Vegetarian for Everyone

This is my first foray into blog-land. I have had many friends and colleagues ask for recipes, so why not post them for all to enjoy.

Growing up in Iowa, I was an unlikely candidate for a vegetarian lifestyle. But at an early age, I made the connection between the animals’ lives and the food on my plate. Later, I'll tell you the story of summers at my lovely great aunt Dorothy's farm in Nebraska. I am pretty sure it was Lambie-Pie, cousin Doug and a Sunday dinner that turned me veg at age 6.

It hasn’t always been easy and up until about 5 years ago when I started work for an animal protection organization, I called myself a vegetarian, but occasionally ate fish and seafood. While I am not a strict vegan, I have eschewed eating animals in any form, but I occasionally use eggs (from happy chickens), milk/cream and I haven’t decided I can live without cheese just yet.

Family and friends didn’t understand my choice, thought it was fleeting fancy or just thought it plain silliness. From Thanksgiving dinners where I would eat nothing but the mashed potatoes (avoiding the green beans with cream of chicken soup, stuffing cooked inside the bird, gravy all being off limits) to going to lunch at a famous barbeque joint in the heart of Texas where even the coleslaw and potato salad was made with animal products (thankfully they had good pickles and bread, yes, I at bread and pickles for lunch that day while others gnawed on my animal friends) I have had to overcome ridicule and overall wonderment at my choice to live in a way to promotes humane treatment of animals. I can hardly visit friends for a weekend without having hearing about how tasty pig can be or answering the endless of questions of “why?”

Despite all of this, friends are quite complimentary of my cooking. They never leave my house hungry or wanting more. Vegetarian cooking is for everyone, whether an avowed vegetarian yourself or a meat-eater looking for healthy and humane alternatives, or simply something to serve to your veg-friends other than salad or pasta with tomato sauce.

I have become adept at adapting grandma's recipes to a vegetarian version that sate and even fool the most discerning of carnivores. I also love all of the tree-hugging-crunchy-granola-liberal-hippie-freak foods like tofu, quiona and bulghar wheat. I regularly use meat substitutes and love them.

I hope you enjoy my foods. I'll try not to get too preachy about the valuable lives of animals, but when it slips in, please understand that I am a moral vegetarian. There are many reasons that people choose this lifestyle, for health, animal ethics or environmental, I love them all! My reasons, your reasons, or any reason for wanting to live veg or just cook one great vegetarian meal - it's all good.

I am not a chef. I have not been to culinary school. I am entirely self taught. I watch a lot of Food Network and read cookbooks and take what I like and adapt it to my taste. My recipes will assume that you have a modicum of cooking skill, and I won't always give measurements. But if you are a beginner and want or need more specific directions, feel free to write and I'll do my best to answer.