JustineFromWyoming wrote:


Here, too! Deep dish vegetable pie with layers of spinach/feta, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions, in puff pastry. Side dishes of sautéed Brussels sprouts and grilled asparagus. Romaine salad with kalamata olives, feta, and an onion vinaigrette.

And coconut cake. Lacto-ovo-omigod vegetarian dinner.

Now if our guests will arrive. There's nothing like Port Townsend time!

 romeotuma wrote: 
PETA's heart's in the right place. They're just wrong a lot.

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
So, we'll call you undecided then...

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
I'm not PETA, would you donate to me?

 romeotuma wrote: 
I wouldn't donate to PETA if I won the lottery. 

It was vegetarian paradise tonight in my kitchen. Not just vegetarian but freegan, to boot. I was given a truckload ( I kid you not) of vegetables and fruit that a local grocery had pulled from their shelves. I had 4 bunches of asparagus, a dozen zucchini, enough cucumbers to make pickles, 10 lbs. of apples that are destined for pies and sauce, 2 dozen red, gold, orange bell peppers, jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, a dozen artichokes, some big portobello mushrooms and lemons. I made 6 pints of salsa, an oven roasted sweet pepper pasta sauce and, for our dinner, a stuffed portobello mushroom cap, recipe as best as I can recollect:

1 zucchini, grated
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 each of red, yellow, and orange bell pepper 
crumbles of feta cheese
1 T. melted butter

portobello mushroom cap

Sauté all vegetables with a dollop of butter, until vegetables were soft. Remove from heat.  Melt butter in preheating oven. Place mushroom caps on a cookie sheet. Drizzle mushroom cap with melted butter. Toss feta cheese with sautéed vegetable. Pile sautéed vegetables and cheese onto mushroom cap. Roast in a 375° for 15 minutes. Serve alongside pasta with marinara sauce or Alfredo sauce.

 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 romeotuma wrote: 
Check this out! Much worse!

 TernaryBit wrote: 
They are rare and often buried in the sarcasm.  Its just part of the charm of the community.  But there's always a lot of good information from other peeps to be found, as long as you have a good sense of humour.

Even the serious threads aren't all that serious.

TernaryBit wrote:
i made a helpful response, too, in case you missed it....just scroll down....

If you wanna be one, that's your choice.  There's no way I could do it, I like meat way too much.

 PattonFever wrote: 
Why thank you! A non-sarcastic, helpful response. I think I'm missing out a lot on my lentil/legume intake. I love peanut butter and other nuts, so I will keep those handy for snacking. Thanks again!

 TernaryBit wrote: 
i'm a vegan.  i tend to snack idly while i work on some almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds & the odd walnut.  not too many walnuts; too much fat.  i also lean heavily toward soybeans.  not just tofu or tofu products, but the actual edamame beans.  if you can find nutritional yeast, it's full of vitamins & amino acids, too.  chickpeas, lentils (research how to prepare these with gas prevention in mind.  it is possible.) & a bit of peanut or almond butter on toast is yummy.  but go easy on that.  it's dense.  :)

rachlan wrote:
same here.
i was veg for 17 or 18 years, doing it all the right way. i worked in a health store in high school. i bought all the books, i subscribed to Vegetarian Times, i took classes. i am a natural health care practitioner and herbalist.....and even i could not be healthy on the perfect vegetarian diet.

it took my adrenals failing, due to constant, unmitigated stress over the course of a few years, for me to realize that i would never get well again as a vegetarian.

it took me a few years to gradually transform my diet, and a few to get my adrenal glands to work right again (that's starting to break down again, thanks to more unmitigated stress), but i did it because i had to.....and, difficult as it was, now, i enjoy all kinds of foods again.
anyway...as far as how to get adequate proteins, the whey shake is a great idea, if you're not allergic to dairy protein. whey is the most absorbable of the protein powders.

another thing to keep in mind is VARIETY.  since proteins are made up of amino acids, and all foods contain amino acids, the theory is, if you include enough variety in your diet, your body will acclimate to making proteins out of the myriad of amino acids available to it.

you may also wish to research the concept of food combining.  there are those who swear by it, and those who debunk it...but it's good for you to know your choices, so i recommend that you look into it.

nutshell:  combining certain foods for ultimate amino acid utilization and complimentary enzyme processes.

Of course they're not in the house! Vegetarians are out in the garden, kneeling, sweating, swearing at insects.

 rachlan wrote: 
By all means, to each his/her own. I fully support people's right to eat how they wish. I make exceptions to my vegetarianism on occasion. I willfully eat turkey sometimes because it is healthier than most meat. I find veg diets make managing my weight and energy level much easier, but that's just me.

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 

good for everyone who thrives on being a vegetarian.   it is great for some people.  It is very personal.   I was one for 9 years and it did not work for me at all.   and I ate well.  and I am sick of those who do well with it tell me what is good for me. everyone is different.
I digest meat better than most things.  I'm sorry for the animals and there are a million reasons why meat sucks....   how the animals are treated and the chemical makup because of that ect....   but I need it.   humans from wherever I am from eat meat and need it.  my quality of life seems to depend on it.

 hippiechick wrote: 
Eating fish isn't different than eating meat in principle. Meat from fish is still meat. I eat pesco-vegetarian diets not so much for the principle of it (though that is a plus), I do it for the health benefits. Red meat and even most poultry is linked with myriad diseases like colon cancer, and the saturated fat of red meat makes it hard for a lot of people to regulate their weight.

The point of the thread is I would love to eliminate all meat from my diet, but my health comes first. Fish is much healthier (in general, if mercury-free) than mammal or bird meat, so I've split the difference. I just wonder if there's any truly healthy way to go all-veg, while maintaining solid muscle mass (and maybe even increasing muscle mass)

Good idea on the book, I may just have to get one. Online resources say foods called tempeh and seitan, which are derived from soybeans, substitute for meat quite well in protein content. The only trouble is I can't buy any in my region and making it takes literally days.

Congrats on your shift to vegetarianism. I wish I could do the same, but my body just can't function that way.

One question I have for veggies though: why is eating fish different from eating meat? We are fishing our oceans empty, and fish like tuna are filled with mercury. Plus, fish have feelings as well, and also suffer from being suffocated.

My daughter has been a veggie for many years, but recently has started adding natural bison into her diet, and she feels much better than she did. Although many people do well on a veggie diet, I don't think it's for everybody.

Invest in a book that will give you suggestions for adding protein into your diet. I like the diet plans in the book "You on a Diet" by Dr. Oz, and he has a section for veggies.

Good luck! Be healthy and happy!