"No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people."
--William Howard Taft
"It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own."
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes
*******
Should we all be vegans? Or at least vegetarians? We're fed all kinds of reasons for it: to save the planet, for ethical reasons, because it's supposedly healthier, to help the Green New Deal, and so on.
One way I address the question of whether to be a vegetarian or vegan is by first understanding that I am part of a system that I do not fully understand. I certainly don't know all there is to know about the human body and how it responds to dietary inputs. In other words, I begin from a place of epistemic humility. I know lot less than I think I know.
Second, I'm not in the business of "laying down rules of conduct" for others. On the contrary, in the business of sharing how I think, how I try to play chess rather than checkers in the various domains discussed here at Casual Kitchen. But you should eat how you want to eat! I don't want to tell you what do to when you're fully capable of deciding for yourself.
Unfortunately, we also have an oversupply of health and diet experts who, in stark contrast, love to tell us how to eat, and they do so with a total lack of epistemic humility. A few blatant examples: It was only a decade or two ago that the medical establishment realized that dietary cholesterol does not equal blood serum cholesterol, which made laughably incorrect the overconfidently dispensed 1980s-era dietary advice that eggs were unhealthy. Worse, our government went so far as to recommend carbs as a preponderant element of our diets. And to top it all off, they still haven't admitted that the horrendous, totally upside down food pyramid was utterly wrong from the start.
One shudders to think how many other things our expert community currently believes to be right, but will later discover to be wrong.[1]
All of this is to say that even if I were to learn as much as I possibly could about veganism and vegetarianism, even if I were to learn all the latest, most rigorous science behind it, it's still enormously likely I'll arrive at errant conclusions, basing those conclusion on soon-to-be-debunked dietary "science." Even more embarrassing, because I "know" so much about all the latest "science" about it, I'll be more confident than ever that I'm right! [2]
Now, humans have been eating meat and animal products for millennia, and our ancestor species likely consumed meat for millions of years before that. So, one possible decision framework in deciding what to eat would be to let "what has worked well in the past" guide your decisions in the future. This is a heuristic, an imperfect one admittedly. But using it in the dietary realm will help you avoid recently-invented foods (Velveeta, hydrogenated oils) and stick instead to foods that have been around for, say, several centuries at a minimum.
Second, I can try to back up this initial tentative choice by carefully observing the results of people around me. Are the vegans and vegetarians that I know healthier and fitter than an equivalently healthy meat-eater? What of my vegan friends who decided to resume eating meat: why did they do this and what are their results? Readers can observe their circle of friends and acquaintances and copy the most effective behaviors.
Now let's go one step further. Let's say that despite this "what do humans historically eat" heuristic, I still want to consider veganism or vegetarianism because I'm persuaded by the various reasons given in this posts' first paragraph. So, knowing that meat and animal products are historically part of our diets, I could make an epistemically humble choice to experiment with the quantity of meat or animal products I eat, and keep that quantity low. This would be a partial-measure solution that would still provide the nutritional inputs that my species historically appears to need without overtinkering with a complex dietary system that I cannot fully understand.
Essentially, this is how we've thought through this issue. It's why we've embraced what we call partial vegetarianism here at Casual Kitchen, where we eat animal products like milk, cheese and eggs and some meat. And it's why we're unlikely ever to be vegans or vegetarians.
READ NEXT: The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
AND: You May Now Ignore All Scientific Studies
Footnotes:
[1] What's even more offensive to me is that nobody ever seems to apologize when a major medical, dietary or psychological claim is later debunked. "Oops, sorry about all those statins we put you on, our bad."
[2] A naive reader easily persuaded by cheap rhetoric might interject here, claiming I am "anti-science." Not in the least. What I am against is when experts use the patina of science to justify epistemically arrogant claims and to tell us what to do. And this goes double when what they tell us to do later turns out to be wrong! Further, calling something "science" does not make it so, which is why I use the (deliberately condescending) phrase "studies show science" to distinguish domains like psychology, nutrition/diet, healthcare, sociology, economics, etc., from genuine sciences like physics. Finally, readers can also use this expression as a reliable rule of thumb: Studies show science is not science.
******************
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Showing posts with label vegetarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetarianism. Show all posts
Carrot and Tarragon Soup (Yet Another "Laughably Cheap" Recipe!)
You could easily pay $9.00 for an appetizer-size serving of this delicious soup in some trendy Manhattan restaurant. It would probably arrive in one of those annoying one-inch deep bowls.
But we're going to make this soup at home, serve it in a normal bowl, and we're going to do it for around three bucks for the entire pot. Which means this soup runs about 45-50c a serving, making it a front-runner for one of our most laughably cheap recipes here at Casual Kitchen.
People who say healthy food has to cost a lot simply have no clue.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!
******************************
Carrot and Tarragon Soup
Heavily adapted and simplified from Laurel's Kitchen
Ingredients:
6-7 carrots, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
2-3 potatoes, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
Water to cover
2-3 Tablespoons butter (or olive oil or canola oil)
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 generous teaspoon dried tarragon
2 cups milk
2-3 cups water
1/2 cup white table wine
1/4 teaspoon black pepper and optional salt to taste
Directions:
1) Peel carrots and potatoes, chop into 2-3” chunks, and cover with water in a 4 quart pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender/al dente, about 20 minutes.
2) While carrots and potatoes are simmering, chop onions and add to a large soup pot with butter and dried tarragon. Saute onions for 10 minutes or so on medium heat until soft. Let stand.
3) When carrots and potatoes are cooked, drain and transfer to a food processor or blender in (roughly) three batches. With each batch, add about a third of both the 2-3 cups each of the milk and water. Puree until smooth, then transfer puree to soup pot and combine with the onions/tarragon. Add any of the remaining water and milk to the soup pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 5-7 minutes or so. Add black pepper and optional salt if desired.
Serves 6-7 as a main dish.
Two recipe notes:
1) Let's itemize the cost of this laughably cheap recipe:
Butter/oil 15c
Onions 40c
Carrots 60c
Potatoes 40c
Milk 65c
Cheap box white wine 75c
Spices 10c
Total Cost: about $3.05 or about 45-50c per serving
2) Second, thinking about a snotty Manhattan restaurant serving $9 soups in one-inch deep bowls reminds me of Aesop's fable of the fox and the stork.
3) Finally, a few related links for new readers:
a) The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
b) MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
c) Ten Healthy Recipes for Under $1 a Serving
d) Glossary of Casual Kitchen Memes
But we're going to make this soup at home, serve it in a normal bowl, and we're going to do it for around three bucks for the entire pot. Which means this soup runs about 45-50c a serving, making it a front-runner for one of our most laughably cheap recipes here at Casual Kitchen.
People who say healthy food has to cost a lot simply have no clue.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!
******************************
Carrot and Tarragon Soup
Heavily adapted and simplified from Laurel's Kitchen
Ingredients:
6-7 carrots, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
2-3 potatoes, peeled, cut into large 2-3” chunks
Water to cover
2-3 Tablespoons butter (or olive oil or canola oil)
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 generous teaspoon dried tarragon
2 cups milk
2-3 cups water
1/2 cup white table wine
1/4 teaspoon black pepper and optional salt to taste
Directions:
1) Peel carrots and potatoes, chop into 2-3” chunks, and cover with water in a 4 quart pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender/al dente, about 20 minutes.
2) While carrots and potatoes are simmering, chop onions and add to a large soup pot with butter and dried tarragon. Saute onions for 10 minutes or so on medium heat until soft. Let stand.
3) When carrots and potatoes are cooked, drain and transfer to a food processor or blender in (roughly) three batches. With each batch, add about a third of both the 2-3 cups each of the milk and water. Puree until smooth, then transfer puree to soup pot and combine with the onions/tarragon. Add any of the remaining water and milk to the soup pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 5-7 minutes or so. Add black pepper and optional salt if desired.
Serves 6-7 as a main dish.
Two recipe notes:
1) Let's itemize the cost of this laughably cheap recipe:
Butter/oil 15c
Onions 40c
Carrots 60c
Potatoes 40c
Milk 65c
Cheap box white wine 75c
Spices 10c
Total Cost: about $3.05 or about 45-50c per serving
2) Second, thinking about a snotty Manhattan restaurant serving $9 soups in one-inch deep bowls reminds me of Aesop's fable of the fox and the stork.
3) Finally, a few related links for new readers:
a) The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
b) MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
c) Ten Healthy Recipes for Under $1 a Serving
d) Glossary of Casual Kitchen Memes
What is the Carbon Footprint of the Money Saved by Going Vegetarian?
There was something else that grabbed me about Jason Lusk's recent study on food spending: the allegedly lower carbon footprint of eating vegetarian:
"If a vegetarian spends less on food, what do they do with their remaining income? And do those other purchases have higher or lower carbon impacts? If vegetarian diets have both a lower carbon footprint and a lower price-tag, then one cannot really determine the carbon impact of becoming a vegetarian without accounting for how those food savings are spent. If vegetarians spend 15% less on food but use those savings on a plane flight, then their overall carbon footprint might rise. Indeed, Grabs (2015), who labels this a 'rebound effect', found that half of the carbon footprint reduction attributable to a vegetarian diet actually disappeared after accounting for the carbon effects of the remaining expenditures."
It's an interesting set of questions. And yes, if I save a fifty bucks this month by switching some meals to vegetarian, but then I use those fifty bucks to buy ten thousand plastic bags and set them on fire in my backyard… well, I can't exactly go around smugly virtue-signalling my reduced carbon footprint, can I? So, yes, it's entirely valid to carefully consider any possible second-order effects of money saved from going vegetarian. Especially if you have a plastic bag-burning habit.
But then again, there's an implicit assumption here: It's an assumption an economist[*] would definitely make, but an assumption we frugality geeks don't have to: why assume that money saved has to be spent at all?
After all, a frugal Casual Kitchen reader who read this far would probably think, "Who needs plastic bags? I’m going to save that money, dummy! I’m not going to spend it."
So, what actually is the carbon footprint of money not spent? Pretty low, I'd guess.
Or, to take things even further and consider the question from the standpoint of an early retirement extreme devotee, what's the carbon footprint of money not spent, but rather invested in, say, dividend-paying consumer products stocks funding your retirement, so you don't have to hop in your car and "carbon footprint" your way to work every day?
For Further Reading:
If you're interested in reading more on this topic, see Lusk's post on Environmental Impacts of Vegetarianism.
Finally, if you haven't read Jason Lusk's book The Food Police
or his latest book Unnaturally Delicious,
please RUN to Amazon and get them. Jason is an important and alternative voice in the food debate, and you simply cannot consider yourself a balanced thinker on food industry issues if you haven't read his books.
Footnotes:
[*] Not to pile on and tease economists too much in this week's post, but everybody knows this joke, right?
An engineer, a lawyer and an economist were stranded on a desert island with only a can of beans between them.
The engineer began building a tool to open the can.
The lawyer said, "Let's sue the bastards who made this unopenable can!"
The economist said, "Okay: assume we have a can opener..."
READ NEXT: Attack of the Cheaps! Eight Great (And Temporary) Ideas to Save $500-$700 a Month
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
"If a vegetarian spends less on food, what do they do with their remaining income? And do those other purchases have higher or lower carbon impacts? If vegetarian diets have both a lower carbon footprint and a lower price-tag, then one cannot really determine the carbon impact of becoming a vegetarian without accounting for how those food savings are spent. If vegetarians spend 15% less on food but use those savings on a plane flight, then their overall carbon footprint might rise. Indeed, Grabs (2015), who labels this a 'rebound effect', found that half of the carbon footprint reduction attributable to a vegetarian diet actually disappeared after accounting for the carbon effects of the remaining expenditures."
It's an interesting set of questions. And yes, if I save a fifty bucks this month by switching some meals to vegetarian, but then I use those fifty bucks to buy ten thousand plastic bags and set them on fire in my backyard… well, I can't exactly go around smugly virtue-signalling my reduced carbon footprint, can I? So, yes, it's entirely valid to carefully consider any possible second-order effects of money saved from going vegetarian. Especially if you have a plastic bag-burning habit.
But then again, there's an implicit assumption here: It's an assumption an economist[*] would definitely make, but an assumption we frugality geeks don't have to: why assume that money saved has to be spent at all?
After all, a frugal Casual Kitchen reader who read this far would probably think, "Who needs plastic bags? I’m going to save that money, dummy! I’m not going to spend it."
So, what actually is the carbon footprint of money not spent? Pretty low, I'd guess.
Or, to take things even further and consider the question from the standpoint of an early retirement extreme devotee, what's the carbon footprint of money not spent, but rather invested in, say, dividend-paying consumer products stocks funding your retirement, so you don't have to hop in your car and "carbon footprint" your way to work every day?
For Further Reading:
If you're interested in reading more on this topic, see Lusk's post on Environmental Impacts of Vegetarianism.
Finally, if you haven't read Jason Lusk's book The Food Police
or his latest book Unnaturally Delicious,
please RUN to Amazon and get them. Jason is an important and alternative voice in the food debate, and you simply cannot consider yourself a balanced thinker on food industry issues if you haven't read his books. Footnotes:
[*] Not to pile on and tease economists too much in this week's post, but everybody knows this joke, right?
An engineer, a lawyer and an economist were stranded on a desert island with only a can of beans between them.
The engineer began building a tool to open the can.
The lawyer said, "Let's sue the bastards who made this unopenable can!"
The economist said, "Okay: assume we have a can opener..."
READ NEXT: Attack of the Cheaps! Eight Great (And Temporary) Ideas to Save $500-$700 a Month
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Wait... Does It Really Cost More To Go Partial Vegetarian?
Jayson Lusk wrote recently about a recent study he published examining whether or not vegetarians spend less on food:
"This issue is of interest because food costs are often a reason touted for reduced meat consumption. The argument is that meat is expensive and thus eschewing meat (or participating in meatless Monday, for example) will save you money."
Except…. the results Jason Lusk found weren't at all what I expected, at least with regard to part-time vegetarianism:
"...at every income level, partial vegetarians spend more than meat eaters while true vegetarians spend less (assuming same gender, household size, etc.)."
I had to wipe a big mouthful of coffee off my laptop screen after reading that. How can your food costs go up if you reduce your most expensive source of calories? This is the exact opposite of my personal experience over many years of cooking and eating (and writing) at Casual Kitchen. I'm sure many readers feel the same.
Well, fortunately, the study doesn't literally say it costs more to change to partial vegetarian. The study didn't examine households that changed from meat-every-day diets to partial vegetarian diets. Instead, the study analyzes households in a steady state. In other words, it could be the case that people who are highly mindful of the health benefits of eating less meat tend to spend more on food. Or, perhaps those partial vegetarian households who spend a lot on food now spent even more back when they were heavier meat eaters. We don't know.
Furthermore, no dietary change happens in a vacuum. When making food substitutions in your diet, if you take something out, the other things you eat will fill up the space left over. And if you replace the most expensive element of your diet with something else, your costs will go up if and only if that something is even more expensive.
Therein lies the secret. If you replace one or two steak-centered meals each week with equivalent calories from, say, bean-centered or lentil-centered meals, I personally guarantee that you will save money.
On the other hand, if you replace those steak-centered meals with meals of organic, out-of-season heirloom tomatoes, resting on a bed of cruelty-free, gently wilted, out-of-season baby spinach, all carefully dusted with stevia-sweetened, fair-trade certified Madagascar cinnamon... you're going to spend more money. A lot more money.
Am I exaggerating? Okay, okay... maybe just a little. But it makes the point clear: you have to be smart. You can't just cut out one category of foods and pay zero attention to the relative cost of what you replace it with. This is basic, first-order thinking for any budget-conscious Casual Kitchen reader.
READ NEXT: A Superior, Yet Less Expensive, Solution
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
"This issue is of interest because food costs are often a reason touted for reduced meat consumption. The argument is that meat is expensive and thus eschewing meat (or participating in meatless Monday, for example) will save you money."
Except…. the results Jason Lusk found weren't at all what I expected, at least with regard to part-time vegetarianism:
"...at every income level, partial vegetarians spend more than meat eaters while true vegetarians spend less (assuming same gender, household size, etc.)."
I had to wipe a big mouthful of coffee off my laptop screen after reading that. How can your food costs go up if you reduce your most expensive source of calories? This is the exact opposite of my personal experience over many years of cooking and eating (and writing) at Casual Kitchen. I'm sure many readers feel the same.
Well, fortunately, the study doesn't literally say it costs more to change to partial vegetarian. The study didn't examine households that changed from meat-every-day diets to partial vegetarian diets. Instead, the study analyzes households in a steady state. In other words, it could be the case that people who are highly mindful of the health benefits of eating less meat tend to spend more on food. Or, perhaps those partial vegetarian households who spend a lot on food now spent even more back when they were heavier meat eaters. We don't know.
Furthermore, no dietary change happens in a vacuum. When making food substitutions in your diet, if you take something out, the other things you eat will fill up the space left over. And if you replace the most expensive element of your diet with something else, your costs will go up if and only if that something is even more expensive.
Therein lies the secret. If you replace one or two steak-centered meals each week with equivalent calories from, say, bean-centered or lentil-centered meals, I personally guarantee that you will save money.
On the other hand, if you replace those steak-centered meals with meals of organic, out-of-season heirloom tomatoes, resting on a bed of cruelty-free, gently wilted, out-of-season baby spinach, all carefully dusted with stevia-sweetened, fair-trade certified Madagascar cinnamon... you're going to spend more money. A lot more money.
Am I exaggerating? Okay, okay... maybe just a little. But it makes the point clear: you have to be smart. You can't just cut out one category of foods and pay zero attention to the relative cost of what you replace it with. This is basic, first-order thinking for any budget-conscious Casual Kitchen reader.
READ NEXT: A Superior, Yet Less Expensive, Solution
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
The Vegan/Vegetarian Conundrum
I knew somebody, a vegan, who agonized over each bottle of wine he drank. Or maybe I should say didn't drink, for reasons we'll see in the next paragraph.
Why would a vegan have so much concern over a simple bottle of wine? Because animal products are sometimes used in the winemaking process. In some cases, crushed oyster shells are used as a filtering agent. In others, vintners might use egg whites--again as a filtering or clarifying agent--to eliminate particulates and cloudiness from a wine.
The problem is, wine labels don't say anything about this. You'd be hard pressed to find a bottle of wine, anywhere, that says much about these process steps.
In other words, a vegan rarely knows for sure whether or not animal products were used during the production of a given wine. Better to not have any.
The conundrum doesn't end with wine. In fact the very nature of food presents a conundrum for vegans and vegetarians. Imagine a large field, filled with beans, wheat, corn or some other soon-to-be-vegetarian food. If you run a harvester or a combine down that field, you're going to inadvertently kill hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small animals who, well, just happen to be there.
Now, we here at Casual Kitchen are neither vegans nor vegetarians, although we regularly enjoy vegan and vegetarian cuisine for a wide range of reasons, both ethical and economical.
Which is why I'm fascinated and troubled by the modern conundrum many vegans and vegetarians face: Short of all of us growing all of our own food and making all our own wine (an impracticable solution at best for almost everyone), what's a good-hearted, non-meat eater to do in the modern food era?
In fact, even if you grow your own food there are problems. You are still in competition with animals and insects for the very food you cultivate. Someone has to win, and if you intend to eat, it had better be you. To see what I mean, consider my father over the course of his long life of extraordinarily successful home gardening.
My Dad was never a vegetarian, much less a vegan, but he was a low-meat eater. He grew up during the Depression, a time when "curating" your food was a yet-to-be-invented (and laughably self-indulgent) idea, and a time when it was absolutely necessary to get maximum value out of your food budget. This meant meat was something he never ate to excess. Today, we eat a lot like he did.
My father was a peaceful guy who loved nature and loved the outdoors. But during many summers of my childhood I've seen my otherwise peaceful and rational father turn diabolical ...when it came to doing battle with some of the vegetarians in our neighborhood.
Not the vegetarian humans in our neighborhood. The vegetarian animals. The ones eating his vegetables!
If you've ever grown your own food and had an entire row of your prized broccoli, carrots, cauliflower or peppers eaten down to the nubs by a deer--or worse, a malicious woodchuck--you won't become a vegan or vegetarian. You'll take up hunting.
Readers, what do you do about this gigantic gray area of food? How do you deal with the concern that there might be animal products in--or used in the production of--what you eat, drink and buy? Do you let it go? Do you agonize? I want to know your thoughts!
READ NEXT: Psychological Hunger... Compared to the Real Thing
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Why would a vegan have so much concern over a simple bottle of wine? Because animal products are sometimes used in the winemaking process. In some cases, crushed oyster shells are used as a filtering agent. In others, vintners might use egg whites--again as a filtering or clarifying agent--to eliminate particulates and cloudiness from a wine.
The problem is, wine labels don't say anything about this. You'd be hard pressed to find a bottle of wine, anywhere, that says much about these process steps.
In other words, a vegan rarely knows for sure whether or not animal products were used during the production of a given wine. Better to not have any.
The conundrum doesn't end with wine. In fact the very nature of food presents a conundrum for vegans and vegetarians. Imagine a large field, filled with beans, wheat, corn or some other soon-to-be-vegetarian food. If you run a harvester or a combine down that field, you're going to inadvertently kill hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small animals who, well, just happen to be there.
Now, we here at Casual Kitchen are neither vegans nor vegetarians, although we regularly enjoy vegan and vegetarian cuisine for a wide range of reasons, both ethical and economical.
Which is why I'm fascinated and troubled by the modern conundrum many vegans and vegetarians face: Short of all of us growing all of our own food and making all our own wine (an impracticable solution at best for almost everyone), what's a good-hearted, non-meat eater to do in the modern food era?
In fact, even if you grow your own food there are problems. You are still in competition with animals and insects for the very food you cultivate. Someone has to win, and if you intend to eat, it had better be you. To see what I mean, consider my father over the course of his long life of extraordinarily successful home gardening.
My Dad was never a vegetarian, much less a vegan, but he was a low-meat eater. He grew up during the Depression, a time when "curating" your food was a yet-to-be-invented (and laughably self-indulgent) idea, and a time when it was absolutely necessary to get maximum value out of your food budget. This meant meat was something he never ate to excess. Today, we eat a lot like he did.
My father was a peaceful guy who loved nature and loved the outdoors. But during many summers of my childhood I've seen my otherwise peaceful and rational father turn diabolical ...when it came to doing battle with some of the vegetarians in our neighborhood.
Not the vegetarian humans in our neighborhood. The vegetarian animals. The ones eating his vegetables!
If you've ever grown your own food and had an entire row of your prized broccoli, carrots, cauliflower or peppers eaten down to the nubs by a deer--or worse, a malicious woodchuck--you won't become a vegan or vegetarian. You'll take up hunting.
Readers, what do you do about this gigantic gray area of food? How do you deal with the concern that there might be animal products in--or used in the production of--what you eat, drink and buy? Do you let it go? Do you agonize? I want to know your thoughts!
READ NEXT: Psychological Hunger... Compared to the Real Thing
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
On the Benefits of Part-Time Vegetarianism
Readers, a quick reminder: during the month of May I’ll be featuring articles from Casual Kitchen’s archives. Enjoy! As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
***************************
On the Benefits of Part-Time Vegetarianism
Back in the 1970s when I was growing up, the vegetarian movement in America was just getting off the ground in places like Berkeley, CA and Ithaca, NY.
Everywhere else, however, vegetarians were seen as sandal-wearing kooks and mocked for their food choices.
Fortunately, attitudes have changed quite a bit since then. Now, most people fully understand the negative health impact of a meat-heavy diet, and more and more people are becoming aware of the negative environmental impact of a meat-heavy diet.
Finally, people are asking themselves how much meat they really need.
And let's face it: the Western diet contains meat and saturated fats in amounts far beyond a human being's daily requirements. By comparison, vegetarian meals are typically far healthier, much lower in fat, and loaded with healthy vitamins, fiber and antioxidants.
But best of all, most vegetarian dishes can be made for a mere fraction of the cost of the typical meat-centric meal.
Look: I'm not a vegetarian, and I'll probably never be a vegetarian. I fully respect why others might make that choice, but I simply don't choose to eat a 100% plant-based diet.
But what if there was a solution that let us capture the best of both worlds?
That's where the concept of Part-Time Vegetarianism comes in.
Forget about being a sandal-wearing kook. Instead, try replacing two or three of your weekly meat-centered meals with vegetarian meals. You don't have to be a militant vegetarian to take advantage of the dietary, environmental and cost benefits of vegetarian food.
A number of years ago our household made this transition, and we saw an immediate 25-30% reduction in our weekly food bill. Our diets became much healthier and, not surprisingly, we felt healthier.
But the most amazing surprise of our part-time vegetarian experiment was this: we never missed the extra meat. It was a surprisingly easy transition to make, and the results (not to mention the financial savings) were so clear and compelling that we never went back. We've been embracing part-time vegetarianism ever since.
If you'd like some cookbook ideas to help you get started with vegetarian and low-meat cuisine, here's a brief list of some of the best cookbooks on our shelves:
1) Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant
-- A wonderful cookbook, jam-packed with all kinds of ethnic recipes.
2) The New Moosewood Cookbook
-- One of the original veggie cookbooks and a highly regarded classic.
3) The New Vegetarian Epicure
-- An early and influential vegetarian cookbook, in a newly updated edition.
4) Almost Meatless
-- An exceptional cookbook centered around low-meat eating.
Finally, take a moment to scan the wide range of veggie recipes here at Casual Kitchen. You can search under the vegetarianism tag or visit my Index of Recipes page and look under "Vegetarian." You'll find more than 40 free recipes there!
Don't forget: you can help your pocketbook, your health and the environment by eating less meat. Try part-time vegetarianism in your home and get the best of both worlds!
Read Next: The Top 20 Worst Self-Indulgent Quotes From Michael Pollan's "Cooked"
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
***************************
On the Benefits of Part-Time Vegetarianism
Back in the 1970s when I was growing up, the vegetarian movement in America was just getting off the ground in places like Berkeley, CA and Ithaca, NY.
Everywhere else, however, vegetarians were seen as sandal-wearing kooks and mocked for their food choices.
Fortunately, attitudes have changed quite a bit since then. Now, most people fully understand the negative health impact of a meat-heavy diet, and more and more people are becoming aware of the negative environmental impact of a meat-heavy diet.
Finally, people are asking themselves how much meat they really need.
And let's face it: the Western diet contains meat and saturated fats in amounts far beyond a human being's daily requirements. By comparison, vegetarian meals are typically far healthier, much lower in fat, and loaded with healthy vitamins, fiber and antioxidants.
But best of all, most vegetarian dishes can be made for a mere fraction of the cost of the typical meat-centric meal.
Look: I'm not a vegetarian, and I'll probably never be a vegetarian. I fully respect why others might make that choice, but I simply don't choose to eat a 100% plant-based diet.
But what if there was a solution that let us capture the best of both worlds?
That's where the concept of Part-Time Vegetarianism comes in.
Forget about being a sandal-wearing kook. Instead, try replacing two or three of your weekly meat-centered meals with vegetarian meals. You don't have to be a militant vegetarian to take advantage of the dietary, environmental and cost benefits of vegetarian food.
A number of years ago our household made this transition, and we saw an immediate 25-30% reduction in our weekly food bill. Our diets became much healthier and, not surprisingly, we felt healthier.
But the most amazing surprise of our part-time vegetarian experiment was this: we never missed the extra meat. It was a surprisingly easy transition to make, and the results (not to mention the financial savings) were so clear and compelling that we never went back. We've been embracing part-time vegetarianism ever since.
If you'd like some cookbook ideas to help you get started with vegetarian and low-meat cuisine, here's a brief list of some of the best cookbooks on our shelves:
1) Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant
-- A wonderful cookbook, jam-packed with all kinds of ethnic recipes.2) The New Moosewood Cookbook
-- One of the original veggie cookbooks and a highly regarded classic.3) The New Vegetarian Epicure
-- An early and influential vegetarian cookbook, in a newly updated edition.4) Almost Meatless
-- An exceptional cookbook centered around low-meat eating. Finally, take a moment to scan the wide range of veggie recipes here at Casual Kitchen. You can search under the vegetarianism tag or visit my Index of Recipes page and look under "Vegetarian." You'll find more than 40 free recipes there!
Don't forget: you can help your pocketbook, your health and the environment by eating less meat. Try part-time vegetarianism in your home and get the best of both worlds!
Read Next: The Top 20 Worst Self-Indulgent Quotes From Michael Pollan's "Cooked"
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Hilariously Easy Slow Cooker Bean Stew
I can't believe how easy this recipe is. I really can’t.
It doesn't seem possible that a recipe could have this few ingredients, cost this little, be this delicious... and still be this easy. But it is. Yet another candidate for my next collection of top Laughably Cheap recipes!
I hope you enjoy this humble and hearty soup recipe as much as we did.
*************************
Easy Slow Cooker Bean Stew
Ingredients:
1 cup white beans
5 cups water or stock
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
1 onion, chopped very coarsely
A dash or two of Tabasco or cayenne pepper, optional
Black pepper to taste
Directions:
1) Combine everything in your slow cooker and cook on low for 6-7 hours. Check beans for tenderness once or twice during the last hour to avoid overcooking.
2) Serve with optional rice or brown rice.
Serves 4-5.
***************************
Recipe notes:
1) This recipe is so hilariously easy and so self-explanatory that all I could think to offer was a rundown of the cost:
Beans, ½ of a 1-pound bag: 65c
Onion: 30c
Canned tomatoes: 1.25
Spices: 20c
Total Cost: about $2.40, or about 50-60c per serving.
Related Posts:
The Six Core Principles of Healthy, Inexpensive Cooking [FULL ARCHIVE]
Thoughts On Recipe Development
Cookbook Review: Mollie Katzen's The Heart of the Plate
Baking for Beginners: How to Make a Sponge Cake
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
It doesn't seem possible that a recipe could have this few ingredients, cost this little, be this delicious... and still be this easy. But it is. Yet another candidate for my next collection of top Laughably Cheap recipes!
I hope you enjoy this humble and hearty soup recipe as much as we did.
*************************
Easy Slow Cooker Bean Stew
Ingredients:
1 cup white beans
5 cups water or stock
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
1 onion, chopped very coarsely
A dash or two of Tabasco or cayenne pepper, optional
Black pepper to taste
Directions:
1) Combine everything in your slow cooker and cook on low for 6-7 hours. Check beans for tenderness once or twice during the last hour to avoid overcooking.
2) Serve with optional rice or brown rice.
Serves 4-5.
***************************
Recipe notes:
1) This recipe is so hilariously easy and so self-explanatory that all I could think to offer was a rundown of the cost:
Beans, ½ of a 1-pound bag: 65c
Onion: 30c
Canned tomatoes: 1.25
Spices: 20c
Total Cost: about $2.40, or about 50-60c per serving.
Related Posts:
The Six Core Principles of Healthy, Inexpensive Cooking [FULL ARCHIVE]
Thoughts On Recipe Development
Cookbook Review: Mollie Katzen's The Heart of the Plate
Baking for Beginners: How to Make a Sponge Cake
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Meat-Eaters Ordering Vegetarian: Polite? Or Phony?
Why would a meat eater, when going out to eat with vegetarian friends, choose to order vegetarian food if s/he could have ordered meat at the same restaurant and would have preferred such a meal? Is that actually a show of respect? Or is it incongruence? Or cowardice?
Do meat eaters do this because the presence of vegetarians causes them to care a little more about animals? Or do they care more about the feelings of their vegetarian friends? Or do they simply lack the courage and conviction to be fully themselves in the face of opposing social pressure and the potential for judgment? Do they fear eating differently than the group?
A committed vegetarian doesn't switch diets in a room of 100 meat eaters, regardless of whether it might cause anyone discomfort. So why do meat eaters so often feel the need to semi-apologize for their choices when the opposite situation arises?
This was shared on Facebook by a friend of mine who runs a widely-read personal development blog. I thought it was an absolutely fascinating question--something well worth thinking about, particularly since I've been in exactly this situation countless times. Readers know, we here at Casual Kitchen love vegetarian and vegan cuisine, but we also eat meat too from time to time.
And yet, whenever I'm eating with vegetarians, I almost always order a meatless dish. Moreover, when we have vegetarian or vegan friends over to our home for dinner, I make a point of cooking foods they like and that fit their diets. Otherwise, why invite them at all?
Quite honestly, the perspective above never occurred to me before, which is why my initial thought was that my friend was simply over-interpreting a simple act of common courtesy. Here's his striking response:
I know it's often due to politeness or courtesy. What I'm asking is: Why would a meat eater perceive this as a courtesy? If they feel comfortable eating meat, then why wouldn't they feel just as comfortable eating meat in front of those who don't?
So.... is it a courtesy or isn't it? All of a sudden I'm not so sure.
Readers, what do you think? What would you do as an omnivore eating out with vegetarians or vegan eaters? Would you order meat? Or veggie? And now that you've read the discussion above, do you consider it courtesy? Or incongruency?
Share your thoughts below!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Do meat eaters do this because the presence of vegetarians causes them to care a little more about animals? Or do they care more about the feelings of their vegetarian friends? Or do they simply lack the courage and conviction to be fully themselves in the face of opposing social pressure and the potential for judgment? Do they fear eating differently than the group?
A committed vegetarian doesn't switch diets in a room of 100 meat eaters, regardless of whether it might cause anyone discomfort. So why do meat eaters so often feel the need to semi-apologize for their choices when the opposite situation arises?
This was shared on Facebook by a friend of mine who runs a widely-read personal development blog. I thought it was an absolutely fascinating question--something well worth thinking about, particularly since I've been in exactly this situation countless times. Readers know, we here at Casual Kitchen love vegetarian and vegan cuisine, but we also eat meat too from time to time.
And yet, whenever I'm eating with vegetarians, I almost always order a meatless dish. Moreover, when we have vegetarian or vegan friends over to our home for dinner, I make a point of cooking foods they like and that fit their diets. Otherwise, why invite them at all?
Quite honestly, the perspective above never occurred to me before, which is why my initial thought was that my friend was simply over-interpreting a simple act of common courtesy. Here's his striking response:
I know it's often due to politeness or courtesy. What I'm asking is: Why would a meat eater perceive this as a courtesy? If they feel comfortable eating meat, then why wouldn't they feel just as comfortable eating meat in front of those who don't?
So.... is it a courtesy or isn't it? All of a sudden I'm not so sure.
Readers, what do you think? What would you do as an omnivore eating out with vegetarians or vegan eaters? Would you order meat? Or veggie? And now that you've read the discussion above, do you consider it courtesy? Or incongruency?
Share your thoughts below!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Easy White Bean Spread
This White Bean Spread is so laughably easy I feel like a complete doofus for waiting so long to write about it. This recipe is as simple as it gets: it's perfect for a super-healthy snack, great as a delicious, filling appetizer, and it's so hilariously cheap you'll feel like you're cheating the system by making it.
*********************************
Basic White Bean Spread
Ingredients:
About 2 cups of cooked white beans (see below for directions, see also note #1 below)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, to taste
2-4 garlic cloves, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and salt, to taste
2 Tablespoons olive oil, to taste
1-3 Tablespoons reserved liquid from cooked beans
Directions:
1) Cook white beans according to directions below. Drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.
2) Add two generous cups of the cooked white beans to a food processor. Pulse a few times, then add the lemon juice, garlic, pepper and salt. Blend thoroughly. Then, add the cooking liquid and olive oil in increments of 1 Tablespoon each, until you're happy with the thickness of the spread. Adjust seasonings to taste.
3) To serve, place spread in a small bowl, make a well in the center and pour a small amount of olive oil in the well. Shake a generous few shakes of cayenne pepper or paprika over everything to add a splash of color. Serve with crackers and/or raw veggies.
How to cook dried white beans:
Cover beans with 3-4 inches of water in a large soup pot. Let soak overnight. The next day, rinse the beans, then cover with 3-4 inches of new water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1-2 hours, until the beans are done to your liking. Drain, reserving some of the liquid to adjust the thickness of the bean spread.
Serves 4 easily as an appetizer.
*********************************
Recipe notes:
1) Dried or canned? Readers, it's really easy to cook your own dried beans. But if you're pressed for time, or (like me until recently) slightly intimidated by the idea of dealing with dried beans, you can feel free to substitute a 1-pound 13-ounce can of canned white beans. Drain the beans, reserving about a quarter-cup of the canning liquid (you'll use it to adjust the spread to your desired consistency), rinse the beans in a colander and you're good to go.
2) Modification ideas: A standard white bean spread is modest, mild and simple, but there's a gazillion ways you can modify it and jazz it up. Consider adding handful of leafy greens, like spinach or swiss chard. Or a handful of fresh parsley for color and an extra flavor nuance. Some versions of this recipe call for roasted garlic, which adds still more nuance.
Of course, the possibilities with spices are endless. A half-teaspoon of ground cumin. A few shakes of cinnamon or nutmeg. And obviously you can bring the heat: chipotle pepper for a smoky hot flavor, or a full teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a five-alarm white bean spread.
Readers, if you have your own spice or ingredient variations, please share them in the comments!
3) Help! I cooked a 1-pound bag of white beans and I'm drowning in beans! One pound of dried white beans (which is just over 2 cups of this magical fruit) leaves you with a lot of cooked beans. Your beans will expand to nearly 3x their volume as they cook, leaving you with 6 cups of cooked white beans in total.
So here's an idea: cook a full 1-pound bag of dried beans. Use 2 cups of cooked beans for your spread, and then use the remaining 4 cups for two separate recipes: a batch of Easy Minestrone Soup and a double batch of White Bean and Kielbasa Soup. Wham. You're sitting on a week's worth of food.
4) Laughable cheapness alert: In other words, this single pound of dried white beans not only produces a healthy and delicious bean spread, it also can go on to be the foundation ingredient for two different soups that collectively feed up to 15 people. All from a cute little bag of beans that cost perhaps $1.29.
5) Finally, this is what the bowl looked like 30 seconds after I set it on the table.
No, I'm not married to a pack of wolves... I'm married to a perfectly nice, petite woman who briefly lost control of herself when I set this down in front of her. See? I'm telling you, it's good.
Related Posts:
The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy To Make Hummus Recipes
Feta Walnut Dip
Garden Pasta
Moroccan-Style Carrots
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Basic White Bean Spread
Ingredients:
About 2 cups of cooked white beans (see below for directions, see also note #1 below)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, to taste
2-4 garlic cloves, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and salt, to taste
2 Tablespoons olive oil, to taste
1-3 Tablespoons reserved liquid from cooked beans
Directions:
1) Cook white beans according to directions below. Drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.
2) Add two generous cups of the cooked white beans to a food processor. Pulse a few times, then add the lemon juice, garlic, pepper and salt. Blend thoroughly. Then, add the cooking liquid and olive oil in increments of 1 Tablespoon each, until you're happy with the thickness of the spread. Adjust seasonings to taste.
3) To serve, place spread in a small bowl, make a well in the center and pour a small amount of olive oil in the well. Shake a generous few shakes of cayenne pepper or paprika over everything to add a splash of color. Serve with crackers and/or raw veggies.
How to cook dried white beans:
Cover beans with 3-4 inches of water in a large soup pot. Let soak overnight. The next day, rinse the beans, then cover with 3-4 inches of new water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1-2 hours, until the beans are done to your liking. Drain, reserving some of the liquid to adjust the thickness of the bean spread.
Serves 4 easily as an appetizer.
*********************************
Recipe notes:
1) Dried or canned? Readers, it's really easy to cook your own dried beans. But if you're pressed for time, or (like me until recently) slightly intimidated by the idea of dealing with dried beans, you can feel free to substitute a 1-pound 13-ounce can of canned white beans. Drain the beans, reserving about a quarter-cup of the canning liquid (you'll use it to adjust the spread to your desired consistency), rinse the beans in a colander and you're good to go.
2) Modification ideas: A standard white bean spread is modest, mild and simple, but there's a gazillion ways you can modify it and jazz it up. Consider adding handful of leafy greens, like spinach or swiss chard. Or a handful of fresh parsley for color and an extra flavor nuance. Some versions of this recipe call for roasted garlic, which adds still more nuance.
Of course, the possibilities with spices are endless. A half-teaspoon of ground cumin. A few shakes of cinnamon or nutmeg. And obviously you can bring the heat: chipotle pepper for a smoky hot flavor, or a full teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a five-alarm white bean spread.
Readers, if you have your own spice or ingredient variations, please share them in the comments!
3) Help! I cooked a 1-pound bag of white beans and I'm drowning in beans! One pound of dried white beans (which is just over 2 cups of this magical fruit) leaves you with a lot of cooked beans. Your beans will expand to nearly 3x their volume as they cook, leaving you with 6 cups of cooked white beans in total.
So here's an idea: cook a full 1-pound bag of dried beans. Use 2 cups of cooked beans for your spread, and then use the remaining 4 cups for two separate recipes: a batch of Easy Minestrone Soup and a double batch of White Bean and Kielbasa Soup. Wham. You're sitting on a week's worth of food.
4) Laughable cheapness alert: In other words, this single pound of dried white beans not only produces a healthy and delicious bean spread, it also can go on to be the foundation ingredient for two different soups that collectively feed up to 15 people. All from a cute little bag of beans that cost perhaps $1.29.
5) Finally, this is what the bowl looked like 30 seconds after I set it on the table.
No, I'm not married to a pack of wolves... I'm married to a perfectly nice, petite woman who briefly lost control of herself when I set this down in front of her. See? I'm telling you, it's good.
Related Posts:
The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy To Make Hummus Recipes
Feta Walnut Dip
Garden Pasta
Moroccan-Style Carrots
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Garden Pasta
This is one of the easiest dishes in the entire history of Casual Kitchen. It takes just 15 minutes to prepare, and with its simple and suprisingly powerful fresh garden flavors, this recipe is one the best I've featured so far this year.
Not only that, but you can make this dish for a total cost of about $1.50. A buck fifty!
I know I keep harping on this, but the idea that "healthy food has to be expensive" is nothing more than a ludicrous fiction. Yes, you can eat healthy, delicious meals at home with simple, easy to obtain ingredients--and you do not have to spend a lot of time or money.
Make this incredible recipe and you'll see exactly what I mean.
****************************
Garden Pasta
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
About 1 cup grated carrot (one medium to large carrot)
About 1 cup grated zucchini (a smallish zucchini will suffice)
About 1/2 pound linguine, fettucine or spaghetti
Black pepper to taste
Optional: parmesan cheese to taste
Directions:
1) Cook pasta according to directions. While pasta is cooking, mince/press the garlic and grate the carrot and zucchini (use the coarsest holes in a simple hand grater).
2) Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large, non stick pan. Add the garlic, saute for 1 minute. Add the grated carrot and zucchini and saute for 3-4 minutes.
3) Drain pasta, and while still hot, combine with the sauteed carrot, zucchini and garlic. Add a few shakes of black pepper and serve with optional parmesan cheese.
Serves 3. Can be easily doubled.
**************************************
Finally, a quick itemization of the key cost components of this dish:
1/2 pound pasta: 50-75c
1 carrot: 20c
small zucchini: 50c
garlic cloves: 10c
Total cost: $1.30-1.55, or around 50c a serving.
Related Posts:
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
Five Laughably Easy Timesaving Tips in the Kitchen
Eight Tips to Make Cooking At Home Laughably Cheap
Glossary of Casual Kitchen Memes
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Not only that, but you can make this dish for a total cost of about $1.50. A buck fifty!
I know I keep harping on this, but the idea that "healthy food has to be expensive" is nothing more than a ludicrous fiction. Yes, you can eat healthy, delicious meals at home with simple, easy to obtain ingredients--and you do not have to spend a lot of time or money.
Make this incredible recipe and you'll see exactly what I mean.
****************************
Garden Pasta
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
About 1 cup grated carrot (one medium to large carrot)
About 1 cup grated zucchini (a smallish zucchini will suffice)
About 1/2 pound linguine, fettucine or spaghetti
Black pepper to taste
Optional: parmesan cheese to taste
Directions:
1) Cook pasta according to directions. While pasta is cooking, mince/press the garlic and grate the carrot and zucchini (use the coarsest holes in a simple hand grater).
2) Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large, non stick pan. Add the garlic, saute for 1 minute. Add the grated carrot and zucchini and saute for 3-4 minutes.
3) Drain pasta, and while still hot, combine with the sauteed carrot, zucchini and garlic. Add a few shakes of black pepper and serve with optional parmesan cheese.
Serves 3. Can be easily doubled.
**************************************
Finally, a quick itemization of the key cost components of this dish:
1/2 pound pasta: 50-75c
1 carrot: 20c
small zucchini: 50c
garlic cloves: 10c
Total cost: $1.30-1.55, or around 50c a serving.
Related Posts:
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
Five Laughably Easy Timesaving Tips in the Kitchen
Eight Tips to Make Cooking At Home Laughably Cheap
Glossary of Casual Kitchen Memes
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Chickpea and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil
This could be one of the best dishes we've made all summer. It's hilariously easy, it's laughably cheap, it has a distinctive and incredibly delicious flavor, and it's healthy too. It's even vegetarian and gluten free.
And you can get the already low cost of this dish way, way down if you grow your own basil (we are), and if you're growing your own grape or cherry tomatoes (sadly, we aren't).
Of course, you can get the cost of this dish way, way up if you insist on buying the most expensive heirloom grape tomatoes in your entire grocery store. I don't mean to name any names, but this is what happens when Laura does the shopping. :)
*****************************
Chickpea and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil
(Borrowed and modified from GreenLiteBites)
Ingredients:
1 to 1.5 pounds grape or cherry tomatoes (sliced) or regular tomatoes (chopped coarsely)
1 can chickpeas (14.5 ounces), drained and rinsed
20-30 basil leaves, coarsely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Tablespoon honey
Directions:
Combine all ingredients well, chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, and serve.
Serves 3-4. Dish can be easily doubled.
******************************
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
And you can get the already low cost of this dish way, way down if you grow your own basil (we are), and if you're growing your own grape or cherry tomatoes (sadly, we aren't).
Of course, you can get the cost of this dish way, way up if you insist on buying the most expensive heirloom grape tomatoes in your entire grocery store. I don't mean to name any names, but this is what happens when Laura does the shopping. :)
Chickpea and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil
(Borrowed and modified from GreenLiteBites)
Ingredients:
1 to 1.5 pounds grape or cherry tomatoes (sliced) or regular tomatoes (chopped coarsely)
1 can chickpeas (14.5 ounces), drained and rinsed
20-30 basil leaves, coarsely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Tablespoon honey
Directions:
Combine all ingredients well, chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, and serve.
Serves 3-4. Dish can be easily doubled.
******************************
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Moroccan-Style Carrots
This striking Moroccan carrot salad recipe is real crowd-pleaser, it sets a new world record for laughable cheapness, and you can make it in just 10 minutes! Once you've tried this flavorful and memorable dish, you'll never go back to plain old boring cooked carrots.
By my math, this healthy and hilariously easy recipe can be made for as little as 25-30c per serving, proving--for the zillionth time--that healthy and delicious food doesn't have to be expensive.
**********************************************
Moroccan-Style Carrots
(Inspired by Cara's Cravings, who adapted it from The Jewish Traditions Cookbook
by Marlena Spieler)
Ingredients:
5-6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into nickels
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Small handful of chopped fresh parsley
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1) Cook the carrots in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, drain and rinse with cool water.
2) Whisk together remaining ingredients and combine with carrots. Serve warm or chilled.
Serves 4-5 generously as a side dish.
*******************************************
Normally this is where I'd include my recipe notes: three or four bullet points that explain any subtleties or tricky aspects of the recipe. Not today. Quite frankly, this dish is so easy and so simple that's there's just... nothing to say. Enjoy it.
Readers, if you have any modification ideas or additional suggestions, share your thoughts in the comments!
Related Posts:
Peanut Pineapple Stew
Savory Moroccan Chickpeas
Citrus Orzo Salad With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes
The 911 Frittata
Easy Braised Red Cabbage
North African Lemon Chicken
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
By my math, this healthy and hilariously easy recipe can be made for as little as 25-30c per serving, proving--for the zillionth time--that healthy and delicious food doesn't have to be expensive.
**********************************************Moroccan-Style Carrots
(Inspired by Cara's Cravings, who adapted it from The Jewish Traditions Cookbook
by Marlena Spieler)Ingredients:
5-6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into nickels
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Small handful of chopped fresh parsley
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1) Cook the carrots in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, drain and rinse with cool water.
2) Whisk together remaining ingredients and combine with carrots. Serve warm or chilled.
Serves 4-5 generously as a side dish.
*******************************************
Normally this is where I'd include my recipe notes: three or four bullet points that explain any subtleties or tricky aspects of the recipe. Not today. Quite frankly, this dish is so easy and so simple that's there's just... nothing to say. Enjoy it.
Readers, if you have any modification ideas or additional suggestions, share your thoughts in the comments!
Related Posts:
Peanut Pineapple Stew
Savory Moroccan Chickpeas
Citrus Orzo Salad With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes
The 911 Frittata
Easy Braised Red Cabbage
North African Lemon Chicken
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Ask A Mindful Carnivore: Books For Further Reading
After writing my rabidly positive review of The Mindful Carnivore,
I asked author Tovar Cerulli to recommend a few readable and accessible books to Casual Kitchen readers interested in learning more about the complex debate on hunting. Today's post is a sort of "Reverse Ask CK" where *I* got to ask a question--and I struck gold with Tovar's response.
Hi Tovar,
Out of all the books you drew from to write The Mindful Carnivore, could you suggest three or four readable titles that you think would be the most interesting for readers at Casual Kitchen? What would you recommend for further reading?
Hi Dan,
If I had to pick three highly readable books from across the spectrum of themes, I’d suggest:
* Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America
by Richard Nelson (about deer, including history, agriculture, hunting, anti-hunting). If I had to suggest just one book, this would be it.
* A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport
edited by David Petersen (an interesting collection of essays on hunting).
* Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
by Richard Louv (an excellent book on the importance of connection to nature).
Of course, I’d also suggest some well-known food-specific books like The Omnivore's Dilemma
and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
Tovar
Related Posts:Review: The End of Overeating by David Kessler
The Tired & Hungry Cook's Companion
Ask Casual Kitchen: Best Investing Books
Review: Cooking Green by Kate Heyhoe
Cookbook Review: The Cornbread Gospels
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
I asked author Tovar Cerulli to recommend a few readable and accessible books to Casual Kitchen readers interested in learning more about the complex debate on hunting. Today's post is a sort of "Reverse Ask CK" where *I* got to ask a question--and I struck gold with Tovar's response.Hi Tovar,
Out of all the books you drew from to write The Mindful Carnivore, could you suggest three or four readable titles that you think would be the most interesting for readers at Casual Kitchen? What would you recommend for further reading?
Hi Dan,
If I had to pick three highly readable books from across the spectrum of themes, I’d suggest:
* Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America
by Richard Nelson (about deer, including history, agriculture, hunting, anti-hunting). If I had to suggest just one book, this would be it.* A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport
edited by David Petersen (an interesting collection of essays on hunting).* Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
by Richard Louv (an excellent book on the importance of connection to nature).Of course, I’d also suggest some well-known food-specific books like The Omnivore's Dilemma
and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.Tovar
Related Posts:Review: The End of Overeating by David Kessler
The Tired & Hungry Cook's Companion
Ask Casual Kitchen: Best Investing Books
Review: Cooking Green by Kate Heyhoe
Cookbook Review: The Cornbread Gospels
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!Book Review: The Mindful Carnivore
"Oh, in my most righteous vegan phase, I had been certain that hunting, like other forms of animal murder, was wrong."
Let me say one thing up front. If you're the sort of person who doesn't really want to think about the food you eat, don't read this book. For everyone else, The Mindful Carnivore will most likely be the most provocative book you'll read all year.
It will ask you to consider some striking ethical questions. In adopting veganism or vegetarianism, are we arrogantly setting ourselves above the predator-prey relationship? Does being vegan allow us to evade the inconvenient truth that millions of animals are killed every year via farming, even when that farming is done in the most ecologically ethical manner possible?
Is really possible for humans to think they can step outside of their place in the world's food chain? Or, is it more realistic and more honest to accept the realities of predation in our environment, and can respectful hunting for food and sustenance help humans gain a better connection to our environment?
Can hunting even be a sacred activity, an act of human humility and honor?
Tough questions. And The Mindful Carnivoreasks and answers them. It's one of the most unusual and intriguing books I've ever read.
Many CK readers will recognize author Tovar Cerulli from past Friday Links posts. His blog, A Mindful Carnivore, covers subject matter that's unique in the world of food blogs: he's a former vegan who ultimately decided--in contradiction to a lifetime of certainty about its wrongness--to return to hunting.
And through hunting, he discovers an even deeper respect for animals and nature. It's a striking evolution of character, and Tovar tells his entire story in an honest and exceptionally well-written memoir.
So, let's ask the question: Is hunting fundamentally unethical? Is it sport at the expense of animals' lives?
Read this book and you'll see why hunting is neither. Ethically speaking, Tovar makes an overwhelming case that it's far superior to buying your meat shrinkwrapped at the grocery store. And more interestingly, he makes nearly as strong a case for hunting as a moral and habitat-friendly activity that, counterintuitively, protects animals. You'll have to read the book yourself to see exactly how.
This was an excellent read, and I walked away from it with a totally new and nuanced view on hunting. I give Tovar a ton of credit for writing a thought-provoking, educational, subtle, and agenda-free book. I highly, highly recommend it.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Let me say one thing up front. If you're the sort of person who doesn't really want to think about the food you eat, don't read this book. For everyone else, The Mindful Carnivore
will most likely be the most provocative book you'll read all year.It will ask you to consider some striking ethical questions. In adopting veganism or vegetarianism, are we arrogantly setting ourselves above the predator-prey relationship? Does being vegan allow us to evade the inconvenient truth that millions of animals are killed every year via farming, even when that farming is done in the most ecologically ethical manner possible?
Is really possible for humans to think they can step outside of their place in the world's food chain? Or, is it more realistic and more honest to accept the realities of predation in our environment, and can respectful hunting for food and sustenance help humans gain a better connection to our environment?
Can hunting even be a sacred activity, an act of human humility and honor?
Tough questions. And The Mindful Carnivore
asks and answers them. It's one of the most unusual and intriguing books I've ever read.Many CK readers will recognize author Tovar Cerulli from past Friday Links posts. His blog, A Mindful Carnivore, covers subject matter that's unique in the world of food blogs: he's a former vegan who ultimately decided--in contradiction to a lifetime of certainty about its wrongness--to return to hunting.
And through hunting, he discovers an even deeper respect for animals and nature. It's a striking evolution of character, and Tovar tells his entire story in an honest and exceptionally well-written memoir.
So, let's ask the question: Is hunting fundamentally unethical? Is it sport at the expense of animals' lives?
Read this book and you'll see why hunting is neither. Ethically speaking, Tovar makes an overwhelming case that it's far superior to buying your meat shrinkwrapped at the grocery store. And more interestingly, he makes nearly as strong a case for hunting as a moral and habitat-friendly activity that, counterintuitively, protects animals. You'll have to read the book yourself to see exactly how.
This was an excellent read, and I walked away from it with a totally new and nuanced view on hunting. I give Tovar a ton of credit for writing a thought-provoking, educational, subtle, and agenda-free book. I highly, highly recommend it.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!Thinking Through Pink Slime
I have mixed feelings about the "pink slime" controversy, especially after learning of last week's bankruptcy filing of AFA foods, which will probably kill 850 jobs in Pennsylvania. I suspect there will be more job losses in the coming months from other meat processors.
For me, yes, the concept of producing meat in this way is profoundly unappetizing to say the least. And certainly the phrase "pink slime" itself has been manufactured to sound as vile as possible. Well-played.
In fact, Laura and I had a gigantic conversation over the past several days about whether we should finally fully embrace vegetarianism. The pink slime controversy was what got us talking, and quite frankly it almost pushed us over the edge.
But just to be devil's advocate for a moment: You could also argue--if you've made a commitment to eat meat in the first place--that getting every last bit of usable meat from an animal is more respectful, more environmentally sound, and less wasteful than simply throwing away all the trimmings and cuttings. Even Marion Nestle, one of the food industry's fiercest critics, argues that the use of these trimmings recovers 10 to 12 pounds of edible lean beef from every animal, and saves some 1.5 million animals from slaughter each year.
So let's ask the question in a different way: Are we needlessly wasting animal parts in order to protect our sensibilities? In other words, is it narcissistic of us to waste meat merely because a particular process for not wasting it appears gross to us? They say if you like sausage you should never set foot inside a sausage factory. Are we making the same shallow argument with pink slime? These are incredibly difficult questions.
Readers, I don't have the pink slime story figured out by any stretch. But one thing I almost always find with controversial issues like this is things are not always as they seem. I'm just trying to think through the issue, and I'm hoping I can get some feedback from the always insightful readers here at Casual Kitchen.
So readers, what do you think? Is there another side to the pink slime controversy? Or is it a black and white story with no gray areas?
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
For me, yes, the concept of producing meat in this way is profoundly unappetizing to say the least. And certainly the phrase "pink slime" itself has been manufactured to sound as vile as possible. Well-played.
In fact, Laura and I had a gigantic conversation over the past several days about whether we should finally fully embrace vegetarianism. The pink slime controversy was what got us talking, and quite frankly it almost pushed us over the edge.
But just to be devil's advocate for a moment: You could also argue--if you've made a commitment to eat meat in the first place--that getting every last bit of usable meat from an animal is more respectful, more environmentally sound, and less wasteful than simply throwing away all the trimmings and cuttings. Even Marion Nestle, one of the food industry's fiercest critics, argues that the use of these trimmings recovers 10 to 12 pounds of edible lean beef from every animal, and saves some 1.5 million animals from slaughter each year.
So let's ask the question in a different way: Are we needlessly wasting animal parts in order to protect our sensibilities? In other words, is it narcissistic of us to waste meat merely because a particular process for not wasting it appears gross to us? They say if you like sausage you should never set foot inside a sausage factory. Are we making the same shallow argument with pink slime? These are incredibly difficult questions.
Readers, I don't have the pink slime story figured out by any stretch. But one thing I almost always find with controversial issues like this is things are not always as they seem. I'm just trying to think through the issue, and I'm hoping I can get some feedback from the always insightful readers here at Casual Kitchen.
So readers, what do you think? Is there another side to the pink slime controversy? Or is it a black and white story with no gray areas?
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
A Conversation With An Angry Vegetarian
From a recent reader comment on my Why I'm a Part-Time Vegetarian post:
There's never anything wrong with what or how you eat, & the way you write about it here sounds like you know there's something wrong with it, & that's why you are talking about it. That is inconsequential. My main point is, one cannot be a "part time vegetarian" You either are or are not a vegetarian. And the worst offender of your post is the assumption that the vegetarians are not healthy. You seem to live in the isolated world of the whites (I am taking a big risk of being branded a racist). But that's a myth propagated by those who have this opinion of themselves being superior to all else & that they are some god's gift to humanity. BTW, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you or any one putting meat in the vegetarian dishes. Just as long as you don't put it in the ones u're servbing to the vegetarians. & please, stop being a spokesperson for the pharmaceutical companies for the multivites & et all. I can only guess your background from your post, that you are one of the meat & potatoes person who uses the "part time vegetarian" status as a pretense for being modern & scientific & cutting edge & whatever. But you sure do not have any knowledge about the nutritional science, though you do have some information. And, I wonder who these friends of yours are who you think "use you for your cooking skills" There's much more to vegetarian cooking than the west will ever know.
From time to time I get comments like this. It's easy to discount them as simple, garden-variety narcissism (um, no pun intended). People who pound out an angry wall of text like this are usually writing to themselves more than to me.
But what's more important is how this comment actually accomplishes the exact opposite of what its author intends. Even with a blogger like me, who's as vegetarian-friendly as they come.
Here's the thing. Let's say you've taken some moral position--it can be a position on food, on a political issue, or whatever. Do you want others to be able to grasp your point of view? Do you want people to agree with you? Or do you want to push people away?
Imagine the reaction that a perfectly nice "meat and potatoes" person might have after reading a wall of text like this. Wouldn't they cling even tighter to their views? So, what does this comment really accomplish?
Readers, what do you think? Share your thoughts!
Related Posts:
Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto
How To Help the World... By NOT Going Local
A Simple Rule To Make Your Life Environmentally Sustainable and Worry Free
In Defense of Big Farms
Anticipated Reproach, And Why Vegetarians Are Such Jerks
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
There's never anything wrong with what or how you eat, & the way you write about it here sounds like you know there's something wrong with it, & that's why you are talking about it. That is inconsequential. My main point is, one cannot be a "part time vegetarian" You either are or are not a vegetarian. And the worst offender of your post is the assumption that the vegetarians are not healthy. You seem to live in the isolated world of the whites (I am taking a big risk of being branded a racist). But that's a myth propagated by those who have this opinion of themselves being superior to all else & that they are some god's gift to humanity. BTW, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you or any one putting meat in the vegetarian dishes. Just as long as you don't put it in the ones u're servbing to the vegetarians. & please, stop being a spokesperson for the pharmaceutical companies for the multivites & et all. I can only guess your background from your post, that you are one of the meat & potatoes person who uses the "part time vegetarian" status as a pretense for being modern & scientific & cutting edge & whatever. But you sure do not have any knowledge about the nutritional science, though you do have some information. And, I wonder who these friends of yours are who you think "use you for your cooking skills" There's much more to vegetarian cooking than the west will ever know.
From time to time I get comments like this. It's easy to discount them as simple, garden-variety narcissism (um, no pun intended). People who pound out an angry wall of text like this are usually writing to themselves more than to me.
But what's more important is how this comment actually accomplishes the exact opposite of what its author intends. Even with a blogger like me, who's as vegetarian-friendly as they come.
Here's the thing. Let's say you've taken some moral position--it can be a position on food, on a political issue, or whatever. Do you want others to be able to grasp your point of view? Do you want people to agree with you? Or do you want to push people away?
Imagine the reaction that a perfectly nice "meat and potatoes" person might have after reading a wall of text like this. Wouldn't they cling even tighter to their views? So, what does this comment really accomplish?
Readers, what do you think? Share your thoughts!
Related Posts:
Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto
How To Help the World... By NOT Going Local
A Simple Rule To Make Your Life Environmentally Sustainable and Worry Free
In Defense of Big Farms
Anticipated Reproach, And Why Vegetarians Are Such Jerks
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Laughably Cheap Carrot and Fresh Cabbage Curry
This hilariously cheap and laughably easy recipe was a great antidote for us after a huge, meat-heavy meal the prior day. It's stunningly flavorful, vegan-friendly, and--like almost all of the recipes here at Casual Kitchen--so inexpensive to make that it just makes you laugh out loud. Once again, I simply can't understand how anyone can still hold the ludicrous view that healthy and delicious food has to be expensive.
This dish can be made in about 30 minutes for as little as 50c a serving, putting it at perhaps the top of the list of Casual Kitchen's all-time laughably cheap recipes. Best of all, a recipe like this contains healthy and nutritious ingredients that can be purchased inexpensively practically all year round. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
*****************************
Carrot and Fresh Cabbage Curry
(heavily modified from Healthy Home Recipes)
Ingredients:
2 onions, chopped coarsely
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small head of cabbage (or 1/2 a large head), cored and chopped
5 medium to large carrots, peeled and cut into thin rounds
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
Directions:
1) In a large, deep pan with a lid, saute the chopped onions in the oil on medium-high heat until they begin to soften. Add mustard seeds and saute for 2-3 more minutes.
2) Add carrots, cumin, coriander and turmeric and combine. Cover pan and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3) Add the cabbage, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, salt and the 1/2 cup water. Stir and combine well, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir well again, cover and simmer for another 8 more minutes, or until cabbage and carrots are cooked to your liking, stirring occasionally to make sure spices don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Serve over rice or brown rice.
Serves 6.
*****************************
Recipe Notes:
1) Use a big pot: Keep in mind that the cabbage will cook down as it softens, but you'll need to use a pretty good-sized pot to hold everything at first.
2) Possible modifications: As with any recipe here at CK, you can feel free to modify this recipe and share your ideas in the comments. A few possibilities:
a) (Vegetarians, cover your eyes!) You could add a mild meat such as chicken or ground turkey.
b) You could tinker with the spices. Try adjusting the heat by either reducing or increasing the cayenne pepper.
c) Consider adding a non-meat protein source: beans and/or firm tofu could work.
What other modification ideas can you come up with?
3) Thoughts on workflow for this recipe: For readers who are extremely quick at chopping and cutting up veggies, the most time-efficient way to prep for this dish is to chop the onions first, and while they are sauteing, peel and chop the carrots. While the carrots are cooking, you can chop the cabbage. A screamingly efficient cook could theoretically make this recipe in under 25 minutes.
However, if you don't think you can manage sauteing and doing prep work at the same time (heck, coring and hacking up an entire cabbage head in under five minutes would be ambitious even for me), feel free to do all the prep work in advance before beginning to cook.
Related Posts:
Curried Corn
Lemon Roasted Cabbage
Five Laughably Easy Timesaving Tips in the Kitchen
Garlic Sauteed Cauliflower
Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
This dish can be made in about 30 minutes for as little as 50c a serving, putting it at perhaps the top of the list of Casual Kitchen's all-time laughably cheap recipes. Best of all, a recipe like this contains healthy and nutritious ingredients that can be purchased inexpensively practically all year round. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
*****************************
Carrot and Fresh Cabbage Curry
(heavily modified from Healthy Home Recipes)
Ingredients:
2 onions, chopped coarsely
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small head of cabbage (or 1/2 a large head), cored and chopped
5 medium to large carrots, peeled and cut into thin rounds
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
Directions:
1) In a large, deep pan with a lid, saute the chopped onions in the oil on medium-high heat until they begin to soften. Add mustard seeds and saute for 2-3 more minutes.
2) Add carrots, cumin, coriander and turmeric and combine. Cover pan and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3) Add the cabbage, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, salt and the 1/2 cup water. Stir and combine well, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir well again, cover and simmer for another 8 more minutes, or until cabbage and carrots are cooked to your liking, stirring occasionally to make sure spices don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Serve over rice or brown rice.
Serves 6.
*****************************
Recipe Notes:
1) Use a big pot: Keep in mind that the cabbage will cook down as it softens, but you'll need to use a pretty good-sized pot to hold everything at first.
2) Possible modifications: As with any recipe here at CK, you can feel free to modify this recipe and share your ideas in the comments. A few possibilities:
a) (Vegetarians, cover your eyes!) You could add a mild meat such as chicken or ground turkey.
b) You could tinker with the spices. Try adjusting the heat by either reducing or increasing the cayenne pepper.
c) Consider adding a non-meat protein source: beans and/or firm tofu could work.
What other modification ideas can you come up with?
3) Thoughts on workflow for this recipe: For readers who are extremely quick at chopping and cutting up veggies, the most time-efficient way to prep for this dish is to chop the onions first, and while they are sauteing, peel and chop the carrots. While the carrots are cooking, you can chop the cabbage. A screamingly efficient cook could theoretically make this recipe in under 25 minutes.
However, if you don't think you can manage sauteing and doing prep work at the same time (heck, coring and hacking up an entire cabbage head in under five minutes would be ambitious even for me), feel free to do all the prep work in advance before beginning to cook.
Related Posts:
Curried Corn
Lemon Roasted Cabbage
Five Laughably Easy Timesaving Tips in the Kitchen
Garlic Sauteed Cauliflower
Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
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