2024, Food, home, Mysteries

To Meat or Not to Meat

32 Comments

I’ve been a vegetarian for 51 years.  At that time there was a company in California called Loma Linda who made a handful of meat analogs; here in the Midwest you could find them in the occasional health food store.  I only tried one of their products once.  Too much money and the taste didn’t appeal too much.  It looks like they are still in business but I haven’t seen their products around here for a few decades. 

Meat alternatives have never been a big draw for me.  We do some vegetarian sausages regularly and occasionally a veggie hot dog or veggie bacon, but that’s about it.  I’m not interested in fake tuna or fake corn dogs or fake chicken filets. There are TONS more vegetarian/fake meats out there these days but I don’t pay too much attention. 

Last week Trader Joe’s featured “Vegan Pepperoni” in their monthly flyer and it caught my eye so I stopped by when I was out and about and picked up a package.  Also got some herbed pizza dough while I was there (pizza dough is in the refrigerated section right beneath the pepperoni – coincidence?

I made the pizza the next day – tomato sauce, pepperonis, green olives, black olives, provolone, shaved parmesan/romano, mozzarella.  It was quite yummy.

There is a half package of the vegan pepperonis left – I will probably make another pizza in the next couple of days.  I’m pretty sure that the pepperonis won’t ben a regular purchase for us.  While they were OK, they certainly didn’t make the pizza stand out.  There are so many good things that can go on a pizza; pepperonis just aren’t necessary in my book.  I’m not sorry I got them, just not looking forward to getting them again.

Have you tried anything new recently?

32 thoughts on “To Meat or Not to Meat”

  1. OT. Blevins on Sunday at VSs house. 2 p.m. The Gift of the Deer by Helen Hoover and Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway – 2 books as different from each other as can be!!!!

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  2. This doesn’t respond to the prompt so much as to the topic of the post. I admit to being “churchy” and to having a twisted way of commenting on scripture readings by turning them into songs, and then to videos. This lesson came up sometime last year.

    Musings on Meat

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  4. I’m a member of two food co-ops: St. Peter and Just Food in Northfield. One of them sent me an invitation to download an app for the Co-op deals, so I did. Lo and behold, they sent a largish box full of Co-op brand stuff. A package of rice cakes which were actually pretty good; two bags of granola; some corn chips; some tea; some oatmeal; some chocolates; a lip balm; a whole pile of coupons; and a package of seaweed. I’ve never tried seaweed before but I’m brave about trying new foods, so I opened the package and pulled out a branch of the seaweed. It seemed partially dried but not so desiccated that it was crumbly. I tried it. It had a mildly tangy, salty flavor, but the aftertaste was pure fish. Just really, really fishy fish. Ack. I am very open about trying different foods, but if that is what eating seaweed is about, no thanks.

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  5. For the first time last week there was shredded beets for The Birds. Three of them rejected the veggie. One waded right in. After a week, his claws are still somewhat red. So today, for the first time, the flock got pineapple. I arranged the slices so that they would walk on them while getting to millet treat. Three have rejected the trap. Mister adventure now has clean claws from pineapple juice.

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  6. I made something a few months ago called Three Sisters Stew, a Native American staple, I understand. Features three mainstays of a traditional SW Indian diet–squash, beans, corn. Also lots of onion, garlic, New Mexico peppers, and seasonings. Delicious! I’m not a vegetarian, so I don’t regularly make no-meat meals, but I’ll make this again.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  7. Well, we tried a new ramen restaurant yesterday- Tori Ramen on West 7th Street in St. Paul. It was the latest in our project to sample all the well-rated ramen restaurants in town. Tori Ramen is in an old rail car, which makes the venue very appealing. The food itself was lukewarm and indifferent at best and the menu spartan. Imagine a ramen restaurant that doesn’t offer tea as an option! The whole operation just seemed sloppy.

    We won’t be back.

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  8. I’m trying a Boston Brown Bread recipe today that I have done in decades, so it’ll be just like something new. Will let you know how it turns out later.

    We have a gift card to Applebee’s (in LaCrosse area), so have tried some new food items recently, but nothing worth mentioning (translate: I can’t remember what they were called).

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  9. A while ago I mentioned our dining experience at a neighborhood Ethiopian restaurant. The veggie combo platter that we shared had three or four different lentil dishes, each unique, and flavorful.

    My larder is well stocked with various dried legumes, including red and green lentils, yellow and green split peas, and various dried beans. I also have lots of spices, dried herbs, and other seasonings, so I’ve been experimenting. We’ve been eating a lot of Ethiopian inspired foods lately. I’m not crazy about injera, so I’ve been serving it with Lebanese flatbread and/or rice.

    Last night we had dinner at Everest on Grand, it’s one of our favorite ethnic restaurants in St. Paul. I had their Chicken Palak and Hans had their Chicken Vindaloo. Looks like our food this coming week will be inspired by a different continent.

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  11. I am not an adventurous eater. Over the course of a bunch of international trips I have sampled kangaroo (kind of tough), warthog (delicious – similar to pork), cooked seaweed (like Krista, not a fan of it), impala sausage (ick), camel (not bad). In Peru I had a chance to eat guinea pig but couldn’t bring myself to try it. Back home, I eat pretty generically – some would say boring. I am not vegetarian but I don’t eat much meat any more.

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  12. My adventure for the day was with water. Had a CT Scan for which I was to drink two glasses of water 30 minutes before the appointment. This is a tale of wee-wee woe by a 79 year-old man. I was taken in 12 minutes late. I then had to wait about 5 minutes while they rebooted. They did their first three passes. I was going to say runs, but thought better of it. Then injected half the dye. Then I waited 13 minutes. Then they injected the second half the dye. Then they did the next pass. I waited about five minutes. Did not get a clear image. I had to cough as hard as I could. Hold and cough. There is a challenge. Did the pass. Waited. Nope. They thought about it. Repositioned me. Had me do four hard coughs. Hold and cough. Another pass. Waited. It worked. They wanted me to sit on the edge of the sled for three minutes. Fat chance of that.

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  13. One of my fellow volunteers is on vacation this week – hunting feral pigs in Oklahoma. I gather they look very different than domestic pigs, but the meat is probably not dissimilar.

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