Heather from New York wonders how and when the best time to go vegetarian is.
Well Heather, I would say it would be on a Monday and start with breakfast. Unless you're eating meat stuffed with meat wrapped in meat as your first meal, it's a good place to start. Plus, I like to start anything NEW on a Monday morning, and that's just another one of my "theories". Monday is a new beginning. Forgiveness for the sin that occurred on the weekend.
Seriously though. For me, it was gradual- giving up red meat early (teens), turkey and then chicken last. Although the college years I can NOT be held accountable for anything I consumed. There were plenty of 2 am hot dog stand visits (any fellow Brockporters know what I'm talking about) smothered in whatever they kept on that dirty cart, and the occasional "Garbage Plate" from Nick Tahou's.
At some point, I became more and more disgusted by meat until I couldn't stand the thought of eating it and gave it up altogether- which was sometime in my early to mid 20's. I read the book "Alive" about the rugby team's plane that crashed in the Andes and were forced to eat their fellow frozen passengers to survive. Gross, but then I watched the movie and SAW them digging the frozen flesh off of the corpses and it just looked like chicken to me. I NEVER looked at chicken the same after that. The thought of eating meat since then became hard for me to swallow- figuratively and literally.
When I was pregnant with Chloe, my dr said my Amino Acids were low and that I should try to incorporate some chicken into my diet. I attempted to eat it twice (for the baby) and was grossed out to the point of almost vomiting- and thought there had to be a different way. Enter Braggs Amino Acid.. yummy on veggies, rice, pretty much anything you would want a salty flavor on. Kind of tastes like soy sauce. And it must have worked- she turned out perfect, if I do say so myself!I met Mike and he was also a vegetarian. BONUS! He will occasionaly sneak some turkey at Thanksgiving, and he has over the past 10 years had chicken a few times. He did mistakenly eat some pork once and ended up on the couch very ill for a couple days. I think he realizes he should stay away from any mystery meats.. Not that pork is a mystery meat, but it was in a Chinese dish- just sayin'. Once he took the kids to McDonalds to play (Connor was 2, Chloe was 1) and bought nuggets for Connor (apparently he didn't know they were meat??) and Connor had an upset belly and diarrhea for days. I couldn't figure out why until Mike said "do you think it could have been the nuggets?" I was like "what nuggets?" And then he told me. He said he ordered them and half way through Connor eating them he "remembered that they were meat".. I think I gave him a dirty look that pretty much said more than I ever could outloud. He's a smart guy- not some "ham and egger" so needless to say I was a bit surprised. It was the last time the kids had anything other than ice cream or fries from McD's.
Reel it in Annie... So, Heather- I would say to start off making some meatless choices for yourself once or twice a week. I don't know if you like to cook, but if you do, there are a TON of veggie recipes out there. You could even try some of your favorite meat dishes and replace the meat with Morningstar Farms crumbles. Even give tofu a try- it tends to take on the flavor of whatever it's in. It's bland, and some people are not fond of it's texture, but you can do a lot with it. You can even use it as ricotta in lasagna to kick up the protein. If it's substance and texture you crave, you can get that from tempeh- which is compressed soybeans. I just made enchiladas with it and it was even kid friendly. Of course I fried up the tempeh first, and it was loaded with cheese and sour cream and enchilada sauce and more cheese- but I used whole wheat tortillas and they were good. I didn't say they were low cal..
Try some meatless "meat" dishes first, and ease your way into veggie eating. And then you can venture into tofu dishes, lentils and black beans for supper. I'll get around to posting some more of my favorite recipes one of these days... Best of luck!
