February of this year I decided to go vegetarian. I started, principally, on a religious basis. Around December of last year I started converting to Zen Buddhism, because what else is there to do, and one of the key tenants of Buddhism is to not do harm to animals.
There's a lot of debate on the extent of that practice, spanning all the way back to the time of Siddhartha, whether any animal products are good or if a monk can take meat as alms, but then are laypeople butchering animals solely for the monks, etc. A story that resonated with me is one of two monks travelling through the wildnerness, who come across a cabin. The owner brings them in and gives them hot meals. The younger monks realizes the meal has meat in it, and tells this to the older monks, who replies with "I know, it's delicious!"
So in short, if I'm offered meat then I'll take it, but don't get it for myself. I was doing good for the first few weeks, then I craved a burger and caved. Then it was a chicken sandwich, and then a pork burrito, usually one bit of meat a week. That chorizo burrito, as amazing as it was, didn't set well with my stomach so I went off meat for a few months, until my birthday when I got chicken as a treat. Then I accidentally got a chicken quesadilla from cookout and ate it with a shrug.
About a week ago now I went out to Saxapahaw with a friend of mine who we'll call Blaire, because that's her name. Blaire and I went to this amazing Mexican place on NC-54 called Fiesta Grill (by all means, go out of your way to ear there it's divine) and I got a bean and rice burrito while she got. Well, she got a whole deep fried tilapia. And the whole time I was eating, that fish was staring into my soul from what was left of its eyes. So I don't think I'm going to have meat again for some time.
There's more to this story than just religion, particularly one of my headmates who is a sheep. Not a sheep girl, a full-on sheep. She bleats instead of talking and curls our hands up into hooves when she fronts, it's adorable. Any time I would crave meat she would get very upset, which makes sense for a livestock animal, so that kept us off the stuff for a while. If we want meat, we have to get permission ahead of time, but that's pretty infrequent.
So if I'm not eating meat, how am I sustaining myself? Tofu, eggs, and peanuts. That's it, really, it's pretty easy. Tofu can be pressed dry, then pan fried in oil (though it's better marinated in something like soy sauce first) and put on top of pasta or what have you as though it's meat. Eggs are easy enough to scramble up for breakfast or put in a pasta dish. And peanuts are a delicious snack with salt and pepper. Oh, and for quick and easy meals that would once be air-fried chicken nuggets, pimento cheese sandwiches are dead simple and cheap.
Actually the cost of going vegetarian is a pretty compelling argument for it, meat is expensive and tofu is like 3 dollars per wet-pack. And there's plenty of non-meat entrees for you that have that same umami goodness. I mean, cream sauce pastas, eggplant parm, zucchini spaghetti, stir fry, fried rice, veggie burgers, portabella mushroom burgers, tempeh scrambles, the possibilities are endless! It's not too hard to make a base like curry or pasta, and then have a meat entree for anyone else in your house who may still imbibe.
So if I can do vegetarian, why not vegan? That's what a lot of people ask, and the answer is simple: I like cheese. Sorry. I know it's leagues better for the environment than dairy and eggs but, cheese. Also consider that I'm a little miserly and while going non-meat is easy, going all the way is harder.
Or at least, my perception is harder. A lot of the time when my being vegetarian comes up, people recommend things like impossible patties, like when my extended family was having a cookout and didn't want me to feel left out. With all due respect, I didn't become vegetarian to have Not-Burgers and Not-Brats and Not-Chicken, I did it to have tofu and tempeh and stuff! (That being said, Pure Soul the vegan restaurant in Durham is amazing, I need to have it again it's divine and not too expensive)
So conclusions, I don't want to hear anyone on this blog talk about how going vegetarian is really difficult because it's not. Well, maybe if you're celiac or allergic to soy it would be, you can complain. Everyone else, hush!