Going Vegetarian- a checklist

So, today I had my first workout since Christmas- I went spinning, yay! I love spinning. Then after my shower, I remembered that there is an H-E-B right in the same parking lot. That store has a great produce section, so I went and picked up a few things. Now, it's winter in Texas, so I'm planning to eat a lot of hot food. And Skinny Bitch (the book) recommends having fruit for breakfast.

So here's what I bought and my plans. Also, I already have a steamer, and I bought a crock-pot yesterday so I could prepare hot lunch and dinner a little easier. Going to the store every few days can inspire you- just buy the fresh veggies and fruits that look good, and go home and combine them into edible meals!

Fruits for breakfast: pineapple, banana, blackberries (on sale!) and a Valencia orange (to try, I kinda hate oranges, so I bought just one), cherry tomatoes.

Veggies: zucchini, carrots, a couple of baby portabellos, an onion, brussels sprouts, avocado, fingerling potatoes.

My plan? Fruit for breakfast, smoothie for second-breakfast (I don't know about you, but one piece of fruit and I'm hungry in 30 minutes.) Light soup for lunch, bean-based soup for dinner. I like making thick lentil or black bean soups with a bunch of grains like quinoa, barley and brown rice.

My first lunch soup recipe (I made it up), and it tasted fabulous:

Veggie soup:
3 fingerling potatoes, 1/2 zucchini, one large carrot, cut up
2 tablespoons each: dry lentils, pearl barley, and quinoa (really I just grabbed a small handful!)
Spices: curry, dried onions, red pepper
Enough water to cover.

I let that go on high in the crock pot for 2 hours. Then I added 1/2 cup of frozen chopped spinach after thawing in the microwave, and 1 tablespoon of raw, unfiltered local honey. Honey is good for you, and a nice way to add a tiny bit of sweetness since a lot of times, I think that's what vegetarian food lacks in flavor.

I ate it with a splash of soy-sauce because without it I think it would have needed the salt.

yum!

Has Skinny Bitch ruined my life?

I read Skinny Bitch (it's a book, duh) on the airplane out to Florida for Christmas last week. Ugh. It's about going vegan. It's less about all the wonderful reasons why to go vegan, and more about the disgusting and cruel reasons why NOT to eat meat.

[insert guffaw]

Normally, I give a snort of derision whenever someone brings up the tyranny of the meat industry. I believe that God gave us animals, and once we were in a fallen state, we could eat them. If you read your bible, you can find reference to that actually after the flood, when Noah and his family are given "all living moving things" to eat. But let's step aside from the bible for a few.

The book refers to two types of diets- that of "light" (eating foods that grow on plants, which use photosynthesis to grow), and eating decaying dead flesh. Mmmmm, yummy. But I would argue that once you pick the fruit, vegetable, or leaf, it is dead, or dying. So, um, no, that part doesn't really make sense.

The main issue I have with myself, after reading the book, is how blase my attitude is towards the commercial animal products industry in general. I do feel guilty of supporting a business that abuses animals for the only reason of turning a higher profit. I do feel that since we vote with our money, the way for me to vote against animal cruelty in the animals-for-food industry is to stop buying products it produces. I think the average family really NEEDS one cow, one pig, and a family of chickens to survive. That's the way it used to be- Bessie cut your lawn for free, provided a replacement calf for next year and butter and cream for your table, and in return you brought her to the butcher in the fall so she could stock your icebox. And the hens lay eggs- some you let hatch for fryers, and others you ate with toast.

Now, we go to a mega-market where meat has been lying around for days after a mass slaughter under in-humane conditions. It's in little anonymous packages so you don't have to even think about the animal it came from. There's some kind of "acceptable loss" number in the industry for animals that don't make it to slaughter because they die on the way. There's also an "acceptable" amount of rotten or diseased flesh allowed to make it into the packaging, too, which is pretty gross. And then there's the fact that according to the authors, EVERY person interviewed regarding their jobs at a slaughterhouse admitted to either abusing animals themselves, or watching it happen and doing nothing. The animals are going to die anyway, so why bother being humane to them?

Now let's talk health. When you think about it, you'll realize that it is almost physically impossible to eat enough grains and veggies to make you obese. I mean, a cup of spinach has what, 70 calories? Our nation, including me, is fat and getting fatter (well, not me for that part.) It's probably because of fast food (meat, fat, lard, and stuff fried in fat), and processed foods- which can pack an awful lot of calories in a small package. It's insanely easy to overeat on packaged foods- one box of Girl Scout Cookies Samoas has around 2000 calories- and it's pretty easy to eat them in one sitting. By comparison, to eat 2000 calories of salad, you would be eating about a gallon of salad.

So what does all this lead up to? I'm going vegetarian for a while. I'm going to start with a month, and chronicle the experience. I want to see how I feel physically and emotionally. I like meat, so I don't think I will be a veg-head forever. But when I do start eating meat again, I'm going to see what small farms in my area can offer me as far as ethical meat.