So, You Like Vegetables?

Yes, dear readers! Carrie and I love all that leafy, fruity, savory stuff. In fact, we like it so much we've created Veggie Horizons to share our love of food, friends, and the plant-based diet.

Carrie covered most of the bases in Coast to Coast: A Vegetarian Love Song, so I won’t bore you with a rehashing of how we met and how this blog came about. I will say, however, that our relationship was love-at-first-taste, and after a couple of meals together we both knew there was no turning back.

So, this blog is part an effort to investigate vegetarian food culture in distant parts of the country, part an effort to share all of our food-related passions, and part a continuing testament to how much we like each other. (The latter adds a sexy spice which I'm certain will offer a titillating blog reading experience.)

A bit about my food background:

Unlike Carrie, my mother hates to cook, and consequently, I grew up on McDonald's chicken McNuggets and Kraft Mac & Cheese. I didn't try my first salad until I was fourteen years old, and I didn't even know that you could turn vegetables into a stand-alone dish, much less an entree or an entire meal!

But I have come a long way from those days of sugar comas and happy meal toys.

I experimented with a variety of eating regimens throughout my teenage years. These experiences led me to reject early instances of sugar addiction and the excessive consumption of meat, much to the chagrin and confusion of my parents. Indeed, I was a picky and difficult teenager, but the early split from my family’s food culture allowed me to develop both basic cooking skills and an obsession with trying out new recipes.

However, the true catalyst for my current food values came in the form of the book Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser. For me, like for so many others, Fast Food nation was revelatory. I was horrified not only by the cruelty to the animals that we slaughter for their meat, but also the heartlessness with which the agro-industries treat their employees and consumers. Frankly, there is shit in the meat.

Thus began my yo-yo relationship with animal products. Since Fast Food Nation, and in the tidal wave of food and cooking books that followed, I’ve been steadily weaning myself away from an animal based diet. First, red meat went, then poultry, then seafood, and finally animal products altogether. (It should be noted that there has been a fair amount of backsliding from one phase to the next – mostly precipitated by offended grandparents at holidays – but that the general trend is as first described.) For a couple of glorious months, I was living the Vegan life. Unfortunately, however satisfying the Vegan life was (and I loved it), I found it difficult to maintain in terms of practicality, especially while eating out.

Now I’m back to lacto-ovo vegetarianism, but I’ve learned a lot of really fabulous ways to cook without using any animal products, and I do so often. In my heart of hearts, I know that I wish to embrace a vegan lifestyle, and expect that someday I will do so again. (Perhaps you all can join me on my journey!)  

I’ve never been grossed out by a vegetable – and I will eat any kind. The only food items that give me the heebie-jeebies are animal products, and it frequently depends on the circumstance. (For example, if I think about an egg for too long I probably won’t want to eat one anymore – but if it’s disguised inside of a bagel, then I may have a different reaction. And yes, I’m aware of the psychological distancing and deadening required to facilitate the consumption of an egg, thank you. We’ll get there later.) In other words, I am ready to try anything vegetarian and I’m going to take you all on the ride!

So here’s what you can expect from me:

·        Recipes and lots of them: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks

·        Advice on where to buy, eat, and share vegetarian (and often vegan) cuisine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

·        Restaurant and Event Reviews

·        Vegetarian and Vegan Survival Tips

·        Reflections on American Food Culture

·        An Occasional Review of Vegan Products

·        Links to Other Helpful Information, Books, and Media

·        The Best Damn Thing We’ve Ever Eaten

·        Other Stuff Yet to Be Decided Upon

I hope you’ll join us in the future. Keep on loving your veggies.

-Nichole