I have been a vegetarian for 25 years. I stopped eating meat upon renting my first apartment in college. Confronted with thawing chicken breasts, I felt repulsed and sad about handling dead animal body parts and discarded the chicken. I was also reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins which eloquently covered the various reasons for vegetarianism, from compassion toward animals to environmental concerns.
Most noteworthy though, the book was the reason we all found out about factory farming and the animal cruelty present in our meat producing food system. The public was shocked and upset, and while a new sector of meat production eventually came out of it where animals were treated with basic care and dignity, not a whole lot has changed since then. Factory farming is alive and well, wreaking havoc on imprisoned animals and the environment.
There is plenty to read on these topics already, so no need for me to expand on the details. What has changed, however, is peoples’ reaction to me mentioning I’m veg. In my youth people scoffed and shot down my reasons after asking for them. Nowadays however, it’s common instead that people say, “oh, cool, I have always wanted to cook more vegetarian meals but just haven’t gotten to focusing on it.”
And that is the reason behind this simple program! I think it’s just wild the meal schedules various health food or diet folks come up with out there. I used to look at these kinds of things a lot. I wanted to go on some sort of health kick and looked up different meal plans that I then tried to follow them. The meal plans were for anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month or two, involving 3 meals a day you were supposed to shop for and then prepare.
This is wildly difficult for any regular person to follow. We’re talking a situation where I stop eating everything I normally eat and now plan out 3 meals a day that I have mostly never prepared before, overhauling every single regular meal and snack I consume into a brand-new complete diet overnight? Uh, no. Unless I just found out I have a life-threatening health condition which I have serious reason to believe can be reversed with such a diet, I will never have the time, energy, and attention to eat a completely new set of meals overnight.
So we’re doing nothing like this.
I’m starting with the invitation to everyone to learn to prepare and eat more vegetarian meals. Get to a place where you don’t totally rely on meat in order to eat. The environmental costs of eating meat weigh on me a lot. The great thing about these costs is that any day you don’t eat meat, you help the environment. There is no reason whatsoever you have to pressure yourself to go completely vegetarian or feel guilty if you don’t. My wish is for everyone to be able to easily eat in alignment with their values, and I hear from people a lot that they want to make changes but since it takes time and effort to figure out those changes, they just don’t get around to it.
You can remove a few meat products completely if you want, and that is also great. I do especially hate the way entire forests and ecosystems are bulldozed to plant grass for cows. Perhaps one day you will choose not to eat cows for this reason but you still eat other meat. Or maybe you want to be vegetarian but are too sad to miss out on turkey at Thanksgiving and give yourself a “holiday pass” for meals that mean a lot to your family’s traditions. You can make your own rules and goals, or have none at all and just enjoy some new recipes. It’s completely up to you.
So here’s my meal plan for you. One new recipe every 3 weeks, but you make it once a week for a total of 3 times per recipe.
Humans learn through repetition. Throwing 60 new meals at you is nuts and will leave people just overwhelmed.
Here, you’ll make a new recipe, then make it 2 more times before we go to the next recipe. By the 3rd time you’ve made it, it will be totally easy to make, and you can just add it to your regular dinner rotation effortlessly.
After 5 months, you will have mastered 7 delicious vegetarian recipes. From there, you will know more of what you like and can easily find others online you know you’ll enjoy – and can even continue a routine of a new recipe every 3 weeks which you make 3x.
I will try to share really easy ones. There are some I love that take a little more time to chop ingredients, but I know long ingredient lists are the enemy of cooking new stuff!
I use Half Baked Harvest a lot. It’s not even a vegetarian cooking blog, but this gal Tiegan just knows how to make food taste good, so almost any time I am following a recipe at home, it’s from her blog. Some of the things I make from her are already veg, and others are easily made veg with a simple swap.
So without further ado, here’s your first recipe!
Ginger Coconut Sweet Potato and Rice Stew with Spiced Chili Oil
My notes:
Just buy a chili oil unless you enjoy making these kinds of things fresh. I get this one from Trader Joe’s. Also, you can go without the chili oil and it’s still really good.
You can substitute baby spinach instead of kale to save time – those pre-washed boxes of spinach make it super quick and easy.
I don’t love sweet potato and usually do russet or Yukon gold potatoes.
If you have never bought fresh ginger before, here’s a photo. It’s usually located right next to the garlic at the store. You can break off a piece with your hands. Then I use a cheese grater to get it into small pieces that will let the flavor out.
And that’s it! Delicious, nutritious, quick, easy, and animal-free. This one is even vegan, though I am not vegan myself and have no plans to be. Leave a comment and let me know if you liked the recipe and are doing the 5-month program!
Body Spirit Health 