Navigating the Vegetarian Kitchen

When I first declared myself a vegetarian (before transitioning to ethivore), I had to figure out how to change my cooking to exclude meat.  I had never been a huge meat eater anyway, but I found out, in trying not to eat any meat, that I really loved and relied on chicken in my kitchen.

My first solution to my quandary was to start buying soy and textured vegetable protein (TVP) meat analogs from the freezer section of our grocery store.  We ate “chik’n” nuggets, and soy burgers, or used crumbled versions of these products in traditional meat recipes.  I felt good about cutting out the meat.  But, as I started learning more about the environmental and health costs of our food choices, I began to question the wisdom of eating meat analogs rather than meat all the time.  For instance, MorningStar Chik’n nuggets have a list of 50 ingredients, including several additives that I can’t even pronounce let alone know what they are.  And just 4 nuggets contain 25% of the recommended daily value of sodium!  Boca Burgers have a slightly shorter, but no more decipherable, ingredient list.  When I thought about all the steps in the industrial agricultural food chain that it took to transform those soybeans from their natural state into something that looks and tastes (somewhat) like meat… I knew that I was defeating one of the purposes I had in becoming vegetarian.  I wanted to lessen my impact on the environment.  And I wanted to be healthy doing it!

When I decided that I needed to get away from relying on meat analogs, I found myself back at square one.  How do I put nutritionally balanced, tasty food on the table when I am so busy with grad school, work, and life?  Fortunately, I found some great cookbooks and nutritional advice along the way.  (I’ll be featuring some cookbooks in future posts, so check back for suggestions and recipes!)  I found that the most helpful cookbooks divided main dishes into categories like “pasta,” “beans/ peas/ lentils,” and “grains.”  This is great because it allows you to think outside the meat-potato-vegetable paradigm.  Plus, legumes and whole grains are great sources of vegetable protein.  I also found that in recipes where meat is not the main event but just another ingredient, it’s usually fairly easy to substitute beans, tofu, or mushrooms.

Here are some easy supper ideas:

• Open-face vegetable sandwich made with vegetables cooked on the grill or under the broiler, heaped onto sliced whole-grain bread with melted cheese
• Whole-wheat couscous with a quick stir-fry of some combination of vegetables, topped with cashews or other nuts or seeds (or, if you want to get a little fancy, serve in a half squash or a bell pepper)
• Quinoa pilaf or salad- Quinoa is protein-rich and makes a good substitute for rice or other grains
• Artichoke and spinach lasagna (or other casserole dishes) you can make ahead and freeze
• Bean tacos or enchiladas
• Rice and beans or lentils

I’ll be posting more tips and recipes in the future.  Leave feedback or suggestions, or share your own story or helpful hints in the comments box!

BYOBag

Today kicks off Bring Your Own Bag Week in my community.  Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, Arlington County Fresh AIRE, and Giant Foods are encouraging consumers to take a pledge to bring their own bags when they shop.

 My reusable bags

“Paper or plastic?”  is a great example of how the framing of a question can preclude possible solutions.  The best answer, of course, is “neither”!  Fortunately, it is becoming much more widely accepted that we need to end our love affair with plastic bags.  Plastic bags are made from non-renewable petrochemicals and take hundreds of years degrade.  They clog waterways and litter habitats, where animals ingest them and often die as a result.  In addition, once the bags do begin to break down, toxic bits of plastic contaminate our soil and water.

Within the past week, both Target and CVS have announced incentive plans to get consumers to think reusable, USA Today reports.  Target will offer 5 cents back for each reusable bag used, while CVS will give $1 back on customers’ CVS cards for every four purchases without a plastic bag.  It is good to see more mainstream retailers signing on to kick the plastic bag habit.

Our legislators are also getting in on the action.  This summer, Washington, DC’s Mayor Adrian Fenty signed into law a “bag tax” that will enter into effect in January 2010.  (See the press release.)  Grocery, convenience, drug, and liquor stores and restaurants will be required to charge a 5 cent tax on all plastic and paper bags.  With this legislation, DC has gotten a step ahead of most of the rest of the country.  However, this could be changing, too!  Right now, the Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009 (H.R. 2091) introduced last spring by (my Congressman!) Representative James Moran (D-VA) is in subcommittee in Congress.  Tell your Representative to support H.R. 2091!

All of these trends are encouraging, but I think that a tax rather than retailer refunds ultimately will be more successful in changing behavior.  As my husband put it, “people are more likely to care about being charged 5 cents than saving 5 cents.”  There is also something to creating a social standard.  I have to say that I am much more likely to remember my reusable bags on my way to Whole Foods than CVS, out of pure shame!

If you don’t have any bags lying around, check out Reusablebags.com to get a stylish bag you can roll up and carry with you in your purse or pocket!

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie

Fall makes me nostalgic for pumpkin patches, hayrides, and campfires with my family.  So I was really excited this year when some friends suggested going pumpkin and apple picking at nearby Homestead Farm!  We had a great time there and came home with beautiful apples, pumpkins, and winter squash.

When I was a kid, I never really
thought of pumpkin as a food.  Or at least, there was a disconnect between my Jack-o-Lantern carving experience and my love of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.  This year, I decided to try taking my pumpkin all the way from the patch to the table with my own hands.   I found great recipes for fresh pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie spice, and pie crust on AllRecipes.com.  Not a vegan pie (does anyone have a good recipe for vegan pumpkin pie?), but I did use free-range, cage-free eggs, and vegetable margarine instead of butter.  The result was a hit with family and friends, and the process of making food out of something I picked from the field myself was a great experience!  There is something about creating food from a vegetable you plucked out of the dirt yourself that brings home the earthiness, the naturalness of eating.

World Food Day

Today is World Food Day!  World Food Day is celebrated every year on October 16 to draw attention to the problem of hunger and encourage action.  This year’s theme is “achieving food security in times of crisis.”

In its recently released The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that “1.02 billion people are undernourished worldwide in 2009.”  Hunger is more widespread than at any time in nearly 40 years.

World hunger is not a product of insufficient production.  The world produces more than enough food to feed everyone (see Reducing Poverty and Hunger, FAO 1992).  Too often, the proposed solutions to hunger focus on increasing food production, so I was heartened to read the following statement in The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009:

The fact that hunger was increasing even before the food

and economic crises suggests that present solutions are

insufficient and that a right-to-food approach has an

important role to play in eradicating food insecurity. To

lift themselves out of hunger, the food-insecure need control

over resources, access to opportunities, and improved

governance at the international, national and local levels.

By focusing on social rather than purely technical solutions, we can address the true roots of hunger.  It doesn’t matter that the world as a whole produces enough food for everyone if those who are hungry don’t have access to the resources or opportunities to grow or buy what they need to maintain active, healthy lives.

This world food day, reframe the issue of world hunger from a question of charity to one of justice!

World Food Day USA has a list of 2009 events in which you can participate on or around World Food Day.  Check the website to find lectures, food drives, festivals, and more.

What-a-vore?

About a year and a half ago, I read Rethinking the Meat Guzzler in the New York Times and decided it was time for a change.  I, of course, had had a brush with vegetarianism in college, after reading Peter Singer in one of my philosophy classes and watching a video of cruel factory farm practices.  However, I never quite got to the point of acting on my discomfort.  But something was different this time, and my moment of dissonance prompted me to write the "Eating Animals" post reproduced below.  After writing this as a note on Facebook, many of my friends responded with encouragement and suggestions.

So, that was the beginning of my journey.  Since that time, I’ve been continually trying to define exactly what my commitment means.  Is eating eggs okay when the laying hens have just as bad or arguably worse lives than the chickens raised for meat?  What are the implications of eating tofu "chicken" nuggets and TVP "beef" crumbles every night?  As I’ve tried to answer these and so many more questions for myself, I’ve come to understand myself as what I’m calling an “ethivore” rather than a traditional vegetarian.

For me (at this point at least) this means:

• I rarely eat any meat or seafood at all.
• When I do, I assure that the animal in question was raised/ caught and slaughtered in a way that was humane and not overly harmful to the natural environment.
• I don’t eat red meat at all.
• I don’t generally eat eggs if I can avoid it, but I will still eat things baked by others that contain eggs (for reasons I will blog about later). When I buy eggs myself, I make sure they’re cage-free.  I’ve also been experimenting with vegan baking.
• I also try to be mindful of other ethical considerations when I choose food: Was it grown or raised without pesticides, genetic modification, growth hormones, or excessive antibiotics?  Was it grown locally? With fair treatment of farm labor? Bought at a fair price? Packaged minimally and in reusable or recyclable materials? This is a lot to think about, and I’m still trying to improve my awareness and decision-making in these areas.

As I write this blog, I’ll be expanding on these ideas and the implications of everyday food choices, as well as sharing some of the ways that I try to make it easy and delicious to follow my heart.  If you have a similar story, resources to share, or particular question for me, please respond in the comments section!

Thanks,

Megan

Eating Animals

I have decided that it is out of sheer laziness and an unwillingness to seriously consider the implications for action of my beliefs that I have never made a commitment to go completely vegetarian before. I know the arguments made on both sides inside and out, and for me this decision is based on (1) the horribly unethical treatment of animals in feed lots and cage farms around the country, (2) the devastating environmental impacts of said lots/farms, and (3) the fact that so much agricultural land that could be used to grow food crops is used for animal feed (meaning far less food production per acre of agricultural land). As someone who puts spiders outside rather than kill them and who worries about the environment and the underfed global poor, I cannot justify playing a part in the system of animal consumption as it stands in this country. It is unacceptable for me to eat meat simply because it is more convenient. So, I am making a commitment right now to try to bring my actions in line with my beliefs. I hope if you are reading this note, you will offer me support, encouragement, and any resources you may have to make this transition easier. Thank you, friends!