This blog will serve as a record of my month of Hopefully enjoyable times. To prepare for a vegetarian friend of mine who is flying out at the end of may, I am taking up being a vegetarian for a month. I am doing this as well, I tend to suck at vegetarian cuisine.
I hope that this blog will be semi informative to those who wish to become vegetarians, who are already vegetarians, or those who just like laughing at others pain.
Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 425 F 2. Spread a layer of herb and garlic cream cheese on the 12'' tortilla shell 3. Spread a layer of jalapeno cream cheese on the 12” tortilla shell 4. Sprinkle chili flakes onto the tortilla shell (note: if you cant handle a lot of heat, dont add to many chili flakes, they get hotter when you cook them) 5. Add any other spice you would like to try out, i recommend garlic plus 6. Layer the tortilla with your favorite cheese 7. Roll the tortilla, then using a knife, score the top a few times. 8. Place tortilla on a baking sheet and place in the oven when its done preheating 9. Cook for 5 minutes 10. Pull from oven, cut into bite sized pieces and enjoy
Dinner Coconut Mango Curry. Normally you'd see chicken in this meal, but instead I swapped in a coconut flavoured tofu, cut up some peppers, onion, brocoli, scallions. Saute'd that all off with some garlic, savory leaves, basil, thyme, tumeric, bit of curry powder. Once that was heated suffiently, I added in the tofu, mixed in some mango curry sauce, bit of peanut sauce. Once it was hot, served it over a bed of jasmine rice. Fucking amazing.
Onions, brocoli, peppers, and some chick pea meatballs (were oddly delicious). Sauteed this all off with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, bit of honey mustard and some hot sauce. Once it was nice and good, mixed in some spicy red pepper tomato sauce. Quick, simple, and filling. Deff going to use more chick pea stuff in my meals.
Dinner Spicy pepper stirfry. I did this up by cutting up red, yellow, orange peppers, some jalapeno's, onion, brocoli, and some extra firm tofu. Sauteed this all off in garlic, chili flakes, olive oil, salt, pepper, sage, basil, savory leaves, lousiana hot sauce, sambal, siracha, spicy thai sauce, bit of a spicy peanut sauce. After it was nice and hot, served it on a bed of jasmine rice.
(due to being up late playing sc2 i did not have breakfast)
Lunch Left overs from Day 5
Dinner Made up some garlic and three cheese ravioli. Used the sauce I made with the stir fry and some of the left over vegetables and tofu as my sauce.
On April 27 2010 15:53 starfries wrote: ughh I wish you started this two weeks ago since I'm doing the exact same thing, and I've been eating only cheese pizza.
looking forward to whats in store though, those antijitos sound good
antijitos are like a snack I always eat whenever I want something delicious yet terrible for me.
I will mainly throw stuff together on the fly every night. Most lunches will prob mean leftovers from the night before. I hope that I can just keep it up
i try to live vegetarian but some meats, like chicken, are too tempting :C however i hate pork/ham/bacon etc, beef, etc. some fish is okay, but generally seafood makes me fucking puke :C
On April 27 2010 15:59 DrivE wrote: I've tried not drinking soda/gatorade/pearl milk tea for a month.... its so hard lol gl on your challenge
I managed to cut soft drinks completely from my diet recently and have just been drinking ice tea, milk, water and apple juice. It is completely weird thing to do. But I am pushing my body for all its worth dietary wise. Soon as I add excercise to it I think ima die
Nice to hear people taking up vegetarianism. I've been a not-too-strict vegetarian for about 4 years now, for a variety of reasons. Not only it is better for your health, it's good for the environment too. So, I figure that it's only responsible to become more vegetarian.
I find that the easiest way to adopt not eating meat is to not be too harsh about it. I really try to avoid eating beef (only have it for special occasions), since it's terrible for you and the environment. I've never had a habit of eating lamb/pork/ect so those don't matter. I generally allow myself much more leniency when it comes to chicken (in salads), since isn't nearly as harmful as beef. I usually eat 2-3 chicken salads a week, since the dining halls at my university don't really offer good salads without chicken. The non-chicken salads are usually covered with fatty dressing, which isn't good at all.
On April 27 2010 16:15 ShaperofDreams wrote: fuuu Friday is my last day in Vancouver so I won't be in Vic, maybe at night but even then I'll have to unpack.
There shall be lans aplenty in the future so I shan't worry. Are there any good internet cafes over there?
Not really to my knowledge. I have always preferred Lans but I know that Uvic CSL guys meet once a week at the uvic campus. That may be on halt this summer, but it would start up come fall.
I thought it was funny until I realized it could ACTUALLY matter to you, so I just edited. I love meat a lot and would not become a vegetarian, but it is good for the environment (to obtain 1 kg of beef you need to feed the beef like xxxxx kilos of soya and corn that you could have eaten if you were a vegetarian, and xxxxxx liters of water. Without mentioning the beef flatulences...). So gl, I mean it.
I thought it was funny until I realized it could ACTUALLY matter to you, so I just edited. I love meat a lot and would not become a vegetarian, but it is good for the environment (to obtain 1 kg of beef you need to feed the beef like xxxxx kilos of soya and corn that you could have eaten if you were a vegetarian, and xxxxxx liters of water. Without mentioning the beef flatulences...). So gl, I mean it.
Dude, I looooove meat. I am doing this purely as a challenge so I can make food that my friend will like. I am fully expecting at the end of the month to go running back to meat unless this somehow magically sticks. Fun month regardless though.
On April 27 2010 16:50 Cambium wrote: One month is too long. I would do 1-2 weeks no problem. The recipes you posted look delicious, and I am even tempted to try to make the Antijitos.
Eating vegetarian food is not terribly difficult in Chinese cuisine, as meat is often used for flavour, rather than consumption.
They are amazing bill. Chill, and infinity21 can vouche for the anitjitos unless they have forgotten their taste as its been a few years since I made them for them haha.
If you have any decent vegetarian recipes though I'd be glad to give em a try. Asian cuisine in general I really only know how to fuse their flavours with ingredients I am familiar with.
Good luck. I'll be following this closely to see if I can make use of some of the easier-to-make recipes, since I'm pretty lazy but still want to eat less meat and processed foods.
On April 27 2010 16:50 Cambium wrote: One month is too long. I would do 1-2 weeks no problem. The recipes you posted look delicious, and I am even tempted to try to make the Antijitos.
Eating vegetarian food is not terribly difficult in Chinese cuisine, as meat is often used for flavour, rather than consumption.
They are amazing bill. Chill, and infinity21 can vouche for the anitjitos unless they have forgotten their taste as its been a few years since I made them for them haha.
If you have any decent vegetarian recipes though I'd be glad to give em a try. Asian cuisine in general I really only know how to fuse their flavours with ingredients I am familiar with.
Off of the top of my head, I know two dishes that are really tasty:
Egg with tomatoes Mapo tofu
I don't know the exact recipe, as Chinese cooking is mostly by guestimation (for family cooking at least), so it's really dependent on experience and observations. I would suggest looking up proper recipes on the internet than getting it from me.
I am also very fond of Korean tofu stews (or just tofu in general).
On April 27 2010 16:50 Cambium wrote: One month is too long. I would do 1-2 weeks no problem. The recipes you posted look delicious, and I am even tempted to try to make the Antijitos.
Eating vegetarian food is not terribly difficult in Chinese cuisine, as meat is often used for flavour, rather than consumption.
They are amazing bill. Chill, and infinity21 can vouche for the anitjitos unless they have forgotten their taste as its been a few years since I made them for them haha.
If you have any decent vegetarian recipes though I'd be glad to give em a try. Asian cuisine in general I really only know how to fuse their flavours with ingredients I am familiar with.
Off of the top of my head, I know two dishes that are really tasty:
Egg with tomatoes Mapo tofu
I don't know the exact recipe, as Chinese cooking is mostly by guestimation (for family cooking at least), so it's really dependent on experience and observations. I would suggest looking up proper recipes on the internet than getting it from me.
I am also very fond of Korean tofu stews (or just tofu in general).
Mapo Tofu usually has pork or beef in it. Love the stuff though, it's probably one of the first things my mom taught me how to make.
If I were going vegetarian, I'd probably go for a lot of Indian cuisine. A lot of the vegetarian curries feel very substantial and flavourful that you don't really miss the meat at all.
Ask Artosis for recipes? He's a vegetarian right?
Good luck, I look forward to seeing how you do and maybe trying a few recipes that you share.
On April 27 2010 19:17 iSuXOr wrote: I doubt you're trying to be this picky, but I am pretty sure that yogurt has gelatin (animal skin and bones) in it.
Yeah you'd better start over! Don't try to cheat us
Good luck, I tried this for a week last year and barely made it. But you know how to cook, so it's probably easier, eh? Vegetarian chili sounds de-lish- I had some when my sister had to detox for her crazy diet.
If you're looking for ideas I have plenty of really good vegetarian mexican food recipes. I'm not personally a vegetarian but I have cooked for vegetarians a lot
good for you! ive been a vegetarian for 2 years now. and its great. you just have to experiment with foods and honestly they have so many vegetarian stuff out there, its really easy now.
Careful of yoghurt and cheese if your friend is vegetarian - yoghurt and cheese are not usually vegetarian unless specified so and if he is that strict it will not be welcomed. Can be safe and get naturally set yoghurt or just look for some without gelatine.
As for cheese you can usually find vegetarian cheese or you can just use boccocini, fetta, riccotta.
Tofu is really good I like it a lot. Also you should try making some Thai dishes there are a lot of unique flavours and most of it has alternative vegetarian recipes.
I think being a strict enough vegetarian to avoid cheese is probably beneficial in the long run because you may tend to eat more cheese than usual if you're basically just "not eating meat".
On May 05 2010 22:02 deL wrote: Careful of yoghurt and cheese if your friend is vegetarian - yoghurt and cheese are not usually vegetarian unless specified so and if he is that strict it will not be welcomed. Can be safe and get naturally set yoghurt or just look for some without gelatine.
As for cheese you can usually find vegetarian cheese or you can just use boccocini, fetta, riccotta.
Tofu is really good I like it a lot. Also you should try making some Thai dishes there are a lot of unique flavours and most of it has alternative vegetarian recipes.
I think being a strict enough vegetarian to avoid cheese is probably beneficial in the long run because you may tend to eat more cheese than usual if you're basically just "not eating meat".
To my knowledge of vegetarian, you can get away with yogurt and cheese. (note I know she eats them both).
However, no cheese or milk products in general is a vegan thing, not a vegetarian.
I will admit that I shouldn't be eating yogurt do to gelatin being in it, but as most vegetarian yogurts are disgusting, I am totally fine with it.
Its been about 18 years for me going without chicken or red meat.I will occasionally eat seafood(good stuff) though most times the thought of seafood makes me feel ill,but then I have times when I really crave it and will eat it and love it...weird I know.
My wife was vegan and after getting pregnant with our second child she did eat a bit of chicken but after having my son she no longer feels the urge to do so.She also Has a masters (year away from phd and stopped)in Nutritional Sciences so she makes sure our family get what they need nutritionally speaking.
Booth of my children ages 11 and 4 have never eaten meat, other than occasional seafood.
Edit:do you plan on keeping this up BC? Or do you miss your meat stuffs?