Think Outside The Culinary Box

"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world."

 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Greetings my fine friend.  Most magnificent and wonderful things will be bestowed upon you today.  And, all you have to do is to treat others as you would like to be treated and offer a smile to a stranger or two.  And if I am wrong?  What's the worst that could happen because you will have left a positive mark on this world of ours today.  Agreed?  Let you and I make this a win-win day.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Life as a vegetarian (or vegan) is easy!  Don't approach things from the "what I cannot eat" perspective.  Instead, why not look at the healthy and delicious things that you CAN eat or have yet to conquer!  Yes, think outside the culinary box.

It's too simple to maintain status quo.  To continue eating non-human animal flesh, to continue a downward spiral of health, to continue an inconsiderate eco- footprint on this planet, to promote the "me, me, me" mentality, and so on, and so on.  But it's truly equally easy to improve you inner-self, eat better, eat healthier, make this a better world than which you found it, and so on, and so on.

When I read a carnivorous cookbook or watch a television advertisement for McDonald's, I don't see what they are trying to sell to me.  I'm not buying it!  I no longer consume non-human animal flesh, simply by choice.  So, what do I see?  Instead I see the challenge to find an alternative food product that is vegetarian based.  Tacos don't require ground beef or shredded pork.  Why not use tofu?  Or seitan?  Or diced grilled veggies?  Or hummus?  Or mashed potatoes?  Or brown rice?  Or quinoa?  Okay, okay... You get the picture.

Don't tell me that you can no longer eat something because you have chosen to go the vegetarian (or vegan) route.  Instead I challenge you to find (or create) an alternative item.  Google it.  Buy a vegetarian cookbook.  Visit a blog site.  But stop saying, "I can't eat and enjoy that any longer.  I've become a vegetarian."

Take my challenge and you have opened a culinary world that you could have never imagined.  Yes, there will be mistakes and "experiments" along the way.  But, the same would have held true in a carnivorous lifestyle too.

In these past nine months I have tasted some of the most delicious, nutritional and exciting foods that my palate has ever experienced!  When people find out that I become a vegetarian and say, "Oh, you're a vegetarian now.  What do you eat?"  I respond back, "It's not so much what I can't eat but rather what I do eat.  I can eat so many, many more things than I chose not to eat!"

I apologize if I have bored you today. But, I sincerely hope that I've got your mind to thinking.  Maybe after you've turned off your computer monitor you will go revisit that old cookbook collection of your mothers?  Or maybe you will Google something you have been yearning from carnivorous days gone by.  Except... This time when you're reading the recipes you will begin to think how you can make the basic dish without use of carnivorous meats (or animal-based products).

Join me!  Become a free-will thinking human being once again.  Stop restricting yourself to the status quo and begin living life once again.  Except this time as a vegetarian (or vegan).

Hi-dee hi-dee surprise-yourself-in-the-kitchen-this-week-ho my friend.