Eggplants seem to be a favorite food of ours – so far every recipe tried with eggplants has been a big hit! The other day I used my relatively new food processor to make something besides hummus, Pistachio-Crusted Eggplant Cutlets, a recipe found in my new subscription to Vegetarian Times. Another hit!
I had such an intense feeling of satisfaction while preparing it, which is saying something because I am notorious for disliking cooking. This has been a major life-style change here and I now find myself spending hours in the kitchen, happily, churning out healthy food as fast as we can eat it.
Frankly, I am pleasantly surprised by this turn of the tide. Tim is doing better avoiding animal products than I dreamed was possible. Last weekend we ate out at a Lebanese restaurant with vegan and gluten-free choices clearly indicated on the menu, so neither of us had any animal protein at all, yet we came away stuffed to the gills.
There have been a few awkward and uncomfortable moments as those around us adjust to this change. For years I have brought Swedish Meatballs to Dad’s for Christmas and Auntie apparently looks forward to them all year. My poor sister tried to explain to her why I would not be bringing them this year, to prepare her ahead of time for the inevitable disappointment. Auntie was not pleased. In fact, she declared that she didn’t see why I should bother to come if I wasn’t going to bring Swedish Meatballs. Ouch! When I did show up, she spent the evening eyeing me suspiciously. She showered Tim with affection, however. Perhaps she feels sorry for him…
The more I enjoy cooking now, the more I’m understanding what my problem was with cooking before. I disliked intensely handling animal flesh and animal carcasses. Trying to stuff a turkey one year brought me to tears – it’s hard to stuff something you’re trying not to touch. At the time I knew nothing about how animals were being tortured on their way to become our food, and I knew nothing about the link between animal protein and the diseases of affluence. Something about it just revolted me, a case of my intuition alerting me, but I just kept struggling along, managing as best I could, relying mostly on prepared meats, like Swedish Meatballs from IKEA.
There is a dark comedy I love, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, which is also a quirky love story. Wilbur is great at pointing out the endless ironies found in our lives. One of the many scenes that endeared me to him was when he was trying to prepare a goose for Christmas dinner. He just couldn’t cope and finally threw the uncooked goose into the kitchen sink and shouted, “Why does this have to be so disgusting!?!” I knew exactly how he felt.
One thing I love about vegan cooking is that the pots and pans are so easy to clean, even if the food is burned on. And I don’t have to worry about thawing something in the morning for dinner. Our freezer is now full of veggies and I can decide at the last-minute which ones I want to prepare, although we have fresh veggies as much as possible.
Our favorite cookbook remains 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles. We tried a Hearty Lentil & Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie from Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas, which was kind of blah, but there are more recipes in that cookbook which look promising. I love slow cookers and we both loved the Slow & Easy White Bean Cassoulet with the Tempeh & Shallot Confit from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson.
Tim once came home with scallions when I had asked for shallots, but he is slowly getting more familiar with all these new foods. And I didn’t read a label carefully enough and bought a spice jar of red curry instead of curry. The resulting super spicy Curried Chickpeas & Kale (1,000 Vegetarian Recipes) was too hot for both of us. I made it again with regular curry and loved it, but it was still too hot for Tim.
Some of my readers had requested that I keep you all updated on our progress so I will no doubt write more about our culinary adventure in the months to come. Bon appétit!
Barbara – You and my Len would get along oh-so-well in the kitchen. Here are the names of just a few of his favorite cookbooks that he refers to on a regular basis:
FIELD OF GREEN by Annie Somerville
THE GREENS COOKBOOK by Deborah Madison
VEGETABLE HEAVEN by Mollie Katzen
BEAN CUISINE by Janet Horsley
Happy Weekend to you and yours!
Thank you very much, Laurie & Len! I ordered *Bean Cuisine* used on Amazon and put the rest in my shopping cart there for future purchasing. It’s exciting seeing the cookbook shelf filling up with yummy cookbooks to puruse! Mollie Katzen sure has published a lot of cookbooks since the *Moosewood Cookbook* we remember from years gone by.
Great post Barbara. Your poor Auntie! Has she forgiven you yet for the missing meat balls?
We aren’t vegetarian but we eat a hunter gatherer type of diet which is mainly leafy green vegetables we buy twice weekly at the farmers market with a small serving of meat or fish (not a piece of meat the size of your face as is served in Texas!)
Don’t know if Auntie has forgiven me yet – perhaps I’ll find out on her birthday in a couple of weeks.
I thought of you when I prepared the ‘Curried Chickpeas & Kale’ – I remembered you mentioning that you ate a lot of kale. It was the first kale we ever had and we felt befuddled trying to locate some in the produce section, but we finally succeeded. 🙂
That’s one thing *The China Study* mentioned, that in many cultures with less heart disease, diabetes and cancer, meat is used sparingly (or not at all) as a flavoring, never as the main part of the meal.
Hi,
It is good when we find just the right cook book not as easy as it sounds in some cases, but it seems you have found a couple that you really like good on you.
It will be interesting to see what happens next Christmas. 🙂
That’s so true, Mags. it seems like there are zillions of cookbooks out there! After Tim had his heart attack I bought several heart-healthy cookbooks, but I had the same problem coping with the meats in them. I hope this new collection of cookbooks I’m gathering will be the last one!
Perhaps I will find something Auntie will like next Christmas in order to redeem myself… 🙂
Hi Barbara, I remember Rex Harrison, in the original Dr. Doolittle, singing “A reluctant but sincere vegetarian, am I”. He liked meat, but couldn’t bear to “eat his friends”.
Me ? I love meat. No problem handling meat but nevertheless I haven’t eaten it in a couple of years. I must confess that I still miss it.
I’m not a good cook. I really don’t enjoy cooking. I louse up simple stir frys.
Hope I can absorb some of your enthusiasm.
Bon appetit.
I think Tim still misses meat, too, but he’s made the connection between eating it and being unhealthy. I don’t miss it, and for me it is more of the idea of eating animals that is bothersome. It’s interesting all the different paths that can lead to the same place.
I hear you about disliking cooking. I think the thing spurring me on is the idea that I might actually be adding years to Tim’s life, freeing him a little from his genetic destiny. Food as medicine – it makes me feel so good to contribute to his health and hopefully, his longevity! If I lived alone, I’d probably be eating cereal and soy milk most of the time.
I’m glad to hear that things are going well with your vegan lifestyle Barbara. Perhaps Auntie will go vegan too! Ha! Ha! By the way, I just watched the trailer of “Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself.” I must admit that it does look like quirky fun! Also, I get your point about handling dead animals. I wouldn’t want to do that either. Thank goodness we don’t need to worry about that. Anyway, thanks for keeping us up-to-date with your progress. I think it’s great that you subscribe to “Vegetarian Times.” That being said, you may also want to check out Vegobsession chick’s blog. She has some really fantastic vegan recipes. One of them was featured on Shape.com. Have a great weekend Barbara!
The link is:
http://vegobsession.com
Auntie will be 97 years old in a couple of weeks and she is VERY set in her ways. I love to believe in possibilities, but…
I had to watch *Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself* a couple of times to get used to the Scottish accents, and since then I usually watch it a couple of times a year. It still cracks me up. 🙂
Thanks for suggesting the Vegobsession blog, Donna. It looks great and I subscribed! 🙂
Hope you’re having a great weekend, too! Tim’s working from home so I’m trying to catch up with blogs and emails.
I was just saying to Eva yesterday, “I enjoy eating, I just don’t enjoy cooking.” Perhaps if I had more recipes that I felt were worth the effort it would be more appealing. Your blog today makes me feel there may be hope! Such a positive and encouraging journey you are on!
I do know how you feel, Janet! That’s exactly how I felt until lately. You must come over and have a look at these cookbooks soon. Perhaps we can try cooking something new together and see how we get along in the kitchen. 🙂 There’s hope!
I want to try that cookbook, yes I do. I want to try your pistachio eggplant, yes I do. How I love vegan cooking too! (Although am not adverse to eating meat; just simply don’t enjoy it as much as some of these fabulous fantastic wonderful superb vegan meals!) Glad we have something else in common, Barbara.
Me, too, Kathy! Do you want me to email you the Pistachio-Crusted Eggplant Cutlets recipe? (I’m not sure what the copyright laws are for sharing recipes online – otherwise I would have published it here…) I am coming to admire the people who are able to create such original and delicious recipes. Tim’s starting to talk about getting a proper rice cooker…
I’m not sure if you got this via email, but I would LOVE a copy of this recipe, please, please, please!
Yep, this just popped up in my email. 🙂 Will get that out to you in a few minutes!
Sounds like things are going swimmingly. I’m so glad to hear it’s going so well. I never liked handling meat products either. Veggies are so much nicer. 🙂
Meant to add: Any chance I can get a copy of the recipe too? Pretty please? 🙂
So nice to know you understand, too, Robin! It’s fun looking at the produce section with a whole new eye. 🙂 Will send you the recipe, too!
While I’m not vegetarian anymore, I was for a few years and it was soon after my mum died and my dad was expecting me to cook for him daily (as I lived at home at the time). Mum had been in the habit of having meat or fish every lunchtime and I just couldn’t face all that, so I took that opportunity to go vegetarian and he had to find someone else to cook for him. (Later he discovered that he could cook for himself! My poor mum, if only he’d discovered his cooking skills while she was alive!)
I don’t like handling meat and we rarely eat it but mostly because it’s so expensive. I can’t call myself vegetarian anymore though as I get cravings for chicken and I just have to put up with my dislike of handling it. I’m very torn between two opposing needs in me.
I’d love to try this recipe but have a slight intolerance to Eggplant (which we call ‘Aubergine’ here in the UK, by the way) and that’s a shame as I love it!
Was your mom inclined towards vegetarianism?
Families and food preferences can be very tricky to deal with, especially when someone feels passionate about a particular diet for one reason or another. I tried becoming a vegetarian a couple of times but my husband and children would have none of it. But now Tim is motivated for health reasons and I couldn’t be more pleased! Tim still gets cravings for meat but I can honestly say that I don’t, although I still crave plenty of other things that are not good for me, like kettle popcorn.
I won’t send you the recipe then as I don’t want you to be tempted to upset your system with it! 🙂
No, both my parents were avid meat and fish eaters. I can’t recall a day when we didn’t have one or the other served for lunch (which was our main meal of the day, in our family).
It is said to be better to have the larger meals earlier in the day, which, with Tim working from home is easier for us to do. Supper is usually a smaller affair…
ps. I have a cookery/reference book called ‘The Gradual Vegetarian’ that you might like to get sometime. I had a look on Amazon for you, and it’s here:
The Gradual Vegetarian
Thanks for the suggestion, Val. I took a look at, but I think we’re beyond Step 3. I guess Step 4 would be a vegan, which we have arrived at rather quickly – there is no animal protein in this house! No milk, eggs, butter or cheese, things that vegetarians will eat.