The Picky Vegetarian

The Picky/Vegetarian Dichotomy Myth

April 24, 2010 at 11:23 am (General)
Tags: picky eater, vegetarian, vegetarian myth

A couple of weeks ago I went out to dinner at P.F. Chang’s with a bunch of women (most I had not met before) as part of a bachelorette party. For an appetizer, I requested a half-order of the Garlic Snap-Peas, and then ordered the Vegetable Chow Fun as my main course. The woman next to me, let’s call her Michelle (not her real name), was very nice and outgoing, and also a little outspoken. When she noticed my meal, Michelle joked about me “watching my weight” (because my meal mostly consisted of vegetables). I explained that I’m a vegetarian and also, that the snap-peas are a favorite of mine. I mean, they contain garlic…and snap-peas…how can you go wrong?

Next, Michelle noticed that I was picking the bell peppers* out of my chow fun. She made another joke about watching my weight to which I simply explained that I don’t like bell peppers. And then, I got the blank look and the question of how I, as a vegetarian, could not like something that I can eat. She was partly joking, but how many times, joking or not, have I or another picky vegetarian gotten this question or attitude from a non-vegetarian? Being a picky eater and a vegetarian are not mutually exclusive. Just because I don’t eat meat, doesn’t mean that I am automatically going to love everything I can eat. It also doesn’t mean that I am going to enjoy nuts and fruit in my green salads. My taste buds send a negative signal to my brain when I eat bell peppers, but that doesn’t mean that I’m starving because I’m missing out on one food that my chosen diet allows me to eat. I ate all of those snap-peas and all but a bite or two of the rest of the chow fun, and I left the restaurant feeling very full. I guess I can understand why people might think like that, especially if I’m eschewing a food they like (she loves peppers and ate some of the peppers I discarded). I just get sick of dealing with that silly misconception about vegetarians. How about you? Have you ever dealt with a similar situation? Or is there another common myth about vegetarians that you get sick of dealing with?

*Is a faux-pax for an adult to pick something out of their food, even with a fork, especially in a restaurant? Yes, but the description of the dish didn’t say it contained bell peppers, so I didn’t know to ask for them to be left out, and I needed them not to contaminate the flavor of the rest of the dish. The longer they remained in the dish, the more their flavor would spread, and the less I would have eaten. If the offensive food had been something with a less permeating flavor, like water chestnuts, I simply would have eaten around them rather than picking them out of the dish entirely.

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Great Gift Idea

October 25, 2009 at 5:03 pm (General)
Tags: cookbook, family history, gift, holiday gifts, Tastebook

It’s almost November, and, although a lot people probably don’t want to think about this yet, that means that the holiday season is right around the corner. It was in October last year that I came across the perfect gift for my family…or the way to create the perfect gift anyway.

We have a lot of family recipes (some that I love, some I like and some that I smother with ketchup). Because I grew up in a vegetarian (for generations) family, we have many recipes that can’t be found in regular cookbooks. Ever since I’ve had my own kitchen, it feels like I would ask my mom for some recipe or other every month or two, wanting to create the flavors I remembered growing up. How convenient it would be to have them all in one place! Not only would that be a helpful tool in the kitchen, but it would also be a way to record an important part of our family history.

Probably my favorite of my family's recipes: Apple Kuchen from the German side of my family

Then, I found out about Tastebook, a website where you can create your own cookbooks. You can add your own recipes and photos, or you can choose recipes from Tastebook’s list of partners (which includes Bon Appétit, Better Homes and Gardens, The Food Network, Self, Sunset and Cooking Light). Then you can put together and purchase cookbooks by the number of recipes you are including. If you don’t use up all of your recipes, you can get recipe credits for the rest of them and have the pages sent to you later, with only the additional cost of shipping the pages. (For instance, I ordered the 100-recipe books, but only used 69 of the recipes. So, I still have 31 recipes that I can add and have those pages sent to me separately.)

I created these books as Christmas presents for my family last year. Luckily, my mom had scanned a whole bunch of family photos from slides a few years ago and given them to us on CDs, and I already ask for recipes often enough that I was able to make the cookbooks without arousing any suspicion. It did take some work to add all the recipes and try to find family photos to go “fit” each recipe, but it all paid off. My family was surprised and touched. I not only got the reward of my very own family cookbook (I had to get one for myself too!), but I got the pleasure of their reactions to my labor of love. Isn’t that really all a person wants when giving a gift?

My one complaint about the Tastebook cookbooks (and this is a pain for any vegans and vegetarians out there) is that you cannot choose your own cookbook food categories. The only options are brunch + breads, appetizers + drinks, soups + salads, sides + bites, vegetables, pasta + rice + grains, fish + seafood, meat + poultry, desserts + treats, and everything else. I wouldn’t have minded the meat categories so much if there had been a general entrée category. I ended up putting a few recipes, like tostada casserole, in the “everything else” category because there didn’t seem to be another place for it.

Overall, Tastebook is great and helps you create one-of-a-kind gifts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice (do you give gifts if you celebrate the Solstice?), or even for a birthday, anniversary, or family reunion. One warning, if you decide to create Tastebooks with your own recipes and pictures as holiday gifts, get started now. Last year, the deadline for submitting orders to be delivered for the holidays was Thanksgiving. I remember frantically working up until the last minute (and then breathing a big sigh of relief once I ordered the books). Happy cookbook creating!

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Recipe – Chickpea Pasta

September 7, 2009 at 7:54 pm (Recipes)
Tags: Chickpea, Pasta, quick meal, recipe, zucchini

As a vegetarian and a picky eater, there have been many times in my life when I’ve found it necessary to change a recipe and use a meat substitute or omit the nuts from the cookies/brownies, etc. Every once in a while with a few small changes, you get to take a recipe and truly make it your own. Those are the recipes that become part of your cooking repertoire.

The most recent recipe of this kind for me originally came from the March 2009 issue of Self, my favorite magazine (of which I have been a subscriber for over 5 years). In the suggested dinners for the 2009 Self Challenge, I found this quick recipe (couldn’t find it online):

“Chickpea Pasta (550 calories) 1/3 cup chopped onion, 2 cups chopped zucchini, 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped, and 1/2 cup chickpeas sautéed in 1 tbsp olive oil. Mix with 1 cup cook ziti, 2 tbsp Parmesan.”

Now, if you know me well or you’ve read my Pickiness Prejudices, you’ll know that half a red bell pepper wasn’t going anywhere near my pasta. I can handle bell pepper when well disguised in a salsa or even a tomato sauce sometimes, but, overall, I just really hate that taste. So, I made a few small changes to the recipe.

I kept the 1/3 cup onion, making sure to use red onion (my favorite kind of onion), the zucchini (approximating two cups by cutting two small-to-medium-sized zucchini), the chickpeas (often using a little bit of the juice from the canned chickpeas to add a little extra moisture and flavor), and the tablespoon of olive oil. In the frying pan, I also usually add sun-dried tomatoes. I prefer to use the ones that come in a bag rather than a jar, since the ones in a jar are usually packed in oil (i.e. have unnecessary added fat that come with them). I also add a clove or so of garlic because garlic is just so very wonderful! I don’t usually, but I have occasionally also added artichoke hearts (a delicious addition) or mushrooms (good, but not the best in this recipe). Cook, stirring frequently, until the zucchini is starting to get tender and starting to become a little more translucent. The key is not to overcook it. I prefer the zucchini to be a little bit crunchy still. This usually takes about 5 minutes or so on medium-high heat. After turning off the stove, I add in 1 cup or less of whole-wheat pasta (often penne or rotini, which was used in the picture below). I don’t just do this because it’s healthier…I actually prefer the taste of whole grains to the less flavorful refined pastas and breads. Then, I top it with a little bit of salt and the 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, and dinner is served!

My basic version of the Chickpea Pasta recipe - YUM!

There are numerous reasons why I love this recipe. 1) It’s delicious! 2) It’s quick. I can have this made in 15 or 20 minutes (even with the chopping and cooking the pasta), which is nice after a long day of work. 3) It’s easy to make for just one or two people. That recipe above is for one serving. It’s great if you live alone and don’t want tons of leftovers. 4) It’s a complete meal! You’re getting food from all of the basic food groups: fruits/veggies (zucchini, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic), grains (pasta), protein (chickpeas), dairy (Parmesan), and good fats (olive oil). 5) It’s relatively low in calories and fat, but with such a large serving, you don’t feel like your “dieting.”

With a few small changes, this has become one of my favorite recipes and one of my go-to meals. I’d love to hear if any of you try it and make your own changes, or if you have any other recipes that you have taken and made your own. Please feel free to comment below or send me a message at thepickyvegetarian@gmail.com.

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Almost as Good as Your Own Garden

August 30, 2009 at 4:12 pm (General)
Tags: Farmers Market, Fruits, Vegetables

I come from a line of green thumbs (something that I did not inherit, as I’ve killed every plant I’ve tried to grow). My grandfather, as a hobby, grew many plants, particularly berries, and even successfully grafted various seemingly unrelated plants together. Although my dad didn’t go quite that far, he did follow his father’s example by keeping gardens behind two of the houses I grew up in.

As a kid, I used to pick vegetables straight from the garden (snow peas, sugar snap peas, green beans and carrots were my favorites) and eat them. There is something magical about the taste of fruits and vegetables picked and eaten straight from the source. As often as possible, I like to get carrots with the tops still attached and eat them without peeling them because it’s the closest I can get to that taste from childhood when I would pick the carrots, brush off the dirt, and chow down like Bugs Bunny (sometimes literally in Bugs’ style of eating).

Now, living in Southern California in an apartment building surrounded by city and suburb, it’s hard to get that straight-from-the-garden taste. A couple years ago, I found out about the Local Harvest website, which lets you find the next best thing, your local Farmers’ Market. When I looked on the site, I was delighted to find out that not only was there one in my town, but there was one just a 15-minute walk from my apartment! Those first purchases from the Farmers’ Market were a revelation; I’d forgotten what fresh produce was supposed to taste like. It’s amazing how much difference in taste there is between locally grown produce and that grown who knows where that you get from the grocery store.

The taste isn’t the only reason I enjoy my Farmers’ Market. The whole experience has become my favorite weekend activity. I enjoy the walk to and from, sometimes stopping by the bank, post office or library along the way. I love seeing other people from the neighborhood with their bags and carts walking in the same direction. I enjoy chatting with the vendors. Nothing has made me feel closer to my community than my visits to the Farmers’ Market. It’s a shared experience.

Approaching the entrance to my local Farmers' Market

Some prices are about the same or better than at the grocery store, and some are more expensive, but whenever something is a little more expensive, I rationalize that I’m paying for the increased quality and supporting the local economy. This weekend, I paid $13 total for 1 head of cabbage, 3 red onions, 3 peaches, 5 tomatoes (various kinds), a bag of baby spinach, a bunch of carrots, and a basket (I think a pint?) of strawberries so ripe I couldn’t help being drawn in by the smell.

A portion of my weekend Farmers' Market haul (spinach not pictured)

If you don’t already know where your local Farmers’ Market, I highly recommend finding out. I know that I will appreciate the work of my local farmers as chow down on those carrots, Bugs Bunny-style, of course.

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Recipe Review – Polenta Lasagna

August 16, 2009 at 4:58 pm (Recipes)
Tags: lasagna, mushroom, polenta, recipe, Recipes

As a child, I dabbled in collecting things — stones, stickers, shells, pencils, etc. — but I never was a REAL collector. It was never a passion, a desire, something I felt compelled to do. Somehow, at some point over the years, I unknowingly became a collector…of recipes. Whenever I find a recipe online or in a magazine that looks like I would like it, I have a need to print it or rip it out of the magazine and keep it to try later. Although many of the recipes I have collected have been placed into sheet protectors and binders (often with the help of my much-more-organized mom…Thanks, Mom!), there are numerous recipes lying in stacks around my studio apartment waiting for me to organize them. And, I’m very sad to say, most of the recipes, both in and out of the binders, are yet to be tried.

So…all that being said, one thing I plan to do in this blog is try some of these recipes and review them. Hurray! The lucky first recipe is one that I have had in a special shortlisted stack (recipes that look particularly appealing) for some time now. It is Polenta Lasagna with Creamy Mushroom Sauce from the April 2006 issue of Vegetarian Times magazine. If you don’t know their magazine, check it out! One of my all-time favorite collected recipes (Asparagus-Pesto Lasagna) came from the same issue of the magazine.

Now the fun begins! I have all of the ingredients to make the Polenta Lasagna. Just so you know exactly what I’m using to make this recipe, I used a yellow onion, 1% milk, and a low-sodium vegetable broth instead of a white wine (mostly because I don’t know enough about wine to know which kind to use, but also because I’ve been meaning to get some vegetable broth for a little while since it is good to have something like that around as a base for soups, gravys, etc.). The rest of the ingredients are exactly what the recipe said to use.

Before even getting to the directions for the recipe, I looked over the ingredients and the recipe to find out what I could prepare before the cooking process started (ALWAYS a good idea). First, I sliced the onion…and had a little cry. Next, I washed both kinds of mushrooms, removed the stems from the shiitakes (my first time cooking with shiitake mushrooms ), and sliced both kinds of mushrooms. Knowing that I was working with a cream sauce and that they often cool quickly, I also sliced the polenta (also the first time I’ve cooked with polenta ). That was fun. I was using a regular knife, but I think maybe something like a cheese slicer might have worked better…if I had one. I also measured out the other ingredients so they would be ready to grab when needed.

Then, I started cooking, the tempting aromas quickly filling my small apartment. After cooking the onions for a few minutes, I added the mushrooms to the skillet. I almost didn’t think that they were all going to fit! It’s a good thing that mushrooms cook down! While they were cooking, I mixed the final 2 tbsp. of milk with the 2 tbsp. of cornstarch. Adding the rest of the ingredients to the sauce went so fast; I’m really glad that I had already measured everything out and had them ready to go. Next, I arranged the lasagna in the pan as the recipe indicates. When finishing to pour the sauce onto the lasagna, I had to wipe the sauce from the side of the skillet and took a little taste. Hmmm…maybe a little too much pepper?

While the lasagna was baking, I washed the dishes I got dirty in the cooking process. It’s hard to keep a small kitchen, with only me as a dishwasher, clean of dishes. I’m not always good at following this advice, but my mom taught me growing up that washing the dishes used in cooking was part of the cooking process.

As I write this, I just took the lasagna out of the oven and covered it with the foil (using hot mitts, of course). I am looking forward to trying it and seeing if this recipe is a winner. It certainly smells good!

While waiting for the lasagna to cool, I made a quick salad with some baby spinach, tomatoes and red onions, and topped it off with some Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing. Here is how the lasagna meal turned out:

My polenta lasagna along with a spinach/tomato/onion salad

Good news! Not too much pepper. It took me a moment to get used to the soft polenta texture in the lasagna. That’s not the kind of texture I’m used to with a cream sauce like that. But after the initial adjustment…wow…so yummy! I’m a big fan of mushrooms and that sauce was amazing and quite the complement to the polenta. Also, the salad was a good call as a side.

Verdict: The first recipe is a great success. I can’t wait to see how it stands up as a leftovers in work lunches this week.

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No Fear

August 10, 2009 at 5:01 pm (General)
Tags: Julie & Julia, Julie Powell, no fear

I’m going to be honest here…I’ve had the idea for this blog for at least a year now. But, like many things in my life without a deadline, I kept putting off writing. Why the procrastination? Part of it is laziness, the desire to let my mind rest while watching TV when I get home from a full day of work, and part of it is the grand idea of what I think this blog should be rather than being realistic about what it could be, but really, when I’m honest with myself, the thing that has been holding me back is fear.

Then, like many current or aspiring food writers/bloggers, I watched the movie Julie & Julia this weekend. Other than simply loving the film (which I did, of course), I found it to be greatly inspring. Julia Child’s story is wonderful, but the story that really resonated with me, for obvious reasons, is the one of real-life food blogger/author Julie Powell. Like Julie at the beginning of her story, I am almost thirty (just a year and a few months to go), and I’m not exactly in the place in my life that I want to be or thought I would be when I was a promising college student. Although I certainly do not expect this blog to turn into what Julie’s did for her, her story has given me the extra push I needed to let go of the fear I have in writing this blog. So, thank you, Julie, for sharing your story. Now, I feel I can boldly go forward while saying, “No fear, Julie, no fear.” Look for more to come soon!

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The Picky Vegetarian