Vegetarian Living

[Shalamar]

So has my daughter. She always asks "Did it have a mother? Then it's an ANIMAL." That usually makes her friends do a double-take.

[eclair]

Or a face. Or, Boy George's test when he was a vegetarian (which he might still be, I dunno) "I don't eat anything that burps, farts or shits".

[kateln]

Exactly--because I generally don't eat meat, my office has labelled me "the vegetarian" despite the fact that I;
1. Don't call myself one
2. Have eaten sushi in front of them.

90-95% of my diet is meat free--but because of that 5-10% I don't call myself a vegetarian.

That being said...having recently read "Fast Food Nation" it will be a long time before I'm willing to eat anything meat related. While I understand that people have ethical reasons to be vegetarians, and I totally respect that. I chose to elimnate most meat from my diet for health reasons, I just feel better with less meat in my system. However--after reading about the working conditions for the humans/sanitation conditions for the cleaning crews and the processing floors/horrible way that the livestock is raised and then slaughtered in the cruelest way you can imagine--I am appalled. If in the future, I do eat meat or dairy products, I need to know the conditions the animals were raised in. What were they fed? Large or small farms? What are the conditions at the dairy farm or slaughter-house?

[chonies]

I was happily vegetarian for ten years, and I still identified as such even though I intentionally ate fish about five or six times during that ten year span. My reasoning wasn't that fish aren't animals--but it was more of a human failing, kind of like a sin and faith analogy. I avoided gelatin and sought out vegetarian alternatives to all foods; I grew up in an anti-fur household and continued to eschew fur while also wearing as little leather as possible, and rejected the early years of the knitting trend because of the wool issue.

FWIW, I ate fish because while I loved cooking, I was screamingly ignorant about nutrition. Fish was a quick fix when I felt brittle or weak, and was unsure what plant sources could fix that.

ETA: Of course, it's easy for me to defend my position, but if I knew someone who didn't think twice about regularly eating fish or chicken as "meat substitutes," I would be quick to judge, although since eating is so personal, I like to think I'd be more curious about how they parsed the difference between meat-meat and non-meat-meat.

[Shalamar]

Having just had a party for which I bought a bunch of appetizers, I gotta ask - are there any companies which specialize in vegetarian and/or vegan frozen appetizers? All the goodies I bought were very tasty for us meat-eaters, but absolutely useless for my daughters (they made their own goodies, bless 'em - tofu sticks with peanut sauce, sweet potato fries, and hummus).

[yournamehere]

Oct 24, 2010 13:07:07 GMT -4 Shalamar said:

Having just had a party for which I bought a bunch of appetizers, I gotta ask - are there any companies which specialize in vegetarian and/or vegan frozen appetizers? All the goodies I bought were very tasty for us meat-eaters, but absolutely useless for my daughters (they made their own goodies, bless 'em - tofu sticks with peanut sauce, sweet potato fries, and hummus).

Try here. I've had the taquitos before, not bad. First thing I thought of.

Found these, too, but never had them. May have to.

[Shalamar]

Neat! Thanks!

[susyhomewrecker]

I am FOR SURE getting those taquitos when I go back to California for the holidays! I knew the Berkeley Bowl would have some.

Unfortunately, Shalamar, most of my favorite freezer-section vegetarian items are not available in Canada (I think that's where you are?) so I can't recommend brand names. I would suggest heading out to either a big, huge grocery store or some place health-foody, because both usually have options available, like Spanakopita similar to the stuff from yournamehere's link and spinach and cheese mini-quiches. Of course, neither of those are vegan-friendly.

[yournamehere]

And...just for giggles...

[susyhomewrecker]

I loved bacon when I ate meat, but...gross!

However, it can never be grosser than baconnaise.