Comments on: What’s-on-my-mind Wednesday…

By: Her

Her — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:30:07 +0000

I’m thinking good thoughts for you and your school district.

I’m a vegetarian who never eats tofu. I can’t stand the stuff, but my husband likes it in Asian dishes. I’m seeing lots of great tips that I’ll probably steal, but my biggest one, if you really want to go all the way, is to read all ingredients on prepared food–beef broth gets slipped in more than you could ever imagine.

I still eat eggs and cheese, and those do have a good amount of protein. Oh! And lots of homemade yogurt and beans.

By: Brittney

Brittney — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:27:47 +0000

Oo girlie! =) I actually am really happy with vegetarianism — and I’m not the world’s biggest fan of vegetables, believe it or not! One of the big things to note for not only vegetarians, but anyone, is iron intake. Most folks tend to associate iron with red meat and then assume they get plenty and that is why you hear horror stories about anemic vegetarians. Little known fact? There are oodles, OODLES, of vegetarian sources of iron that actually contain more than red meat. My favorite, because I’m apparently from the 1930′s? Cream of Wheat. With cranberries. And flax. And brown sugar. In my tummy. (gets distracted)

Another one you’ll hear about is complete proteins, but folks forget that you can eat combinations of foods within a few days of each other and get complete proteins. My faves? Black beans, corn, rice, etc. I love things with taco seasoning, LOVE THINGS, so one of my favorite easy meals is Spanish rice (hello Uncle Ben’s 90 Seconds to NOM) with black beans, corn and taco seasoning and sour cream. ::rolls in it:: In fact, you can even get Taco Bell vegetarian. Friday night is TBell night up in our house and we get Mexican Pizzas w/o the beef, or swap the beef in crunchy tacos with refried beans (which are not refried in lard, believe it or not!), bean burritos. Can you tell I haven’t had breakfast?

Anyhoots, it’s fun when you put your mind to it. Weight loss lunches are easy (cheese & avo sandwiches or there are tons of SmartOnes and LeanCuisines that are meat free and actually tasty!). And, much to MY delight, if you stroll down the frozen section, there are now oodles of meat-less thin crust pizzas. Margarita pizzas, 4 cheese pizzas, an all-white pizza.. even a spicy Caesar Cheese pizza at Target I think? And Sunday nights we do Avocado & Bacon burgers with fries, all vegetarian!

Okay I’ll shut up now before this whole comment turns into a “Things I’d like to be Eating” list care of yours truly.

By: VegetarianLives.com

VegetarianLives.com — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:50:36 +0000

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By: cuppycakes

cuppycakes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:55:56 +0000

I work with animals, and I could never be a vegetarian.

By: Ari

Ari — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:48:15 +0000

Sorry to hear about your job thing, I must have missed that and you’re right – don’t worry about it, just keep on doing your thing.

Love the sun over here too. And I like the pic you’re using above, makes me smile.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:39:29 +0000

I think about being a vegetarian a lot–mostly because of all the crap you read about that supposedly lurks in our meat! I think I could give up red meat pretty easily, but I don’t know if you could take away my chicken and eggs anytime soon. Or sushi…

By: M

*M* — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:09:18 +0000

I wouldn’t be a good blogger! LOL. But I appreciate the sentiment and the shout-out it made my day! I’m always happy to share a great read. xo

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:44:55 +0000

Not a vegetarian here but I eat a lot of vegetarian meals. Beans, legumes and eggs are good sources for protein. As is tofu if you’re into that. (I’m not.)
There are so many dishes that you can make without meat. What I usually eat is combine pasta or rice with vegetables. (I do like my carbs.) Eat a big salad (with egg?). If you still eat fish, you could add tuna too. And of course you could always do fish & veggies dishes if you want to avoid carbs (I don’t eat fish though, so I can’t give you any advice on that). Or venture out into the world of tofu and soy, vegetarian hamburger patties and sausage. There is also vegetarian “ground meat” that tastes pretty decent that you can use for making a bolognese sauce.
I personally don’t think I could live without meat and I don’t want to either, but as far as healthy food goes, meat has never been my problem as I don’t cook with meat very often (being that my brother is vegetarian, I essentially grew up eating almost exclusively vegetarian food at home, with the exception of lunch meat).
Crossing my fingers for you about your job!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:23:16 +0000

Ooooh, continued good thoughts/wishes/prayers are being sent your way from me! I hope everything works out with your job. I know that being a teacher in California can be a bit precarious these days, I’ve got several teacher friends who go through the same anxiety every year. Keep your chin up!

And I so agree, about the sunshine. Oh my gosh, it makes me so squeely and giddy! I love it!

Good luck if you do go vegetarian! I myself have pretty much cut out red meat. I’ll still eat it from time to time but mostly I just stick to chicken, turkey, and seafood. Obviously for health reasons as opposed to moral ones, sigh. I had a year long stint with vegetarianism when I was 18/19 and got really sick because I wasn’t eating right! Haha, but it was an adventure!

By: Scott Nonnenberg

Scott Nonnenberg — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:00:30 +0000

If you’re thinking about vegetarianism entirely for health reasons, I encourage you to do a bit more research first. The book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, written in 1939, talks about isolated native populations and their resistance to disease and tooth decay (without toothbrushes/paste). How did they do it? Local, whole, organic foods. Fats are not bad for you, but processed or refined things are (and it turns out that many of our standard vegetable oils are heavily processed). There’s a great cookbook called Nourishing Traditions which uses the principles of that research to give you a lot of great options.