First Vegetarian Meal is a success!!!

You guys will be so proud of me. I found a vegetarian recipe that my husband likes. In our house we call new meals that we like a "do over". This one was definitely a do over! My husband said he was now excited about inviting a vegetarian over! Strangely, it is filled with tons of veggies and I added even more than the recipe called for! Can you believe it! I thought it was really good too. I used gluten free lasagna noodles. They were good for sure but, I am sure not completely like the real thing. (It really has been a long time for me, so my memory is faint)
Admittedly, it was definitely not vegan, but we must crawl before we can walk. Next time, I think I will replace some of the cottage cheese with tofu. I am sure he will never suspect. I might even add some grated zucchini. I will be posting this recipe as an article to my Suite101 column so, stay tuned for that if you are interested.
One of my problems that I am finding is that many recipes that call for veggie meat substitutes often have wheat gluten in them. I am so allergic so, this is definitely not an option for my family. I do have some ideas about other things to try and I will keep you posted as I figure them out.

My Vegan and Vegetarian challenge.

I need help. You see, my husband is a completely anti-vegetable. Well, if he is forced to try them, he often is ok with eating them but, if he had it his way all he would eat practically is meat and cookies. (My kids are more open minded as far as food and veggies go.)
I am not a vegetarian (yet) but, I really want to incorporate more vegetarian meals my family would eat. Mainly my husband.
I read many vegan and vegetarian blogs. Sometimes, thankfully they visit my site as well. So, I wanted to ask a little favor. Do you have a few recipes that I could try on my carnivore husband. I am not really trying to fool him, maybe just convert him to the bright vegetarian side a bit more.
(BTW, He said he would try some recipes, so he knows about my challenge here.)

I would probably want to use these recipes in some articles along with my experiences with my husband for my Nutrition column of Suite 101, and of course give you credit as well as a link back to your blog. It could work out pretty nifty for us all.

The idea is to have some recipes that even timid omnivores and carnivores could try. What do you think?

I would also like to do some interviews with veggie bloggers via email for my Suite 101 column.
Again, you would get a nifty link and credit. If you want to send me a few pictures to post with your interview as well, that would be great too. I thought that interviews with true vegetarians and vegans would show people how to do it and give people some inspiration as well.
If you are interested let me know.

The picture is my husband "Simpsonized"!

A little Addition to the Vegan and Vegetarian challenge:

I just want to give you a few clues into my husbands tastes-
He is not a big fan of onion flavor or anything to spicy.
I have grated lots of carrots and zucchini into things to use less meat and he really
seemed to enjoy that and was relieved that it wasn't to oniony.

Another thing that I must mention is that I am gluten intolerant. Most of the time I
can easily convert just about any recipe to gluten free, but sometimes I can not.

Vegetarianism and good food.

One thing that I have noticed is that on a lot of vegetarian blogs, they love their food. There is a lot of really tasty vegetarian cuisine.

Now I have wanted to go vegetarian but, with a family full of meat eating boys (and my man), this was going to prove difficult. So, my plan is to eat veggie until dinner. Then, when ever possible, I am going to have a veggie dinner as well. Environmentally and morally, I think I can live with this.

I discovered these Indian dishes at my local health food store. They are called tasty bite. I have had a few different kinds and they were all wonderful. I served them over brown rice. Which is for me since I have a gluten intolerance.I also like that you do not have to refrigerate them so, they are easy to pack on trips or for work (as if had a real job:))

Angel helped with the photos as you can see.

Do you eat veal?

You might be and you just don't know it! If you are not eating vegetarian cheese, you are. See, many cheeses are made with the enzyme rennet. Where does rennet come from? It comes from the stomach of a baby cow. Yep, pretty gross. Now, I am not saying I am a vegetarian because I am not. I do however try to be educated in what foods I do eat and I do try to avoid anything that I deem cruel. One of the places I draw the line at is the slaughtering of baby animals. So, I do not eat veal and now I will be more particular about the cheeses I buy.

The story goes that cheese was invented when people used to keep milk in bags made of sheep stomachs. When people began to travel with the milk in these bags, the combination of the agitation and rennet enzyme caused the milk to ferment and coagulate, forming cheese.

Most cheese can also be made with (good) bacteria, and microbial rennet (made from mold). While these methods only came about because the demand for veal calves cannot keep up with the demand for the enzymes used to make cheese, it is good that many major companies are not using veal rennet. Luck us, Kraft cheese, that is made in the US, is vegetarian!

Here is also a list I found of cheeses listed by brand that are vegetarian.

I think I am having a bit of a moral dilema when it comes to eating meat at all. I mean, I do not necessarily think that eating meat is wrong per se. Yet, I am troubled by how animals are treated and try to limit my consumption to companies that I know treat their animals well, whether it is meat, poultry, dairy or eggs. Am I the only one having this moral dilemma?