JTV: Chinese Food

Yesterday at the Rockband get together I did have some Coq Au Vin. I have a hard time serving people completely vegetarian meals because there seems to be a negative stigma against not providing meat protein as a dinner party host.

I made some great vegetarian sides like cauliflower au gratin, garlic green beans and whole wheat couscous, of which I have plenty of leftovers that I'll be eating for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, for lunch I had a bean and cheese burrito. I think going forward I'll have to get those from Taco Bell because I can only assume that authentic restaurants have animal lard in the beans. At least, that's what fiance keeps reminding me.

I'm back eating vegetarian and stopped into the Veggie Wokery, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant and ordered basil eggplant, hot and sour soup and a side of multigrain brown rice. IN the soup I came across faux squid! It actually had the consistency of squid and you could barely tell it wasn't real squid!

Here's another reason to go vegetarian, courtesy of the Vegetarian Times:

"2 You'll save your heart. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the United States, and the standard American diet (SAD) that's laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat and dairy is largely to blame. Children as young as age 3 who are raised on fast food and junk food show early signs of heart disease, according to the Bogalusa Heart Study done at the Louisiana State University. Cardiovascular disease is found in one in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three women over 65. Heart attacks are also deadlier to the fairer sex: 53 percent of women who have heart attacks die from them, compared with 47 percent of men. Today, the average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out meat; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out meat, dairy and eggs. Partly responsible is the fact that fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and its arteries. Plus, produce contains no saturated fat or cholesterol. Incidentally, cholesterol levels for vegetarians are 14 percent lower than meat eaters." -Norine Dworkin

Image courtesy of itofoods, where you can find vegetarian squid.