vegetarian

[ShreddedOakAviary]

My husband and I are very reasonable people in some regards. For example if you provide us with evidence that we are wrong we will admit it and course correct. Well, we were recently provided with some additional information on human physiology and history. Several studies from many credible sources demonstrated that humans are natural herbivores. We are only "behavioral omnivores". We did a great deal of research and discussed it with our doctor and a nutritionalist friend, and decided that we would change over to a vegetarian diet. Just as I am always learning how better to feed our animals, we have also learned how better to feed ourselves. We feel great physically, and we are pleased with our choice. Just thought I'd share...lol.

 

[luvmytooo]

Good for you ! Our bodies tell us what we need she. We need it.
But , with humans being humans , we are stressed out most of the time , short for time an so on....we shove foods in our mouths during the course of the day to "feed ourselves" .
So , by doing that , fast foods and other junk food is usually the choice of foods.
If we really gave thought about what we put in our mouths , I think we would think twice.

I have contemplated going vegan many times. My husband is a meat and potato kind of guy though , and he will never change. I should give it a try for myself once.
I really dont think I would miss eating meat anyway. I eat like a bird , lol.
But it's the processed foods that do the most harm and I would probably miss those things the most unfortunately , lolol.

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

My husband was a meat and potato guy. But after I gave him some of the studies I had been reading, he just naturally stopped eating meat. I told him that the choice was his. I have so much more energy than I did before, and so he just sort of naturally followed.

 

[luvmytooo]

Excuse the first line please . I type to fast on my iPad and I miss keys , so it puts in whatever it feels is close , lolol.
I meant to say "our bodies tell us what we need when we need it".

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I understood... my Android does the same thing...lol

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

The ironic part.... we raise beef cattle...lol I So we aren't "ethical vegetarians".

 

[luvmytooo]

The ironic part.... we raise beef cattle...lol I So we aren't "ethical vegetarians".

LMAO !!!!!
You have got to be kidding ?! OMG , get out !!!!!
That is really funny , lolol.
I have to tell my husband this , he will crack up
Believe me , my hubby will not change , he is a meat eater and always will be.
I can live on pasta and salads , lol. Can't live without pasta ! ( no sauce ) lol.
You need to change to growing crops instead , lol.

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

"Family business" not much I can do to convince everyone to just quit raising cattle. Just bought another 60 head and 3 new bulls from UNL. We farm too... alfalfa, soy, and corn. 600 acres, my father-in-law has the final say. Pretty funny next month when we get the horses, round up cattle, vaccinate, cut horns, fly spray, band bull calves, etc... ever seen a couple of vegetarians do that? Lol!

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

Not really the weirdest thing I ever did.... besides I use a big fuzzy footed draft horse to work cattle, so I'm already weird. I mean I quit a job that paid $32 an hour to raise parrots full time. I am an aviation mechanic by trade, I shaved my head bald when I was 19, I had hot pink hair in 2008, I have an EPA license, HVAC certified, and an aviation hydraulics and pneumatic license, I was a ballerina with 2 different companies until I joined the Army to be a helicopter mechanic. So, hey.... vegetarian cowgirl runs right up my ally.

 

[IcyWolf]

Such great news! A huge thank you(for the animals) and congratulations! I have been vegan for over ten years and I feel great. I hardly ever get sick and I've never needed and medications other than your standard cold stuff here and there. You are absolutely right, there is nothing that is found in animal sources that cannot be found from plant sources and by cutting out animal products you are also completely cutting out cholesterol and many of those nasty saturated fats. If you have a minute, you should check out forks over knives if you haven't seen it yet. It's not an animal rights documentary, it's about the healthfulness of a plant based diet. If you are interested in the animal rights aspect of it, a great video is earthlings. It is free to watch at www.eartlings.com but I am warning you, it is VERY GRAPHIC. I can never make it the whole way through without bawling my eyes out and I've seen it a few times. I'm also going to give you a link to to one of Gary Yourofsky's lectures. It is a bit long, about an hour if I remember correctly, but it has some info in it that I found very eye opening. I actually started playing it in the background the one day, only expecting to really half listen to part of it but it was so good that I actually watched the entire thing and was glad I did. I have a lot of good tried and true recipes if you'd like them and since I am from german/pennsylvania dutch background I completely understand the meat and potatoes thing and have come up with some awesome veggie fake outs including a pretty awesome shepherds pie!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4]Best Speech You Will Ever Hear - Gary Yourofsky - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I don't think I'll ever be vegan... eggs and honey are sort of non negotiable in my life, not to mention cheese and milk... I'd never convince my household to give up those completely. Lol.

 

[Mare Miller]

When I met my husband, 33yrs. ago, he was vegan, I was a meat and potatoes girl. I was 5'7" tall, 119lbs. and looked fat next to him. As our relationship progressed, I had no idea how to cook for this man, he decided to allow milk products, cheese and milk, only organic and raw, into his diet. I slowly became more healthy by eating the way I had to cook for him, (who wants to cook two different menus, for God's sake!)

Our kids came along and at their early teens, decided to take that path. We never forced it on them, they had a choice. I still eat fish and chicken, once in a while.

My husband is now 65yrs. old. When he goes in for his physical, the doctor loves to put him on the treadmill and is blown away by how healthy this man is!

 

[IcyWolf]

I don't know if you still eat fish or not but I have a great tuna replacement. If you ever want to make a tuna salad or even a casserole(I've made both this way) without using any actual fish, just take canned chickpeas and mash them with either a potato masher or the back of a fork. I know some people add nori or kelp(seaweed powder) but that's not something I have on hand so I always just use old bay and some soy sauce, then just use the chickpea mash in place of the tuna, I know it sounds crazy but it is REALLY good! I've made it for so many people and they all loved it, my old room mate actually started making chickpea "mock" tuna instead of real tuna, not because he was vegetarian, but just because he liked it better. I make mine with vegenaise, celery, pickles, onion, mushroom and mustard, of course if you eat mayonaise you can obviously just use that.

If you ever want to make a dish that would normally use ground beef, try the boca crumbles(you can also just buy tvp at a healthfood store), the crumbles are only about $3 a pound and it works great in tacos, chili, spaghetti, anywhere you would use crumbled ground beef.

 

[Mare Miller]

Sounds like a good one, I'll definitely try it! Oh yeah, I do use the Boca crumbles. My husband always asks, to make sure, if I'm trying to dose him with meat! Don't think so, Honey!!

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I really appreciate the help and support, and of course all recipes are welcome my sister has been a vegetarian for years and years, but she recently married a man in Belgium, and so it can be a little tough to just call her up...lol I have been marries almost 10 years, so it's a little weird trying to discover "favorite" recipes all over again. I may allow fish occasionally, simply because my husband loves to go catfishing and loves the taste of catfish.... right now I'm hoping to find some other "vegetarian" recipe he likes more and use it as incentive... :54:

 

[IcyWolf]

Most of the stuff I make is already vegetarian, I just make it vegan, things like cream of mushroom sauce, mac 'n cheese, stuffed shells, etc. We get these veg chicken strips that are really good, I made them not too long ago into a chicken barbecue and they were really good. Just the other day we made a crockpot of chili and everyone ate it up. My pregnant sister in law had some and even said that she would rather use the boca crumbles than real beef because it tastes just as good, it's cheaper and is way healthier.
I have quite a few food pictures, here's my bbq chickUN.
Sara Schroll's Photos | Facebook
Sara Schroll's Photos | Facebook

 

[QuackQuack]

There are lots of studies speaking one way or another. I can tell you when I was vegetarian for a year+ I lost 40lbs and felt and looked better than ever. I did still take fish. My skin was fantastic etc. I do think that some of the changes could be related to using a different grocery store which only sells organic. The loss of chemicals was bound to have an effect as well.