Chicken...should we not eat it at all?

Ok so I know that KFC is bad and I know that chickens are mistreated. I'm trying to cut out meat but it is so damn hard!!! I mean hard!! I am a person who has always loved cheese and only liked a few vegetables. Over the past few years my tastebuds have grown to like more and more veggies, but I still do not like some like tomatoes or peppers or some others. I'm sitting here now trying to figure out what I am going to eat for lunch and I am stumped. I want to go to Lotsa Pasta and get a chicken sandwich, but I'm feeling guilty but at the same time I have no idea what to eat. I cannot afford to waste money and try something new only to throw it away if I don' t like it. They have a black bean sandwich on focaccia bread with colby cheese and scallions. I'm scared to buy it. I like beans but I don't know if I will like them on a sandwich. So my question is are they any of you who do not eat chicken?I know this may need to be posted in the Vegetarian forum but I want to get a broad array of responses. Thanks.

Just curious, why are you asking about chicken specifically?

because there is another topic on KFC chicken called "KFC no longer" and I don't really eat any other kind of meat. I know all about how animals are treated and I hate it and it makes me cry. That's all.

you know what i say go for that blackbean sandwhich!!! black bean burgers and other meat substitutes are amazing! i love them! i have been vegetarian my whole life and have just recently decided that i need some form of meat to maintain a well balanced meal. so breakfast and lunch are strictly meatless and for dinner i have 4oz peice of fish occasionally chicken but not often. I was just reading your post thinking about how good that meal sounds! Thanks for making me hungry, hahaha! I say try it!

nenewa, if you're having ethical dilemmas about food, you should learn to cook.  you can get free-range, organic chicken meat from birds that have had good little lives.  but as long as you're eating out, you have little control over the production of your foods.  (i mean, forget the poor dumb chickens, what about the third-world [human] farmers producing all those fruits and veggies and getting paid cents a day for it?)

besides, cooking your meals will save money.

If you're really wanting to be vegetarian it's not a really hard transition to make. I did it university. The first time I tried it didn't last because I really didn't want it. When I finally decided I was ready, I did it and it was fine. I was veg for three years and then got really sick because of lack of protein. Now I know what I did wrong and have fixed it... though I'm not 100% veg yet (I eat meat about once a month which would be really easy for me to cut out).

Try the black bean sandwich. I bet it's better than you think.

And like pgeorgian said... if you're preparing your food at home it's a lot easier.

Oh I can cook and I can cook very well, but I've always used animal products to cook with. I know I can learn to cook without them. This is just a very difficult transition because I'm on the go alot. It's seems overwhelming to me at times. *sigh*

PS. Don't beans have protein in them? I'm concerned about that too.

Beans are an excellent source of protien, I LOVE them.

I was vegetarian/vegan for about 3 years and started eating meat again when I got pregnant.  Now I am slowly going back to being a vegetarian because I just simply like the food better, but vegan was a bit too far, I had a hard time cutting cheese out of my diet.

The trick is to find about 8 good recipies, you find these by trial and error...a LOT of experimenting.  But once you found your 8 recipies you like you will find that that will be really all you need, most people really only eat about 8 different meals and that is all. 

Some of my favorites where things like bean burritoes...lots of vegetarian refried beans, lots of cheese, lettuce, tomato, Pace salsa and ranch dressing on flour tortillas...ummmmmm.

Black beans and rice, the Bush's Black Bean brand cans have an EXCELLENT recipie for this on some of their cans, you have to find it. 

There was a recipie for Walnut "meat" loaf I got from Vegetarian Times that was also delicious, but a bit labor intensive to make, have it with mashed potatoes and corn. 

Vegetarian chili is very good and reheats well.

I will have to search out some of these reicpies for you and post them.  Believe me, I have done a LOT of trial and error, especially since I was vegan for about 3 months.  It was okay, except veggie cheese just doesn't cut it, I love my cheese!

Also, the magazine Vegetarian Times has some excellent recipies, I tried many of them and only two wern't that good.

Some of my favorite recipies:

Bush's black beans and rice:

http://vegetablewithmore.allrecipes.com/Recip e/Recipe.aspx?nprid=146452

Meatless "meat" loaf:

(Delicious but a lot of work to make, but well worth it! I didn't eat it as sandwiches, I ate it like regular meatloaf, with ketchup on top served with mashed potatoes and corn on the side)

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10244

These are a couple you can try, PM me if you want more recipies.

Ok I just had the black bean sandwich and it was ok. It had way too much black beans on it and it made it look a little gross I scraped about half off and ate half of the sandwich because it was very big. I had it with baked doritos. I guess I am pretty satisfied but it seemed like it was missing something. The meal cost $6.25, too much to do on a daily basis. I must save that for my gas, you know. Like I said in another post I'm going to have to go to the grocery store and just stay a few hours and continue to do research to figure this thing out.

It does take a bit to transition, learning what the cook and what's good, etc.  I did cook a few veg meals that turned out horribly!  But you will eventually get the hang of it!  Are there are any vegetarian societies in your area?  They can be a great resource for recipes, where to shop and what restaurants to go to, etc.

Too many black beans? Is that possible?  I LOVE black beans.  Oh, black bean burgers, forgot about that one, that is also delicious.  Okay, think I will have to go back to being a vegetarian because I miss my vegetarian meals...so delicious.

Oh yeah, there is also black bean burritos, and black bean pizza. 

Okay, okay, so I love black beans, sue me! 

I heard in my psychology class (because the taste sense is linked to the neurological system!) that if you eat something 3 times, by the 4th time you've had it you'll be used to it. Maybe you should just force yourself to eat a little of these things little by little. You can also make food associations. Think of something you love while you eat something you don't like a lot, and then you'll start eating the not-so-liked food better!

you could just buy free range or organic chickens? Thats what we do, well till next month when we are getting our very own chickens

Sadly the public is led to believe that "Cage-Free" hens live a happy, natural life. This is simply not so!   Free range isn't all it's cracked up to be...

http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.htm l

 

I've never seen a free range hen look like that and yes i have seen several free range birds.

The roosters are not brutally killed they are gassed, its humane, and its not like the bodies are wasted either, they go towards feeding other animals and what not.

Original Post by lifeizsweet:

I've never seen a free range hen look like that and yes i have seen several free range birds.

The roosters are not brutally killed they are gassed, its humane, and its not like the bodies are wasted either, they go towards feeding other animals and what not.

 Oh wow that makes it all better. 

omg, fuzzy, have you ever even met a live chicken?  are you really so naive that you believe every piece of propaganda you read? 

i have friends who raise free range chickens.  they wander the farm at will, and the family dog, a trained border collie named fly, keeps them from straying to far.  they are fed well (it's hard to eat a chicken that hasn't been fed, and they certainly don't produce eggs). 

and personally, i don't think that chopping their heads off in a swift, skilled chop of the axe is any more or less humane than gassing.  these animals have brains the size of a dried lentil.  believe me, they're not experiencing any mental anguish either way.

We just had a nutritionist in our office yesterday for a "lunch n learn". The chicken topic came up. She advised the free-range, cage-free, whatever is just to attract people to buy their product. Supposedly, most of these places follow the federal minimum, which means to be free-range, the chickens have to be able to see the outside. In otherwords, they are still in a cage, they just have access to be in a cage outside too. I was surprised. Now, not all places are like this, but most likely, all of the large commercial producers will be.

If you are concerned about chicken, try using your local butcher shop. The chickens raised on the home farm are way more free-range or cage free than any commercial producer. These fresh eggs are spectactular and once you've had farm fresh eggs for awhile, you can taste a difference in the store-bought. Plus, you don't have to color them for Easter. Farm fresh already come in cool colors (white, brown, blue, green..)!  lol!

Again ill say it, every post this thread gets i will personally eat one cut of meat! ^_^.... go go vegetarians!