Humble Oatmeal

Breakfast. That thing you're supposed to eat before you run out the door on a frantic dash that doesn't stop until sometime after you fall asleep watching a late movie. As a Stay-at-home-Wife I'm exceedingly lucky to not have to deal with all that chaos, however Hubby still needs to eat before waltzing out the door in his way to work. Well, to be more accurate, crashes out the door like a tornado, banging the metal screen door shut as my ears protest.

There are the mornings where 'happy accidents' stride into the kitchen and take over a boring meal. Oatmeal is my favorite hot cereal, hot & thick. One morning the raisins were mad. Tired of being dumped in second rate foods, especially just oatmeal. Raisins loved being the star with oatmeal as long as Cookies was attached to the title, but that one thing lacking made the raisins cringe. "Don't you dare put us in that mush!" they wailed, looking down their noses at the humble oats. It's Christmas that did it I think. They had reached their hight of fame as one of the lead roles in my first fruitcake. My mother and sister (who both live with us at the moment) just raved over the cake, both of which previously had thought I was bonkers for wanting to make fruitcake. Rummaging through the kitchen I came across some bits and pieces to toss in with the lowly oatmeal. Much to my surprise (and hubby's delight) oatmeal became interesting again.

Autumn's Oatmeal

1/4 c. Raisins
1/4 c. Coconut
2 c. Water
1 small to medium Carrot, grated
3/4 c. Oatmeal
Sugar-free Maple Syrup, to taste
Cinnamon, to taste
Nutmeg, to taste

Microwave raisins & coconut in 1/2 c. water on High for 2 minutes, let stand 5-10 minutes. Grate carrot into small pan, adding remaining 1 1/2 c. water. Add raisin mixture to carrots and bring to a boil. Add oatmeal, cooking to desired consistency. Season with syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I do have to point out that the oatmeal pic doesn't have any coconut in it (hubby prefers it that way), but to me it tastes a lot better with it. 3/4 c. of oatmeal is the 'heart healthy' serving recommendation on the back of the Quaker Oats box.

Snookered Fruit Oatmeal

1/2 c. Dried Cranberries
1/2 c. Golden Raisins
3/4 c. Peach Schnapps
1 1/2 c. Water
3/4 c. Oatmeal
Sugar-free Maple Syrup

Combine cranberries, raisins, and schnapps in air tight container, shake well and let sit 12-24 hours to rehydrate. Boil water, adding oatmeal according to package directions. Top oatmeal with desired amount of fruit, schnapps, and syrup.

Any dried fruit can be used, its just what I had leftover from a second fruitcake I didn't make. Personally I think the schnapps is perfect with dried apricots, candied ginger, and orange zest. I would assume that this could be made with cream of rice, cream of wheat or other hot cereal that strikes your fancy. I do have to point out that the pic is a double serving, otherwise it wouldn't fit in the dish. :)

Good Food

One reason it took me so many years to finally become a vegetarian was the misconception that they only eat weird food, laking in any real taste, and textures that resembled regurgitated food. Eating piles of beans with a side of green muck, either in a glass or on a plate, and somehow LIKED it. I have to admit, I'm not a bean fan, vegetarian refried beans are alright, once some ketchup is added to make it not so pasty, but even then definitely has to be added to something.

If I was going to be a vegetarian it wasn't to pretend I was a rabbit and eat green salads all the time (I'm not too fond of them, perhaps I just need to rethink them). I wanted good food. Like the kind you'd eat instead of a bag of chips, or bread and butter, or Mac & Cheese. For quite some time I didn't think food like that honestly existed, well, not after you left the meat out of it.

In an attempt to eat more veggies I bought a couple of vegetarian cookbooks. My first one I found at Walden Books was Vegetarian: The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook for about $20. This is still my favorite reference, if nothing else than for the food encyclopedia that's in the front. This is a big book at nearly 2 inches thick and 512 pages long, full of BEAUTIFUL photography. I have a paperback copy that came with a sturdy plastic jacket that makes it nice if you need to wipe it down after experimenting. :D

For quite some time I would simply look through the book, seeing the huge variety of things available, and realized that there was a significant number of things I was eating that were already vegetarian, or at least nearly.

The second book I bought was The Clueless Vegetarian, a cookbook aimed at beginners full of great recipes in a very non-intimidating format. My mother and sisters loved the Fancy French Potato Salad, not what I'd think of a traditional potato salad, but I liked it even better.

Between these two books I began to see that it was not only possible to have vegetarian food that was not only good food but better than what I had been eating before. Realizing that I had finally found some of the information I was casually looking for over many years.

Thanksgiving and Christmas had come and gone and the lights from New Year's were just fading, the time of year when there seems to be a constant overflow of good food, or at least comfort foods. 'Tis the season to eat without thinking, right? After growing so tired of doing things the same way that I always did, I was finally ready for a change.

I always thought it would be hard to finally take the last few steps into vegetarianism, but all it took was a change in thinking, helpful cookbooks for encouragement, and some good food.

Scribblings from the human vegetarian.

I want there to be no misconceptions: I am not some food guru, health nut, gourmet chef, or any other silly notion of that sort. I'm just someone beginning (again) to work my way towards altering my eating habits towards more healthy options. I may not be a lone vegetarian in a family of meat-eaters (my MIL and SIL are both vegetarians) although I often feel as if I'm the weirdo in the family because of my choice.

I really don't like cooking for myself at all, perhaps I don't feel like I'm worth it, although DH would tell me differently. I think that's one thing I find very difficult, I've been married 8 1/2 years, 3 years ago I became vegetarian, Hubby is deathly allergic to onions & any peppers (and most related foods with some tiny exceptions), and very much a meat fiend. Last year we found out my Hubby is type 2 diabetic. I have done some personal research into the Blood Type Diet and found that I mostly agree with it. For those who know what it means, Hubby is a type O, and I'm a type A (who grew up with a mother and 3 type O siblings), further complicating the issue. For those who don't know, in short Hubby has a predisposition as a meat eater and my body functions better on a purely vegetarian diet.

Hubby has said that he would be a vegetarian except that we know for a fact that when he doesn’t eat meat he gets very lethargic and has difficulty functioning. Even at that, there hardly seems to be many vegetarian foods that don’t contain onions, black pepper, white pepper, bell peppers, fresh/whole tomatoes, eggplant, paprika, chili powder, etc. all of which trigger his allergy and his throat swells shut. There are a few exceptions like ketchup, tomato sauce, and the juice from mild salsa (I still don’t understand how he can eat that other than he does it in very small amounts).

Me on the other hand, I don’t want to eat dead animals, although I like veggie ‘meat’ alternatives (compared to my MIL who doesn’t even like the taste of meat), I'm allergic to pineapple, have a relatively low tolerance for greasy foods/too much oil, I like dairy but more than just a little of it will put me in a lot of pain so I try to limit my intake (mostly it’s dairy fat that’s the worst, I can have fat free milk without much notice). Hubby has been commenting recently on how sensitive my stomach is, I can’t eat a lot of overly spicy foods, vinegar even if its in mustard or ketchup), onion or bell peppers (these need to be eaten with some form of bread, rice, or light yogurt), baking soda, all of this as well as salt give me very bad stomach aches. I don’t drink pop very much because even the carbonation feels like it’s burning my throat!

Despite what the current trend is (on the Net at least), I'm not attempting to be a martyr for vegetarianism, only to spout how perfect I am in everything I consume. If I could do that I’d be a complete vegan. I'm human, I don’t eat perfectly, and god forbid I even eat marshmallows on occasion! I simply do my best, some days I fail miserably, and often feel miserable because of it, but at least I'm trying.

Perhaps this is just a silly attempt (yet again) to connect in my own way with the world at large, maybe find some encouragement, but if nothing else hopefully it will help me track back to being a healthier vegetarian.