Margaret wrote to me:
So this happened just now --- I told her nana and pop would be so happy and proud.!!!!Now, I have to tell you that we have never "preached". Occasionally, she will offer us something or it somehow comes up and all we've ever said it that we don't eat meat or fish. We've never said anything about "eating animals" or "animals dying". She probably won't stay with it because her parents and friends aren't vegetarians. But who knows?
You never know, Nan. Look at you and Tom - all these years. We have a niece who has become vegetarian (not vegan) after her uncle's surgery last year. I think she will stick with it. The only thing I think she needs to do is broaden her protein-from-other-sources choices. She's a little picky about that still. Guess she'll figure it out.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things we learned is that if you drink milk or have eggs with pretty much anything you are getting complete protein. Very easy eating for us all these 48 years.
DeleteShe may not stick with it as a child, but in her teen and young adult years she may return. You just never know. Our granddaughter became a vegetarian a few years ago and switched to vegan about a year and a half ago. She is very good about making her own meals when she comes to visit and doesn't wish to make things difficult for those who still eat meat, eggs and dairy. Honestly, some of the meals she fixes are things I enjoy, too. I just can't give up the eggs or fish.
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed when young people make the decision.
DeleteIf someone else made my meals I could become vegetarian. I wouldn't know where to begin really. It sounds so foreign to me. I was brought up by a farm girl. Meat and potatoes almost every meal. I have strayed from that formula but to venture further seems like a stretch for me.
ReplyDeleteIt has been so long now that I couldn't begin to cook meat or fish. In fact, I think I only cooked pork chops - once. hahaha. I was 23 when we stopped eating meat and fish. So 7 years of my 20s through this first year of my 70s. Long, long time. I was brought up with a potato, a veg, and meat on my plate, and even as a little girl I would pretend to wipe my mouth and spit my meat in.
DeleteCoincidentally, recently I was just thinking about the things that you don't eat (from your comments on the blog), and if I could manage to do without meat. I dearly love eggs and cheese. Do you eat milk, cheese and eggs?
ReplyDeleteFunny, but I never think of what I don't eat, but rather all the things I began eating when I became a vegetarian. I grew up in the time when everybody ate pretty much the same thing, and pizza wasn't really known. In the 60s and 70s suddenly a whole world of eating opened up to this small town New England girl, and I've never looked back. There's a great book about all this which I haven't read yet, but I own called Hippie Food - http://jonathankauffman.com/ Yes, I do eat milk and eggs - not cheese because I don't like it. Vegans don't eat any of those three.
DeleteNan, several members of my family including youngsters are vegetarians, by choice and not compulsion, and that's primarily because spirituality as a way of life has been ingrained in us; though, no one is forced to do anything against his or her wish or belief.
ReplyDeleteI love this.
DeleteThank you, Nan.
DeleteReally, there is part of my heart and soul that really belongs to India. Jimmy Buffett has lyrics - "I've got a Caribbean soul I can barely control, and some Texas hidden here in my heart." I think his Texas is my India.
DeleteMy son was born in 1982 and when he turned 18 he announced that he would be a vegetarian. He still is....I am not. I think about this often, but I have diabetes and the low carb diet is really difficult without meat. I still may become one in the future, possibly.
ReplyDeleteMy Margaret was born in 1982!!! What date for your boy? M - July 20. Cancer sun. Whereas my kids turned that age and started eating meat!
DeleteJune 10th, a Gemini....
DeleteAndy does eat eggs and dairy. Our eggs are from a lady down the street. We see the chickens runny about.
ReplyDeleteWe have our own chickens. And they live until they die. Old age chicken farm. That's what we should be called. hahaha
DeleteThat's so sweet! And very sweet of her mother not to discourage her from this. I could be a pescatarian, or maybe I'd better make that include dairy and eggs, so I guess I could be a lacto-ovo-pescatarian, right? I don't really even like beef or even chicken, except for the flavor it gives other dishes. But it is so convenient to throw hamburger patties on the grill when I don't want to cook supper.
ReplyDeleteNan, what is a meal you would turn to when you were too tired to cook supper/dinner? If there were no leftovers in the fridge. What is a quick and easy vegetarian meal? Just wondering, thank you!
If you click the recipes tab under the blog header picture, you'll see all the main meal dishes I've posted. I guess the quickest thing I make is brown rice and onions. I sauté the onions while the rice is cooking and mix them together when done. It was, I think, the very first thing I learned to cook. Honestly, I never cooked as a kid. Or any pasta with any sautéed veggies. And I always have milk.
DeleteOh, yes! I have your recipes pulled off onto my desktop and need to look again at the entree type meals. Well I love brown rice and onions together, or potatoes and onions. Right now I'm going to search online for a savory carrot recipe for supper. I'd like for carrots not to taste as sweet as they do in most recipes, one dependent on herbs more than anything, I guess.
DeleteI can't believe you have my recipes on your desktop!! What an honor! I don't expect many people would like them that much, but maybe that's because I don't know anyone who eats what we do. Let me know what you find about carrots. They are too sweet for me, too, in so many recipes.
Delete