Veggie Girl in a Carnivorous World

This Sunday’s LA Times’ Health Section will feature the topic of raising vegetarian children.  I had mixed feelings about it at first, especially the section that recommends “to watch for an eating disorder” if their child announces they are vegetarians in their teens.  What????  Thankfully, the article does state clearly that vegetarianism/veganism does NOT lead to eating disorders.  But still, I can’t help but think that people will read that subheadline and think otherwise.  Another point is that writing about raising vegetarian kids almost inherently suggests that raising vegetarian kids is difficult, or abnormal.  And what the hell is that kid eating? A dehydrated garden burger??? What the hell?

On the other hand, I’ve known so many families (including most of my aunts/uncles’ families) where one or both parents are vegetarian, and the children are not. I think maybe there are a lot of parents who feel like it’s too difficult to raise their children as vegetarians in this country.  There’s the annoyance of being the jerk that has to tell your kid to be wary of anything offered to them for fear that it contains animals (or animal byproducts). And of course, there’s the worry that you won’t be giving your kid the properly balanced nutrition. And then the simple worry about your child being the “weird kid” in school.  While not perfect, I think the short section does address those concerns and, in general, favorably discusses the vegetarian lifestyle.  

I read this and immediately thought about one of my summer camp kids (I was a counselor/instructor) years ago. He immediately walked up to me during lunch on the first day of camp and said, “Um, I’m a vegetarian.” He said it like a question, as if he was asking what he should do. I imagined his mom must of told him to tell counselors before he entered the lunch line, in case we set aside a special meal or something.  He was genuinely happy when I said I was too, and that we can stand in the same line, because there are vegetarian options in the cafeteria.  He must have been worried about once again being the weird kid.

Vegetarian Kids by Emily Sohn, LA Times

November 9, 2009:

Vegetarian Kids (Main Article)

Don’t Make Food a Conflict for a Vegetarian Child

Nutritional Guidelines for Vegetarian Children

When Teens Announce They’re Vegetarian

I saw this the other day on Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentis. I’m always looking for a new way to make pasta, and constantly switching up the green (spinach, arugula) & nut (walnuts, almonds) elements in pesto recipes wasn’t cutting it anymore.  So when I saw her process croutons and almonds, I thought I’d try it out. I was hesitant because of all the negative reviews the recipe has on the FoodNetwork.com site, but I decided that the negative reviewers probably don’t know how to cook.

That being said, I did make a few changes to make it vegan, and because there’s no way I’m going to put 3/4 cup of olive oil in this.  I used a 1/4 of a cup of olive oil instead, and added some of the reserved pasta water as needed.  I also opted to use homemade breadcrumbs seasoned with garlic powder, salt, and Italian seasonings.

It was definitely a different  taste. But I really enjoyed it! The almonds add a kind of creaminess -without the cream.  

Rigatoni Music:

Rigatoni with Red Pepper, Almonds & Bread Crumbs (Adapted from Giada de Laurentis)

The saddest thing about Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book is that most of the people who read it will be vegetarians and vegans.  The second saddest thing is that most of the people who won’t read it are the people who incorrectly think factory farms are not responsible for H1N1 or any of the other 76 million cases of food-borne diseases that the Center for Disease Control reports every year.

But maybe there will be someone of the latter category who will read it. And maybe they’ll be encouraged to find a local organic farmer. Or maybe they’ll go veg four times a week. Or twice a week. Or even better, mayhaps they shall be full on level five vegans! (okay, i’m not even a full on level five vegan, so that last part probably won’t happen with Joe Meateater).

Anyway, maybe it’s the pessimist in me, but I feel like he’s preaching the choir here.

Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science, that something terribly wrong is happening. We know that it cannot possibly be healthy to raise such grotesque animals in such grossly unnatural conditions. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film.

We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory — disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat, we live on tortured flesh. Increasingly, those sick animals are making us sick.

- Jonathan Safran Foer 10/28/09 via CNN

Yes, it does deserve an exclamation point.

Carrot cake is my favorite type of cake. I think cheesecake and tiramisu come close, but still don’t top it. I must have tried a million different variations of it, and most have them been okay. A few were great. And plenty of them were down right disgusting.

Saveur’s Carrot Cake recipe is my favorite.  It appeals to the carrot cake purist in me. I think that carrot cake should generally be devoid of  pineapple, raisins, cranberries, applesauce, or any other fruity complement. The only addition I need is a cup of chopped walnuts. I also love that there’s a whole pound and a half of carrots in the cake!

There’s a little tinkering that needs to be done with the recipe if you’re vegan though.  You can replace the eggs with 1 tbl of flax seed powder + 3 tbl spoons of water for every egg needed (in this case, 3 eggs = 3 tbl flax seed powder + 9 tbl water).  You can also easily just use Energy Egg Replacer.  Some people like applesauce as a substitute. I’m not a fan of this. 

There’s no butter necessary for this recipe, just line the pan with parchment or nonstick spray instead of buttering it.

The recipe says it only take 25 minutes.  This has never been enough time in my oven. I’ve always gone to about 35 minutes. 

It’s also not the  most fun to frost this cake. Crumbs inevitably get into the frosting (see above picture).  I’ve never had to make this cake for anyone or any special occasion; I usually just make little square mini-cakes and freeze them for later  – so I never really cared. But you might want to proceed with caution if this is a gift for someone.

I also like putting in 1/2 tsp more of the spices – depending on my mood.

What a cool idea. Why didn’t I think of this?