By Hailey King
Ever thought about quitting meat, cold turkey? I tried it and it
wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.
At the start of my dietetic internship, as I was moving into my
new apartment with two other interns, they dropped the V word on me. They told
me that they were both VEGETARIANS….. and guess what we had for dinner that
night? Vegetarian curry with huge chucks of tofu and eggplant. Dessert was
popcorn tossed in nutritional yeast. It was a bit of a shock at first, the
curry was great as long as you could navigate past the islands of floating tofu
and eggplant and the popcorn, well that was unique. So that night I started my three-week
journey of becoming a vegetarian.
Week One:
The first few days were easy because we had left over curry to
pack for lunch, and I didn’t need to think much about what I was going to have
for dinner since my roommates took charge of cooking that first week. Then at
the end of the week I had to make dinner and the pressure was on. I decided to
make a sofritas bowls like the ones you can get from Chipotle. This application
was actually amazing! Rather than leaving the tofu in large chunks I decided to
scramble them resulting in smaller pieces and a far better texture.
Week Two:
Towards the middle of the second week I was starting to crave
bacon, breakfast sausage, roasted chicken and a juicy Big Mac. I haven’t even
eaten at McDonald’s in three years! As a result of a vegetarian diet, I was
craving the fattiest animal proteins and those cravings continued into the
third week.
Week Three:
The cravings finally subsided slowly half way through the week.
At the completion of my third week I could walk through the grocery store
without even wanting to stop by the meat section. That Friday I made an amazing
vegetarian gumbo without the tradition bacon and the andouille sausage the
depth of flavor I was able to create with tofu was incredible.
After completing my three-week trial of become a vegetarian I
decide that it was not for me. Every now and then I would like to indulge in an
animal based protein. In many ways, I would consider myself a flexitarian. For
everyone who doesn’t know what a flexitarian is, it’s somebody who eats mainly
a plant based diet and occasionally have a small portion of animal
protein. I would high recommend everyone
to try being a vegetarian for at least a week. You will be able to learn so
much about not only yourself, but also how to creatively cook different
vegetables in a tasteful way. After being
a vegetarian for a short while I have a better understanding of the trails and
tributes of being a vegetarian and overcoming the challenges of eating out.
Headed into the holiday
season many people have asked my roommates and myself how we are going to
survive without eating the turkey. The answer to that is simple. Eat all of the
sides, but if you’re worried about if there was bacon fat or chicken stock used
in making those sides, then you can always bring your own sides and your own
tofurkey.
What the heck is a Tofurkey?
It is a meat substitute in the form of a loaf or a casserole of
vegetarian protein, usually made from tofu (soybean protein) or seitan (wheat
protein) with a stuffing made from grains or bread, flavored broth with herbs
and spices.
You can find them in the frozen section of many grocery stores. They
only cost $8.99 and they have a very similar texture to other animal protein,
but it is completely vegetarian. They are also very easy to cook. Let the
tofurkey thaw out in the refrigerator, as it will generally take anywhere from
1-2days to be thoroughly thawed. Preheat the oven to 350F and bake the tofurkey
for 45 minutes.
While the
tofurkey is baking you can make the vegetarian mushroom gravy. In a medium
sized sauce pan, sauce thinly sliced mushrooms, 2 cups, over medium heat in
olive oil. once the mushrooms are cooked, about 5 minutes, add the seasoning
packet that came with the tofurkey and then mix in two cups of water. Allow to
simmer for 10 minutes or cook to the desired thickness you like your gravy.
Enjoy!
If becoming a vegetarian for even a week is too scary for you
then you can always give Meatless Mondays a try. For more information about
Meatless Monday visit the following website: http://www.meatlessmonday.com
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