PART 1 - Vegetarians: Since when are animal excretions plant-based foods?

You know, I'm not usually someone who gets hung up on labels, but this irks me. It's bad enough that people who eat fish flesh for instance, but not the flesh of other animals, fail to recognize that fish are animals too and still call themselves vegetarians. Totally not vegetarian.

But at what point did "vegetarian" come to include the excretions of animals, like milk and eggs? Any basic definition of vegetarian (when referring to humans, whereas the term "herbivore" would be a comparable description for other animals) is someone who eats a plant-based diet, consisting of grains, fruits and vegetables.

I don't know where, along the way, the term became modified to include animal-produced items. All I know is it is innaccurate and inclusive where it shouldn't be. And in ways other than regarding the ingestion of non-plant based foods. If you eat animal excretions, you are still participating in the torture and slaughter of animals. In fact, eating a cow or a chicken is a far less horrific act than keeping her alive for her milk or eggs. The main difference is that they are kept alive in more horrible circumstances for a longer period of time, before being brutally trucked and slaughtered.

Now I know there are many people who avoid specific forms of animal flesh for health reasons, with little concern for the animals' well being. Clearly if you are eating any flesh, you shouldn't refer to yourself as a vegetarian. But what about "vegetarians" that are avoiding flesh for ethical reasons? How do they justify avoiding one form of torture while continuing to participate in another?

Lately I've seen lots of discussions that include apprehensions about the difficulties people fear they will encounter in social or work situations if they tried to avoid dairy and eggs. I'm not saying that it's not a reality of modern life that these products are all around, being consumed by our peers. But at what point does peer-pressure override personal values? How can convenience and acceptance trump compassion, ethics and morals?

Please feel free to weigh in on this and I'll continue this in a later post....

Easy Vegan Meal - Lentil Vegetable Stew

I'm an okay cook, but I definitely prefer the eating more than the preparing and tend to avoid following recipes. I've come to accept that I come from a long line of ancestors whose favorite things to make were dinner reservations. So, I look for shorcuts where I can.

I was really in the mood for stew yesterday, but didn't feel like making something from scratch. I had a can of Amy's Lentil Vegetable Soup (and I can't tell you how cool it is to see products with "(VEGAN)" heading the ingredients list) in my pantry, to use as a starting point.

These processed foods tend to have too much salt, so the first thing I do is add about a half can of water to start and then play it by ear, depending on how it tastes, to determine if I'll add more water later. Then I throw in whatever frozen veggies I have on hand - yesterday it was your basic mixed vegetables and cut leaf spinach - and maybe a frozen animal-product substitute, like the vegan Morningstar Steak Strips I used in this dish. (I just dump the frozen items right into the pot - they cook just fine.)

After bringing the soup to a simmer/low boil, I decided it could take some more water, and that I would then thicken it up with a corn starch roux (whisking the starch with some of the hot soup broth until it's a paste, and then adding it back to the pot). Then I added some garlic powder and a little Kosher salt, once in the bowl, to taste. And of course, I had to have some ketchup with my stew, as is my personal tradition.

It was delicious, hearty and satisfying, and SOOOO quick and easy! And by adding the water, veggies and strips, I turned a 2-serving, $2, fairly high-sodium can of soup into a healthier, 4-serving, multi-meal stew.

Today, I plan to have the rest with some leftover Basmati rice. Just the antecdote for a cold, rainy, winter day when you need a little comfort food.