Calling Vegetarians

I've eaten a lot less meat these past 10 years it seems somehow natural. I don't have the appetite I had when I was young - and fertile.
Still once or twice a week I cook it for lunch, and love bacon.

Vegetarians should not forget that if it weren't for animal manure there would not be so many vegetable and grain crops. You need manure so you need a lot of animals who will be eventually be slaughtered. You can grow some soft fruits and salads on water with chemicals in it and there is vegetable compost but not nearly enough.
I get the impression that most vegetarians want a platefull of food like we meat eaters have but without the meat. A Carvery is perfect for them

You've obviously never heard of stockfree agriculture, then Margaret, also called veganics.

How many vegetarians do you know? The ones I know avoid Carveries like the plague, likewise McDonalds, Nandos, etc.

A carvery, for vegetarians?

I am veggie and have to say I wouldn't go near a carvery.

Why do meat eaters always want to lecture vegetarians about their chosen way of life? What on earth does it mean to say 'vegetarians want a plateful of food like we meat eaters'? You mean full of growth promoting drugs and antibiotics? Yum?
You can keep your guilt or whatever it is. I am perfectly capable of producing plateful after plateful of delicious vegetarian food using a wide range of vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, miso, tofu and possibly small amounts of dairy but vegetarians do not eat masses of cheese to make up for all that protein that meat eaters think they need. Eating meat, especially red meat, is known to be a cause of cancers of the bowel and stomach. Vegetarians live longer and healthier lives and as durhamjen says, you don't need to keep and kill animals to produce manure.
If most people in the developed world ate less meat there would be more food for everyone else. Feeding animals grain to produce meat is an expensive luxury and meat production leads to vast amounts of slurry and animal waste.

I wouldn't mind going veggie, have toyed with the idea !

However ,am rather fond of meat, so it is not going to happen !

I think it's hard for meat eaters to switch because meat has such a strong taste and cooking meat and two veg kind of thing is simpler. Decent vegetarian food takes a bit more time and creativity but there are some good cook books out there now and also some good ready meals and products. We have eaten Linda McCartney sausages for years now and the range has extended enormously.

I'm sorry, I seem to have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest here. It wasn't the meat eaters that brought up the subject of boring vegetarian food - it was me. I was just saying I find it a bit of a struggle just eating vegetables. It's easy to forsake meat if you don't enjoy eating it - it's more of a struggle if you do.

Vegetarian food can be very interesting and tasty but to make it so requires more imagination and energy than I seem to be able to muster these days (though I did make a very tasty cashew nut, red pepper, green beans, shredded cabbage, ginger, chillie and garlic stir fried noodles for lunch which was quite a success).

For those wondering what I have decided to make for DGD (and others who no doubt will wish to have a taste), I think it may be two dishes, but not yet absolutely certain.

I have a recipe, kindly sent to me by suzied, for a brazil and cashew nut roast which sounds delicious. I also have one for a goats cheese filo pie which I am thinking of making as an individual small pie as DGD is a complete cheese addict. There will be vegetables, roasties etc. on the table.

Thanks again everyone - inspiration has struck thankfully!

I didn't find if hard to give up meat because I had been feeling that it made me bloated and this was solved as soon as I gave up. The most difficult thing to give up is bacon. Even after thirty years, I still feel attracted by the smell of it grilling or frying.

I eat meat but I only have a meat and two veg type of meal once in a blue moon. Omnivorous eating is as versatile as anything. Objectively speaking it must be the most versatile since no ingredient has to be avoided unless one dislikes its taste, texture or the effect it has on one's body. Sadly I have to avoid garlic, even though I like its taste, as it always makes my throat and oesophagus hurt for several hours.

So, anyway, I just want to say I think the meat and two veg image of omnivorous eating is somewhat limited and, certainly in my case, mistaken. I haven't eaten any meat (or fish; probably should say animal flesh to be perfectly clear) today, for instance, as it happens.

I am glad I don't have to avoid any food "like the plague" unless hygiene is concerned. Plague is a very emotive word.

Happily, meat does not cause plagues.

Rats, I'm the live stage? Or rather their adherents

In the live stage. Not me! I think I'm dead!

Oh dear - I didn't lecture anyone, and I try very hard not to impose my views on others. Just responding to a request.

Mind you, the "I could be a vegetarian" bit always amuses me. Why bother saying that?

Gagagran I have PM'd you again with a recipe.

Actually, Galen, there was a plague, the Antonine plague, which was also called the Galen plague. Presumably it cannot be transmitted over the internet, but like all plagues can only be trasmitted and caught by animals.

Ariadne, I always used to get that as an excuse when I had a vegetarian guest house, "I could be vegetarian but my husband likes his meat."
As I've said before, I told them to cook vegetarian and add meat if necessary.
I will always cook for anyone; it's just that they will not eat meat or fish in my house, or guest house as it used to be. There are some choices I can not respect.

Are you going to do both, gagagran, as from experience, meat eaters always want to taste the vegetarian option? It does not work the other way round.

I wasn't going to comment on this thread, not being a vegetarian, but have been reading it with interest.

"There are some choices I can not respect" is, however, the sort of judgemental comment which puts non-vegetarians' (and probably even some vegetarians') backs up!

Eloethan, I understand what you mean. Vegetarian food usually takes longer to prepare than other food, vegan food even longer. But when you have chopped all the delicious vegetables, it often takes less time to cook.
The thing is that other diets do not allow for vegetables and grains and pulses being protein, and enough protein for us to live on. Hence the idea of having to eat meat and fish.
Living on my own, I tend to have stir fries most days, often just with tofu in them. I rarely eat potatoes, preferring sweet potatoes as they last longer and do not sprout before I have used them. I love soba noodles, easy to cook and add to a stir fry.
I know of five generation vegetarian families who are all very healthy.

Good heavens, Ana, you had to comment on what I said. There's a surprise!
What's wrong with a committed vegetarian, for nearly forty years, not being able to respect meat eaters? Like I said to gagagran, in the same comment, it does not work the other way round. We do not say, "Your food looks nice. Can I taste it?"

So you're openly saying that you don't respect meat-eaters, but you expect no one to comment on that, durhamjen?

I'm lost for words, you'll be relieved to know.

What you seem to be saying, dj, is that you do not accept the principle that if one believes in freedom of choice for oneself then one should also believe in freedom of choice for everyone else. That does not strike me as a very respect-worthy position to take because people who really believe in freedom and equality want the same freedoms for everyone else that they want for themselves.

Your position, from what you've said, would appear to be authoritarian rather than liberal. I mean liberal in its broadest sense, of course, not in its narrow party political sense.

Not respecting someone's right to choose to eat meat and not respecting people who eat meat (which is what you said) is exactly the unpleasant morally superior attitude I was talking about earlier. It would appear I didn't misinterpret some 'tones' as much as was implied.