Posts by ms_joanna

I guess tofu is my all-around favorite. Like veganprincess, I use a lot of higher-protein vegetarian food, a lot of lentils/beans/chickpeas and whole grains, instead of trying to imitate meat.

I dislike the fake "meat" products that are smoke-flavored. For one thing, I find smoke taste unappealing. For another thing, it's plain to see that many of these non-meat products don't resemble meat at all-- so they disguise the fact with smoke flavor. They don't fool anyone. Fortunately, those are less prevalent nowadays as much tastier fake meats have become available.

I pulled all the numbers from right here at CC+. And I used the generic ones, not the brand names.

I used the cooked weight because that is what we actually measure out when we are counting calories. Fancy sitting down to a yummy plate of uncooked rice!

I think you're probably right about the extra oil in wheat germ. That must explain the difference. Still, I was surprised what a big difference it makes. The difference in absorption of water is clearly the major reason for the wide range of figures. Obviously oatmeal absorbs a lot of water. Corn chips are the driest thing on the list, as well as the most caloric-- they absorb oil instead. Whole wheat pasta absorbs vastly more water than white, as I can attest from cooking minestrone with it-- it soaks up all the water in the pot, I have to keep pouring more in to thin it out so that it remains soup instead of becoming porridge.

OMG Santonacci that is the wittiest shirt I've ever seen! LOL

Yeah, is there some trick to making it work? Could someone who is a Hula-Hoop expert please explain how you do it?

(Not that I've tried it in the past 40 years... but when I was a kid I never got the hang of it)

Bebe_66, I made your tagine recipe* and it was absolutely awesome!! Love it love it love it. I printed it out and am going to make it again and again. An instant favorite.

*After translating from European into American: aubergine=eggplant, courgettes=zucchini, grill=broil, passata=tomato purée, tomato purée=tomato paste.

Only thing is, dear, I thought the amounts of spices were just a bit extreme. Even though I very much love spices. I adjusted the quantities downward:

1 tbs cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric

I added 1 tbs ground coriander, and am thinking about including 1 tsp ginger next time. Not sure what chili sauce refers to, so I substituted 1 tbs chili powder+1 tbs hot sauce (I used Cholula, which comes from Mexico).

Joanna

21 years of my life. A little less than half my lifetime so far (I'm 48). Once I've been vegetarian for a total of 26½ years, I will be 53, and it will be a whole half. ;)

My vegetarianism has been in two periods, with a long interruption in between. I first became vegetarian when I was 17. I had been reading about Mahatma Gandhi and listening to George Harrison's Hindu albums. Then I started yoga.

I stopped when I was 25 for no good reason. But I never cared for beef or pork again, I had chicken and fish, mostly, some goat meat too. Yeah, goat. The other red meat, ha.

When I was 36, I came to realize I'd been an idiot and went back to being vegetarian. I immediately felt so much better, my energy improved, I felt happier, lighter, and healthier. I quickly dropped an extra 20 pounds and kept it off. I'm never going back to eating meat now.

What happened when I was 36 was, I spent a night in the hospital. While there, I read an entire novel by Paul Theroux, Millroy the Magician, in one sitting. It's all about vegetarian health food, and it reawakened in me how much I had liked my life better when I'd been vegetarian the first time. So I immediately went right back to it and ever since then I've been so glad I did. I started yoga again. The two go so well together, don't you think?

Other people start yoga first, and it gets them to try becoming vegetarian. I went the other way around. Being vegetarian allowed me to feel finer levels of energy in my body and mind, and yoga felt like a good way to cultivate that even more.

I was vegan for 6 years, from when I was 40 until I was 46. But then I went back to lacto-ovo, because I was really overdoing the soy as a vegan. Soy for breakfast, soy for lunch, soy for dinner, soy for dessert. Too much of anything isn't such a good idea, and a balanced diet can't balance on just one food. I needed a hormone adjustment, and was concerned that too much soy would get in the way of my hormones.

I love being vegetarian because it just feels good, I get what I love, I don't get what I hate (I really do not care for meat at all), and my body thanks me for it. I feel clean and peaceful inside.

I think it's one of the most perfect foods on the planet. Please note that while it's a great source of protein, it isn't always as low-calorie as we might hope. Soybeans have fat. Firm tofu is easier to cook with because it doesn't fall apart, so firm is the most popular variety. But it's also denser in calories. So be sure to get the lowfat version known as Lite Firm Tofu.

Taking healthy snacks to the office has been a challenge... I don't carry those big huge bags around, just a regular size purse. I finally hit on the perfect solution-- raw almonds. Healthy, totally non-messy, full of energy, and they don't take up much space. I can easily fit as much into my purse as I could possibly snack on in a working day.

What is it with workplace vending machines that never provide anything but gross junk food? I won't go near any of that-- would it kill them to stock it with something healthy for a change?

I taught myself to use chopsticks and now I won't use anything else in Chinese restaurants. I think the food tastes better with them. Chinese cuisine is prepared with chopsticks in mind.

I'm addicted to wearing heels... but I never go above three inches. In some shoes with three-inch heels, you can go all day with no problems. You just have to find the right pair for you.

Original Post by katiey:

People who eat fish(but no other meats) are often considered vegetarians.

No way. Do you classify fish as plants?

It's kind of a broad term.

No it isn't. It has a precise definition. We don't eat animals, period.

I avoid gelatin as much as possible for that reason.

I honestly do not care what anyone else eats. I never spend any time thinking about it. You like fish, go ahead, knock yourself out, it's fine with me. I want my choices respected and in turn I always respect your choices. Whatever you eat doesn't impact my diet at all.

Where I have a problem with it is when somebody's wrong definitions do impact my diet. As in: I go someplace and the hostess says, "Since you're vegetarian, I cooked FISH especially for you!" Or even chicken. What gave them that idea, it was all the self-styled "vegetarians" who eat fish and chicken.

What an awkward situation to be placed in! I wonder if Miss Manners could extricate me gracefully from that, because I would not know what to say that wouldn't offend or fluster. So if you eat fish & chicken, please don't call that "vegetarian." It can impact the rest of us. Call it anything else.

Remember the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding-- "He don't eat no meat?! What do you mean, he don't eat no meat?! That's OK... I make lamb." (As if anything other than beef counts as "vegetarian.")

aovermy-- What are Aleppo peppers? Never heard of 'em.

Original Post by akosiwa:

It really pisses me off when vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy products judge vegetarians who eat fish. Eggs are undeveloped baby chickens. Are yall insane. So its ok to eat a undeveloped baby chicken, and call yourself a vegetarian.

You are mistaken. Unfertilized eggs, which are the only kind available in groceries, contain no baby chickens. That's why ovo vegetarians eat them and are still vegetarian.

Moonikins, garam means 'warm' or 'hot' in Hindi (from Persian garm, related to the English word warm) and masala means 'spice mixture' (from Arabic masalih 'ingredients'). The word garam here refers not to the taste, but to the "heat" it's believed to generate in the body. In Ayurvedic and Unani medical theory, "warm" foods are believed to increase metabolism while "cool" foods decrease it. Spices are all considered "warm" because they stimulate the digestion. The idea is to keep hot and cold in balance for optimum health. "Garam masala" brings together the spices that are considered particularly stimulating. Hot chili pepper is not one of them though.

Garam masala almost always includes cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves; it usually also includes coriander, cardamom, and ginger, and possibly other spices. In traditional Indian cuisine, a separate garam masala is made up for each individual dish, it isn't necessarily the same combination of spices every time. For example, an Indian cook I know makes a special garam masala for her biryani recipe that uses only black cumin, cloves, and cardamom. She grinds these up together. In India garam masala is traditionally homemade instead of storebought, made by roasting whole spices and then grinding them right before use for maximum flavor.

It's good in any sort of hearty curry, whether meat or vegetables, especially when the result will contain a thick gravy-like sauce richly perfumed with freshly ground garam masala. Bon appétit...

Joanna