We Are Semi-Veganese, If You Please

One big change in our daily diet that has kept me from updating the past few weeks: we have decided to become vegetarians! So now in addition to no dairy, we also now are trying to eat no meat. We've agreed to continue eating eggs and fish, in large part because otherwise no one would ever want to invite us over for brunch or dinner, and also because it would be nigh impossible for us to eat when on the road. (There are only so many times we can eat fresco bean burritos from Taco Bell.)

I've been wanting to make the transition for a while. We rarely eat red meat--when we did, it was always not from our kitchen. I was a vegetarian for about three years when I was a teenager, but I did a horrible job of making sure I was getting what I was missing from meat. The audiobook of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen is what finally convinced Sham that we can not eat meat and still be healthy athletes.

So I've been busy trying to make sure we Do This Thing Right.

I've checked out dozens of vegetarian cookbooks from the library and I used my iPhone to take photos of all the recipes that caught my eye. The next rainy Saturday I hope to start a catalog system of these recipes on our computer. I also bought a digital subscription to Vegetarian Times for $10.

We purchased chia seeds and corn meal so that I could make iskiate* and pinole*, which Sham had heard about so much in Born to Run. Chia seeds are a surprisingly little-known super food: a energizing muscle and tissue builder, they are also high in protein, calcium, and fatty acids like Omega-3 (see here for more)!

Our typical weeknight meal consists of plate of vegetables (peppers, spinach, tomatoes), corn tortillas heated up on the stove, salsa, and Trader Joe’s incredible 99¢ refried black beans with jalapeno peppers. We make tacos out of them until we are full. It's a yummy, healthy, and fast go-to meal, but I'd like to find other quick vegetarian meals that I can prepare parts of ahead of time.

Here are some of the vegetarian recipes I've found on line that I'm interested in trying out:
* Cauliflower Mash with Miso and Sage
* Mushroom Chili Stew
* Chickpea Sunflower Burger
* Rustic Bread & Eggplant Lasagna
* Bubble and Squeak Cakes
* Curried Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
* Quick Walnut Pâté Sandwiches with Pears and Arugula
* Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Pasta
* Pepita Fettucini with Spinach and Cranberries
* Broccoli Lentil Soup with Roasted Pepper Coulis

Have you thought about going vegetarian? Are you a carnivore who has a favorite vegetarian dish? Do you have any expert, veteran vegetarian advice for newbies?

* denotes there will be a future post about these!

Food in Our Food

There's something you should probably know about me. I'm what one would lovingly refer to as detail-oriented, but more accurately refer to obsessive. While I don't find the need to wash my hands repeatedly in multiples of fifteen, I can relate to those who do. I try to remind my husband that when I was in high school at least once every week I'd turn around and walk the three blocks back to school to make sure I shut my locker and he should therefore be grateful that all I'm asking him to do is confirm (without any doubts on the matter) that we locked our cars' doors. Every time we lock said cars' doors.

When it comes to food, this obsessive tendency of mine exhibits itself in the fact that if it were possible to healthily subsist on only digestive biscuits and wine gums, I would be the first person in line to do just that. Furthermore, I may or may not have conducted my own preliminary research experiment in conjunction with Sainsbury's on that same topic during my study abroad experience at the University of Bristol in early 2005.

Thankfully for us all, digestive biscuits and wine gums are not as easily available in Chicago as they are in England, and so I have been forced to consider nutrition and vitamin needs in my daily diet. However, that doesn't mean I don't eat a lot of the same food everyday. I could happily consume the same breakfast (toasted English muffins and peanut butter) for the rest of my life. And I eat whole wheat pitas, hummus, and spinach for lunch five days a week.

But where dinner is concerned, I have recently finally begun to mix up things. I used to make a lot of food that ended up all thrown together in one messy, often overfilled pot. Stir-fries and pastas almost every night. Lots of leftovers that a certain someone would refuse to eat and would ultimately go to waste. Within the past few months, however, we've been trying to eat more food in our food (Lloyd Dobler's sister would be so proud), and as a result larger servings of vegetables have replaced whole grain mega-bowls most nights. Leftovers are now fought over.

When I started branching out in the recipe department to non-served-in-a-bowl dishes, I immediately realized that I'd be required to get creative with recipes a lot of the time, since we are a dairy-free household, and almost every recipe ever has a dairy component. Lots of times I can just leave it out, which causes shock and horror to those who can digest cheese (read: Hanna), but not so much to anyone who has been eating their food without dairy in it for the past two years like us. Other times I substitute extra virgin olive oil or almond milk. I used to use soy milk, but we are trying to keep soy out of our food as much as possible where we can. I learned the hard way that rice milk does not work as a replacement when making corn bread, if you want the corn bread to form one solidified loaf and not be a crumbling avalanche when you bring it with you to Thanksgiving dinner at your in-law's.

The interest in more food food and less filler food in our daily diet was supported by how we felt in the aftermath of watching the documentaries No Impact Man and Food Inc. this past year. It was legitimately hard for me to eat any meat for the first week after I saw Food Inc., and it ultimately resulted in my only purchasing free range chicken meat and eggs, despite the significant price difference, ever since. Those films also piqued my interest in local farmers markets. However, it was my locavore of a sister who truly inspired me to start actually frequenting and making purchases at farmers markets almost every week this past fall.

To anyone who thinks they can't get up early, that the food won't taste any better, or that they don't want to carry two pounds of Russian fingerling potatoes and half a dozen Spigold apples picked yesterday back to their office and then home on the train, all I can say is I wish I had made the effort and taken the time years ago. The experiences and food have made this past autumn one of the tastiest, most inspired, and healthily obsessed seasons I've ever enjoyed.