Continuing the answers for Ask Me Anything!
Chris asks: What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe? (If it’s good, I’d actually love to know the ingredients, not just the name. 🙂 )
First of all, I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure what’s ‘vegetarian’. I would tend to consider something vegetarian if no animals were killed for the production of the item, which means, I consider vegetarianism to be quite compatible with eating dairy products. That said, I love a pizza with no meat on it. One of my favorite pizzas has garlic and olive oil spread on the crust, topped with mozzarella cheese, and then sliced tomatoes and banana peppers. I think that pizza without meat is awfully great.
And of course, salads. Love salads. You can go in lots of directions.
And fried rice or noodle stir-fries, with lots of good veggies thrown in. I’m discovering that I like quite a few veggies either raw or cooked in stir-fry fashion (i.e., cooked on high heat very quickly). My latest discovery is that stir-fried or quick-cooked string beans make me happy. Yay!
Vegetarian sandwiches are cool, and you don’t have to pile them with salad-type veggies, either. PB&J is vegetarian, yes? Or PB and potato chips? Yum! And a favorite sandwich of mine is cream cheese and sliced strawberries on thick, toasted, whole-grain bread.
Ooooh, and beans! Love beans. I absolutely adore beans. I think beans are wonderful. I tend to include meat in my chili just out of habit, but increasingly it occurs to me that if I just add a fourth can of beans, why would I even need the meat at all? Beans are awesome!
Here are some problem areas: are eggs ‘vegetarian’? I struggle with the dividing lines thereof.
One vegetable I want to experiment with this winter (when I do more baking) is eggplant. Ultimately, I don’t do a whole lot with specific recipes yet, in terms of vegetarianism. My approach has been to gradually incorporate more vegetables in my diet, in keeping with Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” But as I explore this stuff more, I will post recipes and various discoveries as I go!
Chris also asks: And, if you could have one – just one – superhero ability, which would it be and why?
Flight. Wouldn’t it be amazing to fly!
Jeremy asks: My question is: Would you rather invent a true blue rose or the next best smart phone? Why?
I had to do some Googling for this one. It turns out that, as roses evolved, they are incapable of producing a true blue color in their petals, because of the genetics involved. So, of course, people have been trying for years to force the issue and create a rose that will blossom true blue. The things you learn!
And frankly, I’d rather do that than come up with the next great smart phone (or whatever other electronic gizmo). The first true blue rose can only happen once, but there will always be a next great smart phone, or laptop, or tablet, or whatever.
Unless…unless what Jeremy is asking is, would I want to create the first great whatever-the-next-thing-is. If I want to create the first iPad or iPod…or the first Macintosh…or so on. But even so…I’ll take the rose. As William Blake wrote:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Actually, I’m not sure that applies…but I like that poem, anyway.
More answers to come!
Great answers! I always enjoy your "Ask Me Anything" feature.
Oh, and I LOVE PB and potato chips.
And I consider eggs to be vegetarian because the eggs are unfertilized, but there are plenty of people who would argue that point with me.
Anyway, great answers!
Loved them! My husband and I eat a lot of home made pizza simply because it's one of those easy to "mix" meals (part for a vegetarian, part for a carnivore.)
No eggs, no dairy, no animal products is "vegan." Hardcore vegans don't even eat honey (it enslaves the bees.)
Beans ARE awesome! I eat a lot of them, as well as lentils.
Hindus who are practicing vegetarianism for religious reasons usually eat dairy such as milk and yogurt, but not eggs. Traditionally, you might be killing a chicken because it was hard to know if it was fertilized. Other religions (Jainism, Buddhism, etc.) have their own rules.
I'm a very liberal ovo-pesco vegetarian; I eat eggs and even fish, but no fowl, mammals, etc. What I think of as a "Catholic vegetarian," i.e. "fish is not meat but birds are meat."