also sent down a box of stuff to cook while I'm there. :D

[Bouncy Ball]

3. How long have you been vegan?

I can't quite reach vegan level, though we have replaced about 1/3 of our organic milk consumption with soy milk (mmmm!).

Have fun visiting here!

[flamingyouth]

4. I'm actually not vegan

I do eat a little fish, so I'm not even vegetarian. But I mostly stick to a vegan diet (no dairy or eggs), with some seafood thrown in when I visit my parents (maybe twice a month). I've been drifting this way for years now, but while I was married, it was really hard because he was a total carnivore. My health really suffered for it, however, so I can speak from experience, after having been vegetarian for years, then going back to eating meat and now not eating it, I feel SO much better. My skin looks better, my fibromyalgia symptoms have improved, life is just better. :D

I hope I can stand the heat while I'm down there, but at least everything is air conditioned, unlike my house here. :hi:

[shockra]

5. Good for you.

The more I read about how grotesque factory farming is and about how many ways meat is unhealthy the more I think it's the meat eaters who are the weird ones. They mostly can't help it, since they've had advertising and other kinds of conditioning shoved down their throats since birth. They just want to be "normal" and average, I guess.

Not me. Bwahaha. Not in most things.

The hardest thing about vegan, I think, is all the products that have hidden egg and cheese ingredients. You have to really read labels. It's hard to find things that don't have just a little egg white in them, for instance. The last thing I noticed was York Peppermint Patties. Hmmm....can't have those anymore. Or the chewy almond granola bars I used to eat a lot of. I don't have a heart attack when I found out I've made a mistake, I just remember I have to find an alternative, next time.

You might experiment with some substitutes. I use soy margarine for cooking, and the last time I made Chocolate Chip cookies with it my mom said they were the best she'd ever had. I use vanilla soymilk for cooking pudding and it tastes *better* than milk. Just deleted the egg in the tapioca recipe on the box, and I swear it's hard to tell any difference (plus, no bits of stringy egg white floating around in the cooked pudding). With the Jello pudding mixes there's no egg to add anyway.

I had pretty much given up eggs already, except for baking. But it's easy to substitute an egg in baking. 2 TBS water + 2 tsp baking powder. Or, 2TBS water + 1 TBS vegetable oil + 2 tsp baking powder. I'm a big brownie and cookie baker, so I worried about what not adding eggs would do, but it was no big whoop after all. And the last brownies I made...yowza! There are vegan recipe versions out there for about everything, but usually I stick with my favorite recipes and just make substitutions to them.

I tried a vegan brownie recipe, for instance, but my regular brownie recipe was much yummier (with substitutions)!

[livetohike]

6. You're doing great BouncyBall!

You're right - it can be really challenging at times when there are no vegetarian options on the menu. Sounds like you are adapting well though :-).

[flvegan]

7. Great attitude.

Seriously. "hey, you do what you gotta do." That was a great thing to say. I know lots of folks that would've gone completely ballistic, especially being new to veg*ism (I think that sometimes those same folks are so hard-charging into it, they're a little overwhelmed by the discovery). Depending on my current mood and state of mind, I too will oft choose the road less travelled because of how obnoxious I can be.

I will say this, though. It's getting better. Most catering companies will now ask if veg meals are needed.

[Bouncy Ball]

8. Yeah that's true.

And I was at a conference a few months ago where there was a veg meal option. I was pleasantly surprised. And it was REALLY good, too!

:thumbsup:

[peacebuzzard]

9. I know you feel better by now, too.

Probably have lost weight and that blah rundown feeling. When I ate meat I was always sick with digestive problems.

[shockra]

10. You know...

The day before you posted that I bought a box of roasted garlic couscous, and I haven't eaten couscous in years. :)

I wanted to say that it's great the habits you're teaching your daughter. I got my first cookbook when I was about that age, and one of the first things I made was cookies. Cookies are still my favorite thing to make. So what you learn early really becomes ingrained.

My right-wing Republican aunt gave me that book, and it's the nicest thing she ever did for me. I still use it. Never stopped using it. The recipes are easy and they became second nature long ago.