My family and I watched a great documentary called "Vegucated" and I honestly wanted to cry. A few times I did in fact cry and so did my 2nd grade daughter who insisted on watching with me. I had long known that animals were killed for food, what person doesn't? But what I didn't know was just how cruelly animals were kept and treated.
I began my journey into "vegetarianism" by listening to my own body. I have horrible energy swings, headaches, feel tired and groggy, get tummy troubles, etc. I seem to have issues with lots of foods. What food was it? Who knows? I know that I couldn't sleep at night all night because I couldn't breathe. Was it my allergies? Maybe. I do have two dogs and two cats but getting rid of them was not an option. I love my animals but I also love to breathe. I had read that dairy causes more mucus production so I thought maybe getting rid of dairy would help my breathing issues at night. Can I give up milk and yogurt? Sure! Can I give up cheese? Maybe not. Cheese is a staple in my home and is used multiple times a week for a majority of meals.
My husband and youngest daughter are total meat eaters. My youngest LOVES her chicken nuggets and will eat meat over anything else. My husband looked at me when I said I wanted us to give up meat and flat out said "no". I am slowly convincing him by switching out our meat for soy substitutes for 2-3 meals a week. We still have some beef and pork in the freezer to use up and it would be horrible to throw it away especially since the animal's life has already been forfeit but I have purchased Boca and Morningstar Farms products and soy milk to get us started. Believe it or not, the youngest meat eater LOVES her 25% less sugar Westsoy Plus Plain soy milk! She asked for it twice today and she NEVER asks to drink milk. Yeah!
This recipe I found at Peta's website in their pdf version of the "getting started" Vegetarian information packet.
I mixed together:
1 can of peas
1 can of carrots
1 packet of gravy (made to serve)
1 bag of Boca Soy Crumbles
and spread into a sprayed glass dish
Mash with 1/2 cup of soy or regular milk
2 Tb of margarine or real butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp Garlic Salt
Spread on top of mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are slightly brown.
*This recipe differs slightly from the PETA recipe as I doubled the amount of veggies and added two potatoes.
Of course mine does not look nearly as pretty as PETA's version as I believe I pulverized my potatoes but my family still ate it and my husband even went back for seconds! I also had a little gravy sneak out on the side (bad gravy).
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