Like many other vegans or vegetarians, my first foray into a plant-based diet was after watching a documentary encouraging veganism. It happened during a family movie night when it was my turn to pick. I saw a documentary about the food system and was interested; my parents might not have been. The documentary was titled What the Health and was aimed at the risks of a diet high in processed meat and dairy products, and how health related nonprofits like The American Diabetes Association have been accepting sponsorship from companies that make money from processed dairy and meat products. Meat and dairy sponsorships bias them against investigating the effect our diets have on health and chronic diseases. It was the first time we had seen anything like it and we rashly decided to go vegan. This quickly failed as it was a spur of the moment decision and we had done literally nothing to prepare. I will now give you an example of how and why suddenly going vegan does not work out. A few days after our rapid conversion, I and my mother went to a new restaurant in town that was supposed to be a specialty breakfast restaurant. The only vegan option was oat bran with withered restaurant fruit, so instead we awkwardly got vegetarian meals, not willing to sacrifice actually good food for the principles. You can be vegetarian without the sacrifice. The veggie Florentine with skillet potatoes is wonderful. My household has always been low meat and try's to purchase our food locally; my dad has been influenced in this by the excellent works of Michael Pollan. After our vegan train wreck, we continued to be a low meat household. Not doing much of something is always a helpful start to not doing it. Two and a half years ago I became vegetarian, and my parents became pescatarian. Part of why I have found it easier to commit to vegetarianism is that it has become more prevalent in our society. Almost everyone knows what it means, and most restaurants have a vegetarian option that is not comparable to ingesting sadness. One of the factors that will determine how sustainable any change in your life will be is how much work it is to maintain around others. I understand that I am privileged in having a cooperative family and that making changes like this are very hard for many people. I am in no position to preach to anyone and just want to honestly state my current situation and the reasons I am here so that those reading my blog will fully understand if I have any biases in my writing. If you are considering becoming vegetarian, here are some recipes for easy side dishes and other simple vegetarian resources my family uses. Recipe: roasted cabbage https://www.food.com/recipe/oven-roasted-cabbage-441862 (we leave off the sugar and balsamic vinegar) Recipe: roasted cauliflower https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/roasted-cauliflower-recipe-1945072 Recipe: good, cooked brussels sprouts start off with buying fresh brussels sprouts. Peel off sketchy outer leaves like you would with a cabbage. Cut off the stalk on the bottom, slice sprouts in half. Place in hot pan with oil, turn once ensuring sprouts are browned on both sides. Add water to the pan and turn heat down and cover. Test every few minutes until sprouts are to your liking. Recipe: mixed vegetable soup. Start with flavor additives such as tomato paste, minced onions, garlic, and celery, brown flavor ingredients in bottom of pot for additional flavor. Add the stock. Add potatoes or pasta as a starch, then a root vegetable such as carrots, turnips, parsnips or sweet potatoes. A type of greens. Lentils or beans or tofu or broccoli for protein.
Extra ingredients include peas or corn and herbs, fresh or dried. all of these should be added roughly 5 minutes before the soup is finished cooking. Zatarain’s red bean and rice for when you are in college or have only 25 minutes to prepare dinner
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AuthorI am a high school student who is creating her own blog for the first time for school about our food system and environmental issues Archives
May 2022
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