Gentle on my mind.
It all started when I read this post by Attrice. It kept rattling around my head for days and days, and resisted my best efforts to pretend I hadn’t read it.
Then I was snuggling with Little Dog a few days ago, kissing the tawny brown spots over his eyes and burying my face in his neck scruff, and I had a sudden, visceral connection about that warm wiggly body and the ground beef my husband was cooking in the kitchen.
It was kind of ghastly.
I haven’t had any meat since then because I can’t quite shake that moment of horror. And because a girl can’t live on salad alone, I’ve been looking at various vegetarian resources to see if I can handle a meat-free life.
Oh. My. Stars. That is some head-exploding information out there.
In this process of figuring out how to love Megan-As-Whole-Person, I am trying to be kinder to myself; I’m learning how not to take in every negative message about what it means to be a woman and a non-dieter and fat to boot. I’m working at making exercise a gift to my body, not a penance. I’m focusing on feeding myself well, nourishing my body and my spirit with foods that make me feel my best. Basically, I’m approaching myself with compassion and gentleness.
And honestly? I’m having a hard time reconciling that path of compassion with the way I’ve always eaten. Knowing what I know about the meat industry, knowing that pain isn’t only felt by those of us at the top of the food chain…well, I can’t quite stomach it any more.
What it comes down to is this: I don’t want to bring any more violence against my body, and that includes violence that comes on the end of a fork.
Anyone have any good recipes?
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The Veganomicon!!! Morningstar and Boca and Yves If You Please are my best friends.
You know, I tried to be vegetarian, and was always tired, so I went back to eating meat. These days I’m trying my damndest to only buy pastured, hormone-free, killed-as-humanely-as-possible meat. ::::sigh::::
My mom is vegetarian, though, and she’s a fabulous cook. (When she started eating veggie, she said she refused to eat stuff that tasted like “health food” and set about reconfiguring all her fave recipes to be meatless. And DAMN, that woman can cook! Ha!)
If you want to email me, I can put you in touch with her.
You should check out Heidi Swanson’s website at http://101cookbooks.com/ . Her yummy recipes and beautiful photographs will make you want to eat your vegetables.
She also has two cookbooks.
Good luck.
i have not eaten meat for what 16 years not
not sence i was 3 years old all by me self i
did nto want to eat meat because it was mean
http://www.vrg.org is good
Marste, I mostly eat free-range, organic, humanely killed meat as well. They may be “other nations” but many are other nations that completely depend upon killing and eating one another, which factors in to my moral beliefs on the matter. So long as no one tries to take away my choices through the force of law, or discriminates against me for those choices, I’ll do the same for them.
A good friend once sent me a fabulous cookbook. It’s called The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. I think she found it through amazon.com.
While I’m not vegetarian, let alone vegan, I’ve cooked a number of the recipes in this book simply because they’re tasty to eat and mostly quite easy to make. If you like Mediterranean food at all, I’d suggest giving this one a try.
I can totally relate but unfortunately the boyfriend does not believe in vegan diet at all so it’s hard to explain it to him. My advice though is to start slow with some veggie stews/soups, beans and simple roasting recipes with veggies. I hope you are able to do it in a way you enjoy!
Oh and another blog you might want to check out is:
http://eatliverun.com/
My boyfriend is vegan, so now that we’re living together I’m cooking and eating a lot more vegan food. I was vegetarian for several years in my 20s and even after returning to omnivory ate very little meat, so it hasn’t been too difficult. Just make sure to eat lots of beans and other protein sources, especially with all the running you do. I’ve discovered it’s a lot easier to be vegetarian or vegan now than it was even 10-15 years ago - there are so many high-protein faux-meat products availalbe now. I love tofu, but not for every night!!!
I also read that post and asked Attrice about good cookbooks - she listed a few in the comments there. I’ve also been finding recipes online, including these wonderful vegan sites: Yeah That Vegan Shit, Vegan Yum Yum, and VegWeb.com. Just tonight I made this recipe for Mexican enchilada casserole - it was deee-lish. I sprinkled some of that cheddar-flavored veggie “cheese” on top, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually pretty good.
You know, I had almost exactly the same visceral moment in high school, except it was a purring cat on my lap instead of a dog. Haven’t eaten a bite of meat since, and it’s been 20 years, almost.
Which means that I learned to cook as a vegetarian, and that means that, oh yes indeedy, I have a TON of yummy meat-free recipes. Like, way too many to load up your comments section with. When I get home, I will take a look at my favorite cookbooks and will add some recommendations in that direction, but I mostly cook from recipes I’ve clipped or printed out or otherwise picked up over the years.
So. You don’t know me, like, at all — but if you wanted, you could e-mail me with the kinds of meaty recipes you like, and I would be delighted to send you back some recipes that I think might appeal. When you’re learning to eat intuitively, you do -not- want to end up just depriving yourself in a different way. Eating food solely for its perceived virtue is what you’re learning NOT to do, so it’s key to find vegetarian food you can eat joyfully. (I personally wasn’t sure that I could stick with the vegetarian thing until I discovered that there is such a thing as moo shu vegetables.)
Anyway, your blog is hitting home for me in so many ways, and it would be a pleasure to be able to pass along some nummy recipes to you in return, if you should want them. (I’m a technological moron — if my e-mail address isn’t apparent to you as the site administrator, post a “hey dummy, tell me how to e-mail you” note, and I’ll do that.)
I was a vegan a few years ago, and like Marste, I was very very tired and got incredibly depressed–found out it was the disappearance of animal proteins in my diet. So if you go veg, just make sure dairy has a prominent place in your life! Also, a good alternative (if you decide to eat meat sometimes) is going kosher–even if you’re not Jewish, the laws require that animals be taken as quickly and humanely as possible, causing the least amount of pain.
Lots of great vegan recipes here:
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/
http://www.vegcooking.com/
this sounds like the moment that made me go back to being a vegetarian, only mine started with a book (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and then i went through the whole “husband roasting a chicken while i scratched the ears of my pretty little cat” thing. so i completely understand. i was really wary at first of going back, because i was afraid that deep down it was just my subconscious trying to find another way to be disordered after i recovered from my ED. but it wasn’t. in fact, i had been a vegetarian for years before my ED but then gave it up during the low-carb thing because my head was f’d and i believed the carbs i was eating were making me fat. i kind of see my return to being a vegetarian as a huge step in a more complete healing.
as for books, i *highly* recommend reading “Becoming Vegetarian.” i didn’t use it for the recipes (there are a few), but rather for the nutritional info. if you educate yourself going into this, you’re far less likely to experience the burnout that many people get when they go vegetarian without knowing how to replace what they’re cutting out with animal products.
on cookbooks specifically: i may get shot down for this, but i would stay away from the Moosewood cookbooks. they’re very popular and i can’t figure out why, because nearly everything i’ve cooked from them tastes like the “health food” that Marste’s mom won’t eat : )
i do highly recommend Madhur Jaffrey’s books if you’re a big fan of pan-Asian cooking. she does everything from India to Japan. but really, overall, i think it’s quite easy to cook “vegetarian” food that people don’t think of as being “vegetarian.” aside from kebab and some other meat dishes, much of mediterranean and middle eastern cuisine is vegetarian. same with italian, and most asian cuisines. traditional latin is more meat-heavy, but there are still a lot of things you can sub for the meat. so really, in your cookbook shopping, i would suggest going toward the ethnic cuisine section and flipping through a few books. i find a lot of vegetarian-specific cookbooks to be very mediocre.
Megan, I would suggest looking into macrobiotics. It is a way of eating that stresses whole foods and the interconnectedness of everything. While not strictly vegan, many people who follow it are vegan. I love its emphasis on whole foods & whole grains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic_diet
vegweb.com is awesome, in addition to the other ideas. And yes, get that book, Becoming Vegetarian so you can be strong and energetic
And looking into different systems (macro, raw etc) will give you LOTS of ideas. You don’t have to follow any of them for longer than a meal or even a side dish.
Oh! And fatfreevegan.blogspot.com is AWESOME, don’t worry about the name. It’s not really accurate at all (she tries to avoid excessive oil, but eats nuts, seeds, avo…and some oil!), and all her dishes are super yummy anyway.
Madhur Jaffrey is great. So is Deborah Madison, who comes up with wonderful recipes that my omnivore husband eats right up. (I have Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, but I think all her books are good.)
A lot of the earlier Moosewood cookbooks are filled with recipes that taste like health food, true, but I do tend to turn to Moosewood Cooks at Home pretty often. Especially for soups.
Also, High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking by Steven Raichlen has a million really good recipes; he focuses on flavor flavor flavor, and I have never yet missed the fat, so I don’t feel any particular pull to re-fatten the dishes now that I’m done with dieting.
There is a woman named Crescent Dragonwagon who has some good recipes in her book The Passionate Vegetarian, although I think I mostly love her for her name. Some people love Robin Robertson’s Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook; I’m not crazy about meat-substitutes, and she uses a lot of them, so I don’t use this one very much.
A really good resource is Kim O’Donnell’s blog, A Mighty Appetite, at the Washington Post.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/
This link:
blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/vegetarianvegan/
will get you to an archive of entries focusing on vegetarian and vegan recipes. Kim is not a vegetarian but enjoys a lot of vegetarian recipes, and her recipes are designed to be yummy more than “healthy.”
Fat-Free Vegan is a good site, I agree; I will sometimes go ahead and use more fat (and I use eggs from a friend and milk from a local dairy, so I de-vegan-ify the recipes to make them ovo-lacto friendly on occasion). The recipes are still really good; I just tend not to like soy milk as much as actual fresh milk from happy cows, except in my coffee.
: )
Deborah Madison’s “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone” is awesome. I grew up in a campbell’s soup casserole type family so I had no idea how to actually choose and cook most veggies. Her cookbook was instrumental in my being able to put dishes together on my own.
Really, experimenting is key. I’m not fond of meat-substitutes except in a few situations. Like bolognese sauce is fine w/ fake ground beef, but I don’t care for most pre-packaged nuggets and such, but everyone’s different.
If you’re feeling uneasy about the nutritional stuff, then I absolutely recommend “Becoming Vegetarian.” The authors are incredibly thorough, the research is up-to-date and it gives lots of helpful charts of which foods best provide which nutrients (at least the vegan version does, but I’d assume they’re similar.) Although since I know that a lot of people find too much nutrition talk triggering, I will also say that for the vast majority of people, eating a varied vegetarian diet will be more than sufficient for all their nutrition needs.
I have to say, I haven’t read “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone,” but I picked up a copy of “Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets,” also by Deborah Madison, and it was GREAT. So if the Vegetarian Cooking cookbook is written by her as well, it’s probably great, too. (I might have to check it out myself!)
AnnieMcPhee, I know exactly what you mean about “other nations . . . killing and eating.” I used to think that in a perfect world, we’d all be vegans, but then again, we have to kill bugs and worms and sometimes small animals just to till the soil. Something dies, no matter what. (Although I understand the idea that not eating meat is a more efficient use of our resources, and I’m not denying that.) I figure my job is to remember that something died so I could eat, and to give that creature the respect and gratitude it deserves, you know? We all just do the best we can, given what we have to work with.
Annie & Marste - i totally agree with you on this, too. although i’m happy that caring about the environment is “mainstream” these days, it annoys me that there is a sense of one-upping with some people. there are plenty of vegans/vegetarians who are cool with whatever, but there are some who think that you either MUST go strict vegan and wash your hair in lemon juice ONLY and dress in flax cloth that you’ve spun yourself or else you’re just as big a polluter as the dude in the hummer tossing empty six-pack rings out his driver’s window into nests of piping plovers along the side of the road. i mean, come on. there will always be something that a person can do to “tread more lightly” (to use a term i hate), and you can’t drive yourself crazy about it. i fly a lot, and a guy once gave me shit for it because airplanes are one of the biggest polluters. never mind that i don’t own a car and i don’t eat meat. I POLLUTE! horrors.
I’ve been vegetarian for 13 years. I’m stronger and healthier than ever. I would recommend that you make sure that your diet is full of whole grains and beans (legumes). Stay away from processed foods and learn to cook. I spend most of my grocery dollar on produce. Fresh taste so much better than frozen or canned. Learn to use herbs and other seasoning.
There are so many good cookbooks for vegetarians. I would recommend going to a large bookstore and checking them out yourself. You don’t need dairy or eggs for energy. If you’re low on energy, eat more whole grains and legumes. Don’t be afraid of oil. You need essential fatty acids.
My stepdaughter has been vegetarian since she was two and she has tons of energy. If you eat when you’re hungry and eat until you’re full, you won’t be lacking in energy. Plant foods tend to have a lot of water and fiber so you need to eat more of them. You have to trust yourself to eat when you’re hungry and to stop when you’re full.
If you eat whole, real foods, you should have plenty of energy. There are vegan athletics and even vegan body builders. You just need to eat a variety of food and not be afraid to experiment with a variety of plant foods.
There’s lots of great advice and recommendations here already, so I’ll just add my voice to the others congratulating you on making the wise, compassionate and responsible decision to stop eating meat. I’m a happy, healthy vegan with 3 kids and a busy, successful (so far!) grad school career; I guarantee that you will feel better than you ever have in your life, and in more important ways than the merely physical. Best of luck!
Madhur Jaffray’s books are terrific, as a rule, as are the Moosewood books (esp. the newer ones - some of the recipes in the original one are a bit on the heavy, gloppy, ‘health food’ side). Mollie Katzen’s ‘Still Life With Menu’ is also a classic. My favorite though is Lorna Sass’ book ‘Complete Vegetarian Kitchen’ which may have been re-issued with a new title (Complete Ecological Kitchen??). But all of her books are well written, with delicious recipes that turn out consistently well, and she explains all the whys and hows of what to do. It’s a pretty good resource for new vegans and vegetarians as well as experienced cooks who are unfamiliar with the techniques and ingredients that make vegetarian/vegan cooking work.
Also: the pressure cooker. Seriously, it changed my life. Lorna Sass’ book has good instructions for using one to cook whole grains & vegetables quickly and easily and in the most tasty possible manner (they also, because of shortened cooking times, use less energy). It takes a little practice, but it’s totally worth it.
I have, however, found that at certain times in my life, I have used my vegan/vegetarian/macrobiotic practices as a stand-in for regular old dysfunctional disordered eating behaviors, and in fact initially became a vegetarian at 17 as part of that whole wacky dieting mindset. But it doesn’t have to be like that, and I’m not mentioning it in order to discourage you, or anyone. Just noting that it is possible and I have done it.