Meatless March

Last November, we were part of a wacky and wonderful endeavor by two of my college friends and their three kids. They made our house a stop on their school-year-long journey around the country, visiting friends and family. We hosted them for a little over 2 weeks. For the most part, Mandy and I teamed up each night to cook for our two families. It was good fun to have someone to chat with while we worked (I sometimes feel lonely in the kitchen, ever since then!), and it was sort of exhilarating to pull off cooking full meals for 8 people night after night. A few weeks ago Mandy followed up to ask for one of the recipes we cooked, " Roasted Cauliflower Gratin with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese ," from NYT Cooking (subscription required). I could barely remember making it, but she reminded me that it was good, and urged me to make it again in pursuit of meatlessness, so that's what we had tonight! And it really is good - a great blend of flavors, and reasonably healthy. You...

NYT Cooking's " White Bean Burgers " (subscription required) are a lot easier to make than NYT Cooking's " The Ultimate Veggie Burger ," and they're not really comparable anyway. The latter aims to resemble meat; the former is its own meatless thing. Pat actually preferred the white bean burgers. I cut the recipe in half but, as is my signature move, I forgot to halve one ingredient (the egg) and it turned out just fine. I cooked them on the sandwich press rather than in a skillet, so I wouldn't have to flip them. Hey, guess what? A new study claims that meal kits are actually better for the environment than the traditional shopping and cooking model, on the whole. I did not see that coming. I'm afraid that rather than being encouraged, I'm just ever more dismayed that there is no way to live and eat without degrading the planet. Nonetheless: my tulips and azaleas and bleeding hearts are blooming, and thanks to plenty of rain, ...

" Roasted Butternut Squash Bread Salad " from NYT Cooking (subscription required) was last night's vegan dinner (tonight was leftovers). I am not wild about squash but this was a good way to make it appealing. I recommend doubling the sauce, and using slightly more bread than called for. Most of what I have been eating this week, it seems, is Easter chocolate. Damn, there is a lot of chocolate in the house. Or rather there WAS a lot, on Sunday, and now there is considerably less, and I feel sort of icky. But what I still feel truly icky about is plastic, so I raised the concerns from my last blog post to a couple of the people working on the proposed reuseable bag ordinance for my town. One of them pointed me to this piece, " Plastic bag bans can misfire if consumers just use other bags instead ," by Rebecca Taylor. He noted that even though her piece covers the unintended problems with bag bans, it actually provides support for them if you look ...

While this blog focuses on my quest to reduce meat in my diet and encourage others to do the same, for environmental reasons, I have lately branched out. As mentioned in previous posts , I have found myself engaging in local environmental activism, in support of a proposed plastic bag ban in my town. I should have anticipated that what seemed like a simple issue turned out to be complicated. Trees are prettier without bags in them. Without question, there is a humongous and growing global problem with plastic waste. Plastic pollution in the North Atlantic, for example, has increased dramatically in the last 60+ years. This Axios visual is based on this new research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09506-1?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosscience&stream=science And when plastics break down, their microscopic particles enter our water, our food chain, and even our air.  In addition, while plastic productio...

I spent the last week on a fantastic vacation in Portugal. Portugal is surely not the most difficult place to be vegetarian, but it's not really the easiest, either. Below, for example, is the menu from one restaurant where we had dinner. You will note the two categories of food: fish and meat. That's it! No further categories! My sister had informed me before I left on the trip that octopus is a Portugese specialty, and I found myself eating a ton of octopus, and loving it. Sorry, cephalopods! I am now working on reverting to mostly-vegetarianism, and tonight I made "B aked Polenta With Crispy Leeks and Blue Cheese ," from NYT Cooking (subscription required). As you surely have noted by now, I must always make at least one error when cooking, but tonight's was minor: I dumped in all the polenta at once on the stove, rather than adding it slowly as called for in the recipe. There was a deeply alarming moment when the mix was sending up giganti...

I was beety-eyed again today and tried " Beet Pasta with Ricotta ," on Martha Stewart's website. The result was quite beautiful, but did not taste very interesting, even though it wasn't bad. I did omit the pepper flakes except for a few sprinkled on top, because Emma. Is it supposed to be this unsmooth? I don't know. It turned out okay though. I used whole wheat pasta because where the heck would a person even find farrow pasta? If you make this recipe, you should know that 12 oz of pasta really only needs about half of the sauce recipe. And it's easy, but it does take at least an hour and a half to roast a one-pound beet to the point of tenderness. Maybe a little soft lighting and romantic music might nudge it more quickly into tenderness, I don't know. Ha ha. Seductive pasta? Come hither? Speaking of which, in terms of color, this would be an excellent vegetarian dish to make for Valentine's Day, which is only 10 months away, ...

I was skeptical when I eyed the recipe for " Ranch Grilled Cheese " on Tasting Table, because you are supposed to slather the ranch mayo on the OUTSIDE of the sandwich, then slap it on the griddle. The OUTSIDE!! The sheer audacity of that! I put skepticism aside, and my backup dancer Emma assisted with mixing and slathering the ranch mayo, using a portion of a packet of Hidden Valley ranch seasoning. Be warned, that stuff is salty. We used a blend of regular and smoky cheddar. Lo and behold, the result was smashing. My one regret is that I could have gotten away with less butter - maybe half. I served it with roasted broccoli. As Sam Sifton of NYT Cooking would write, this news is a far cry from cheesy comfort food, but our dear friend Ginge became a U.S. citizen yesterday! Ginge is from England. I attended the ceremony for her and 28 other immigrants. Having studied hard for the test, she probably knows more about American government and history than I do at this ...

Meatless March is over, but I'm still here! And I made a crazy good vegetarian dish tonight: " Indian Butter Tofu ," from NYT Cooking (subscription required - for my thoughts on why a subscription is worthwhile, read here ). Well, *I* thought it was crazy good. My backup dancers' reactions were muted. Not NEGATIVE, just muted. More for me, I say. Knowing my audience, I had made it not spicy: I used a mild chili powder (Stop-and-Shop brand is very mild) and not quite as much ginger as specified, and I didn't add that final teaspoon of turmeric at the end. In my spare time, I'm still fighting Big Plastic, and if you like whales, then you too will be motivated to fight Big Plastic when you read about the 48 pounds of plastic that were in one poor whale when it died. I apologize that the article is depressing. But plastic bag bans like the one my town is considering do help reorient consumers away from plastic. That is a step in the right direction...

Here we are, on the last day of Meatless March! 31 days of avoiding eating animals have come to an end, and I am imagining cows mooing their thank yous for my month-long abstinence from meat. Don't tell the bovines, but I am looking forward to reintroducing meat occasionally into my diet, to be perfectly honest. I wouldn't mind some sushi now and then, or a real beef burger here and there. But the evidence is clear that a meaty diet is bad for the earth, and I'm done with that. Change isn't always easy, but it keeps us vital, doesn't it? It is a beautiful trait to be able to adapt. I plan to continue this blog as I try new vegetarian dishes to share. Thank you for reading! Thank you to everyone who sent me recipes or otherwise encouraged me! Thank you for considering how you might help fight climate change by reducing meat in your own diet! Settling in to the last Meatless March supper, framed by forsythia harvested from our yard "Never again"...

I have successfully made " Barley Gratin with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes " (from Food & Wine) previously, and somehow this time it made about 2 cups too much for my pan. I used 1 cup of farro instead of 1 cup of the barley because I didn't have enough barley, so maybe that made the difference. Or maybe SOMETHING has to go wrong every time I tie on an apron, metaphorically of course, since I almost never cook with an apron, because I like to live on the edge. I went to the store to buy caraway seeds for this recipe. What was the ONE SPICE that was not in stock?? Ughhh. But fear not, I found them elsewhere. I saved those 2 cups of the barley-mushroom-etc mix for some other purpose and soldiered on, and it turned out well, as it had last time. It's good comfort food. Stirring the barley mix and the onion-mushroom mix into the cheese mix Emma and I decided to bake a dessert tonight to go with dinner. We made "Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars," ...

Do you sometimes find containers like this in your freezer? Leftovers from some forgotten meal from the past? I feel fortunate that I labeled this one ("veggie peanut stew") and even offered a serving suggestion ("serve w/rice"); usually they are just tubs of frozen mystery food because I am always sure I will remember what they are, and I am always wrong. However, I don't know where I got the recipe, so you're out of luck in that respect. Which is a bit of a shame, because it was surprisingly tasty upon thawing and reheating. Served over rice, of course. Given the lack of further things to say about veggie peanut stew, I thought I would share this handy chart that  a friend brought to my attention: I was interested in how these foods compare to meat when it comes to protein, and she helpfully dug up this other chart: If I can ever bring myself to really cut back on non-meat animal products (I'm thinking about it! Baby steps, peop...

Last night I attended a very nice reception for University of Minnesota alumni, and I had to say "no thank you" a thousand times to trays of mini-crabcakes and tiny smoked salmon toasts and gourmet pigs-in-a-blanket. Finally, a tray of vegetarian quesadilla slices appeared. I practically grabbed the tray out of the server's hands and wolfed them down. Despite the lack of sustenance at the event, I did meet some lovely people. Earlier in the day, I got to try my first Impossible Burger for lunch, and it was everything we have been promised. I would be perfectly happy never eating a beef burger again if these were available everywhere, and that is really saying something, for me. Impossible Burger Tonight for dinner I made " Dr. Weil's Sweet Potato-Poblano Soup " from Martha Stewart's website. Who is Dr. Weil? Martha does not condescend to tell us. I did change the recipe, which is vegan, in some key ways. The reviews for this soup all noted th...

On Sunday, I outlined in this blog how plastic production and waste contributes to climate change . One argument against a plastic-bag ban, as my town is considering, is that it will be a burden for low-income customers. I am sympathetic to people for whom that is the case, but as addressed in the U.S. government's 2018 " Fourth National Climate Assessment ," low-income communities will likely be the most hurt by climate change. Low-income and other vulnerable communities lack resources to prepare for and cope with climate disruptions, the report noted. Picture people who may be unable to afford to heat or cool their homes as extreme temperatures become more frequent. They may rely on community infrastructure, such as public transportation, that could be compromised in a natural disaster caused or made worse by climate change. They may lack sufficient property insurance to recoup damages from extreme weather events caused or made worse by climate change, and lack the...

Everything is good about " Oven-Baked Mexican Quinoa Casserole " from the Vegangela blog: the great taste, the remarkably few dishes to clean up, its healthiness, and of course its vegetarian nature. In fact, it is a vegan dish, unless you put cheese and/or sour cream on it, as I'm admittedly inclined to do. This dish could be called a remarkably healthy comfort food, or a remarkably comforting healthy food. This is a terrible picture, isn't it? You can't even see the darned casserole underneath all the avocado and cheese. Sorry. A LeCreuset dutch oven makes this dish a one-pot phenomenon As you know, we are avoiding meat this month because meat production contributes to climate change. Climate change causes me great anxiety. Other environmental problems are also awful, but on the surface, it seemed to me like they're not a cause of the climate change that is turning our planet into something different and unfriendly. Like species extinction...

A person needs a lot of time on her hands to make " Michael Ruhlman’s No-Stock French Onion Soup ," from the Alexandra's Kitchen blog (shall we call it "Alexandra Stafford's Michael Ruhlman's No-Stock French Onion Soup?" No, we shall not). In fact, I made the soup weeks ago, and froze the leftovers. Regrettably, I did not take pictures of the creation process. I was delighted with how it tasted, even if it took ages to make, even longer than the recipe warned. But I have to say that it did not taste nearly as good when thawed and reheated tonight (and it needed more liquid). So if you're making it, invite some people over to finish it off right away. Bonjour Today is World Water Day, offering a chance to reflect on the linkages between water, agriculture, climate change, and security. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has issued a new report that could--I cannot sugarcoat this--cause you to despair. It informs us that the "great...