Omnivore versus Vegetarian

I was a vegetarian once before. It was hard, yet not hard. I was asked “Why?” a billion times. I didn’t mind answering at first but then after the umpteenth “inappropriate” response, I began to dread that question. To me, now, that question is like “Why are you [insert religion or political party]?” My reasons are many. Will you listen to them all or will you just hear the first and launch into why it’s bad? When I find a vegetarian, I love to ask the reasoning and hope that it’s more than health reasons. I look for inspiration everywhere.

I then tried to come up with an elevator-type speech — summation. Basically: “Because I can’t imagine eating my cat.” Right? To that, I sometimes got this pearl: “I’m vegetarian. Oh, but I eat chicken.” OK. I can’t imagine eating my Grandma’s pet bird either. I can’t imagine eating my pet fish. (Unfortunately, that fish that helped push me over the “undecided” fence passed away last year at the ripe old age of 7.) Once I was flesh-free, it was hard justifying drinking milk or eating eggs.

This weekend, as mentioned, I went to the local city-run farm. It’s brilliant. The animals were so friendly! The deer pranced up and reached his muzzle out for a nuzzle like we had been forever friends. The rooster strutted over to show off his beautiful feathers. The turkey paused in his show-off dance to come near the fence. The cow tried to lick my lens — and got my hand instead. (Cow snot is not exactly pleasant but I appreciate the love.)

What’s a vegetarian trapped inside an omnivore to do?

Perhaps more importantly, what’s a vegetarian trapped inside an omnivore living with a “oh no, not vegetarianism again” person? 🙂

Dinner: Fall harvest!

I got a bit curious and also it was time to clean out the vegetables before they spoil. 1 gigando sweet potato, 1 organic golden delicious apple, 1 bunch asparagus, 1/2 red onion, splash of olive oil and salt.

I had a pile of scraps and turned toward the trash can. But instead of tossing the scraps, I put them in a bowl. I felt good.

Then I tossed on the apple core.

Then family member asked about it. I said proudly, “It’s my compost pile! I’m going to dig a hole and stick it in there.” Seems that will feed the voles but that’s better than sitting in a plastic bag in the dump. But since it was dark, I then started a bigger compost bowl and topped it with aluminum foil since I can recycle that.

What will happen next? Not sure! But I will add to it until it’s full and then either toss it in a hole or have a bin ready.

And, now for dinner.

Dinner

Sweet potatoes and onions
Cut up peeled sweet potato and boiled for about 15 minutes while I sauteed a roughly quartered half red onion in olive oil over medium. Once the sweet potato was done, I added it (without the water) to the pan so that it would get a little color to it and mix around with the onion.
• Apple, organic, Golden Delicious
• Asparagus
  Basically this recipe except I use a lot less olive oil. I just dribble a little on top.

Hot to trot tilapia, nummy mushrooms and mean green beans

Since I noticed a chicken pattern, I decided to go for another meat. I took photos but tried a different way of importing from the camera. It seems one should increase the autosleep mode on the camera when importing to iPhoto. Ah well! Live and learn. Better to have just lost a few photos of the meal than a bunch of zoo pix! But I couldn’t leave this post without some sort of imagery, so behold the cat! He didn’t get any tilapia and that’s his sad face.

Dinner: April 28, 2008

• Blackened Tilapia
  I cooked it straight from frozen and wish I hadn’t. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and wished I hadn’t. Since I used a non-stick pan, I cooked it at medium to get the ‘blackened’ look and then turned it down to finish cooking while I had tended to the other pans. I didn’t use celery seed or the lemon and doubled up on black pepper instead of using white.
• Last Minute Mushrooms
  I didn’t use the white mushrooms that I bought so tossed this new recipe in with the mix. They tasted fantastic! But how can you go wrong when butter is involved?
• Garlic Green Beans
  Another awesome new recipe that’s going in regular rotation! I love green beans and usually serve them dry or with some paprika. But the olive oil and garlic was awesome. Next time, I think I’ll do it in a saucepan instead of a skillet to save room on the stove.
• 5-Cheese toast
  I heard my name coming from the freezer and there it was! These heat up beautifully in the toaster oven.
• Strawberries
  Sliced some strawberries up for plate presentation. I liked the sweet to help with the heat of the fish.