I Could Do That!

This morning one of my co-workers told me she was surprised to hear I’m a vegetarian. I think the surprise was more that there aren’t a lot of vegetarians around these parts than surprise that I am that vegetarian. What followed after was the usual question about what I eat. I gave her a rundown of what I had eaten recently (lentil soup, curried chickpea-filled pitas, vegetarian chili). She expressed some mild interest and by this time another co-worker had joined the conversation.

When speaking about my vegetarianism I try to be as honest as possible. I told them that I love the flavor of meat. I think it’s delicious. I just choose not to eat it. I told them one easy thing to do is to substitute a non-meat food for a meat in a favorite dish. You can do this easily with beans. My favorite Sunday lunch right now is a simple taco salad made with canned black beans. Sometimes I go crazy and buy the spicy ones (organic from Whole Foods). Toss with a little salsa, some tortilla chips and a pile of lettuce. Yum! Add black olives, pickled jalapenos, soy cheese, cilantro, red onion, corn, whatever. The think I love about salad is that you can make it totally your own and it’s a great way to use up small bits of veggies leftover from other cooking. This salad works just as well when the fridge is a little barer than I would like. The important part is the beans, which are full of protein, well, and the salsa. The entire meal is really just a vehicle to get more salsa into my body.

So, back to the conversation, I told her to try black beans instead of meat in a taco salad and to my delight she said, “I could do that!” And so can you, readers!

Question: Would you be willing to try eating vegetarian a few meals a week if it was as easy as replacing the meat with something else in a meal you already like?