Delightful Delectations of the Vegetarian Variety

I'd like to take a little time now to debunk some myths about eating in a healthy way- that it's bland, boring, expensive, and time-consuming.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really do enjoy trying new recipes, cooking, and eating delicious food, and I am truly astounded by the assumption that my healthy vegetarian lifestyle must be extremely uninteresting.  On the contrary, I find that I am constantly finding new recipes that are easy to make (or more complicated, since I really love cooking) and are amazingly delicious.  For example, I just held a gourmet dinner party with my chef friend (see her amazing food blog) in which every dish save one was vegetarian, and everyone, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike, raved about the food.  The menu included a strawberry, citrus, toasted almond and goat cheese salad, stuffed mushrooms, chilled cucumber mint soup, summer squash and zucchini ribbons with garlic, summer vegetable risotto... is your mouth watering yet?

First of all, there is a common myth that eating healthily is more expensive.  This can be true if you high tail it to one of the "high end" organic grocery stores (not naming any names)... but I have found that through a combination of buying a Community Supported Agriculture farmshare with my roommates, buying "post-organic" (i.e., directly from the farmer) produce at farmer's markets such as Eastern Market, and buying bulk products at off-brand, small co-ops, I am able to keep my weekly grocery totals really very low. 

My roommates and I bought a regular share in a local CSA, and for each of us the total cost per week is about $14.  The farmshare in any given week (so far) includes berries, beets, zucchini, squash (green and yellow), tomatoes, radishes, snap peas, asparagus and lots of kale, among others, and we always have leftovers.  For more information on finding your own local CSA, check out this website: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.  The great thing about the CSA is that we get unbelievably fresh, in-season produce while at the same time supporting a local farm, aiding in our country's sustainability and being eco-friendly instead of buying outsourced products.  This week, I also went to Eastern Market to buy some supplemental produce, including two huge tomatoes, white onions, bell peppers, mixed greens, shallots, herbs such as mint and cilantro, a dozen farm-fresh eggs, and some (usually) high-cost fruits such as cherries, peaches, strawberries and blueberries, all for about $35. Look at all that deliciousness:

Finally, my roommate and I went up to an organic bulk food co-op up in Mt. Rainier (http://www.glutfood.org/), where I stocked up on protein and grain items such as seitan, blocks of firm tofu, soy yogurt, nuts and seeds, homemade granola, dried fruits and some other produce like pears and apples. All in all, that trip was a total of about $40, most of which will be consumed over about a month.  All told, then, my groceries added up to about $75 for the week plus my farmshare, bringing it all to less than $90 (and it's all more than I could possibly eat in one week).  If you ate at McDonald's every meal for a week at an average of $5 per meal (which is a quite low estimation), that would still total $105. So much for healthy food being more expensive!

But what about this healthy, vegetarian food being less delicious and also too time-consuming? First of all, with the right herbs, spices, and moderate application of olive oil, cooking in a healthy way can be absolutely delectable.  Just ask any of my friends that came to the dinner party! Indeed, healthy food does NOT have to be completely fat-free and devoid of flavor.  On the contrary, you should add in some toasted nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado and other "good" fats for overall health and to lose weight (what? add in fats to lose weight? read this from WebMD if you don't believe me: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/skinny-fat-good-fats-bad-fats).

But I don't have time at night after work to cook (you might say)! Well, neither do I- I get out of work at 6 pm, and afterword I often go out with friends or work out, so by the time I get home it can be as late as 8 or 9 pm.  So I often spend just a few hours on Sunday afternoon preparing food for the week, and it makes whipping up a meal on weeknights simple and easy.  Think about what you usually do on Sunday nights from 6 pm to about 8 or 9- was it really all that productive, or were you just watching reruns of American Idol? I used that time yesterday to make homemade pesto, a frittata (my breakfast for the whole week), baked/toasted the fixings for a couple days' worth of summer beet and peaches salad, made a half dozen veggie burgers, and even whipped up a Greek steamed vegetable and quinoa salad with fresh mint and lemon for my Sunday night dinner (http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/quinoa-salad.php).

I made these homemade black bean veggie burger patties in about an hour or so (including chopping and baking time), using just these simple ingredients (1.5 cups cooked quinoa, 1 can organic black beans, 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves garlic, 6 sundried tomatoes, and spices):

Recipe for Protein Power vegan burgers (thanks to Vegetarian times magazine):

-Sautee onion, varied spices (I used salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme) and sundried tomatoes in medium pan over medium-high heat with a splash of olive oil until onions are softened
-Add in garlic, 3/4 cup of black beans (about half), and 1.5 cups of water, simmer until water is almost gone
-Put bean mixture in food processor with 3/4 cup of quinoa and chop until uniform
-Mix chopped mixture in bowl with remaining black beans and quinoa, season as desired, allow to cool
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
-When mixture is cool, grease baking sheet with cooking spray (I like Pam olive oil), divide mixture into 6-8 patties and place on baking sheet
-Bake 20-25 mins on one side (or until crispy), then use spatula to flip onto other side, bake 10 more minutes
-Enjoy!! (re-heat in skillet on stove, on a grill, or in the oven)

(note: they turned out a little bit dry- next time I might add an egg or two in the food processing stage or vegetable broth)

If you're an athlete and still worried about fueling as well as satiety, these veggie burgers are a protein powerhouse- each of them contains a full serving of protein due to the black beans and quinoa. For a quick weeknight meal, I'll just slap one of these on a multigrain sandwich thin, sautee some onions to put on top, use some of my pre-made pesto, and whip up a side salad. Delicious and done in fifteen minutes!

If you're still not convinced by all of this that this food tastes good, just try making some of it yourself, or I'll cook with you sometime! I have found that as I changed my diet, my palate has changed, and I find even just plain fruits and vegetables to be extremely delectable and savory. To show you that there is also a huge variety in the kinds of foods I make, I'll continue to post more delicious recipes as I go.

The main point is thus: eating in a healthy way can be fun, delicious, cheap, quick, AND good for the environment.  We tend to get stuck in our ways, and start to think that we have to do things in a certain way.  All it takes is a bit of a change in lifestyle by changing the way we think about food, and you are already headed in the right direction.