Vegetarienne

Click on over to the NYTimes food section, where today they offer a great vegan-friendly Thanksgiving recipe for sweet potato squash soup.

And kudos to Cooking Light, who have an online feature of vegetarian Thanksgiving receipes.

I’m sure there are many other vegetarian-friendly resources out there for Thanksgiving recipes – this is just the tip of my (very limited at the moment) iceberg.  Any others you recommend?

So I dropped the news to the parents this morning.  I thought it might be better to tell them before I visit for Thanksgiving – although it would certainly have been entertaining to spring it on them as my mother was carving the turkey.

At first, they suggested that perhaps I just cut down on my meat intake.  I could stop buying meat and cooking it at home, but continue to enjoy a filet mignon or grilled salmon here and there when I go out.  I explained that this would sort of defeat the purpose.  They seemed skeptical about my ability to actually make it through a year as a vegetarian (they know how picky I can be), but ultimately were supportive.

They did ask one question, though, that will require a bit of research: how to make up for the B12, iron, and protein I will be losing?  I don’t want to just start self-proscribing supplements without looking into them further.  Any vegetarians want to weigh in on how they make up for lost nutrients?

And a side note: why is it that the New Yorker food issue comes out the week I decide to go vegetarian?  That is just mean, people.

Hey there!

On Wednesday, November 19, I decided to become a vegetarian.  I wasn’t staring at a shiny red New England lobster at that moment or watching baby cows go through a meat grinder.  I wasn’t thinking about the content of hot dogs or that tofu tasted especially good (I’m not sure, at this point, that it does).  I was just sitting on the bus, starving after a class that went from 7-9 PM, wondering what I wanted to eat at that moment, and suddenly the thought of meat, of flesh, just did not sound that appealing.

Now, this is coming from someone who lists filet mignon as among her favorite foods.  I enjoy a greasy cheeseburger or chicken fingers, and you’ll never find me turning down a nice juicy Kosher hot dog.  But I’ve found myself eating less and less of the junk-food kind of meat, and cooking fewer stir fries and beef lasagnas and the like.  Meat has gotten more expensive, I haven’t really been into cooking much lately, and I’m surrounded by very environmentally-conscious people.  I’ve been phasing out meat gradually without really reailizing it.

Vegetarianism just seems like the humane thing to do.  I can survive without meat – and hopefully, I’ll broaden my gastronomic interests.

This blog is intended to serve as a resource for new vegetarians, from a non-expert who is learning the course herself.  Feel free to chime in with recipes, tips, and anything you’ve come across that you’d like to share, and enjoy!