Hello-I admit I am a omnivore
I am an omnivore eats meat at every meal. I have been an omnivore for about a year (which incidently is when i last logged onto VegWeb).
Okay, so the external environment factors of eating meat- one, i feel that planning and buying for meatless meals is more difficult, especially with a steak, hamburger and hot dog loving boyfriend. Two, I work at burger king. Not my ideal job but after a promotion its hard to just get up and walk away when no one else is offering employment. Being surrounded by meaty food that is quick and cheap is alluring.
Before college I was set on becoming vegan and had eliminated meat and mostly eggs and milk. Soon after being in college, meat crept into my diet and eventually grew into a part of the main course. For awhile, this separation from vegetarianism has been okay, though my want to be vegetarian again has always been there; biding its time. Now I feel that after so many life changes in the last year that my diet should be next!
I REALLY want to get back to vegetarianism-in a cost friendly and effective way. That and support-my cousin is the only one in the family that is vegetarian and she is nine hours away. My mom and dad do not see vegetarian as healthy and the family is constantly worried that i am not eating well.
Thanks!
so what is your question?
Fast food burgers may seem cheap and alluring, but it's the animals that pay the price by the horrific conditions in which they are born, raised and slaughtered to keep pumping out that crap food. In a book called The Cost of Nothing it says that a Big Mac actually cost $200 by the time it reaches the consumer. All this stuff is heavily subsidized. Personally, issues like these keep me from ever slipping back into consuming animal products.
Educate yourself and make your own decision from there.
Burger king has vegetarian options.
lubimiller,
Not so much a question as a reintroduction and looking for new ideas to become vegetarian (perhaps vegan eventually).
willowbeez,
Thanks for the recommendation :) I will have to look into "The Cost of Nothing" and other materials. It has been awhile since I looked into either omnivore or even vegetarian markets.
Aubreecaroline,
Thankfully yes Burger King does and I do (did) take advantage of those. It'll be a matter of retraining how I eat at work.
If you're looking for quick and inexpensive food options, cook once a week and freeze the food into serving portions. I usually freeze things in snack-size ziplocs. Here are some ideas that take minimal cooking skill / utensils.
Dahl or other Indian food (freeze into serving-size portions)
Chickpea/garbanzo / hummus spread on bread / in pita
Pasta casserole
Tacos with beans for meat or make seitan
Trader Joe's has pretty inexpensive frozen/fresh chopped/sliced prepped veggies
I'll cook a pound of whole wheat penne pasta to al dente and freeze it in serving size portions and it's fine. I don't know if white flour pasta would hold up the same when thawed. I like it because I can eat it with sauce, add it to another recipe, or take it with me to eat plain for a snack.
Hi & welcome... glad you're looking to re-veggify!
When I cut animal junk from my diet, my grocery bill *dropped*... 'course, I don't work at a fast food place; but bulk beans/ rice/ seasonal veggies/ chickpeas/ lentils/ peanut butter/ pasta/ etc are CHEAP!!! Like HH was saying, it just takes a little planning ahead/ getting into the habit of approaching food differently. Recommendation: if you're a reader, read Foer's 'Eating Animals' or Robbins' 'Diet for a New America'... if not, watch Mike Anderson's video 'Eating' (available on amazon); 'Food Inc.' (netflix/ amazon/etc); 'Earthlings' (google it -- available online); etc. Knowledge is key... knowing what I know now about where the other stuff comes from, and what's done on my behalf to get it to my plate if I decide to eat it... and knowing what I know about the profound neurological similarities between pigs & my dogs; chickens & my (past) lovey-dovey pet parrots; cows & my horse pals... fully realizing that most of the animals that make up the SAD have the same neural networks for processing emotion that humans do, and dream/ play/ care for their young/ form social attachments/ etc etc etc the same way humans & the animals we choose to see as 'pets' do... there's just *no* damn way I'd ever go back to eating that stuff! It's not even tempting -- instead it totally grosses me out now, and it's hard to imagine how folks manage to choke it down, in the absence of starvation!
Taste is habit, mostly... good luck resetting your habits, as you re-explore veggie eating. There's a great community here for moral support & specific questions... Shout for help as needed!
:)
well said hotcooknmama! I also love The Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman..a former Montana cattle rancher turned vegan.
Good luck to you. First, I think you need to remind yourself why you want to be vegetarian. Read books and watch vids like "meat your meet"...go to PETA and watch some vids. Solidify your reserve to become and stay vegetarian.
I spend too much on groceries, so I'll be no help. There's a good cookbook called "Vegan on the Cheap" that gives some good ideas and recipes.
Good luck to you. It's awesome that your coming back!!!
It takes more planning and prep at first, just like any major life-change, but when it becomes part of life, and habit, you get used to it. Just having resources (recipes, tips etc) and a freezer helps a lot.
Things I recommend:
A pressure cooker for quick soups, beans, etc. Read the instruction book for ideas on how to get the best use of it!
Lots of serving-size freezer containers
An immersion blender--smoothies, soups, sauces in seconds!
A place to write down ideas--whether it be an electronic doodad or a notebook. I find it easier to grab my notebook of "top VW recipes I use" than to do the electric bit, but my students seem to put everything on their topflight expensive palmpilots and phones. Whatever works for you.
You will soon get used to the new way of cooking and eating. Imagine if you had some disease that required you to eat differently to stay alive--you'd soon adapt. That's an exagerration, but you see my point.
LOL. Hello how are you, lol. Your post was very interesting and I'll offer my two cents. Planning meatless meals isn't really difficult, it's cheaper and vegetables, grains, fruits, and legumes, are widely available. Even dairy substitutes and mock meats are now more available than ever. If you constantly dine at fast food establishments then it may be a little more difficult but you have to realize that they cater to meat eaters. It may be better to do research on cheaper eating establishments with more variety and to do more cooking at home. Eating vegan does not have to mean going to an expensive or hard to find restaurant. I understand the added difficulty when your mate isn't on board with your lifestyle or eating habits but that doesn't have to define you. If your boyfriend became addicted to crack would you try to help him or join in and get high too. You can perform an intervention like on the A&E network but instead of meth the poison is burgers and hot dogs, lol. When you mention working around all the cheap meat that is alluring you reminded me of a scene from a movie called New Jack City where a character named Pooky was a reformed ex-crack head who got a job in the crack house cooking it and was surrounded by mountains of it. He too couldn't fight temptation and fell off the bandwagon and it cost him his life. You have to view going vegetarian as a lifestyle and not a trend for the moment. If you view it like this, it would be unlikely that you backslide in the future like you have in the past. For example, I would damn near starve to death before resorting back to my old ways of eating. I can understand your parents concern, not all vegetarians are eating well balanced diets and you should reassure them that you are and how being vegetarian promotes better health, not worse. Educate them on the topic, the truth is contagious.
... I would damn near starve to death before resorting back to my old ways of eating.
take it easy, veg*ism is as easy or diifficult as you want to make it. As others have said before, with time it becomes habit. You might like to read into the food industry in general, yes; you may not care for that (at the mo) but once you get into the swing of it you'll see how damn easy it is not to eat meat/fish. But you gotta love your veggies; feel the fear and do it anyway!