Aaron and I throw around the idea of becoming vegetarian's all the time. We don't eat lots of meat, so this isn't that hard, but we still enjoy the occasional grilled chicken or turkey sausage. We have decided to try this out until August 1st. We'll see how it goes!
I found this cool site today about a mom that was trying to get her son to try more veggies. They went through all kids of veggies in alphabetical order and came up with lots of cool recipes with the veggies. I might have to fall back on these with the kids. What a fun experiment!
I also found this site today about a woman who cooks super healthy meals for her and her hubby. The each lost about 30 pounds just by changing their eating habits. They are not vegetarians, but still lots of cool new recipes to try! In fact, Aaron is in the kitchen right now making some sort of “dessert” for us to try!!!
So … any of you readers vegetarian's? If so, send us some tips, recipes, websites, etc!!!
i read you and your husbands blogs weekly. i found yall through something to do with adoption and both of yall have inspired me to continue pursing my dream of adopting. we’ll get to that another day…i hate the fact that i have never responded to any of your posts but they amuse and entertain me and i guess i just never felt the need to respond. but this one is different…..
i have been a vegetarian since i was in 8th grade. my reasons have of course changed since then but this is one of the most important decisions i have ever made. it not only has challenged me to consider others lives (all living things) but it has taught me discipline, truth, justice, and how to care for the least of these (all living things). you will also be tremendously impacting the environment for the better. i not only encourage you to pursue this but read, pray, and know that you are doing something that is for the Kingdom. It has the capability to make you more empathetic, kind, and caring towards all. ya’lls family continues to inspire me…..thank you.
~Becoming Vegetarian is a great book to learn from. I highly recommend it.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=becoming+vegetarian
~http://www.quotegarden.com/vegetarianism.html
~http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/fossilfuels.htm
~http://meatrix.com/
~there is a Christian writer/theologian who cares deeply for living things including the environment. I can’t think of his name but will get back to you about it.
The Insanely Easy Vegetarian Chili at Allrecipes.com is really yummy. I served this for one of our daughter’s birthday one year & the meat & potato crowd loved it.
Abby
Just last week I subscribed to the magazine “Vegetarian Times” because it was super cheap through http://www.BestDealMagazines.com (It’s currently $4.69 for a subscription). We want to eat less meat and cook more so hopefully the magazine will help me. You can also check them out online at http://www.vegetariantimes.com It looks like it might be a pretty good website.
I think this is really neat you all are doing this. I really would like to eat healthier. My husband and I love meat though, so that would be extremely difficult to cut out.
I adore Happy Foody (http://happyfoody.com). The author eats raw and gives great recipes, particularly green smoothie goodness! She also has a personal blog too that’s great.
I don’t know of other food blogs, but I personally love Greek quinoa with avocado. After cooking the quinoa, add lemon juice and olive oil. Then add diced roma tomatoes and spinach. I add the avocado and call it finished. It’s great as a main dish or side dish because the quinoa is packed with protein. Most recipes call for feta cheese and onions, but I personally omit them. Haha. Let me know if you want exact measurements.
I’m not a vegetarian, but I’ve often gotten GREAT recipes from this site:
http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/
All of the above info is great. Good sites and mags.
One thing I tell people that are first starting out. Make what you normally make, but use a meatless substitue. For instance Bar B Ques use Boca crumbles. Use the crumbles in chile, hotdishes whatever you would use hamburger for.
Veggie burger on the grill are tasty!!!! What a great time to try it out too, with all the yummy veggies!!! MMMMMM!
I’m vegan and love it!
Happy vegetarianism!! 🙂
i have been vegetarian for almost 3 months! I feel great!!! it has also made me so much more aware of lots of things!!! a great book is Skinny Bitch. they also have a new cookbook ( I haven’t gotten it yet) called Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.
I love that you guys are doing this.
Personally I would love to try this for our family. We eat mostly lean ground turkey, chicken and fish, but I find eating “meat” not so appealing – outside of what “meats” we eat, I may have one steak a year.
I think I would make a good vegetarian but my husband likes his “meat”.
I love experimenting and looking up, making up recipes that either contain no meat or vamping up what we currently eat.
Mark always needs what we call a “taste explosion” at a meal. Haha!
I’ve been veggie for 17 years. I cook meat for hubs and the kids. Everything I cook has the meat as a separate component to be combined on the plate. I had a lot of trouble getting enough protein when I was pregnant. Personally, I feel like the protein recommendations must be way off. The amount of non-animal foods you would need in order to hit the protein recommendations is INSANE, and since we weren’t created to eat meat, I think they must be off. Anyway, I make a “South of the Border Pie” with beans, brown rice, cheese, sauteed onions, garlic, peppers, olives, (cumin, chilli powder, pepper), and bound with 1 egg. You bake it in a pie dish until it gets brown on top and serve with sour cream, salsa, etc. It packs a real protein punch.
Make sure you pay attention to your protein combinations, as most non-animal proteins need a complimentary pairing for your body to be able to get the most protein from them (like beans and rice together). Check out “Diet for a Small Planet” for more details. Lastly, I see a lot of people “go vegetarian” and eat a lot of bread and pasta and gain a lot of weight. So watch out for that. Replacing meat with nutritious, balanced meals is great, replacing it with hi carb, empty calories, is so bad for your body! Happy veggie eating!
Jamie-I don’t remember if it’s all vegetarian or not, but one oldie but goodie cookbook is the Moosewood cookbook. I remember being able to make almost everything in it with stuff I’d normally have on hand.
Good luck!
Oooh, good luck! I have been a vegetarian for almost 2 1/2 years and I love it! My best friend and I run http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com. Come check it out! 🙂
O geez… You are now a truly hippy family.
Kohana- Who exactly told you that we were not created to eat meat?
We aren’t totally vegetarian, but we do eat that way most of the time. My friends and I have been compiling healthy, family-friendly recipes here:
http://mamamanifesto.blogspot.com/search/label/recipes
There are lots of vegetarian options there. Also, we make lots and lots of smoothies, and throw in all kinds of things with the usual OJ and berries. Tofu, almonds, kale, spinach, flaxseeds, etc. It’s a good way to get a serving of veggies into the kids, and they have no clue! 🙂
Troy is having a steak in your honor. 😉
I could easily be a vegetarian … don’t like meat all that much anyway. But, I will say — vegetarians are harder to feed on mission teams. So, you cannot be one when you visit us.
🙂
love you guys.