[softstorms]

This is my life style LOL. 54 year old female tring to live life to the fullest. Changing my goals and lifestyle. Less red meat, more veggies LOL. No problem, love my veggies. Have 2 grand daughters. One with Celiac Dx. and one lactose intolerant! I am also into local produce. Living on the coast in the south, that is a good thing. Then one grand got braces and no crunchy foods. I AM ABOUT TO FEED EVERYONE PELLETS, LOL. Help

[Diane-RN Student]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Interesting that the old "you must combine proteins to get complete protein" myth is still out there.

It certainly is. I get asked A LOT from RNs no less, how I get my proteins if I don't eat meat. In fact, one of them told me that I can get anemia from now eating meat....

[Jaguar Boy]

Originally Posted by Tweety

JB, I was just going to make a posting asking about the local veg*n scene of you guys. Great you have a veg restaurant. Enjoy!

)

Hey Tweety,

I'm in a large, urban centre and our veg*n (I like that!) restaurant options are really good. Off the top of my head I can think of quite a few restaurants that are exclusively veggie and some which are completely vegan. The cool thing too is that various cultural foods are represented: Asian Buddist, Eithiopian, Indian, Western...All the major supermarkets have a good tofu/mock meat selection and health food stores are plentiful. It's pretty cool and I'm grateful. We also have an annual vegetarian food fair in September, I unfortunately don't usually go since it's at the beginning of the school year.

I decided to try a tofu salad sandwich for lunch. I had a bread with sunflower seeds toasted with Nayonaise (tofu mayonaise), sprouts, tomatoe, herbed firm tofu and some balsamic dressing. Yummy!

[Tweety]

I live in an urban sprawl of over 2 million people also. So being a vegetarian is easy. Mainstream grocery stores now carry a myriad of vegetarian food like tofu, tempeh, etc. Most restaurants include a veg*n option or two. But there are unfortunately few places dedicated exclusively to veg*n food, most have meat of somesort as an option. I definitely can't complain.

We have an Ethiopian restaurant here as wel. It's been a while since I've eat there but the food was delicious.

I think in the USA, the most veggie friendly places are out west like San Fran, Seattle and Portland. The most veg*n friendly city I've ever been in was Asheville, NC. For a small city it had several vegetarian restaurants. I loved it there.

How about the rest of you guys? What's it like where you live?

[jkal]

50 miles to get to a whole foods or Trader Joe's, but I can at least get tofu at the local supermarket, and we have a small health food store that carries some vegan essentials. No veg restaurants around here--just big chain restaurants with meaty cheesy menu items! One great thing about South Jersey is our produce, though. Great stuff! Heavenly tomatoes!

[Jaguar Boy]

Originally Posted by Tweety

The most veg*n friendly city I've ever been in was Asheville, NC. For a small city it had several vegetarian restaurants. I loved it there.

Asheville looks great...It was named the most vegetarian friendly small city by goveg.com.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by Jaguar Boy

Asheville looks great...It was named the most vegetarian friendly small city by goveg.com.

It is. Many of the menus on mainstream restaurants label vegan dishes. I had a great veggie pasta dish in a steak and seafood restaurant my family insisted on going to. It's a cool place.

[Tweety]

I just joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm here: http://sweetwater-organic.org/

Starting in November I'll get a weekly box of locally grown organic in-season vegetables. Sounds awesome to me!

[Sehsun]

Originally Posted by Tweety

I just joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm here: http://sweetwater-organic.org/

Starting in November I'll get a weekly box of locally grown organic in-season vegetables. Sounds awesome to me!

That's great, Tweety! My brother and SIL are doing the same thing! I bet it's nice not having to worry about the chemicals/pesticides, and it's nice that they deliver it to you.

Speaking of which, I'm a bit concerned about the pesticides/chemicals they use on non-organic produce. Esp. since I like to eat the skins off of fruits (where most of the fiber, and I believe, nutrients are). I wash them really well, but I'm probably not getting all the "stuff" off. I would buy organic fruit, but they are smaller than what I like to eat in a single serving.

[Tweety]

Unfortunately they don't delivery the shares to you, I have to go pick them up once a week.

I try to buy organic when I can. What's prohibitive to me is not the size but the cost. Which is why I'm excited about this CSA, I cant get organic and save money.

Vegetarian Times has a good article this month "How to Buy Organic". It's not online yet. They listed the "Dirty Dozen" which I've seen elsewhere, the 12 most pesticide-laden conventionally grown fruits and veggies:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes

Much of the above I eat and am disappointed. I try to buy organic when I can and the cost isn't so high.

Other foods like sweet potatoes, bannanas, blueberries, cantaloupe, dried beans, onions, tomatoes, and corn they say it's o.k to not buy organic.