Hi there Veggie Horizons Readers! I felt like the blog was getting a bit Christmas heavy, what with all the Christmas cookies. I feel like my Jewish buddies are being left out. We can’t have that! In their honor, I’d like to share a couple of recipes that I looked up for Chanukah celebrations.
Caveat: I don’t celebrate Chanukah, but I have many beloved friends who do! I do not profess to be an expert in the holiday itself, or the culture's traditional gastronomy. I've used multiple resources to locate and compile these recipes. (See the end of the post for a list of sources). I apologize if I get anything wrong. Please send me a comment if you see something incorrect, and I will fix it ASAP!
1. Combine olives, garlic, and lemon juice in food processor and blend, drizzling in olive oil until a spreadable consistency is reached. Add ancho chili powder to taste.
2. Brush challah slices with olive oil and grill or toast in over at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until edges turn golden brown. Serve warm, spread with tapenade and sprinkled with parsley and lemon zest.
Equal parts garlic salt and pepper (a dash for every latke)
Vegetable oil
Directions
1. After thawing the hash browns, squeeze out as much liquid as possible. It helps to use cheese cloth or paper towels. There won't be too much liquid and it saves a lot of time one otherwise spends grating potatoes and onions.
2. Mix flour and baking powder to potato mixture.
3. In a pan, pour a thin layer of vegetable oil. Drop one tablespoon of potato batter into oil and fry until golden brown on both sides. In a regular pan, you should be able to cook at least four latkes at once.
For the Fig Apple Sauce
Ingredients
1 jar apple sauce
Handful dried figs
1 cup hot mint tea
Four brown cardamom pods
Pumpkin pie spice or a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and allspice (to taste)
Directions
1. Boil one cup of mint tea with cardamom pods. After tea is brewed, remove pods and steep the dried figs for five minutes or until figs are plump.
2. Remove figs from tea and blend in food processor. Slowly add apple sauce until well blended.
3. Add pumpkin pie spice (a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and allspice) to taste.
4. Serve chilled with latkes.
Chanukah Chocolate Mousse
This recipe comes from JewishPath.com, and is listed specifically for the fourth day of Chanukah (This year, that’s December 24th) It's not vegan, but it sounds delicious!
Ingredients
4 ounces chocolate (milk, semi-sweet or sweet)
4 eggs, separated
1 cup margarine
whipped topping
Directions
1. Melt chocolate in microwave. Add egg yolks and margarine.
2. Mixing with fork, cook over low heat until thick or cook in double boiler over rapidly boiling water, stirring until mixturebecomes thick. Set aside to cool.
3. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into chocolate mixture. Put into serving dishes and refrigerate.
So.... Day 12. I am almost at a loss for words. After so many cookies and so many posts - I kind of don't want it to be over. Oh well, there's always next year! I have at least 4 holiday cookiesthat I didn't get around to this year, so maybe this will be annual?
Well, anyway, this final cookie is one of my new holiday favorites. I've never made biscotti before. (Perhaps I've been avoiding anything so overtly Italo-American so as not to feel like a stereotype?) In Italian, biscotti means "cookies" (not cookie... the word is actually plural). Any type of cookies. Not just the log-shaped ones that we are familiar with on this side of the ocean. But, I can't deny that the Italo-American concotions are delicious. So here is my holiday biscotti! I like it so much I'm thinking of making large amounts of dough and freezing it for quick biscotti making in the future.
Gingerbread Biscotti
This cookie is a grown up version of the childhood favorite - requiring no pressing, rolling, or decorating. It's plenty spicy and full of ginger flavor. Furthermore, this dunkable wonder is the perfect compliment to a cup of Earl Gray Tea on a cold, rainy day. It's a bit labor intensive, but don't let that scare you away! It's worth it.
Ingredients
1/4 cup molasses
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat together molasses, sugar, flax seeds, oil, non-dairy milk, and vanilla with a wire whisk until smooth.
3. Sift in the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to form a smooth dough, then knead in the chopped slivered almonds (if using), pushing any bits that pop out back into the dough.
4. For a log about 11 inches long by 4 inches wide, using a rubber spatula to even the edges and flatten the end sides of the log. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes until the log is puffed and firm but not too brown. It will spread a little, and some cracking is okay. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack, turn off the oven, and allow the log to cool for at least 45 minutes. If any edges of the log are too browned, gently trim them off with a sharp, heavy knife.
5. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Very carefully, slide the log off the baking sheet and onto a cutting board. With a sharp, heavy knife, cut log into ½-inch-thick slices, using one quick and firm motion, pressing down into the log. Very gently move slices to the baking sheet, standing them of their bottom edge if possible. Rebake the slices for 22 to 24 minutes. The slices should appear dry and slightly toasted, but do not allow them to get too browned. Allow the biscotti to cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully move them to the wire racks to complete cooling (warm biscotti may be fragile). Store in a loosely covered container.
Okay, so these technically aren't cookies. They're brownies.... or maybe we can consider them bar cookies? Honestly, they're so delicious I don't think any of your cookie fans will be complaining if you serve them up this holiday season. In fact, they'll probably be too busy stuffing their faces to quibble about much of anything, much less the correct catagorical grouping of various baked goods.
Espresso Fudge Brownies
These brownies are dense, fudgy, and absolutely to die for. They are a bit thinner than your average from-the-box brownie, but don’t let their looks fool you. They pack a huge chocolaty punch. I played around with the extracts and added orange extract to make one of my favorite combos: orange-espresso-chocolate, which you may remember from the Orange-Mocha Cupcakes. However, if you don’t like to mix your orange and chocolate, use a full teaspoon of vanilla.
Photo courtesy of Lynne at Milk and Cookiezzz. My camera is still out of commission, but hopefully I will have my own pictures up soon. They do look exactly like this though - so it's a very reliable represenation.
Ingredients
3 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped (try and find it in bar form in the baking aisle)
5 tablespoons non-hydrogenated vegetable margarine (like Earth Balance)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
Pinch salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and grease a 8x8 pan
2. Melt margarine and chopped chocolate in the microwave for about 1 ½ to 2 minutes, or until fully melted. Stop the microwave about halfway through to mix the two together with a fork or whisk.
3. Whisk together soy milk, cornstarch, espresso, orange extract, and vanilla until foamy.
4. Combine with chocolate mixture
5. Sift in flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder, and salt
6. Fold until moistened. Don’t over-mix or your brownies will become tough.
7. Pour in to prepared pan and bake for 22-26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with just a few crumbs and no gooey batter.
Imagine an ideal sugar cookie infused with lemon and decoarted with crunchy, glittery goodness and you'll have a pretty good understanding of the Citrus Glitter. These soft-on-the-inside-crisp-on-the-outside cookies are the perfect gift for your lemon loving friends. (In Italy.... the word lemon is transformed into the verb "limonare" that means "to make out," so perhaps these cookies will get you a little lovin' too!)
Photo courtesy of Vegan.com - My camera died last night, so I will post my own photo as soon as I'm able to revive it!
Ingredients 4 tablespoons Demerara sugar (like Domino’s Demerara Sugar) 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (like Spectrum Organics Vegetable Shortening) 1/4 cup soy milk 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons lemon zest (or the zest of any other citrus fruit) 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons fine-ground cornmeal (if you don’t have fine ground cornmeal, you can use a coffee grinder, magic bullet, or food processor to finely grind regular cornmeal) 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Spoon Demerara sugar onto a plate and put to one side.
3. Use a hand mixer to cream the shortening and sugar until fluffy. Mix in soy milk, citrus zest, vanilla and lemon extracts.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix on medium speed until a pliable dough forms it will look crumbly but will come together easily in your hands.
5. Roll heaped tablespoons pf dough into balls. Press each ball into the Demerara sugar to flatten it, coating one side only. Place the cookies sugar side up on baking sheets.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden at the edges. Cookies will be very soft, so allow to cool for about five minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Posted by Nichole Leigh
Day 6 of the Veggie Horizons 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Special is a Vegan cookie day! Now, I have this friend who: 1.) leans toward Veganism, 2.)is allergic to nuts, and 3.) doesn't like soft cookies (unlike yours truly) so finding a cookie that she can eat (and love) is a bit of a challenge.
But never fear, with the help of a new vegan cookie cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (the cookie slinging sister to my prized and oft used Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), I think I may have found something that fits the bill.
Lazy Samoas
These cookies are true to their name, and are rather easy to make. They're probably easier if you stock some of the basic vegan cooking items. If you're having trouble finding some of the ingredients, check your local health food store, as they're all fairly common (we're talking soy milk here, not fresh black truffles). Serve to your vegan and omnivorous friends alike! There are also many online vegan supplier like Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe that could be useful for locating more difficult to find items.
Ingredients
2 cups grated, unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil (like EfaGold Coconut Oil - available on Amazon, and at most health food stores)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal (like Bob's Red Mill - available on Amazon, and at most health food stores)
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Pour the grated coconut into a large heavy skillet and toast over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally and toast coconut to a light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. Promptly remove the coconut from the heat and stir it occasionally as it cools. If the coconut continues to turn overly brown promptly pour the skillet into a large dish and spread around to help hasten cooling and stop cooking.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil, brown sugar, non-dairy milk, flax seed meal, and vanilla until well blended and smooth.
4. Sift in all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt and mix to form a thick batter. Fold in the toasted coconut.
5. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. Flatten each cooking a bit, and use your fingertip to work a small hole into each center. Bake for 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are golden.
6. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. Transfer the cooled cookies onto waxed paper, then place them onto a cutting board or other firm surface that can be easily slid onto a refrigerator shelf.
7. While the cookies are cooling, melt chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler, then stir the coconut oil into the melted chocolate. Allow the chocolate to cool for 5 minutes to thicken slightly. Dip cookie bottoms into the chocolate and return them to the waxed paper. Now drizzle the remaining chocolate over the cookies, either by dipping a fork into the melted chocolate or by pouring the chocolate into a pastry bag fitted with a very small round tip. Chill the cookies for at least 30 minutes to completely firm up the chocolate.
These delicious chocolaty bites are simultaneously rich and invigorating.They're a lot like a York Peppermint Patty in cookie form. The recipe calls for a large quantity of chocolate chips to be melted, so I would suggest using a double boiler to keep the melted chocolate warm and workable, without the risk of burning.
Ingredient
2 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (do not exceed 61% cacao; 15 to 16 ounces)
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Stir 2 cups of the chocolate chips in a double boiler, or a medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Measure out 2/3 cup melted of chocolate; transfer to small metal bowl and reserve for drizzling.
3. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt in medium bowl.
4. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Add sugar and both extracts; beat until smooth. Add eggs; beat to blend. Beat in melted chocolate from medium bowl.
5. Add dry ingredients; beat just to blend. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
6. Roll about 1 tablespoon of dough between palms to form ball. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
7. Bake cookies until cracked all over and tester inserted into center comes out with large moist crumbs attached, 8 to 9 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment paper to racks to cool completely.
8. Rewarm reserved 2/3 cup chocolate over small saucepan of simmering water or in the double boiler. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies. Allow the chocolate to harden, 5-10 minutes.Then, pipe a small amount of royal icing in a zigzag pattern on top of the cookies. Allow to harden completely before serving.
So, I was going to save this recipe for later, but I can’t keep it to myself. These adorable cookies are as delicious as they are cute. The recipe is basically that of a traditional peanut butter cookie, shaped a little differently and embellished with candy pieces. I’ve decided to do all of my holiday baking without the use of artificial colors, so I used chocolate chips for eyes, pretzels for antlers, and foil-wrapped chocolate balls for noses (but M&M’s would work well too).
Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies
Recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies. I would make these cookies within a day or two of when you intend to serve them, as they are somewhat hard to store due to the antlers. However, they're too cute to pass up entirely!
For the embellishments:
Pretzels, chocolate chips, and red foil-wrapped chocolate balls.
Directions
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
2. Beat sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter in large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add to peanut butter mixture and beat until well blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
4. Roll dough into 1inch balls, and pinch the ends to make them into a tear drop shape, flattening slightly. (See image below.)
5. Place on an baking sheet covered in parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and immediately press pretzel antlers, chocolate chip eyes, and a candy nose into each cookie. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to wire rack to finish cooling completely.
TIP: If your antlers and candy nose are not sticking, you can use royal icing (recipe follows) to secure them to your cookie. I always have to do this, but I’ve seen similar recipes that do not require any royal icing to secure the accouterments.
Recipe and Image Courtesy of Hersheys.com. Original recipe here.
I have a strong desire to make December 2011 count. It's been about six months since I graduated college, and I really want to accomplish something. Not something huge, but something that is meaningful to me. So here are a couple of Veggie Horizons goals for December:
Goal 1: Post to Veggie Horizons every day in the month of December
Goal 2: Experiment with different food photography techniques and learn to take better pictures of the food in Veggie Horizons recipes
Goal 3: Post enough holiday-inspired vegetarian recipes to comprise a vegetarian Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years (etc.) Feast
If you have any advice or recipes you'd like to share with me to help me on my way, I would greatly appreciate it! For now, let's just drool over the candy cane blossom recipe from Hersheys.com. It's not vegan, but it sure looks festive, doesn't it?
Ingredients
48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Candy Cane Mint Candies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk Red or green sugar crystals, granulated sugar or powdered sugar
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Remove wrappers from candies.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in red sugar, granulated sugar, powdered sugar or a combination of any of the sugars. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.
PS. I'll update this post with more pictures when I try out this recipe for myself!
Listen readers.... I know that I need to get a better camera and/or learn how to take better pictures. These cookies don't look nearly as delicious and amazing as they actually are. I developed this recipe accidentally, and I will never look at oatmeal cookies the same way. These cookies are actually Oatmeal Raisin-Cranberry-Cashew-Chocolate Chip Cookies. Quite a mouthful.
Try and say it 5 times fast and you'll know why I choose to call them Everything Oatmeal Cookies instead. They are, as usual, vegan. However, they're crispier and healthier than the Ultimate Whole Wheat Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Ready for the recipe? Here goes!
Everything Oatmeal Cookies
There's a good chance that other add-ins will work well in this cookie recipe. As it stands, the Everything Oatmeal Cookie is fruity, chocolaty, nutty, and crunchy. They are absolutely delicious, and will disappear faster than any other treat on your holiday table.This recipe makes two dozen Everything Oatmeal Cookies.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal
3 tablespoons hot water
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons vegan non-hydrogenated margarine
1/2 + 2 tablespoons cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup vegan or regular chocolate chips
1/4 cup raw unsalted cashews
Directions
1. Heat oven to 300F.
2. In a small bowl, mix the ground flaxseed meal and hot water. Allow to rest for a few minutes.
3. In the meantime, beat the butter and sugars until creamy in a large bowl.
4. Add the vanilla, almond extract if using, and flaxseed mixture.
5. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until fully incorporated.
6. Add the oatmeal and mix thoroughly into batter.
.
7. Mix in raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and cashews.
8. Drop the dough by spoonful onto cookie sheets.
9. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until light golden brown.
10. Cool completely and eat up!
As for myself, today I would like to engage in a little bit of self-indulgent reflection. First, I'd like to share some specific reasons that I believe the vegetarian lifestyle is a good choice for me. Secondly, I would like to write very candidly on the real challenges that I face on a daily basis. In short, let's talk about veggie motivation and veggie reality.
First things first. The reasons to go vegetarian are almost too numerous to name (but we'll give it a shot).
Physical Benefits: Vegetarian diets are some of the healthiest diets in the world.
Vegetarians are at lower risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, diverticulosis, renal disease, some cancers (including lung and breast), and gallstones (Source).
A vegetarian diet decreases exposure to food-borne illnesses and damaging free radicals (Source).
Vegetarians consume larger quantities of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and grains, thereby increasing their consumption of many essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and antioxidants (Source).
Environmental and Social Benefits: Vegetarian diets reduce the negative impact of man on the environment, and help funnel resources to those that need them most.
Farmland used for meat production produces millions of tons more carbon dioxide and methane than does farmland used to produce vegetable foodstuffs (Source).
Each animal slaughtered for food consumes 16 pounds of edible vegetable food stuffs (corn, grain, soybeans, etc.) for every pound of edible flesh. This grain would be put to better use feeding human beings (Source).
Here is a great article from Green Living Ideas that sums up many studies of energy consumption for food production, particularly as it relates to livestock. It includes many links to relevant, peer-reviewed research studies.
Morality: This is perhaps the trickiest motivation of them all, and perhaps the most compelling. However, if you just don't care about the suffering of animals....then you don't care. But if you do care, this argument is pretty compelling. (Warning: This Video Contains Graphic Material)
When taken together, I think that the combination of these facts is so compelling that it would be difficult to defend an omnivorous diet. In fact, it might be difficult to defend anything but a vegan diet under these terms. (Visit PETA for a comprehensive if somewhat impassioned explanation of all of the above phenomenon.)
So........... why is it so hard then?
For me, the desire to consume meat (or the lack there of) has never been much of a factor in determining whether or not I will maintain a veggie lifestyle, or whether I will backslide into meat consumption. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed well-prepared meat in the past, but I don't crave it regularly (probably due to the fact that I've either been, or nearly been, a vegetarian since I was 14 years old).
The Context of Food
The real issue is, and always has been, social pressure. Personally, I believe that the resistance from friends and family comes out of three fundamental social contexts:
(1) Meat Eating and the Herding Culture
Meat eating is the keystone of herding culture (of which the Abrahamic cultures are descendant). This sentiment is particularly explicit in the creation myth of Adam and Eve, wherein God grants the infamous progenitors lordship over all the creatures of the Earth. Therefore, in the Christian (and Judaic and Islamic) tradition, man is not only destined by divine right, but obligated by the creator, to dominate animals. In this context, man has the right and privilege to use animals as he sees fit, without any obligation to the animal.
(2) Concept of "Man as Hunter"
One of the most frequent nonsectarian arguments against vegetarianism comes from the idea that man has been hunting and consuming meat since time immemorial, and thus meat consumption is biologically and evolutionarily predestined. In the world of Anthropology, this is a hotly contested issue. However, after having read many books on the subject (see the bottom of the post for a list), I think that there is ample evidence to challenge this age-old assumption. Some of the most compelling arguments questioning the identity of "Man as Hunter" include: fossil and biological evidence that links the human digestive system more closely to that of fruit eating apes than that of wolves or tigers; the relatively late appearance of the tools man uses to hunt in the archaeological record; and archaeological evidence that indicates a high predation rate among early humans (i.e. people were being eaten by animals more frequently than they were eating animals). All that aside, the "Man as Hunter" argument resembles (or perhaps follows from) the first in that it considers the use of animal bodies for consumption as the naturalright of man as an omnivore.
(3) Habits are Hard to Change
Contexts (1) and (2) are really important, but they operate mostly in the background of people's everyday lives. If they're invoked at all, it's usually only to defend the continuance of habitual action. Consider this: if you've spent your whole life communing and taking pleasure at a dinner table that features meat and animal products, it's not only difficult, but perhaps even painful to move away from the habits and nostalgia of meat eating. If you come from a family where food is important, this can be a very big deal. For example, when I went Vegan for a couple of months, both my Dad and my boyfriend were very upset with me, for different reasons. My Dad felt that by rejecting meat, I was rejecting his personal food tradition, ruining all of our future holidays, and trying to push my strange morality onto everyone else. My boyfriend was frustrated because he didn't know what to make for dinner on a daily basis, and felt that my choice made it difficult for him to eat the things that he liked to eat (read: bacon).
That's why it's hard to be a vegetarian. It's hard to act against society's deeply rooted ideas, assumptions, and habits, especially when they manifest in the feelings of the people that you love. It's hard to face your parent's anger and frustration when they don't understand why you are being "difficult" and "picky." It's hard to say no to the pot roast that your grandmother lovingly prepared for you. It's hard to make one dish for you, and one for your spouse, every night of the week. It's much easier to take the path of least resistance and do what they ask of you.
Making it Happen
But no one said it would be easy. So, a couple of pieces of advice for World Vegetarian Awareness Month, from a very human vegetarian:
No one's perfect. I know that I've had my share of back sliding over the years (mostly in the form of prosciutto and fresh mozzarella). If you fall off the wagon, watch that PETA video, take a deep breath, and get back on. One slip up doesn't mean that everything is lost.
Sometimes people in your life will be supportive of your choice, sometimes they will not be supportive of your choice. Remain calm, try not to argue about it, skip the turkey, and bring sweet potato casserole to Thanksgiving.
Try to be as compassionate to people as you are toward animals. Be patient and respectful of people who do not understand or accept your lifestyle, and demand that they respect and be patient with you as well. Lead with your fork by making delicious vegetarian food.
Have fun! Vegetarianism isn't all doom and gloom! It's a celebration of life! Think about all of the delicious food that you can eat! Check out the Recipes tab for some of the food that Carrie and I make on a regular basis, and explore the web! There are a zillion delicious vegetarian options out there, so don't be afraid!
