I’m meat eater and vegeterian

And it bothers me when people say ‘you can’t be both…’

I’m grossed out by chunks of meat.. I don’t mind spaghetti, but I prefer eating meat when it has something else with it.
 

My dad was a long time gout sufferer and when he changed his diet to completely vegeterian, he not only stopped having gout, but he lost a lot of weight too. He eats both as well and he is responsible for introducing me to vegeterian food.
I do love my meatless buffalo wing nuggets

If the food looks good, I’ll eat it. I just like to have a lot of fiber in my food to keep me full throughout the day

Oops, I read the topic wrong

By definition, a vegan is a vegetarian but a vegetarian is not necessarily a vegan.

I’m not a vegetarian. Personally, I could probably live without eating meat (beef, pork, poultry). But I absolutely love cheese and other dairy products. I love seafood too. Oh my gosh, my mouth just waters at the thought of shrimp!

I am not a vegetarian but am very proud when I read about people who are and take it very seriously. It sounds like it takes such a commitment.

I’m not a vegetarian because I enjoy eating meat, no other excuses. However, I do respect those who do choose to be vegetarian or vegan. Each to their own! 

In all honesty, I find a lot of the food that is marketed as vegetarian or vegan to be a lot less palatable to me. The funny thing is, I can be entirely vegetarian for a long period of time when I go back to visit relatives in Taiwan, and I won’t even realize it. The vegetarian food there is just so amazing that I don’t even notice that I haven’t had any meat. I feel like so much American vegetarian food is aimed at imitation meat that always falls short; when will people let tofu be tofu without trying to make it “tofurkey” or “tofu burgers”? Tofu is delicious by itself and I love it in Asian food, but I avoid Western interpretations of tofu at all costs.

the thought of eating tofu makes me queasy. Can’t stand the stuff!

I’ll always be a meat eater, I love the stuff. And I’m always low on my b12, so I can’t go vegetarian anyway without causing myself serious harm

PEPPY.. Pass me the miso soup please? I LOVE Tofu in miso nom nom nom.

A lot of Asian foods have veggies in it.. I’m really picky about my types of veggies that I eat

thats another thing, so may vegetarian dishes I see have bell peppers in them.. which i can’t eat.

I’m not fond of peppers in general o_O

I’m going to make some whole wheat spaghetti and broccoli (on the side lol) on Tuesday.. *drool* Maybe some garlic bread too?

Eepster, there are a lot of members that are vegetarian (some long time veggies) though they haven’t posted yet There have been many threads in the past regarding the subject.

I’m also not vegetarian but really, really like vegetarian foods. So if you have any great recipes to share I’ll be keenly reading them! I am curious – what are your main favourite dishes for the family?

I’m lactose intolerant so I don’t eat any dairy (or if I do, in very small amounts) and the only meat I is chicken, and only once every couple of weeks, if that. I have no idea what this makes me! I love me some tuna hehe My sister is lactose intolerant and allergic to gluten AND doesn’t eat meat and she does all the grocery shopping so I basically eat whatever she eats.. Fruits, veggies, and vitamins!

I’m a long-time vegetarian. I also don’t eat eggs and I eventually plan on cutting out all animal products.

My fave vegetarian foods would have to be Indian cuisine. I love Indian food and so many of the dishes are meatless. Lentils and chickpeas. Yummy.

Monkey- I have low B12 as well (it runs in my family). I take the highest B12 supplement you can buy and I get my blood checked regularly. I’ve never had any problems with being vegetarian. You can get all the vitamins and protein you need from eating a variety of vegetarian foods.

If anyone wants to go veg but needs some motivation: do a search for the video: Meat your Meet. If that doesn’t convince you nothing will.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I do try to be a locavore and source meat from local farms that has been humanely raised. I haven’t been nearly 100% on this yet, but when we move this summer (or whenever we find a house that someone will actually sell to us) we’ll be close to many farms and have easier access. I don’t have a problem with eating meat, but I do have a problem with our current agricultural situation and how these animals are raised and cared for.

I also try to make vegetarian meals at least a couple times a week.

I agree with Elrohwen – I don’t have a moral problem with eating meat in principle, but there are some major problems, ethical and otherwise, with the modern food production industry.

That being said, I tend to be wary of many things that PETA puts out. While aspects of their reports are undeniably true, the way they present so much of their information is so misleading. I feel like they do not hesitate at all to use terrible journalistic standards to shock and indignate people into negative emotion instead of depending purely on facts and logic. But then, that’s probably true of any organization with an agenda…sigh. It’s too bad, because there are more ethical animal rights organizations out there that get grouped together and have their credibility undermined by the almost farcical public opinion of PETA.

Random: I met the founder of PETA (Ingrid Newkirk) randomly about 5 years ago; she was an overnight houseguest at my piano teacher’s house, and when I showed up for my morning lesson she introduced herself before she headed out the door. She just told me her name though, and I had no idea who she was until I googled her later, lol.

Regardless of who puts the info out there, factory farming is cruel and unnatural and those poor animals deserve better. For an animal to live and die without ever seeing the sunlight is not the way animals were meant to be.

Going vegan is actually one of the best things you can do for the environment because factory farming has a devastating impact on the planet.

I’m vegan and have been for almost 5 years now and vegetarian for uh 14 years now. My S.O. has been vegetarian for just as long (he loves cheese and eggs and sometimes eats fish). Yes its fun that we can share food with the bunnies.. Arduina hangs out in the kitchen when I’m making dinner waiting for the carrots and other veggies to fly off the counter when cutting..

One thing about being vegan/vegetarian is that you have to enjoy cooking. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

I get so low on B12 that I needed daily injections for a year once, LPT. And there aren’t many veggies I like, so it isn’t an option really.

And I am careful about what brands of meat I buy. I buy only local farm bred meat, nothing processed at some random place I have never heard of.

Well….I guess I’ll post too! I eat meat, but not a lot. At all. A few years ago, I thought I could be a vegetarian because I ate so little meat on a daily/weekly basis. But as soon as the thought popped into my head, I started craving meat like crazy. Turns out, this always happens when I decide I can live without some type of food – soda, carbohydrates, etc. I just get crazy cravings which are totally a mental thing. lol I get to the point where I need a steak, eat one, then I’m good for the next month. I also don’t like a lot of vegetables. But I am interested in eating healthier and getting away from processed foods. So like someone else mentioned, if you have any *easy* vegetarian recipes or cookbooks you’d like to share, I think we’d all appreciate it.

I will never forget the first time I ate lettuce after I had first gotten Eddie. He jumped up on the couch, sniffed my bowl, looked confused, sniffed again, gave me the stinkeye, and then hopped off!!! “HEY! That’s MY food! And what’s that nasty stuff on there? (dressing)” LOL

I’m Vegan!! been vegan since as long as I could remember my mom cooked only vegan meals, and not because we thought it was some how cruel to the animals even though now in days the way animals that are used for meat are kept is just down right cruel My mom started this vegan thing when she found out that I was sick, I was around 3, she cut all animal products from my diet as well as from the rest of the family, she was a total granola mom ;P She threw away our microwave refused to buy canned or frozen foods, NO animal byproducts were allowed in our home, everything that was cooked was fresh and NO pesticides what so ever so big chain markets were a no-no for shopping since their fruits and vegetables were guaranteed to have been sprayed at some point. My daughter doesn’t know what meat taste like or even animal products such as egg, cheese, milk and so on. Not that i have denied her any of that I’ve actually tried for her to eat meat and other animal products but she wont have any of it. My husband is NOT vegan and I totally respect that. He loves his red meat A LOT!!

I’ve been vegetarian for 6 years last month personally I can’t let an animal die for me to eat when there are so many other options out there and I have no dietary restrictions that would prevent me from not eating meat. I still have dairy, but am slowly cutting it out.

My fave vegetarian foods would have to be Indian cuisine. I love Indian food and so many of the dishes are meatless. Lentils and chickpeas. Yummy.

Littlepuffytail I totally agree!!! I swear I eat Indian more than anything. I found this recipe with chic peas and potatoes cooked in coconut milk and spices and seriously best meal I may have ever had! Haha

I am also extremely iron deficient, but that is from before vegetarianism. 1 or 2 little green pills a day and I am totally fine.

Oh and PETA can be very extreme, but they get the word out and get people thinking. So I don’t think anyone should just immediately write what they say off.

I am a die hard carnivore, but I love a lot of vegetarian dishes too (Indian FTW!). I have several friends who are vegetarian and a couple my husband and I are close with eat mostly vegetarian, but enjoy meat from time to time. Come to think of it, my husband eats a lot of vegetarian foods and tofu as well, but that is mostly because he is a horrifically picky eater and finds most meat outside of ground beef and some chicken completely unpalatable.

To each their own, I accept people and their different views on things so long as they respect my views.

I love vegetarian dishes. And like some other members who mentioned Indian food — I love Indian dishes and we make alot of them because there are so many spices that make a veggie dish taste “hardy”. I must have 25 Indian spices in my kitchen right now and with certain spices you can really make dishes that are so flavorful — you’d have no idea if they had meat in them or not..it wouldn’t even matter.

I do eat dairy and meat, and I look for organic, free range and humanely raised and cared for(from beginning to end). Though I do understand that some vegans/vegetarians may disagree that any type of “end” is inhumane regardless.. I respect where they are coming from.

I do look for Certified Humane products- http://www.certifiedhumane.org/. We don’t buy alot due to the cost (but that actually has been getting better as more people support local ranchers/farmers who need more space for true free range conditions)

We also try and cook more things from scratch (except bread— I haven’t mastered that at all) so we can be more conscious of all the ingredients that go into the end product.

OH, I forgot to mention, there is this bakery down the road that makes the most amazing desserts.  I had the richest yummy chocolate cupcake from there.   A while back I had to try one out because it looked so good, and I just couldn’t believe it could taste as good as it looked.  I was wrong.  Yum!

  And if you haven’t seen the post in the Rabbit Rescue Section about the Vegan Bake Sale (photos and video), yet, you should check out.   Now I am so hungry!

Just wanted to share my fave veg recipe website:

http://www.vegweb.com

It’s mostly vegan but you can always substitute recipes a bit (ie you don’t have to use soy milk or vegan margarine). I’ve made a lot of the desserts. A plus about this site is that a lot of vegans are very health-conscious so a lot of the recipes are really good for you (even chocolatey stuff!). You can set up a profile and make a recipe box.

We should start a thread about veggie recipes! Or just post some here.

One pasta recipe I’ve been making a lot recently is super easy. Just cook a couple large tomatoes, or a bunch of small ones, on the stove, grill, or under the broiler (it’s kind of nice to get the charring from the grill or broiler, but not necessary). Once they soften, mash them down in a skillet a bit (you can leave it as chunky as you want) and throw in some garlic to cook. Next throw in a can or two of chickpeas and let simmer for a few minutes. Cook your pasta (I do a pound at a time) and reserve some of the cooking water. To the sauce, add about half a standard container of hummus, paprika (I like the smokey stuff), and salt and pepper – stir and simmer, adding the reserved pasta water to thin it out if necessary (depends on how watery your tomatoes are). Add in the pasta and simmer in the sauce for a minute, then enjoy! I like to dump a bunch of parmesan cheese in there too, but you could skip that to keep it vegan. The hummus in the sauce really gives it a richness that I love and makes it almost creamy – you could probably add it to a regular jarred pasta sauce too, but the fresh tomatoes are nice if you can find good ones.