My vegetarian life began when I started dating with one. I suddenly realized I hadn't been eating meat for two weeks, and felt perfectly well. So, I quit eating meat altogether. We are no longer together, but I am still a vegetarian - a stricter one than she is. She eats fish... :0)

I first became a vegan my senior year in high school, in 1991. I put up with much ire from my parents for my animal-rights beliefs. They're both from the meatloaf and potatoes generation and areas of the country so they couldn't see any use in my beliefs other than disrupting meal times. I escaped that, going to university, but found that I couldn't get the kind of variety I needed to maintain a healthy vegan diet on the college meal plan, so I had to switch to ovo-lacto vegetarianism. I stayed one until he summer of '94, when I lost my will and drive to protest and became somewhat of a born-again carnivore. I still ate meat when I met my fiancee, as did he. Then, somewhere in early '95 I decided I didn't like how my body felt with meat, so I went back to vegetarianism and was suprised to find that my fiancee gradually joined me. He's a Midwestern meat eater from way back, so this was a pretty big leap. We've been in and out of veganism ever since, but always vegetarians. It's very, very difficult to find a wide range of fruits and vegetables here in Illinois, and especially if you're living hand-to-mouth. We dream of a day when we can move to California, wh re produce is organic by law! While we both love all animals and share the belief that we have no right to call some animals pets and others dinner, we both wonder what we'll do when we have kids. While I wouldn't want to impose our beliefs stringently on our children, we also don't want our kids thinking they necessarily have to subscribe to the meat myth. Anyone have experience with this, stories to share?

I once lived on the Farm, the largest vegetarian community in the world. We really were pretty pure about it. We imported soy technology to Guatemala and other countries. We made tempi, tofu, soy cheese, soy coffee, cottage tofu, and many other soy products. Our cookbooks are famous, though not as comprehensive and authoritative as those of Bill Shurlieff and Akiko Ayoyagi. Give me time, and I'll tell some tales. This is just an introduction.

Although an omnivore, I'd love to hear the tales. Anyone else interested? WER

William, Matthew and fig, in cultures, could tell some tales too.

Tell, tell, tell! Enquiring minds want to know. I want to know! I'm off to bug them also, WER

Pescatarian: isn't that the new term if you eat fish and no other meat? Anyway, that's me. Restaurants used to be tricky with it but, alas, not anymore. Seems everyone is giving up something these days. The only thing I can't stand is those people that want to give up all fat. C'mon guys "fat tastes Goooooooood!"

I don't know, I've never heard that term before. Fat is good if you're a heavy burner like you are. Tell the rest of the story.

Do I look like Paul Harvey? Fat is good and it's a reciprocal relationship. If you eat more fat, you'll have extra energy. If you spend extra energy, you're body will process more fat. "And now you know the REST of the story."

I'm not sure what Paul Harvey looks like, will you give me a raincheck on the answer to that? That sounds logical, energy to burn. And you are a high octane burner!

Someone once asked Issan, "Tenzo! We are vegetarians, so we don't kill animals. But we eat carrots and potatoes. What do you think about killing vegetables?" Issan replied, "Well, I definitely think we should kill them before we eat them."

heard that and appreciate the significance. *smile*

You're driving me nuts... What's wrong? Do I need to call ya at home later?

nothing's wrong. just really tired. a draining week quite honestly and I, like my students, have not fallen easily back into the groove.

Hope you got a good nights sleep. Type to ya on Monday...

got a great night's sleep. After I made it to school the snow started... looks like an inside weekend. More rest and maybe a bit of lesson plan writing.

Hope it was a productive and beautiful weekend!

Fairly productive but not in the ways I had imagined. A lot of thinking. A lot of resting and calming of the soul. No lesson plans were writ! Ate well on Sunday though! Broncos queso, Broncos cheeseball, Broncos pie, Broncos beer!

Ya gonna put all yer remaining virtual dollars on the Bronchos?

All but $500. Wouldn't wanna be completelty flat.

You know, normally, I would take this opportunity to comment...

Done deal for stacey in broncholand.

but wer, you'd have nothin to say... *grin*

Ya, mean, wer ain't gonna be sippin' Buds with all his rowdy friends on Superbowl Sunday?

Paul, wer wasn't going there...

Raided the health food store last night...got 3 lbs. of tempeh and 1 package of wheat meat. Anyone want to share favorite recipes?

Gosh, where did I stash that tempeh cookbook of mine? Well, a real basic one (ok, ok Stacey, I know you've heard this before, let me finish) is to slice the tempeh like french fries, boil up some vegetable oil in a frying pan, then deep fry the tempeh, the result is are delectable "tempeh fries".

I like frying them in chili powder and rolling them up with monterey jack cheese and tomatoes in tortillas. Mmm!

wow Autumn, that sounds delicious!

It is, and it meets the minimum ingredient requirements. It's a win-win recipe!

being no veteran vegetarian, as, obviously, you all are, please tell me what tempeh is and does it really taste good? Really love my vegees, but don't know if I could adopt any protein substitute (cuz, I likes a good steak now and again)

(i think it's hallucenogenic, actually)

must be to make you forget about steak!

don't you watch "oprah" (hell, i'll never eat beef again...)

avoid talk shows.

having my chef-boyardee supper, currently (been alternating between that and peanut butter crunch... chef-boyardee better serves my needs, though, 'cause there's no dishes, and that's an important consideration)

yeah, cuz they're all in the flour bins (dishes)

actually, one of my little friends washed them for me, not too long ago...

hope they were in a fresh air suit (don't remember the technical name of the thing-but it's got hoses hooked up to breathe outside air and all-they use 'em in paint booths and stuff)

I grew up on Chef Boyardee pizza. Mom made it once a week at least and it was a big deal.

yeah, my mom used to make that, too (and it was a very big deal)... when i owned a pizza joint i actually tried for awhile, when i was experimenting with recipes and stuff during pre-opening, to duplicate the sauce...(even had my sysco guy pester their buyer about getting the stuff wholesale, but he claimed it couldn't be gotten... probably because they had a million cases of alpha d'oro gathering dust in their warehouse)...

I loved chef boyardee pizza! That stuff was the best.....and now my kids get the same stuff (poor babies!) But they love it as I did.

I, too, was raised on Chef Boyardee pizza, as well as macaroni and cheese, every Saturday night immediately following "Wide World of Sports" (still hear Baltimore's Jim McKay raving about "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat..."). By the way, Wolf, tempeh is a fermented soy product from Indonesia. It is quite tasty and has a very satisfying texture, similar to meat. Much superior to tofu or seitan, in my opinion.

if it wasn't for the ravioli, though, i would probably perish... (hi autumn)

hi Nick, glad to see you here! :) (very happy and sincere)

mais naturellement... et je tu... (umm, did i say that right? or is madame allen smiling cruelly, yet again?)

close enough, even for Mme. Allen!

thanks Autumn (and for not making fun of me because i hadn't a clue!)

Chef Boyardee... used to piss mom off by eating it directly out of the can. Just as good room temp as heated IMHO. Haven't had it in about 10 years. Mac& Cheese... still a staple in our home. As a child, Mac&Cheese and Spaghettios were always Wednesday night foods (mom's night out with dad at the kitchen helm). In college it was a treat... meant I could afford milk and tasted better than Ramen. Now we do a double batch on those super lazy evenings when no one (I) wants to cook and eat it out of a huge bowl with two forks.

mac and cheese are still big hits in my house, hot dogs, and pb&j. kids love the ramen, which i ate a lot when single (along with soup and tuna)

think i went like 6 months once where i ate nothing but canned ravioli and super tacos (in between lots and lots of beer)...

nick... speaking of the 'wonder of existence'... Jeez that sounds rough on a body! Tonight I'm making the thrifty pan fried noodle (with Ramen!) Lots of mushrooms, some carrots, celery, zucchini (cause it sounds good) with my eggy noodles. Plenty of soy and some Woschtershire (sp?) Getting excited just thinking about it! Last night I went for Thai food with some friends plenty of good food but the quantities of bad beer hurt me! Looking to go a bit cleaner today.

i was 17 years old at the time... rarely eat the tacos any more (nor do i drink nearly as much beer... like jerry jeff said... "i don't drink as much/ as i ought to...")... try not to eat much meat (i NEVER eat in my restaurants... and really don't consider that stuff in ravioli to be meat, if you know what i mean)... and it sounds like maybe you were drinking coors, stacey...:)

how d'ya know? coors it was. I have a self destructive tendency towards dive bars like the atmosphere like the people watching hate what it does to my insides! last night it was the Full House bar off Broadway nasty bar wench lotsa 'bubbas' really strange dynamics at a joint like that but no false pretenses!

(was going to respond, decided not to...)

because coors is "hangover beer"...(if you drink it, you deserve a hangover)... just kidding... if i have to drink domestic beer, it's coors (or shiner or lone star, if coors isn't available), but for some reason coors has given me a hangover a few times (only other beer to do that was blue ribbon, the first and last time i drank it)... i used to think it was guilt (because adolph coors was such a fascist), but other people have told me the same thing, though it makes no sense (you'd think it'd all be the same, hang- over-wise)... out of curiosity, how do you define a "dive"? ("nasty bar wench" was a nice touch, by the way...)

Ever drink Rolling Rock? Comes from a small brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I don't even know if its distribution goes beyond the mid-atlantic region. Simple, unpretentious, and no hang-over!

ummm, rephrase... it was "nicely put" (assure you i have no idea about the touch thing... uh, as pertains to nasty bar wenches... hell, you know what i mean...)

yeah, it's okay... i have several friends who drink it (but i wouldn't recommend asking for it 'round here... (blank stare... followed by irritated scowl... followed by 15 watt redneck gleam in the eye, and the inevitable nasty bar wench snappy comeback..."what in the hail is that? some kinda ferren crap?")... i like ale, and if i can't get that, german beer...

dive: low budget, kinda dark, crowd speckled with members of White Trash America. no pretenses was the best I could come up with. 'cuz bubba doesn't give a flip what you're wearing or what ya look like... if you're drinking beer, he likes ya. think the explanation makes it sound a bit too country... dive is just a hole in the wall with a local crowd of which I am usually not a member but find fascinating to watch/talk with. i prefer amber beers don't care for Rolling Rock in the 'beer' category

that makes sense... around here, though, qualifying as a dive (and it is an aspired-for designation,, assuring brisk business) requires a reasonable expectation of witnessing/being involved in a shooting before the night is done...

that, dear sir, would be the Broadway Cafe. 24 hour diner, frequented by transients, the mentally deranged, the other worldly or the generally unsuspecting (which suspect soon enough and bolt) The only place where a man crawls inside, out of his drunken stooper and asks to pour your coffee. Genuinely nice, if not altogether sane folks. Send many a fight there but the fried egg sandwiches are worth it!

is that the place in the commercial? (you know, where the rednecks sway back and forth singing "rocky mountain high"?) the lone star lounge... all (or less than) it sounds to be... twice saw shootings there... nearly died there myself (not the ideal venue for long-haired guys wearing tennis shoes)...

now, try that in a pool hall when not only is your hair long, but it's in a neon orange mohawk...hehe...

i dunno, wer... some things are too scary even for dumb rednecks (that just may be one of 'em...)

rarely find a vegetarian in the group...

that's true, but you can usually find a few vegetables...

LOL (yeah, am following you *smile*)

(geez, sorry)

Good one, wer!

thanks, guys(gals?(oh, nope, friends...gotta be gender unspecific, ya know))...

yeah, the 90's thing....

Wer never struck me as a politically-correct kind of guy....

Well!!!

Well, what, wer?

Defaming my character, Autumn? (and/or besides, can't a guy change?)

Do you consider being politically incorrect a defamation of character? My husband prides himself on it! So maybe that was a backhanded compliment...speaking of change, I see you changed the blue/purple color scheme to red/brown. Snazzing the place up, eh?

trying to... (oh the things I got planned...)

red!

it's all black and white when you're telneting... but I'll use my overactive imagination to add color and other such things!

okay, thanks! (hey, what other such things?)

*smile* PICTURES!!! dirty ones too!

Do they need to be washed?

maybe spanked!

Please do explain... (and be as descriptive as I'd like...)

um, don't mean to intrude... but i'm redesigning menus, and i'd appreciate some veggie burger suggestions... also, i was in town (austin) the other day, and SOMEWHERE i saw a menu with black bean burgers... had just eaten lunch at threadgills, so i was in that vicinity i'm sure (north lamar, between airport and parmer lane) but cannot for the life of me remember where it was... also, wer, do you have a used equipment source (beyond triple a, network, or john oberman)? i'm looking for smallware, mainly, and trying to avoid the acemart route... seems like there used to be a place on burnet somewhere, but maybe i'm flashing back to a previous life or something...

I don't, but I'll ask around... (Intrude?)

Nick, there's a bunch of burger alternatives at www.vegsource.com; go into "meat substitutes" on the corner frame. Bon appetit!

(merci beaucoup)

Hobie's gotten too big for you? That's Hoberman. ^

it's kinda scary walking around out there (at john's place)... plus, he's the only one there that speaks english, and he's constantly on the phone, so it takes forever sometimes to get a quote, even when you do find what you need... and- though john possesses a distinct, very unique charm, he can be a little difficult to deal with, sometimes...

black bean burgers at Chili's! veggie burger suggestions: have them!

thanks... will try one this weekend, when i'm in town...(no chilis out here in the hinterlands, needless to say)... still, it's driving me nuts trying to remember where i saw that damn menu... (one too many heinekens at lunch that day, i reckon)...

what? they substitute the meat for black beans? gross idea, but is it good?

Joined a food co-op--Neshaminy Valley. Now all my health food/health products come right to my neighbor wholesale, and we all pay for what we ordered, split cases of produce, etc. It was always a hassle driving 45 minutes to Baltimore to shop at the congested Whole Foods, and the people there are so rude. My neighbor, on the other hand, is an absolute angel and i don't have to leave town!

Wolf, they make a patty out of black beans, spices and other assorted non-meat products!

oh, you mean like soy bean burgers......what a catch-all, "assorted non-meat products", gross, almost sounds like the catch-all "hot dog" *giggle*

http://www.gardenburger.com/

I have been buying 100% organic/natural food from this co-op for so long now, that when I ate out this weekend (car broke down and we were stuck in the same town for 36 hours), I was surprised at how different the most basic foods tasted (pancakes, bread, soup, etc.).