Bad Vegetarian
Yes I’ve gone back to a vegetarian diet (ovo-lacto, not vegan or anything resembling it) and … well, I’m a bad vegetarian. Not because I crave meat or even want the stuff, but because I don’t have the patience (or often the time) to find recipes and go shopping (all over town, for various ingredients) before I even attempt to cook for myself! My creativity goes to other outlets. Not cooking. Certainly not on a daily basis. That, combined with the fact that it’s been a few years since I had to contend with regular vegetarian cooking is… well, it’s working against me! Yikes!
Does it sound like I’m whining? Ok, maybe I am. A little. But being omnivorous is easy – throw some meat in a pan, toss some frozen something-resembling-vegetables in another pan, maybe make some rice… you’re done. Basic food groups met. Vitamins and such all taken care of. Done. And eating out is certainly easier too. Vegetarian meals? – Not so much. Much chopping, trying to keep fingers out of the way. Much consideration of ingredients and balance and nutrients and then there’s the whole organic thing too (which I much prefer, but now we’re back to running all over the place for foodstuffs). Eeeep!
I am re-developing a whole new appreciation for truly vegetarian cooks among us! It’s an art form. And a science. And a creative outlet. And it’s a nice perk if you can manage to construct a meal of edible things which don’t end up tasting like grass or tree bark all the time. Or mush. I do “mush” well. You know, overcooked vegetables that are more just colored water than foodstuffs. They tend to fall off your fork and directly into your lap too. They’re very good at that.
Perhaps I could find a good vegetarian cook to come cook for me… all the time. For free. Hmmmm…. Nah – somehow, I doubt that will actually work. Or, I could just not eat. That might work. I could use to lose the couple pounds gained the last couple years from the shift to a very suburban lifestyle in an aerobically featureless landscape (hills are an unknown entity here). Yeah – I could survive for a while on that layer of blubber. Maybe I’ll just spend the majority of my time in the water with the dolphins and manatees and live off of sushi. Wait – that’s not quite vegetarian, is it? I’m still undecided what to do about the fish thing. This whole vegetarian thing, for me, is inspired by Spirit… the ‘Do No Harm’ edict… but I’m also trying to be realistic about it too. I don’t have the time or patience to do that level of cooking most of the time – which lands me right back to Bad Vegetarian Land (that sounds almost like a theme park!). Even with eggs and milk products in my diet, I can’t seem manage to eat well? *sigh*
Alright. So I need to go through the cookbooks again. And do some more research online, which I’ve really not done too much of in the last month, being preoccupied with other things. Would it be easier to just give up on illusions of vegetarianism? Ohhhh yes. But like so many things in this life that are just “easy” or “common”, it’s not the right thing to do. Thus I’ll trudge through the cookbooks, locate the Fresh Markets (and a few other health food stores in the area) and make the transition to a physically healthier, spiritually suggested (for me), diet. Or maybe I’ll don the snorkel mask and join a local pod of aquatic mammals instead… 😉
Namaste!
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[…] mentioned in a prior post, I’ve recently returned to a vegetarian diet after taking a couple years “off”. […]