My Second Mom

One thing that makes being vegetarian a lot easier is having a great support system. (This sounds over dramatic, I know.) I am surrounded by meat-eaters on all sides. Every person that I regularly talk to or visit is not vegetarian. I already talked about the awkward moments that I have at friends’ house  when I go over for the night but there was one thing that I did not talk about. The one place where there is never awkward moments or freak-out ones. This place is where my one of best friends lives. I met this family before I was a vegetarian,so they were all with me through the transition phase between meat-eater and vegetarian. I will admit however, that at the beginning it was really difficult to try and adjust and I ate lots of ramen noodles whenever I was over(I still do this all the time though). As time has progressed we have gotten more used to this change and now they are always ready for whenever they know I am going to be over. They even plan their own meals around mine when I am over and regularly have food for me on stock for whenever I just randomly show up(which I do pretty regularly).

Sometimes I feel bad whenever they do this, but after my friends mom started “yelling” at me for feeling bad, I started to get over it.  This is the one place besides my house that actually prepares for me ahead and it is awesome. I wish there were more places that did this(not just for me but for others), I got really lucky when I sat next to this friend on the second day of school because I am not totally sure that any other friends’ families would have totally changed with me.

Not that I am complaining, not at all, but I just thought that I would take a moment to give some people some really deserved recognition(even though I did not say their names.)

Thanks Guys, for everything:)

Just A Recipe That I LOVE

This recipe came to our family a while back. It is basically a recipe for s new type of spaghetti.  You need,

1)Spaghetti Noodles

2)Two Jars of Tomatoes

3)Salt

4)Garlic Salt

5)Cheese(Mozzarella, Cheddar)

6)Pesto

7)Cilantro(just a little bit)

8)Lemon Pepper

I don’t have pictures for you to look at, but I do love this recipe more than anything in the world and it is totally vegetarian for people like me to eat.   Also, it the EASIEST thing to make in the entire world. This is just something that I am putting up for a friend of mine that has recently decided to become a vegetarian.\

Start a large pan of water on a stove and bring to a boil. While this happens do this……

You throw the two jars of tomatoes into  a pan with the two types of salt and pesto and cilantro and the lemon pepper. Let this mix sit for awhile and mix it together every once in awhile. Let the juices from the tomatoes come to a slight boil. After this has finished, put the spaghetti in the boiling water(Just like making any types of spaghetti.)

Keep the sauce on a slight heat and when the noodles have finished to the desired consistency, mix the sauce into the noodles.  Throw as much cheese into the mix as is desired and to finish off the meal add some more cheese to the top of the noodles.

I sometimes add more of the lemon pepper to the top of the noodles with the cheese but that is entirely up to you if you want.  This recipe only takes me twenty or so minutes to make(as sometimes I just throw some ingredients into the mix and eat what ever comes out, this is another thing that is awesome about this recipe, you can add what ever amount of ingredients you want, or you can add none at all.) This is something that I make whenever we have half days at school or whenever we don’t have any school. My sister seems to like it and so do all the friends that she had over whenever I make this. I have gotten nothing but good reviews about this recipe and so I make it a LOT. I am not going to lie, this is probably the best spaghetti  that I have EVER tasted. My mouth waters whenever I start to make it and……you know what, I think I’ll make some now.

 

A few years back, I was watching the show Wife Swap.  This episode was all about two families, one that was strictly vegetarian  and one that was a very meat oriented family. They hunted,  they skinned and processed their own meats. The moms were totally shocked by the other. It was a total cultural shock for the both of them. There was one moment that really struck me, during one of the family dinners after the swap, one of the girls in the vegetarian family started berating the swapped mother about the life that her family was leading. The one girl was extremely cruel about the woman’s life and the woman answered back with, ” We can’t all be rich enough to live the life that you do.”

I had never thought about this statement before because things are usually easy for my family to afford.  Then I realized that being vegetarianism could be a very expensive type of lifestyle to become a part of.

This is one thing that makes me feel bad when people are berated for choosing a lifestyle that is not vegetarian. It can be an expensive lifestyle to choose. Sometimes I don’t realize that other people in this world can not have the same privileges that I do.

An example of this would be the tofurky that I get for Thanksgiving every year. It is freaking awesome……..but it could be expensive as h***.  Another thing would be the bacon and Morningside and Boca stuff from the last couple of blogs, they are delicious and having these foods does make being vegetarian easier but if you are in a family that struggles with money, than being vegetarian can be something that is out of reach.

When I was littler, I would never have been able to afford being a vegetarian. My family was a lower income family and I  asked what my mother what she would have done if I would have wanted to be a vegetarian.  She answered somewhat sadly that I would have had to just wait until I was older and able to support myself. I felt bad that she was upset that I wouldn’t have done this and I understand how people could not like feeling that they were making a bad decision  just because they could not afford it. I grew up with people constantly giving me crap because my family was poorer than most. Now that my family has began to gain more wealth in this world I feel bad that a lot of people that can’t afford this lifestyle and are berated for it.

I really think that vegetarian is a great lifestyle to live, but if you can’t afford it, don’t worry…

Strangers Like Me

Like I have said before, there are not many vegetarians in this world. Most people do not realize that someone they know is vegetarian (oh how many times has someone been surprised when I tell them that I am vegetarian, if even they have known me for years). Then one day, after reading a Seventeen article on vegetarianism in the world, I got an idea. Who are the famous people that advocate and/or arevegetarians or vegans? I knew before I posted this that Lea Michelle from Glee was a vegan or vegetarian(I didn’t know which). I thought it might be kind of cool to see if someone that people would for sure recognize is a vegetarian. Call it what you will, I wanted to see if there was any famous people like me.
After using Google (*gasp) to try and find some people, I found a link to the huffington post which had a list of fifty celebrities who don’t “eat turkey on Thanksgiving”.

Tobey Maguire
Kristen Bell
Pamela Anderson
Paul McCartney
Russell Brand
Kate Winslet
Anne Hathaway
Brad Pitt.

This was just some of the people that were included in a long slide-show that had all sorts of people in it. I certainly thought it was cool that I share a life-style choice with Brad Pitt and Anne Hatheway(I mean, who does not just love Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Princess Diaries!!!!???). I told my mom I thought it was cool that they were vegetarian, and she laughed at me. I replied to her, saying that I was just looking up to people, because there is so little people like me, that when someone is famous and they are like me in some way, I think it is awesome. Then she laughed again and asked me if I needed to join a support group for people like me, who needed more of a support system because of our affliction ( the affliction being, deciding to become a vegetarian.) Then I told her that she was a bad person for laughing at me, to which she replied, Do you think I’m serious? and then we both laughed..

My family is really weird in case you have not realized.
But anyway, back to what point I was trying to make, I think that you should all try and google what celebrities are like you in some way. It is weird I know, but it is cool to see what types of people are like you in the world.

This is why waiters/waitresses want to shoot themselves after they meet me…

There are a lot of places within Cedar Rapids to eat. From the ever-classic Pancheros, to the formal Biaggis. There are little Indian and Chinese restaurants that no one knows about, to the huge chain restaurants like McDonald’s. There is a place to satisfy everyones needs and this can lead to an awesome night out on the town with some friends, to an exessive arguement about which place to go. There is one question in my family’s mind whenever, we go out to eat. Where is the heck is there food for Michelle to eat? McDonalds has salads that I can eat, but who wants to eat salads everytime they go out to eat? (Discounting professional athletes)

By the time we figure some place out, it is almost half an hour later and we don’t eat until later. Or sometimes, we just go somewhere, and hope to God that there is something there that I can eat. This entails me grilling the waiter or waitress about what types of food that the place has and going through the entire menu and asking her/him if there is ANY meat product in the food that I am asking about. I can tell that sometimes I probably tick some people off because they just want to flipping take my order and go back to their other customers. The first time that I did this, I got shy and just picked one of the things that I knew was vegetarian. My dad then told me, that I needed to stand up for myself, that the waiters were there to help me, and they could wait until I was done ordering. I’m not really a confrontation person, though and this made me uncomfortable. I didn’t (and still don’t )want to take up more of someones time than was needed.

As I have progressed through the years though, I have gained some courage and am now willing to ask multiple questions of the waiters before I decide what to eat. One of the best places to go, Ruby Tuesdays(now closed), all the waiters at this place were really nice about all my questions and didn’t get all upset about me asking them. Another place would be Noodles and Company, this place has little symbols about whether or not they are vegan or vegetarian, no questions needed. It is freaking awesome!! Granite City people are also pretty awesome, and so are the people at Carlos O’ Kelleys. This is not to say that the people at these places don’t get upset(because they probably do) but they do an awesome job of hiding the fact and it makes me feel not so bad about my demands.

So I just wanted to thank you all, the waiters and waitresses that do not get upset at me (or at least fake it) whenever I quiz for ten minutes over the content of your food.

Just Thanks:)

Today was the day that the world ended………… for me anyway….

Today started out like any other innocent day, I went to school bright and early for zero hour(gotta love getting up at 5:30 right?) and was in general pretty happy with the day that I was having. Then came Fourth Hour. Fourth Hour, Fourth Hour, Fourth Hour………usually this class is awesome, everyone in my class(its a Chemistry class) is pretty cool, and the teacher is pretty freaking awesome.

The class was moving along pretty smoothly, we were talking about the various gas laws and all sorts of things were coming up. Then we started talking about diesel fuel cars and how they work, which led to a conversation about why diesel fuel is really expensive during the winter and……(to spare you the details, gelatin came up). This is when it happened, my whole world came crashing down in about fifteen seconds.

My chemistry then proceeded to tell our class that gelatin is made out of groundup animal bone. Seems like no big deal right? Except that gelatin is in like a crapton of awesome things like, jello, sour gummy worms, and bears and marshmallows!!!! This just ruined my whole entire day! I LOVE all those types of sweets, and now I find out that the one thing that I ate all the time, as animal bone in it! How could no one let me know about this sort of thing!! No more enjoying the German gummy bears in class, or sucking all the sour powdery like stuff off gummy worms, or roasting marshmallows over the camp fire when we go on family trips, I will be stuck eating just chocolate and graham crackers.

What kind of a sick person makes candy with animal products in it?!! Now what are all those little tiny vegetarians going to enjoy eating with friends( I don’t know about you guys, but my childhood consisted of eating those things like there was no tomorrow; but I guess after today, my tomorrow could never be as good as before, its almost like not having one at all).

I’m going to have to tell my parents that they never have to worry about buying me gummy-anything again, as it seems that I will no longer be enjoying the taste that accomplanies this gift from God. You know at this point I’m not sure if I should ever eat any more candy, because I will be filled with the knowledge that the candy that I truly enjoy is made out of animals………not the best day for a vegetarian.

Such crazy people.

If you asked every single person that you know, whether or not they were a vegetarian, the majority of them would say no. There is not a large number of people choosing to trade in their steaks and chicken for soy products and carrots (thats a bit of a stereotype is it not?). Eating meat has been a traditions in the world since the beginning of time, the earliest people in the world hunted, something that was passed down through the ages. Hunting and producing meat have always held a special place in the hearts of people. There used to be competitions to see who could bring the most meat back for his family, hunting was a manly thing to do in Europe for centuries and even now, hunting is seen as something that the most tough and able people can do, (with the exception of women being able to go now). Therefore it comes at no surprise that people that eat meat are the majority of the population in the world.
Th number of vegetarians in the world is rising though, thanks in part to the country of India, whose many inhabitants often claim some form of vegetarianism. ( The religion or beliefs of many Indian people are that the cow is a sacred animal, and eating this animal is seen as a bad thing).
Whenever a person meets a vegetarian, often they are shocked or caught off guard, (vegetarians are rare animals, only seen by a lucky few, didn’t you know?) Then you would probably hear alot about how those people are crazy, something has to be wrong with them, if they willingly give up eating meat. I have also heard vegetarians called “girly”. I was kind of wondering why this would be, but then I realized that to many people, hunting and eating meat are seen as manly things to do(as I said earlier). I even have a close friend who whenever she wants meat and potatoes, she says she wants man food. The first time she said that, I burst out laughing, I had never heard food like that referred to as “man food”, although I do understand how someone might thing that. I mean, when you think of a big steak or chicken, what do you think of? The first image that comes into my mind is of a big burly guy with a mustache and big muscles. Then it comes at no surprise that vegetarianism is thought to be girly. But then I wondered, what if someday vehetarians were the majority and meateaters were the crazy people? Anyway you don’t have to really listen to me, im crazy

Boca Burgers and Morningstar Deliciousness

The one thing that makes the vegetarian life so difficult would be the fact that often when I want to eat dinner with my family, they are eating some form of a meat product in their food. This then leads to some difficulty with trying to figure out what to eat and how I am going to make it. When I first became a vegetarian, this was an almost impossible task. My family(or the more correct term would be mom) would be making porkchops and mashed potatoes(to give an example) for dinner and then we would have to scramble to figure out what I would be eating, more often than not, it would be pasta, which can take a while somtimes. Then I wouldn’t have the chance to eat with my family. It took awhile to figure out the solution to this problem. The solution: the various assortment of awesome meat substitutes that are at Hy-Vee and Walmart.
Now every time that my mom wants to make, lets say tacos, or BLTS, I totally have something to fit into the place of the various meat that would be used. The substites are freaking awesome. The ground meat tastes just like taco meat when you add taco seasoning to the mix and I can hardly tell the difference when my parents make BLT’S and they buy me the bacon substitute,(which tastes just like the real thing, it even has the smoky taste to it that a lot of bacon gets.
When my mom buys this stuff, it makes it easier to eat with my family on a a regular basis, because this food takes about the same time as it’s meat counterpart, so I can enjoy a full meal with my family, eating something that tastes awesome too. ( I kinda sound like I’m getting paid here, don’t I?).
This food helps to bring me closer to my fmaily and I certainly love everything that is offered. I am pretty sure that I have tries every single thing in the frozen vegetarian section of both Hy-Vee and Walmart.

It probably sounds really cheesy, but when we found all this food, we never thought that it would help us have more family time together everynight (there is some playful hazing that occurs, my family can’t go an entire day without giving me some sort of crap for being a vegetarian.) I really like my family and the meat substitute products definitely help me spend more time with them.

The Vegetarian World

Within the world, there are all sorts of connections between people. These connections can be face-to-face or through a computer. (Gotta be sure not to get catfished though:) ) There are all sorts of kinds of people that use these connections, and all sorts of organizations that can be these connestions between people all over a town, a state, a country, or the world.  Me being the person that I am, I wanted to see what types of places there were in the world, that would help connect vegetarians in the world. I used the aways amazing world of google. The first thing to pop up in the search engine was for something that was called Vegetarian Times, and I got curious so I clicked on the link.

The Vegetarian Times is basically a huge collection of all the vegetarian recipes that there are in the world.  You can subscribe to the website and receive lots of different recipes to enjoy. The food that is shown on the front page of the website looks freaking amazing and I really wish that I could subscribe, but I think that it would probably not go over well with the meat-eaters in my house if I suddenly started making some of these recipes, even though they look awesome. There is even a link at the bottom of the page for the blog that the Vegetarian Times puts out, I think it’ll be kinda cool, so if I can that is something that I will for sure do.  (For any vegans out there, there are some vegan recipes too, that also look pretty freaking yummy.) This is definitely a site to visit, if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, or someone who is on the fence about making this decision. I recommend it as something that will help you make a decision and help you find food to stick to it.

The second thing that I found whe I searched was for something called Veggieboards.com. This site is basically a forum for vegetarians all over the place, they can start some conversations of the forum that the site has and they also have a link for a superstore that has all sorts of differnt types of food.  This is something that I might check out also, but I am not much of a forum person, so this might be something to think a little more about.

Anyway, after searching around for a little I was happy to find out that there are alot of different things for me to check out and see if I like. Some of you should try some of it, even though most of you are not vegetarian, you might be surprised at some of the cool stuff that you can find.

 

 

More awesome types of vegetarian food…….

When I became a vegetarian how ever many years ago it was, I had no idea that that there were so many kinds of food to eat. I assumed when I became a vegetarian, that I would be eating pasta every night with the three cheese spaghetti sauce that my mom loves to buy all the time.  A few weeks after I made the decision to become a vegetarian, my mom and I decided to look for stuff at the store that I could eat. I was surprised to find out that there was an entire section of food to eat in the freezer section that I was able to eat. I think there was like twelve different kinds of meat substitute that I could put in sandwiches that could take the place of burgers and sandwich meat. It was awesome! I think that first month and a half of being a vegetarian I went through every kind of meat substitute that there was in the entire section. I pretty much loved every kind of food that was in the section. My favorite stuff was the “sausage” and egg or the “bacon” and egg breakfast packet things that come two to a box. They are delicious but they are pretty expensive so I do not generally get to buy them and eat them. I do really like them very much, if you guys ever get the chance  then I really think you should try and get them. They are really good and I think that you all would like them. (From what I can remember, I think that this food tastes a lot like the food that it is trying to imitate, but then again it has been quite awhile since I had any meat that was the really stuff so I could be remembering wrong. It is not just the breakfast food that does it either, pretty much any kind of food that is in that frozen section tastes pretty much like its meat counterpart. It is all very delicious too, I really like it and I think you all will. It will most likely take a lot of convincing to get your parents to actually buy the food that I am talking about but I can pretty much guarantee that you will like the food that you pick up. (Some advice, you might want to talk to me before you buy something, but there is some stuff that is pretty weird and I want to warn about some of those things.) Anyway, you should get some of it, maybe you would like it.)