June 21, 2009

Happy to be a vegetarian!

I have been a vegetarian for going on 2 years now. It has been pretty difficult to find foods that are fulfilling and yummy at the same time. In fact, I am probably the UNhealthiest vegetarian you will ever meet. I live on french fries and ice cream, I am not fond of veggies and tofu makes me gag. Because of this, I was actually a pescetarian (fish eater) for most of the 2 years but have recently cut fish out of my diet as well.

People are always asking why I chose to become a vegetarian. Well, without writing a really long post, I will briefly touch on my reasons. I do not live a vegetarian lifestyle for health reasons, I do it for moral reasons. I do not agree with the way animals are slaughtered for our use. If you haven't seen the videos, I urge you to watch them. There is nothing humane about the meat industry. It isn't that I believe that people shouldn't eat animals, it is that I believe we have commercialized the industry so much that we no longer show any respect to the animals. Ramming electric rods up pig's and cow's anuses and vaginas. Slamming chickens and baby pigs against the ground when they are "uncooperative." Crowding hundreds of animals together with no room to even turn around or lay down, while expecting them to live in these conditions for months. Stunning a cow (which doesn't actually work) then slitting their throat and watching them convulse as they bleed to death. Slitting the throats of chickens as they hang in front of you, then throwing them in a pot of boiling water before they are even dead. Throwing male chicks into a gigantic blender because they are unable to produce eggs. These are just a few examples. And there is a ton of evidence proving all of this, don't even try to say it is made up propaganda. (Some people don't believe it even when shown the proof).

So...I choose to be a vegetarian for moral reasons. If I knew the animals were being humanely treated while alive and humanely euthanized, I would be able to eat their meat. But since the industry is a cruel, cruel reality, I choose not to eat meat. My husband has eaten only chicken for over a year and recently has taken the step to eliminate even chicken from his diet. I am so proud of him because like me, he does not like alot of vegetables or healthy foods. We eat mostly pastas and Mexican dishes made with beans instead of meat.

Anyway, the point of this post is that we tried Morningstar vegetarian bacon and vegetarian Grillers Prime (hamburgers) and we are IN LOVE!! I can't even tell you just how good they are! The bacon (fakon is what I call it) tastes like turkey bacon and the Grillers Prime taste JUST like a hamburger. So yummy! I am just so excited about this! I have eaten so many unfulfilling meals since cutting meat out of my diet, gone to bed hungry so many times and now...there are a multitude of options for me. All vegetarian: Maple flavored sausage patties, original sausage patties, sausage crumbles (for biscuits and gravy), hamburger crumbles (we can have TACOS again!!), chicken nuggets, chicken patties, bbq riblets and so much more! I can't wait to try them all. The 2nd best part (the best being that they are cruelty free) is that their prices are comparible to their meat counterparts. Yay!

So please, tell your friends and family that they can eat yummy things that are cruelty free and are also lower in fat, calories and cholesterol! They taste great and you can feel good about eating them. I am so happy I decided to try the Morningstar brand. It took us so long to try it because we had tried BOCA veggie burgers at Burger King before and YUCK! They were NOT good. So we shyed away from trying anything vegetarian after that. Thankfully we found the Morningstar brand though because they make delicious meat free options!