The Mr isn't fully aware of this, but my long-term plan for our relationship is to have him become a vegetarian. Stop rolling your eyes and let me explain.
I've never been one to force my beliefs on anyone and I still don't. If you eat meat, that's great. More power to you. I'm not going to hover over you and recite horrific facts just like I don't expect you to ridicule my belief in not wanting to eat animals. One of my co-workers tried to belittle my principles by comparing the notion of it being wrong to eat meat to slaying all tigers and bears because they eat meat. Are you scratching your head? Let me break it down.
I think it's wrong to eat meat, therefore…
I should also think it's wrong for tigers and bears to prey on other animals, therefore…
I should want all tigers and bears put down.
Yeah, makes a lot of sense. This is why I don't argue with people about their diets. To each his own. Don't even get me started on religious! Ha!
But back to the point, the longer I've been immersed in this whole vegetarianism - the crazier I've gotten. I cry about all things animal-related. When Flower, the mom Meerkat on Meerkat Manor died protecting her clan? Oh yeah - sobfest. I don't even really watch the feckin' show. And that's not even animal cruelty! That was Mother Nature at work.
I recently DVR'ed Oprah's show on puppy mills but haven't been able to force myself to watch it yet. I know it will wreck me. I need to set aside an entire evening and a box of tissues for that.
And before you get all, "But twink, you have a leather handbag! I saw you wear leather shoes!" - I get it. I get the hypocrisy. But I'm taking a page out of a classmate's book that also became a vegetarian in that I'm not buying any new leather goods. Yeah that might seem like a cop-out but what's the point in throwing my stuff away? I already own it. That's just being wasteful (another thing I'm nutty about).
So blah blah blah animals yay! Blah blah blah, right?
I DVR'ed Morgan Spurlock's show "30 Days" recently that featured an avid hunter from NC who spent 30 days in L.A.with a vegan family, protesting with PETA and working at an animal sanctuary. They warned viewers of graphic images but holy hell - I wasn't anticipating some of the images they showed and I ended up sobbing through half of the show.
After one particularly heartbreaking scene featuring a baby cow, I looked over at the Mr who [gasp] was teary-eyed. Looks like my secret relationship resolution might eventually come to fruition and I didn't even need to force it on him!
I looked at him and declared, "You're going to be a vegetarian!" to which he replied, "Well maybe if you cooked some vegetarian dinners… I'm getting tired of cereal!" Touche. I guess if I want him to get on board with my belief system, I should at least try to make it easy on him by making some good eats.
I've gotten pretty lazy this past year with cooking but I am reaching a point where eating cereal 5 nights a week for dinner is killing me. So - this is my pledge to my husband and to the blogosphere: I will cook more dinner.
Relationship resolution for me: cook more delicious vegetarian dinners
Relationship resolution for The Mr: stop eating meat (this one will probably take awhile if not forever)
Do you and your significant other have similar diets? If not - how do you manage?
And to my vegetarian bloggers - any great recipes you want to share? I'm not a master chef so they need to be easy peasy.
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9 comments:
I think I would be a vegetarian if not for my husband. He is such the carnivore. He will never give up meat and I know it and it makes it hard when it comes to meals. I was actually a vegetarian for one summer (inspired after watching a PETA program after hours). I started eating meat again because I felt like a hypocrite since I still wore leather products (and still buy them, unlike you). One of my college professors was a vegetarian and shared the same philosophy as you...he still used the leather products he bought prior to being a vegetarian but didn't buy anything else. I think that is totally fine. I still feel guilty about eating meat, but I try to buy organic and free range for everything.
i have a really good recipe for a homemade mac and cheese. i can email it to you when i track it down, but it's so easy and tastes awesome...everyone in my family loves it. and when you make it, call it katie's hot dish. that's so minnesotan!
don't watch the puppy mill thing. it's so, so, so awful. i sobbed on the couch. you already know how bad it is. . .
i am not a vegetarian but i know i probably could be one. the problem is that in minnesota, winters are tough to get really nice fresh produce. and i could give up a lot of things, but not bacon. i try to eat "lower" on the food chain at least--good meat, less often.
I can't watch stuff with animals dying. I even have a hard time with nature shows. We watched March Of The Penguins and I freaked out over the seal eating the penguin. (Then Sean said, "Dude, if this were a movie about seals you'd be like, 'get the penguin!'" but that's another story.)
One tasty veggie dish I love is to toss some chopped zucchini in a pan and sautee them a little with a pinch of garlic salt, and then add parmesean cheese and scramble an egg with the whole bit. It tastes way better than it sounds, and has a little protein too. And it is SUPER easy.
My husband's 9 year old cousin is a vegetarian. The only problem with that is that she substitutes candy for the meat she's not eating. It cracks me up.
The hubby is all about meat, fried foods, and anything with chocolate. I could get by with a simple salad for dinner - but he's hungry about 10 minutes after finishing. We manage pretty well but I do find myself not eating as healthy with him around!
3 years ago this month I stopped eating red meat. My husband thinks he's growing feathers because we eat a lot of chicken. I tried cutting out all meat but it was so hard.
One vegetarian dish I love is portabella sandwiches. Grill large portabella mushroom caps toped with roasted peppers and onion or anything you like. Then I like to dress the bun with lettuce, mayo and provolone cheese. Yum!
That Oprah show on puppy mills is 100 times worse than I could have imagined. I can't even think about it. It was informative though as I had no idea that a lot of puppy mills are in Amish communities.
Some might argue that humans eating meat is Mother Nature at work, but I agree: to each his own.
One thing I've found recently is that grilled vegetables are insanely delicious. Try cutting up squash, sweet potato, white potato (which need boiled for 20 minutes prior to grilling) and asparagus. Toss them in olive oil (usually about 6 tbsp for a full squash, a large sweet potato, several white potatoes, and a bundle of asparagus), sprinkle with thyme, and put on the grill over medium heat. Squash are about 2-3 minutes a side, asparagus should be rolled about every minute and will begin to have their natural sugar carmelize, and the potatoes are about 3-4 minutes a side.
My girlfriend and I are veggies, and she has a great cooking blog that you should check out. I know, I'm lame for doing this, but she's a really good cook and you might like some of the stuff she makes. Plus, she's funny!
Her blog - www.couchcubicle.com
Don't make him do it. That is evil. He's a growing boy who works out and needs protein.
I read you most recent post first about snacking and forgot for a second that you didn't eat meat, as I was going to tell you my method of snacking at work. I buy a pound bag of beef jerkey and keep it at my desk. Low fat high protein, delish!
I only eat meat because I work out, but I'm trying to eat more green stuff. So this comment didn't help at all.
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