Hummus is a good alternative for a lot of creamy style soups and pasta sauces. Because it has the texture and creaminess of cream or butter, but doesn't necessarily need them to make a decent tasting meal.white_wolf said:
Any Vegetarians Out There
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Why do you think that? I guess if you only ever ate traditional British food then you might run into a bit of trouble, but no one I know does that (I personally can't stand British food...)shootthebandit said:
I'm not a vegetarian, but I only tend to eat meat around once a week. Even then it tends to be fish rather than land meat. I could probably become full vegetarian if I really wanted, but I really enjoy the taste of seafood.
I am a meat lover with a diabetic wife who doesn't like meat (though she does like seafood). I have come up with a bunch of very healthy, mostly if not all, vegetarian meals because of this. In addition, I usually make a few (about 2), batches of soup per week. First of all the soup can be very tasty without any meat (I usually put beans in the soup though). I often used fresh mushrooms as well.
There are packaged ready to make soups (you still add stuff but the seasoning etc is in there) you can buy named Alessi. They have a nice variety of soups...I like to use the pasta Fazool base the most, but there are quite a few good ones.
If I'm making a fast soup (not slow cooking all day), I'll often u se the Alessi as a base, then sautee some fresh mushrooms, brussel sprouts and steam some broccli heads/carrots/green beens (I bug them in a bag called broccoli stir fry at safeway).
The mushrooms and brussel sprouts can be sauteed together. I use a big electric pan, and a bit of olive oil. Doing so seprate from the soup gives them a stronger taste when you put them in at the end (otherwise the soup will drain the flavor out of the mushrooms at least..and they won't have the satisfying crunchyness. The brussel sprouts also need to be cooked seprate to have the best taste in my experience.
Anyway, it takes about 30 minutes for the Alessi soup to boil then simmer, cooking the beans in it (Both that come in the package, and that you add...I usually add 1 can of kidney beans). Which is the perfect amount of time to make the rest of your veggies. Those are my go to veggies btw, but I use other ones. I really like the thin asparagus stalks, but I can rarely get them (usually they are the big fat ones, but the thin ones, sauteed in olive oil till they are crunchy (not burned but almost like veggie bacon I guess lol)..are delicious).
Sometimes I'll add a bit of diced tomatoes as well.
It's yummy and can feed 4 in less then 30 minutes all together. Very little clean up at all, and no meat involved (which also means it lasts longer in the fridge etc!).
It does have some pasta in it though (hence the name pasta fazool!!) but since you put in so many veggies and other ingredients, it's very little pasta per serving. They have soups with no pasta if you prefer (or can't handle gluten etc).
Another dish I made for along time, but have stopped lately due to the alessi soups was a vegetable blended soup. I would cook up a bunch of veggies (everything above + turnips, squash etc), then blend it all together. I'd add spices to increase the flavor, then freeze it. Before the Alessi this was the best way to always have some soup ready for my wife...and I would just make it once a week. When she was hungry I'd just pop out one of the frozen containers, microwave it, and poof she had a quick healthy snack. That was probably a bit healthier then the Alessi, but I didn't really like that soup (Ended up mostly tasting like brocolli soup no matter what I did...(well I never didn't add any brocolli so um yeah), which is ok, but not meal worthy for me.
I'm mostly trying to avoid carbs though when I cook. I still cook with chicken and sea food often, but avoid all my great pasta dishes now (I made a lasagna that people would kill for pretty much heh). I got this Jammie Oliver pan (well my wife got it for me), that is just amazing at cooking meats. It has a little sensor in the middle that lets you know when the temp is right for the meat and it makes the best chicken breasts I've ever had. It's good for veggies as well (I often do my mushrooms/brussels on it now). I have not tried tofu yet on it...I have never been that good at making tofu taste good....but it's searing properties may help with that.
There are packaged ready to make soups (you still add stuff but the seasoning etc is in there) you can buy named Alessi. They have a nice variety of soups...I like to use the pasta Fazool base the most, but there are quite a few good ones.
If I'm making a fast soup (not slow cooking all day), I'll often u se the Alessi as a base, then sautee some fresh mushrooms, brussel sprouts and steam some broccli heads/carrots/green beens (I bug them in a bag called broccoli stir fry at safeway).
The mushrooms and brussel sprouts can be sauteed together. I use a big electric pan, and a bit of olive oil. Doing so seprate from the soup gives them a stronger taste when you put them in at the end (otherwise the soup will drain the flavor out of the mushrooms at least..and they won't have the satisfying crunchyness. The brussel sprouts also need to be cooked seprate to have the best taste in my experience.
Anyway, it takes about 30 minutes for the Alessi soup to boil then simmer, cooking the beans in it (Both that come in the package, and that you add...I usually add 1 can of kidney beans). Which is the perfect amount of time to make the rest of your veggies. Those are my go to veggies btw, but I use other ones. I really like the thin asparagus stalks, but I can rarely get them (usually they are the big fat ones, but the thin ones, sauteed in olive oil till they are crunchy (not burned but almost like veggie bacon I guess lol)..are delicious).
Sometimes I'll add a bit of diced tomatoes as well.
It's yummy and can feed 4 in less then 30 minutes all together. Very little clean up at all, and no meat involved (which also means it lasts longer in the fridge etc!).
It does have some pasta in it though (hence the name pasta fazool!!) but since you put in so many veggies and other ingredients, it's very little pasta per serving. They have soups with no pasta if you prefer (or can't handle gluten etc).
Another dish I made for along time, but have stopped lately due to the alessi soups was a vegetable blended soup. I would cook up a bunch of veggies (everything above + turnips, squash etc), then blend it all together. I'd add spices to increase the flavor, then freeze it. Before the Alessi this was the best way to always have some soup ready for my wife...and I would just make it once a week. When she was hungry I'd just pop out one of the frozen containers, microwave it, and poof she had a quick healthy snack. That was probably a bit healthier then the Alessi, but I didn't really like that soup (Ended up mostly tasting like brocolli soup no matter what I did...(well I never didn't add any brocolli so um yeah), which is ok, but not meal worthy for me.
I'm mostly trying to avoid carbs though when I cook. I still cook with chicken and sea food often, but avoid all my great pasta dishes now (I made a lasagna that people would kill for pretty much heh). I got this Jammie Oliver pan (well my wife got it for me), that is just amazing at cooking meats. It has a little sensor in the middle that lets you know when the temp is right for the meat and it makes the best chicken breasts I've ever had. It's good for veggies as well (I often do my mushrooms/brussels on it now). I have not tried tofu yet on it...I have never been that good at making tofu taste good....but it's searing properties may help with that.
I've been a vegetarian for about 7 years. Originally it was because I refused to support factory farming (I don't care much if you kill animals for meat, just do it in a way that doesn't torture them, pollute the environment, and hurt family farms). I would have been willing to eat organic meat but had no access to it when I was in college. By the time I finally lived somewhere where I could buy and cook my own food, it had been so long since I ate meat, that even the thought of eating organic meat makes me feel bad.
As far as vegetarians go though, I'm a really shitty one. I'm too lazy to do much cooking or food preparation, so my diet it mostly pasta, soy, and pizza
As far as vegetarians go though, I'm a really shitty one. I'm too lazy to do much cooking or food preparation, so my diet it mostly pasta, soy, and pizza
Not a vegetarian. In fact, a rather enthusiastic carnivore. Funilly enough, about the same time I decided to become a hunter, my three closest friends decided to become vegans or vegetarians. At times somewhat irked by the air of moral high-horsery with which some meat-abstainers carry themselves. One of my friends has not yet figured out why proclaiming that meat-processing plants are "exactly like Auschwitz" is quite offensive on multiple levels.
Also, one of my friends has the best approach to "preaching" ever; He won't talk your ears off about the morals and principles of veganism. instead,he'll take every opportunity to cook for/with me and insist the meal be vegan (with the reasoning that, at least on that day, I didnt eat meat). Seeing how the guy is a great cook, I am not complaining.
Also, one of my friends has the best approach to "preaching" ever; He won't talk your ears off about the morals and principles of veganism. instead,he'll take every opportunity to cook for/with me and insist the meal be vegan (with the reasoning that, at least on that day, I didnt eat meat). Seeing how the guy is a great cook, I am not complaining.
OK, first of all basic terminology:
Vegetarian - someone who does not meat or fish of any kind
Vegan- someone who does not eat any kind of animal product
Pescatarian - someone who does not eat meat but still eats fish and other aquatic creatures
Edit: Carnivore: someone who ONLY eats meat/fish (I.e. virtually no humans ever)
Omnivore- someone who eats all food types, meat or otherwise
It annoys me enough when the average stranger misuses and swaps these terms around, I can't believe how many people these terms actually apply to still don't use/understand them properly.
Now that's out the way I'm curious how many people here are vegetarian, vegan, or pescetarian and eat meat substitutes (e.g. Quorn)?
Vegetarian - someone who does not meat or fish of any kind
Vegan- someone who does not eat any kind of animal product
Pescatarian - someone who does not eat meat but still eats fish and other aquatic creatures
Edit: Carnivore: someone who ONLY eats meat/fish (I.e. virtually no humans ever)
Omnivore- someone who eats all food types, meat or otherwise
It annoys me enough when the average stranger misuses and swaps these terms around, I can't believe how many people these terms actually apply to still don't use/understand them properly.
Now that's out the way I'm curious how many people here are vegetarian, vegan, or pescetarian and eat meat substitutes (e.g. Quorn)?
Battenberg said:
If it wasn't for pizza (and buns on burgers), for many years in my early 20's I woulda qualified as a Carnivore.
In fact, I still eat meat (Beef especially) way more then my wife or friends, I just don't make it for our primary meals that often. I just saw my doctor recently (both me and my wife had back to back appointments so we saw her at the same time...and had both had bloodwork done).
My cholosteral was 150 or something like that and my good cholestoral was great...and hers was 190 something and not so great. So she has to take a pill now, and I was told I can eat all the meat I want lol.
She was so not happy...cause she's always um.....talking...to me about eating too much meat and that my cholestoral must be horrible.
I have actually toned down how much (beef especially) I eat though, due to not making it much at home. I still eat hamburgers, and steak is my go to food at restraunts, but at home it's mostly chicken now. Perhaps my body developed some very strong methods of dealing with huge quantaties of beef over the years and now that I'm eating less, it can handle it easily.
Till I was 27 (year before I met my wife), I could, and did, eat about as much as 5-6 grown men, without ever gaining any weight at all. I would hang out with a group of close friends most weekends, and they, all together, would get one extra large pizza, and I would order and eat 2 (I did always only eat once a day though).
At 27 my metabolism decided to slow down though and I started having to watch what I would eat (which was HARD since I never had to pay any attention at all). I went from my basic weight of 220pnd (I was always that weight even when I qualified for the special forces (came in 3rd in the run)...to 240-250 (it fluxuated). I had drastically dropped how much exersize I got that year so that may have been a factor. A few years later I had another....bump up to about 260-270 now. It's all in my gut though, still have very strong/in shape legs/arms etc. The gut just doesn't wanna go away, no matter how much I exersize or what I eat. I stopped drinking soda about 2 1/2 years ago now. I cut out pizza as well about a year ago. I still eat beef/steaks but maybe twice a week max at this point....sticking with veggies and chicken, just veggies or occasionally sea food (not a big fan of sea food).
Now that I think about it...I was the healthies and leanest when I was primarily a Carnivore (with pizza added in) heh. Once I started eating veggies etc (IE when I got married), my weight went up.
Maybe veggies are bad for me?
not quite: there's the question of predominance. Cats and dogs are both carnivores, not omnivores, yet any cat owner will tell you that cats will gobble up grass and flowers and whatnot, and my own cat is never happier than when he's given corn nibblets to chew on. Granted, I think this is more for gastro-intenstinal reasons rather than nutrition, but still.Battenberg said:
On another note; vegans tend to shy away from animal products entirely, not just those that are eaten.
As far as humans go, we are omnivourous by nature; our mouths have both predatory incisors and vegetarian molars. There are, however, carnivorous humans; the natives of Greenland and the arctic circle. The immediate enviroment offers nothing in ways of edible plant-life, and the entire food industry there is fishing, whaling and seal-hunting, and supplies are iced and salted down to last through to next season.
CAPTCHA: burger with fries.
Actually
Vegan; are people who do not eat animal byproducts for Ethical reasons
Vegetarians; are people who do not eat animal byproducts
Omnivores; are people who eat a balance of animal byproduct and vegetable matter
Carnivore; someone who eats primarily meat
edit-
And I'll eat Quorn or something like that once in a while if I have the money to get it. And Quorn is not necessarily vegetarian, they tend to still have eggs in their ingredients.
Vegan; are people who do not eat animal byproducts for Ethical reasons
Vegetarians; are people who do not eat animal byproducts
Omnivores; are people who eat a balance of animal byproduct and vegetable matter
Carnivore; someone who eats primarily meat
edit-
And I'll eat Quorn or something like that once in a while if I have the money to get it. And Quorn is not necessarily vegetarian, they tend to still have eggs in their ingredients.