Vegetarians?

I feel sick. Yesterday I brought a cheese and onion and slice or so I thought started tucking in and it turned out to be stake. 6 years of not consuming meat out the window. I got a refund but its not really the point. I have now in the great British tradition written a strongly worded letter.

i feel for you, kieran. i had something similar happen to me awhile back. i got a sandwich at my favorite sandwich shop, and they use the same machine to slice their meat and their cheese-- sometimes they would clean the machine if you ordered the veg sandwich, but sometimes they wouldn't, and i always felt a little rude/demanding asking them to take the time to clean it, so this time i didn't-- only to realize there was some kind of meat on my sandwich, after i bit into it. i felt sick, tried spitting for a few mins, went back to the store and told them what happened, and they washed the slicing machine and made me a new sandwich-- moral of the story, i learned to ask them to clean the machine before making my sandwich! and i always make sure when ordering for to double check with the waiter "there's absolutely no meat in that, is there?" because i've realized how sneaky some places can be with putting meat on items that don't sound like they would contain meat-- like tomato soups. hell, i even ordered a side salad once (@ applebee's) and it came with freakin' bacon bits on top. never would have thought to make sure there was no meat on a basic side salad.

anyways, if you realized there was steak on it and you didn't keep eating it, that doesn't mean six years of being vegetarian is all out the window. you just have to do the best you can. i can't imagine being vegan, there is no way you would be able to avoid any animal-based ingredients at all times, sometimes you can't know every ingredient in an item, or sometimes the waiter lies or isn't aware.

Thank you that honestly makes me feel somewhat better about the whole thing. I was over reacting about the 6 years out the window thing but still I am gutted.

I have never been one to be the fussy demanding guy and up until now have never had to be!

I was well surprised though when I was in the states how easy it was to go veggie blew all my previous thoughts about Americans onlt eating steak etc out the water. I dunno if it was becuae I stuck lucky being in SF most of the time but worked out so well.

ahh, i understand why you would be upset. glad i could help in a little way. it's interesting to hear your take on how easy it is to be veg in the US. i've never been outside this continent, so i can't really compare! but it definitely gets easier to have options if you are in a big city like SF, plus how open minded and liberal SF tends to be, there's more options than there would be in a small town in the Midwest US.

My dad would be a vegetarian, has been for about 25 years. But he woudnt be as strict as many veggies, he'd eat fish, always thought thats a bit strange that some veggies won't eat any kind of meat buut wll allow themselves to eat fish :S

I went on a vegetarian diet for about 6wks last summer, just to see if i could doit/what it felt like and tbh it actually felt great! Felt a lot more healthier or soemthing. In saying that its not something i think i could properly do, got awful cravings during that 6wks for bacon sandwiches etc but it was interesting to try, found the diet very bland but that might say more about my cookery skills more than anything else lol

he's not really a veg if he eats fish. i find it weird when people say they are veg but they eat fish. it's not really true.

personally, when i went veg, i was 17, and i just ate more crap instead of healthy stuff. it took me awhile to eat better foods. i was what they call a junkatarian. but if you're truly interested in giving up meat, there are plenty of fake meat substitutes, or you can try new recipes and get better at cooking. a veg diet is definitely not restricted to being bland.

Yeah thats what ive said to him, hes said he turned for economic reasons more than anything elsee - When ever he ws in college it was cheaper to buy fish and veg than buying meat so overtime he was more or less eating a veggetarian diet! So basically he turned (half) veggie cause hes cheap lol

I'm thinking about switching to being a veggie or at least drastically reducing my current meat consumption (not that I am huge meat eater right now though). Some time last week I was watching this video that showed animals being disposed of because they had some kind of disease. The whole thing upset me like crazy. Disposing of living creatures? What the fuck is that all about. It got me thinking about my principles and I figured out that I'm not dead keen on supporting a billion-dollar industry involved in massively breeding, stuffing and exterminating animals for the sole purpose of generating money and supplying me with a few slices of salami to put on my sandwich. I love my salami, trust me, I do, but the whole idea of humankind annihilating fellow creatures... I dunno. It's something else than hunting down a deer to feed your family you know. I regularly have my moments of introspection but for some reason I've been playing with this particular trail of thought for over a week now and I am considering the options. I'm currently cutting back my meat intake to the very minimum and will see how that goes. For some reason the idea seems very urgent to me so feel free to support, advise and give me ideas ; )

loazis wrote:

I'm thinking about switching to being a veggie or at least drastically reducing my current meat consumption (not that I am huge meat eater right now though). Some time last week I was watching this video that showed animals being disposed of because they had some kind of disease. The whole thing upset me like crazy. Disposing of living creatures? What the fuck is that all about. It got me thinking about my principles and I figured out that I'm not dead keen on supporting a billion-dollar industry involved in massively breeding, stuffing and exterminating animals for the sole purpose of generating money and supplying me with a few slices of salami to put on my sandwich. I love my salami, trust me, I do, but the whole idea of humankind annihilating fellow creatures... I dunno. It's something else than hunting down a deer to feed your family you know. I regularly have my moments of introspection but for some reason I've been playing with this particular trail of thought for over a week now and I am considering the options. I'm currently cutting back my meat intake to the very minimum and will see how that goes. For some reason the idea seems very urgent to me so feel free to support, advise and give me ideas ; )

a lot of people start the change to becoming vegetarian by just cutting back on some things. for me, it was kind of a long time coming (my mom said she always had to tell me, when i was a kid, that our thanksgiving turkey was a "store turkey", not a real turkey). so anyways, the point being, i finally realized i couldn't eat another burger, steak, chicken nugget...it just grossed me out. if you want to gross yourself out, or just learn more about what the meat industry involves and how they treat animals, there are plenty of books and movies i could suggest-- honestly, i haven't seen movies like "Earthlings" cause i know what it's about and it would just upset me, but i've heard it's very good, or "Food Inc.", "Meet Your Meat", or a book i just picked up, "Why Animals Matter". i honestly don't find it difficult at all now, to avoid eating meat. there's nothing about it that i find tempting, there are plenty of good food options, etc. either way, good luck with cutting back.

Philo wrote:

Yeah thats what ive said to him, hes said he turned for economic reasons more than anything elsee - When ever he ws in college it was cheaper to buy fish and veg than buying meat so overtime he was more or less eating a veggetarian diet! So basically he turned (half) veggie cause hes cheap lol

haha well i guess that makes sense. if you just cut out meat and don't eat fake meat type products...that stuff is way expensive

i just had a look at the video that comes up on this website : http://www.meat.org/

i can't even finish it

Been a vegetarian for about 3.5-4 years now Went veg when I was 12. Parents didn't really have much of problem with it, I think they thought it was a phase I'd grow out of but nope, haha. I'm glad I went through with it though. I feel great.

loazis wrote:

I'm thinking about switching to being a veggie or at least drastically reducing my current meat consumption (not that I am huge meat eater right now though). Some time last week I was watching this video that showed animals being disposed of because they had some kind of disease. The whole thing upset me like crazy. Disposing of living creatures? What the fuck is that all about. It got me thinking about my principles and I figured out that I'm not dead keen on supporting a billion-dollar industry involved in massively breeding, stuffing and exterminating animals for the sole purpose of generating money and supplying me with a few slices of salami to put on my sandwich. I love my salami, trust me, I do, but the whole idea of humankind annihilating fellow creatures... I dunno. It's something else than hunting down a deer to feed your family you know. I regularly have my moments of introspection but for some reason I've been playing with this particular trail of thought for over a week now and I am considering the options. I'm currently cutting back my meat intake to the very minimum and will see how that goes. For some reason the idea seems very urgent to me so feel free to support, advise and give me ideas ; )

Same here! I'm not a vegetarian but I rarely eat meat, I was thinking about cutting it completely later this year. Really curious about my parents'reaction.

@ loazis
totally supporting your thoughts about going veggies


look here, this is a very good website in terms of information about being veggie or animal cruelty:
http://www.happycow.net/


and there's a lot of other information... good luck

I'm a vegetarian, 17 and I've been veg for four and a half years.. Or actually I'm heading for the vegan direction, haven't been eating fish, eggs or stuff like that for quite a while. Now it's only the milk poroducts that I'll have to get rid of. ( Good tip to go with for peeps that are thinking about becoming veg)

I had vegetarian Pho..............it was soo good

Haha I just started a test-run of being a vegetarian for the next 30 days... Anyone have suggestions for good replacements for meat? Imitation chicken/beef?

I love how meat tastes (lol.... thats what she said), just don't agree morally with the way they treat the animals....

There are plenty of storebought meat imitation products...It's just a matter of which you prefer. I personally don't like things that taste too similar, that I can't immediately recognize as being definitely not meat.

I like MorningStar Farms' Chik'n Nuggets, their ribs, Eating Right has good veggie patties, Boca and MorningStar have lots of different kinds of veggie patties, you just have to try until you find what you like. I tried Tofurky many years ago for Thanksgiving, and I thought it was disgusting. Quorn also has some really good faux chicken patties. For me, the chicken products can be the weirdest-- they're either rubbery and gross, or really good.

Other than that, I don't do enough cooking really, so most of my suggestions would be storebought, prepackaged kinda stuff.

Tofu can be good, but only if you cook it/fry it well and put some sauce on it. If it's barely cooked and it's still mushy, it's like a tasteless mushy blob.

Thank you so much!

Looking forward to the next trip to the grocery store to try some new stuff

I've been vegetarian for a little over a year. I love that I made the decision to go veg. I was vegan for 7 months, but I ended up going back to vegetarian because I wasn't exactly planning my meals the way I should have to ensure that I was getting all of the essential nutrients that you need. I definitely want to go back to being vegan, but I'll have to stick with vegetarian for now.

Anyone have any delicious recipes that I can try out??

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Thank you so much!

Looking forward to the next trip to the grocery store to try some new stuff

how did your experiment go??

I've been vegetarian for 6 years and love it.

hey just thought to mention this in this particular forum...
bestfriends.org is a really great animal rescue foundation in utah, November is Adopt a Senior Pet Month, and you can also sponsor an animal for as low as $5.00/month.
it's just a really great website and a good idea for christmas gifts

I was a vegetarian for a week. I don't miss it a whole lot.

Recently my friends have been converting me and must say it's great dont miss meat at all.

^i always think about how much easier it is to be a vegetarian now, than, say, 30 years ago. not just cultural understanding and acceptance, but the availability of meatless foods...honestly, i rarely eat junk food now...only cause hardly any of it is veg friendly, not because i don't want some junk food now and then. there are so many great meat substitutes slash benefits of not eating meat that it's much easier than many people might accept...if you need any help on what to eat or anything else, feel free to ask here, joshraymond.