meat or no meat? that is the question...

[nephthys224]

I'm having sort of a crisis of conscience at the moment with regards to what I eat.

A year or so ago, I read Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser. Yeah, I know, a couple of years after everyone else on the planet, but better late than never. :) Anyway, the parts of the book that affected me the most were the chapters having to do with the beef and

Comments

[sparkofcreation]

If you're looking for ideas, we have about a dozen vegetarian cookbooks in varying degrees of complexity sitting here. My current favorite dish out of them (we're not great cooks, we tend to take a few and stick with them) is probably black-eyed peas and baby spinach over orzo with parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper. We also do a lot of baked-tofu dishes, since tofu works with most marinades (which, being lazy, we buy in a bottle). One of the best is a mojito (orange/lime/pineapple) marinade that we buy and bake tofu in, and then we have it with bell peppers and onions over rice

[nephthys224]

Wow, that black-eyed pea dish sounds really yummy! I looove beans and lentils, and black-eyed peas are one of my favorites. I finally found a source for them here, too, so I don't have to keep bringing back bags of them in my suitcase. :)

I think I actually saw one of the Moosewood cookbooks the other day while poking around in a secondhand bookstore. Are they handwritten inside?

[sparkofcreation]

Wow, that black-eyed pea dish sounds really yummy! I looove beans and lentils, and black-eyed peas are one of my favorites.

I think that's a Moosewood recipe, probably from "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home," their quick-and-easy book (the bonus of it, for us, is that it also has a guide to what you should keep in stock to be able to make a real meal quickly-something you probably don't need help with, but we do!). We also have "Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant" and one more.

I finally found a source for them here, too, so I don't have to keep bringing back bags of them in my suitcase. :)

Glad to hear it. Honestly, just moving from the East Coast to NM, it's amazing how many things we can't find-cannellini, ziti, pita bread, falafel mix ...

Are they handwritten inside?

No, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they used to be.

[ghewgill]

amyrtw and I went mostly veggie back in September or October of last year. It was prompted mostly by her seeing a documentary that described similar things about the treatment of animals bred for food. I had often thought about eating less meat but never got around to it. So, we stopped eating terrestrial meat products, but we've stuck with the occasional fish (though that may go soon too).

Speaking for myself, I've been really happy with the choices we have for meals. I don't miss eating meat at all, and can't remember the last time I ate meat. And not only do I not miss it, even when given a choice (such as today when we had Chinese for lunch at work), I'll choose the non-meat option.

I know we have at least one of the Moosewood cookbooks here, and Amy is continually picking up veggie cookbooks from the library. I realise that you may not have the variety of veggie books in the Dutch library there, but it's worth a try. :)

[nephthys224]

Our library here is pretty crummy, at least as far as cookbooks go. I love big, bold flavors and lots of spices (esp. Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian food), but the Dutch seem to think that anything containing more than salt, pepper, or nutmeg is "too spicy". A typical Dutch meal would be a slab of meat, boiled potatoes and some kind of soggy vegetable, all covered in the meat cooking juices. So Dutch cookbooks, even "ethnic" ones, tend to be geared to this kind of palate.

But luckily, the secondhand bookstores in the larger cities usually have some good English-language cookbooks. And I'll be in the US for a couple of weeks in August, so I'll probably stock up while I'm there. :)

Re: animal treatment/vegetarianism

[nephthys224]

Hey, thanks for responding. :) I really appreciate hearing from people who've thought this through already and are willing to share their views. I don't really feel like I can talk to just anyone about all this, since a lot of people (my family, in particular) take it as a personal attack if I question something that they think is "normal

Re: animal treatment/vegetarianism

[nephthys224]

Oh, and I just realized that my previous comment kind of comes across as an attempt to convince you that eating meat is okay... I didn't mean it like that at all! I was just trying to explain where I'm at right now in terms of meat being categorically unethical vs. meat being okay in certain circumstances. I do hope I haven't offended you!

[68024]

What do you think of this? An acceptible solution? Or kind of creepy in its own way? :)