Well, marriage seems to have domesticated me for the time being ... 
that, or a two year break while Larry did virtually all the cooking has 
inspired me...  <g>

Also, Corey announced a couple of weeks ago that he's now a vegetarian. 
Larry had no problem with this, in theory -- but in practice he was 
serving our usual dinners minus the meat and then complaining he was 
hungry a couple of hours later.  (His cooking style is right in line 
with Beaver Cleaver's expectations.  A large chunk of meat, a starchy 
side -- and occasionally something green.)

Dunno, maybe I was just excited to be challenged ... anyway last week I 
taught Corey to make cheese blintzes and last night we made a spinache 
and feta souffle.  Both tuned out pretty well.  

And I'm trying to show Larry how he can have his meat and Cory can have 
a balanced meal, and we can all eat (more or less) the same meal.  
(Larry is a pretty old fashioned guy and he's very concerned that we all 
eat together, the same thing at the same time) 

Menu ideas that will help pull that together would be very helpful... 
(For instance, last night, Larry had a small steak braised with onion, 
garlic, and merlot.  We also had spinache and feta souffle, steamed 
rice, and mixed vegetables.) 

One catch to the menu thing -- and possibly to Corey being successfully 
vegetarian, is that because of his abdominal surgery, he can't have 
cruciferous vegetables or beans.  He is also showing signs of a possible 
lactose intolerance.  My Dad and TJ are already know to share that 
problem.  (Can you get a balanced diet with no beans, no milk or cheese, 
and no meat???)

Hmmm, I'm burbling...

...anyway, thanks!

34 responses total.

  I've found making pizzas is a good way to balance the needs of people
with different dietary restrictions or tastes.  You can make different
pizzas or parts of pizzas with or without meat, with minimal cheese, or
whatever.  I usually start with those Pillsbury dough cans of pre-rolled
pizza dough (get two to feed three or four people), but you can start at
various stages of homemadeness, from making the dough yourself, to
getting a pre-baked empty crust.  (Usually the farther back you start,
the better it is :-).
 
  People often associate pizza with junk food, because fast-food
delivery pizzas are generally loaded with grease and too many
bad-for-you toppings, but a homemade pizza can be a very healthy meal.

Rice & ... gets served a lot at our house.  Brown rice has *lots* of protein,
and any number of ethnice sauces can be poured on it to change the flavor.
If Larry likes meat, he can sprinkle cooked chicken, or beef, or etc on with
the sauce.  My vegetarian sister-in-law does this with my brother.  

Another more, labor-intensive idea is pastry pockets with different fillings.
It's amazing what you can wrap in pie dough -- everything from veges, to
fruit, to meat.  And if you havent got time to make little packets, just throw
it into small pie pans and serve pot pies.  

This item has been linked from Cooking 129 to Intro 106.
Type "join cooking" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of
meat and vegetables, and the preparation of same.

Another idea.  Look for information/cookbooks about vegan cooking.  Vegans
are vegetarians who eschew [I've been looking for a place to use that word
for *years*  <grin>) all animal products.  Some (most?, all?) won't even use
honey for sweetner, because it is taken from animals [bees are animals in this
usage].  
Locally, there is an organization called V.I.N.E that meets from time to time
at Dominicks, and has info at the County Extension Service office on Hogback.
I think they are a vegan group.  
Anyway, they should help you find non-dairy, non-meat, non-egg, recipes since
that is the way they eat.  

Another idea.  Check grains like amaranth, spelt, and so on for protein
content.  Some of them are much higher than wheat, which is itself pretty
good.  Steamed grains make breakfast cereal, side dishes, and flavorful bread
additions.  They make stuffings for tomatos, zucchini, and grape leaves, and
any other vege container you can think of.  

Update:  VINE Vegetarian Information Network and Exchange.  Their monthly
meeting in October was on the 1st Wednesday.  Phone numbers include 995-6320,
426-8525, 517-423-3226.  Found all this in the Observer.
Update: Quinoa is another grain that is very high protein.  

When I started reading this item, my first thought was, "talk to ajax".  And
then, who was the first response from, but ajax?  Cool!

Another food idea that might work is pasta.  You can make sauces with and
without meat, or add cooked meat separately to individual people's plates if
they want meat.

Catriona -- Surprisingly, the current thinking about protein is that Americans
eat way too much of it, and that vegetarian's don't need to worry about
getting enough, after all.  If you're getting enough food to feel full, you're
almost certainly getting enough protein.  And too much protein has been linked
to osteoporosis and (I think it was) heart disease.  I read one study where
they took a typical American day's worth of food, with items like a burger
from Wendy's, and removed all the meat.  Then they added up the amount of
protein in the remaining foods.  They found that there was *still* almost the
US RDA amount of protein.  Since presumably you wouldn't feel full after
eating a bare burger bun, you would probably eat a bit more food to compensate
for the missing meat.  That additional food would increase the protein level
enough to reach the RDA.

Misti -- Is it possible to feed things to Larry that are so amazingly good
that he doesn't notice that they contain no meat?  Or would he notice anyway?
Things like spinach lasagne are awesome without any meat.  Would he mind?
Congratulations about Corey's new eating habits!

If you can't eat beans, dairy (lactose intolerance) or crucifierous veges,
would that still be true?  Seems like no milk or cheese would severely lower
American protein intake.  I can *easily* believe they wouldn't miss beans or
veges!

Good question.  I'd think you'd still be fine, but I'd want to sit down with
some nutrition tables and do the math to be sure.  I know in the study with
the Wendy's hamburger without the meat, the diet didn't include any beans or
cruciferous veggies.  I don't think there was any dairy, either, but I'm not
100% sure.

Have you tried any of the 'fake' meat? I buy this great burger-like
stuff from Whole Foods Market, that has fooled my ex-husband (a voracious
carnivore.) I use it to make a great meatball sandwich. There's a lot
of 'fake' meat products that have just come out on the market in the
last year or two - go visit Whole Foods & try some.

In general, I'm Philosophially Opposed to fake meat.  My theory is that if
you eat fake meat, it can only taste like a poor imitation of the real thing.
On the other hand, if you eat dishes that contain vegetables, grains, etc.,
for their own sake, those dishes are really wonderful for their own sake.

However.....  despite my theory, I've had some realy amazingly good fake meat.
For example, the fake beef ("sue pao") at the restaurant Chia Shiang, over
on Packard south of Stadium, is wonderful stuff.  I've had several brands of
excellent tofu hot dogs.  The veggie burger at Sweet Lorraine's is great, and
so are several other veggie burgers around town.  The co-op carries good
seitan.  So I wouldn't be at all surprised if the fake meat from Whole Foods
is quite good.  :)

If he can't have beans, does this mean all legumes?  Soy, peanut, etc?

The problems with beans might also mean that he would have problems with most
fake meats.  A good number of them are soybean based: tofu, or texurized
vegetable protein TVP, which is also a soy product.  I think seitan is also
a soy prduct.  

Actually, seitan is a wheat product.  It's made by repeated washings of
high-gluten flour in alternating baths of hot and cold water.  The idea is
to wash away all the bran and leave behind just the wheat gluten.  Then it's
steeped in soy sauce.


I looked at the PFC's selection of fake meats today.  They have a fair number
of them, including things like fake turkey slices to put on sandwiches.
I didn't try any, but they do look intriguing.....

I'd bet those "fake" products are mostly used by folks who are seeking a
vegetarian diet for lots of reasons but not because they don't like the
taste and look of meat on their plate.  It could serve as a transition
group until they discover what all can be done with grains and beans
without resorting to simulated meats. 

I don't know yet about the lactose or just how much of the legume family is
giving him trouble.  I had forgottent hat green peas are legumes ... and so
it may have been them or the string beans (I forgot them, too) that had been
giving him trouble.  In that case, he can have his cheese and milk.  That
would simplify my life.  ;)

Since Corey's reason's are (at least at this point) mainly aesthetic -- he
just doesn't like the taste -- I dunno that fake meat would go over well. 

As to Larry, I don't know where the problems with going veg are for him --
but i do know that after enough nights on a veg diet, he begins to bite his
lips and tongue at every meal.  Even though he *really* enjoyed what we had
eaten!  I find myself wondering if he's borderline malnourished and needs the
meat pretty regularly to cover up a deficiency I don't know about just yet.
(He has had a pretty scary diet all these years and doesn't take good care
of himself in other ways, so it's had time to build up...)

Thanks for all these wonderful ideas, folks!

I've got some frozezen meatballs to cook up and toss in with Larry's pasta,
and some sausages to serve beside some grain and cheese dishes.  So far that
seems to work.  Now the problem is to keep Corey welll fed without causing
him dire stomache pain.

(The problem with cruciferous veggies and legumes is that they cause gas. 
That would usually be very minor -- but after Corey's surgery, the scar tissue
is constricted enough that the gas causes pain getting through.  Pain severe
enough to cause him to break out in a sweat and be completely unable to go
to school.  We've heard that Beano, which doesn't help much, is a mild ginger
supplement and that health food stores carry a ginger syrup that may be strong
enough to do the trick.)

Again -- thanks!

If he really has a lactose intolerance, there are a couple products on the
market that are supposed to break down that sugar.  Called Lact-Aid, I think.

Yes, it's Lact-Aid.  His brother and grandfather both use it ... but it's a
pain to keep enough pre-treated milk in the house and youngsters often forget
to take the table pain starts -- then it's too late.  So we're trying to rule
out everything at once.  (He *really* doesn't want to give up milk!)  <G>

About that whole 'gas' thing - I've tried Beano & didn't like it
very much. Last winter I was taking enzymes from a company called
Cell Tech that were excellent. I have a slight lactose intolerance
and the Cell Tech enzymes kept the gas from forming. A warning though:
I stopped taking them because they weren't cheap & I had to order
them from a friend - a Blue Green Algae dealer. If you're interested,
let me know and I'll give you her number.

Have you tried ginger tablets or capsules from a food co-op or health food
store?  That's what Beano really is -- a mild ginger formulation.

Really?  The package doesn't say anything about ginger.  It says it contains:
"Water, sorbitol, alpha-galactosidase enzyme (derived from Aspergillus niger),
salt, disodium citrate, potassium sorbate.  No nutritional value.

"Allergy Note: Beano is made from a safe, food-grade mold, however if a rare
sensitivity occurs, with allergic-type symptoms, discontinue use. 
Galactossemics consult your doctor."

Right - like LactAid, it's enzyme derived from an organism which breaks down
the substances in question - with milk it's lactose, the sugar, but I'm not
sure with beans - which cause problems for many people.

Hmmm, I guess my informant ws rong.  I'd still try ginger capsules, though,
sinc nce i know it works for all kinds of stomach upset.

(When the kids were small, we had a tincture of clove and ginger in the fridge
at all times for the tummy aches that seem inevitable in small children in
my family.

Well, as I half expected, Corey has announced that starting next week he'll
be eating meat again.  At least sometimes.  He says he's not been feeling
well, and he thinks it's because of his extremely limited diet.  There are
norw more things he can't eat than things that he can.
I still plan to use allthese wonderful ideas to minimize the amount of meat
in his diet until he is able to add legumes back into his diet, though. 
Thanks everybody!!

Hi eveyone. I'm new here. but i loved reading about the vegetarian thing. have
any of you ever eaten Indian vegetable preparations?  everyone seems to know
about tandoori chicken but did you know one can make vegetables the same way
too..
I'm trying to find a recipie of tofu for my mother. can one eat it cooked in
any form . not chinese , a some other recipie, please. help.

Kavneet: to find any references to tofu in this conference, type 
find "tofu"
at an OK prompt and use the quotes.  
There's also an interesting tofu discussion in agora conference.  

Whoops, read the question in kitchen, not intro.  kavneet type
join kitchen
at an OK prompt to get to the conversations about food.

Kavneet, are you looking for a recipe to make tofu, or to make another dish
with tofu as an ingredient?

wow. that wassome interest in my tofu question.. thanks all. Valerie, iI'm
looking for a recipie using tofu as an ingredienNow I'm going to try to find
it under kitchen. bye..

(Then she's now discovered what linked items are ...)

yeah... sausages!

also check any of the moosewood books. there are a few good ideas in
them...(none that i've tried or am ever likely to, but....:)

What about a couscous recipe that could be made completely veggie, or with
chicken too?

Check out the couscous recipe I put in Item 125.  It's completely veggie. 
I think that it would also taste great as a side dish with chicken, or (this
sounds yummie--I'll have to try it) with pineapple chicken served on top.

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