Gordon Ramsay stir fry with fried rice. I use either Beyond Meat (if on sale) or Morningstar plant based ground. Bell pepper, Bok Choy (the real mvp), shrooms, snow peas and scallions.
We modify this Blue Apron gnocchi recipe and eat it frequently. We use the Tofurkey Italian Sausage, Kale and either Moz or Almond Moz. Quick, easy and filling.
I soak a giant pot of black beans overnight and slow cook them the next day following Bon Apetit’s method. I end up freezing a lot of them and using as needed with rice, fajita veggies, guac, etc. to make burritos. Burritos are a vegetarian godsend.
I make a lot of Cookie and Kate recipes (listed the red curry one in the food thread). We make that one and a sweet corn black bean taco recipe quite a bit. Her mexican dishes are great. There’s an enchilada recipe of hers (sweet potato black bean I think) that’s wonderful. And her stuff can me modified to vegan easily if desired.
This is my favorite vegan breakfast. Got me off eggs for a long time, but I’m back on eggs at the moment.
I’m not massively wrong. People who are very poor often buy all their food at corner stores where fresh vegetables don’t even exist and choose high calorie low cost foods like fast food and canned spaghetti.
If you think either of the other people in the photo are me you are mistaken. They are my tour buddies and best friends since middle school and I have permission to post that in the name of Bill Walton and The Grateful Dead Space Force Initiative. Eat less meat.
I understand the impact eating meat has on my environment/health/wallet but can’t find the desire to stop. Though over the past several years I’ve found a butcher that sources all his steak/burgers/sausage and the like from local, small farms that are mostly family run where I exclusively buy my meat when I do. So I like to think I’m helping local, likely struggling farmers, and the local shop owner to justify my meat eating.
So having access to fresh produce didn’t make any real dent on the meat consumption of a heavily left-leaning community, which is relatively highly environmentally conscious.
Its an interesting discussion which has nothing to do with food deserts
Many of us eat way too much meat and dairy and should be shamed into consuming a lot less of it for all of the reasons already mentioned. However, we are an omnivorous species and most are going to continue eating at least some animal products as long as we can get them, no matter the arguments against. Shaming can reduce some of that, but never eliminate most of it.
India is by far the most vegetarian-friendly country on Earth, with the strongest social taboos against eating meat. Its population is at best 25% vegetarian, and dropping. People who have the luxury of eating meat will do so in very large percentages. The number who will voluntarily adopt and stick to a vegetarian diet will always be low.
My advice for encouraging less meat consumption is simply to cook, serve and talk about delicious food that happens to not include meat. Don’t talk about morality or ethics or health or the environment. Don’t talk about alternatives. Don’t try to convince people what they will or won’t miss. None of those arguments work with most people, because it’s taking the most fundamental human need and source of lizard-brain happiness and trying to turn it into a guilt-ridden chore. Logical arguments don’t win fights with the lizard brain.
Efforts should be focused on making the food people should be eating more readily available. That’s where the potential wins are. Don’t ask people to make difficult choices or sacrifices, make them happy by sticking delicious food in their falafel hole.
I have been cutting back on my red meat consumption, especially. It’s actually been easier to do the past few months in quarantine. Like many here, I don’t go out of my way to buy red meat, but will eat it if served.
Of course, on the flip side, it’s much easier for me to eat plant based/fresh produce when we aren’t in quarantine and I can go to the store every day or every other day. I have a huge issue with guilt over wasting food (probably why I have weight issues, too), and when I can’t buy fresh produce often, it goes bad before I can use it if I “stock up”. Been eating a lot of canned/frozen stuff, which is ok, but herbs and greens in particular are really hard to keep fresh.
Dairy is easy: I’m lactose intolerant so unless I have a pill when we go out, the only dairy I can really handle is small amounts of feta or cotija cheese.
I doubt I’ll ever go full vegan because I actually have a real issue with the stance they take on bee products, but I’ve definitely been trending toward eating less meat over the past few years.
I didnt get the last sentence. What does vegans stance on bee products have anything to do with your meat consumption? Or did you mean you might go completely vegan other than the use of bee product?
I love vegetables and eat more if I knew good way to cook them. Also we eat out a lot and restaurants do a terrible job of having veggie choices. Can’t live off salads.
I know no one cares, but basically every meal in the Middle East included at least one type of salad (and mayo-based dressing is not a thing that exists).
I get that it also has to do with economics, but the view that Salads are a tasteless diet thing is a very Western thought that I never got.
I don’t even know the last time I had a salad. But we have only gotten take out like twice during the pandemic. We cook almost every meal at home. Surprisingly, I learned a lot about cooking from Blue Apron and YouTube / cooking channels. A meal service like that could be a thing to try right now if you were time conscious and didn’t mind the cost. Great way to try all kinds of cuisines and ingredients you otherwise may miss.
