MIRA, MADRINA!

For All My Sisters

For all my beautiful sister/friends remember I am always near and never far.

To all my sisters, I have been the single sister who was an organizing queen, threw great parties, and could make a meal out of whatever was in the cupboard. The sister who although a semi-vegetarian, no one ever knew it from the taste and variety of the meal. Some people to this day, never knew my meals did not have meat in them!

However, its seems every time a holiday rolled around, I found myself asking my sister for her recipe for this or that. She is the sister who has come the closest to duplicating our Mom's "santa mano" or holy hand at cooking. Over the years, my Sista' friends have also shared their best recipes too. Here are a few of them. I invite you to use this forum to share your Sister recipes too.

I wish you love, inner peace and happiness.

Alta

LIST OF 7 - BECOMING A VEGETARIAN

TAKE YOUR TIME: Omit meat first, then chicken, then turkey, then fish. I have chosen to keep fish in my diet for my own personal health reasons. Many true vegetarian do not consider this being a vegetarian. Call yourself whatever you like in this regard. I say I am a seagenarian.

BE PREPARED: Those who do not understand why you are doing this will give you a hard time. Get ready to defend you decision. Do what you feel right for you and your body.

TRIAL RUN: Pretend for a day that meat, poultry, etc., does not exist. Start looking around for other protein options. There are so many alternatives like soy, seasoned tofu, crumblers, rice milk, pasta, Peanut Butter,Beans, Tofu, Lentils, and nuts.

WATCH THE FOOD CHANNEL/GET A COOKBOOK: There are now so many shows which include healthy options. Remove the meat and add the protein. Vegetation cookbooks and magazines are plentiful. I love Vegetarian Times magazine.

SCHOOL YOURSELF: Read labels and learn about nutrition. Everybody is different. Learn how many calories, protein and nutrients you need to properly operate your body.

HAVE A PLAN: If you are invited for dinner, be prepared. Don't make a fuss or be rude."There is nothing for me to eat, I am a vegetarian". Suggest a vegeterain friendly restaurtant or look over the menu for ingredients not menu items. The kitchen staff is happy to omit or add something for you. You are there to enjoy the company of the host, not to be difficult. (Many times I have a protein shake before I go to dinner). I can have a salad or veggies and my friends don't feel badly because of my lifestyle and dietary choices. If dinner is at their home, offer to bring a dish. Also, let your friends know if they are coming for dinner, the meals are vegetarian. They can reciprocate and also be prepared!

CHECK WITH THE DOCTOR: Let your doctor know what you are ready to do. When I first started I omitted all meat. If it had parents, I did not eat it. I found that other issues arose. I talked with my doctor and have achieve a great balance! Thanks Dr. Leva!

WHY I CHANGED HOW I EAT!

I do not know when it first happened. I began to lose my taste and desire for meat. I am also not sure of the reasons why. It might be I never could prepare a good steak. There also seemed to be so much chewing and cutting involved. Going out for a good steak in New York was great, but could become very costly and typically involved dating someone you did not want to. I guess all of the above applied for the first couple of decades of my life.

Now as I approach the best part of my life, my body is starting to betray me. My taste buds are so different. I started omitting meat from my diet. Not an easy task as I am North American, but my lineage is Caribbean. Try going over your family for Thanksgiving and not eating Pernil (pork shoulder), turkey or most of our traditional dishes. Fourth of July celebrations were not easy at all. I know that is why it took me so long to give up hamburgers. Plus come on, they are great. I kept eating turkey, chicken, fish and of course hamburgers!

I got tired of not eating anything but potato salad and buns at parties. I started to modify recipes with the flavors and textures that I loved. I discovered rice milk, garden burgers, Boca products, vegetable broth, cumin, cayenne pepper. I adapted those old family recipes. I started to bring them to parties and to this day many do not know that there is no meat in any of my dishes.

It is sad that there is all this horrible information coming out about how meat/poultry has to be recalled as result of poor handling. It is great that there are alternatives

I invite you to try some of these recipes and remove anything in your diet that does not agree with you.

MIRA, MADRINA!

ASK ALTA

May 21, 2009

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