Choosing Vegetarian Cooking

hello everyone,
Many years ago it was quite, well more "very", unusual to have any type of vegetarian choice on restaurant menus. Now days it is more unusual not to have more that one or two choices of vegetarian cooking as more and more people are becoming vegetarian as they realize that the fare is incredibly tasty and very satisfying.
In fact there are many meat eaters who choose the vegetarian option when they go out for dinner. Not only that, but they are including meatless meals in their own home a couple of times a week.
Maybe this is because it is no longer regarded as "alternative" but becoming almost main stream. Also the fact that people are now realizing that there is such a wide choice rather than just a pasta dish or beans and lentils.
It has always been amusing that most meat eaters believe that vegetarians like mushrooms and tofu, thinking that these two things are close enough to meat that all vege eaters would eat them. Newsflash, not all vegetarians like mushrooms or tofu just as not all meat eaters like fish or pork.
There is now such a diverse range of cooking out there with the international choice of restaurants and the interest in different types of foods and ways of cooking. It is only natural that vegetarian cooking is coming into its own.
Such an infinite array of vegetables, nuts, grains and pulses are so readily available that cooking, be it at home or in a restaurant, is now exciting and innovative. More and more people are beginning to appreciate the good foods now on offer.
So many of us are now live a meat-free diet without even realizing it or calling themselves vegetarian and it is not entirely due to health, animal welfare or economy. It is more a matter of taste and the vast choices available.
Years ago most vegetarian meals were time consuming as a lot of the ingredients had to be soaked and prepared in advance prior to actual cooking. Now with manufacturers offering tins of pre-cooked produce and pre-made patties, "frankfurters" "sausages" and a host of other meat substitute items, vegetarian cooking can be as quick or as slow as any meat meal.
Today vegetarians are able to have a complete balanced diet. These meals are nutritionally sound and gastronomically sensational. Gone are the days of over-cooked vegetables, the "hundred and one ways with soya beans" and the lack of choices on any restaurant menu.
It is now a real pleasure to have choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner both in restaurants, cafes and at home. To be able to go into a supermarket and acquire excellent ingredients. To be able to shop online and have quality products delivered to the door. All these things mean that more vegetarian cooking will be done, eaten and enjoyed by more and more people.

I wish I were vegan. I do try to curtail it. I did an online survey this week that made me feel so guilty about eating meat. I am an animal lover. I have had times in my life when I could not eat turkey or chicken at all. I still have difficulties with it. I just grew up in a meat eating house and I have limited tastes. I hate myself for it, actually.

Evolution over a very long period of time has honed homo sapiens as omnivores, i.e. to eat meat and vegetables. We are optimized to be omnivores. Having free will we can choose to act otherwise but it does not change the facts. Similarly you can choose to have only four toes and fingers on each foot/hand (think amputation) BUT... it is not better, just different and artificial.

Many of us eat too much meat and some of us eat no meat. Strict vegetarians who avoid all animal products find it difficult over the long term to maintain proper health as some essential amino acids are hard to come by via readily obtainable vegetables.

There is no reason to feel guilty about eating animals as it is NORMAL human activity. Life feeds on life at virtually every level from the microscopic on up. It is the way it is and to think otherwise is delusional and aberrant. You can no more "CHOOSE" to divorce yourself from the realities of what your body is optimized for than you can choose which lows of physics you will obey.

I have lived through personal periods of time where I was "almost vegetarian" using meat more as a condiment than a featured element of a meal and have had my pendulum swing to excess in the other direction too but for quite a while now I have leveled out with a significant meat intake but also have a medium to large salad almost every night and frequently have vegetable side dishes too.

Since loosing 56 +/- a couple pounds in a relatively short period of time and keeping it off for nearly a year while eating significant portions of meat I don't obsess over meat intake. I did however virtually eliminate junk food and now snack almost exclusively on fruit and sometimes veggies or more recently the SPICY version of V-8 juice. I have a mid morning and mid afternoon snack virtually every day. Of course I have pie and or ice cream almost every night and maybe a bunch of graham crackers or huge serving of popcorn too. Alas, I have virtually eliminated peanut butter from my diet which was previously consumed in prodigious quantities.

If for whatever reason you decide to avoid all animal based food stuffs do carefully consider having a consultation with a professional (licensed) nutritionist to ensure you are getting everything you need. I don't mean chatting up one of the blokes down to the local ashram but a GENUINE nutritionist.

Pat